Favourite Christmas Posts

Just sharing my favourite Christmas posts from facebook.

1.  A reading of Dickens’ Christmas Carol by Neil Gaiman (begins about 12 minutes in, lovely introductory talk about treasures at a museum)

2.  Wishing all faiths peace.  I love this image representing many world religions.

3. Literary Christmas Quotes from Writers Write – some interesting quotes from writers.

Here are just two, read the rest at the post.

What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for? ~Salman Rushdie

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home. ~G.K. Chesterton

4. Maya Angelou – a message from Maya’s family who keep her facebook alive.

“We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.

5.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s First Christmas by David Langness  A beautiful story of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s first Christmas.

” Not until 1911, when Abdu’l-Baha initally traveled to the West, did he encounter a modern celebration of Christmas in its Western form. Released from forty years in prison for being a Baha’i, he came to England from the Middle East, and among his hectic schedule of speeches and meetings and public addresses, Abdu’l-Baha:

…witnessed a performance of “Eager Heart,” a Christmas mystery play at the Church House, Westminster, the first dramatic performance He had ever beheld, and which in its graphic depiction of the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ moved Him to tears. – Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 284.

The drama, written by the English poet and playwright Alice Mary Buckton, who later received Abdu’l-Baha at her home in Byfleet Surrey, tells the tragic story of a woman who fervently prepares for the Christmas visit of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, but then vacillates when a homeless refugee family shows up at her door. Read the play in its original form.”