#second of advent

[ihni]

Today is the second Sunday of Advent, which means we light the second candle (and we do NOT use it as a lighter, Billy, because that's not the spirit of Advent!)

(See the first of Advent here, the third of Advent here and the fourth of Advent here)

[epiaphany]

happy engagement anniversary to my parents <3

[rabbit-rays]

post canon mobility aids cloud save me....save me post canon mobility aids cloud

[girlwiththegreenhat]

can we PLEASE talk about the neopet advent calendar this year because these COMICS are MAKING me CRY 💖

[kirider]

[20/12/2024]

Happy one year to Ikki dying and going to purgatory (which of course looks like the toku quarry)

[has-the-gavle-goat-burned-yet]

December 10, 2023

No

[dribs-and-drabbles]

The Thai Communal Wardrobe item #235

City of Stars ep 8:

Wandee Goodday ep 1:

for @pransobrave 💙

[djangari]

Tattoo AU (Part 1/?)

I don't know the word punctuality, so here you got the first part [kinda unedited sorry] - 1650 words

Bez controls his station once again, ensuring everything he will need is prepared, sterile and in the correct position. Then he spins his stool towards the clock, looking at the larger pointer and realises that not even five minutes have passed since the last time he has done this.  

“Have you not taken your medication today, or what is going on with you?“ Vale sticks his head through the door, staring very annoyed at him. “No, of course I have taken it!“, Bez protests. He surely hasn’t forgotten to take his medication- Has he? He notices his foot tapping along to the tact of Last Christmas. - Did Luca leave on his bad Christmas playlist once again? They talked about that!- No, No, he can remember eating and then taking the pills with tap water, because he was too late to go in the kitchen and get a glass. It was important to be on time today. His regulars know he tends to be late for a few minutes and they don’t care so he hasn’t had to change yet but today is special. Today he has his appointment.  

Bez nearly sighs, as he remembers the beautiful brown curls, the soft looking plumb but thin lips, the brown eyes he could lose himself in for hours... 

Vale snaps in front of his eyes to get his attention back. Embarrassed, Bez stares up to him, eyes narrowing as he sees the smug grin on the other man's face. This doesn‘t means anything good- “Why don‘t you hang up the Christmas decorations? I want it to look nice here in time for the first of December and you don‘t have any clients for the next half hour. I checked with Luca.“ Hesitant, Bez glimpses over to the big stencil. He still needs to check if the print was successful and if every other of the three spare prints is good as well. “Your client surely will love it, when he comes in and everything already looks great.“ Sold.  

Energetic he stands up and goes on search for the storage boxes. “Migno has already brought the ladder into the waiting room.“, Vale calls after him. Bez is already too focussed on his new task to answer in any other way than simply giving him a thumbs up, while speeding towards the entry.  

----- 

Half an hour later, the plastic tree stands in the corner of the waiting room, overloaded with fairy lights and neoncolored Christmas baubles, the paper stars hang in the glass front of the store and Bez balances on the ladder, fighting with the quite ugly pine garland. It just doesn’t want to stay on the nails, where it belongs during winter times. With another frustrated snort, Bez stretches a little more, hopefully just enough to finally reach the last nail...  

“Just move the ladder”, Luca comments from behind the counter, where he stood the last five minutes and watched him struggle after saying goodbye to his last client of the day.  

“Or you could maybe help me instead of laughing, just a suggestion.” Bez bites back and goes onto his toes. Yeah, nearly there... 

The entry door swings wide open, and the bell Bez just hung up five minutes ago rings. “Oh, there you are”, Luca greets the new arrival. “I think you have to wait a minute, you see Bez is a bit busy right now.”  

Bez attention shifts when he hears his name, and he risks a glimpse down.  

There he stands... Those perfect curls, lurking out from under the red hat, nose and cheeks coloured in bright pink due to the cold outside, his slightly bitten lips hidden beneath the big matching red scarf.  

Bez loses balance and crashes down the short ladder, tearing down the garland with him. He lands onto his back, limps in the air, like a helpless beetle, and for a short moment the world blurs before his eyes. Black points dance in his field of view and cover most of it.  

He blinks once, twice, and then the world shifts back to normal, luckily without seeing double.  

