Spiritual Solutions

Your copy of my recently published mini-book, Miracle Power You Can Use Today, Seven Secrets of Spiritual Growth for Your Wealth, Health and Happiness is now available.

The book, in addition to being a powerful spiritual resource for your reading pleasure, has two unique features:

You can enhance your experience of the book through access to an online environment for an even deeper, personalized experience of this book’s message. 

Secondly, after reading the book, you are invited to pass the book along to someone you know who you believe will benefit from the message in this book. After you’ve passed the book along you can access a tracking system to see where it goes and how it changes people’s lives.

Here’s what one person said about the book recently: “I virtually devoured it….reading, highlighting and enjoying some three times now. On my next trip through it I will be going to the online tool. Just didn’t want to interrupt for that on my first reading(s), but looking forward to that unique experience.”

He said his intent is to purchase more copies to send to others. Another person had the same idea; she said she is purchasing ten copies to send to friends and loved ones. That’s a great Christmas gift idea!

Just to whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt from the first chapter of the book, Connect with Your Source:

“God is constant as principle, always present, everywhere present, in wholeness, and at every point in space and time. There is no absence of God anywhere at any time.

“I’m not sure whether you have ever thought of God in that way, but if you have then it has changed your life.

“If you have not, then if you can capture that idea of God as principle, of God as present, the idea of unity with God, I can truly say that your life will never be the same again. It will change your life for the better . . .”

The paperback mini-book, Miracle Power, can be purchased for $9.95 through Amazon. com at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977625117/?tag=spiritualsolu-20 

Or you can go to  www.messengerminibooks.com.

Just scroll down until you see the book and then click on the Amazon link. You can also purchase the book in e-book format on that same site. The e-book is $7.95.

After purchase of either printed book or e-book you will be able to access the online journal. If you purchase the printed book you will also be able to utilize the pass-along tracking option.

Enjoy your book! Maybe you’ll want to get extra copies to send out as wonderful Christmas gifts for friends and loved ones.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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By Marlene Buffa

(Taking a quiet sideways glance at life, our guest contributor today, Marlene Buffa, offers insight through her words from experiences. A student of new-thought teachings, Marlene finds practical spirituality around every corner and seeks wisdom through observation of life’s inter-relationships. Sometimes playful, sometimes poignant, always thought-provoking, her writing inspires readers in meaningful ways.
www.wordsofmind.com)

Halloween brings to light our memories and our apprehensions and enlivens our imagination.  Each year we honestly portray ourselves as something other than who we are, and venture out into the night fearlessly asking for what we want from strangers and friends.  The chant, “Trick or Treat!” resounds on neighborhood streets, with a telltale confidence that our abundant rewards, sweet and freely given, fill the largest container we dare to hold.  Life, too, offers us the opportunity to boldly request our desires from others as well as the Universe.  Just as our expectations of creepy “things that go bump in the night” sometimes come to fruition at Halloween, other evidence of things outside of ourselves interjecting with our humanity, finds its way into our daily experience.

Knock Knock
More than