Pecco- No, Francesco, he corrects himself- is only centimetres away from his face, examining him, eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Bez wonders how a human can look so pretty. Maybe he is no human. Maybe he is an angel, send from heaven to save him.  

Only after a few seconds of losing himself in those big lovely brown eyes, does he realize that he is in fact talking to him. “Can you follow my finger with your eyes?”, the angel asks him and moves said finger to the left and the right. Marco follows his instructions very willingly. “Okay, I think he might have a concussion.”, the angel says to a person standing on their right side. The giant sighs and grabs his head. “Of course he would manage to do that. Should we get him to the hospital?” His angel shrugs. “Would be best. Didn’t wanted to see my boss again before next week, but I could clock in for overtime and examine him. Quickest way to get in and out and additionally get the good drugs.” As his angel mentions it, Bez feels his head aching and pounding. “Why does the world turn?”, he mutters and moves closer to his angel until his head rests in his very comfortable lap.  

“Yeah, that definitely seems like a concussion. Do you help me to get him up?” Wait, what.  

Marco notices how his feet suddenly dangle in the air, without touching any ground. Confused he turns his head to look at Luca, who holds him close to his chest and moves towards the door. “Wait, no, we can’t go without the angel.” Laughing is audible, both from Luca and from behind him. Blushing, he realises Francesco stood behind him and supports his head, well now he also pets his shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll come with you. Someone needs to drive.” Luca still won’t stop laughing. So, Bez raises his hand and slaps him on the shoulder. “This is all your fault. If you would have helped me, I wouldn’t have fallen in the first place!”, he hisses, his head now a lot clearer. “If you hit me again, I’ll drop you.”, Luca warns him yet giggling between words. Marco pulls back to pout.  

They stop before the door, facing a problem none of them had considered. How they should open the inward-swinging door to walk through. And then lock it up. Migno said goodbye over an hour ago and Vale also excused himself a few minutes after talking with Bez to ‘pick up a friend’. Everyone who knows Vale knows that that is basically a code for ‘Marc just sent me a message, I need to pay him attention’. But nothing of this solves their problem in any way, because the point is, they aren’t here. Luca exchanges a look with Pecco, holding a silent discussion with the result that it is best for them when he hands over Bez and get the keys.  

Before he realises what is going on, Bez gets passed over like an oversized toddler. However, any protest dies as he leans his head onto Francescos shoulder and stares into his wonderful eyes. “Angel”, he whispers and holds a bit closer onto him. Francesco chuckles and grins at him as if he just found out a secret.  

All of a sudden, Bez remembers something. “We have to reschedule. Your tattoo. I prepared everything, but I can’t tattoo you like this.” “This was kind of obvious. And it's not a problem. I can certainly free up some time in my calendar soon.”, Francesco calms him down with his beautiful smirk.  

“Ok, I got the keys and I messaged Vale, can you two now postpone flirting until later and we get going? I have another client in about two hours, would be great if I would be back.” Luca closes in from behind and effectively manages to disrupt the conversation.

Francesco looks away, like he has been caught being naughty, just the slightest touch of red on his cheeks, while Bez wishes he could murder Luca with his glare. But sadly, the younger man doesn’t care, he walks right past them, holds the door open so Pecco can carefully carry Bez outside and then he turns the open sign, locks up the store, before he sits down in the driver seat of his car and waits until Francesco has arranged a surprisingly now very flustered Bez in the back seat and got in himself. He adjusts the rearview mirror, grins happily, starts the car and the radio begins to play.

Bez groans. How could he forget this. “Let's make a trip to the hospital.”, Luca says and parks out, all while the Jonas brothers da-dom-dom-dom away.  

I can’t deny what I’m feeling inside 

Nothin’ fake about the way you bring me to life 

You make every day feel like it’s Christmas 

Every day that I’m with you 

[nobodysdaydreams]

Christian and Catholic Tumblr, I need help solving this.

I have found both on Catholic and Protestant sites, so I know this isn’t a denominational divide, or even if it is, we use each other’s symbolism so often without realizing that the divide might as well not exist. Wouldn’t bother me so much if Peace would just stay put, like pick a week and be consistent 😭. At least Hope and Joy have it together. If anyone knows how this split in symbolism became a thing, please tell me I’m so curious. Is it by country? I want to know.

[fisherrprince]

miskellaneous

[pagan-stitches]

Happy second Sunday of Advent.

[furorsopher]

stares at you with my big blue eyes

i am currently on benadryl and trying not to die but.

did you know that Hamilton and I even have the same bloody type of NOSE

it's wild. And also very fun to draw. The over use of commas is also prominent in both of our writings, but that may just be due to the fact that he's from the 18th century and my style has been heavily influenced by that century.

anyway I had something else to say but the hat man is getting me so I must be off

i think the only real difference between you ppl is your birthplace, the century, and that you like theater/musicals and the original hamilton didn’t-

[queerprayers]

a more practical, 100% Protestant-approved Advent

A P.S. to the previous ask, in case you or anyone else want a bullet pointed list and not a meditation--here are some things I didn't mention there:

Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (website/book/Android app) has a three times a day prayer practice with practical and often social justice oriented meditations.

A classic: The Book of Common Prayer and the Forward Movement podcasts daily audio version.

I can't believe I didn't recommend the book I'm published in? Geez magazine has an Advent book every year--this year was Prayers for the End of the World, but previous issues are also available.

Unbound's Another Starry Black Night: A Womanist Advent Devotional

UCC 2023 Abolition Advent Calendar

I haven't checked it out in a while, but I know Our Bible App always has a ton of devotionals, some free, some premium.

Here's a Lutheran (ELCA) lectionary for this year--I'm sure other denominations have similar resources.

Under the read more, I'm going to include the recommended daily psalms and some prayers/liturgies from the Lutheran Book of Worship.

<3 Johanna

All from The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978). I will type these up into a document as soon as I can, but here are the scans I have right now. I apologize to those using screen readers.

Here are the Sunday prayers & readings for Advent/Christmas:

These are the Lutheran saint/feast days within Advent/Christmas:

The following prayers are meant to be said in small groups, but they work by yourself, too.

[ahopefulbromantic]

Song of Songs 8,1 is about Christ's incarnation no i will not be taking constructive criticism

[anastpaul]

One Minute Reflection – 27 November – “The Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory” – Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal – Feria of the Last Sunday after Pentecost – Colossians 1:9-14; Matthew 24:15-35 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/ “So you also, when you shall see all these things, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.” – Matthew 24:33

 REFLECTION – “Then, all the trees of the forest shall leap for joy before the Lord, for He Comes, He Comes to rule the earth” (Ps 95:12-13). Our Lord came the first time and will come again anew. He came into His Church to begin with “on the clouds” (Mt 26:64). What are those clouds which bore Him? Apostles, preachers… He came, borne by His preachers to begin with and He filled the whole earth. Let us not resist His First Coming if we would not fear the Second… What, then, should Christians do? Take advantage of this world but do not serve this world. What does that mean? “Possess as if one did not possess.” This is what Saint Paul said … “Brothers, the time is growing short. From now on… let those who weep act like those who do not weep, those rejoicing as not rejoicing, those buying as not owning, those using the world as not using it fully, For the world in its present form is passing away. I should like you to be free of anxieties” (1 Cor 7:29-32). Someone who is free of anxiety awaits the Lord’s Coming with assurance, for can we be said to love our Lord if we dread His Coming?! My brethren, are we not ashamed? Do we love Him and yet dread His Coming? Is it He we truly love or do we not rather prefer our sins? Therefore, let us hate our sins and love Him Who is to Come … “All the trees of the forest shall leap for joy before the Lord, for He has Come” for the first time… “All the trees of the forest shall leap for joy” when He Comes again to judge the earth. Then, “because He has Come” He will find rejoicing, all those who believed in His Coming on the first occasion.” – St Augustine (354-430) Bishop, Father and Doctor of the Church (Discourses on the Psalms Ps 95).

(via One Minute Reflection – 27 November – ‘ … Can we be said to love our Lord if we dread His Coming?! …’ St Augustine – AnaStpaul)

[thedenofravenpuff]

Lil quick art cuz I haven't draw Old Western AU Sunflower in a hot while.

Dr Sunflower celebrating Second Sunday of Advent with his adoptive son Plum Berry, @dess1ne's OC.

Dunno how big the four Sundays of Advent are outside Scandinavia, but wanted to draw something for it today.

Enjoy!

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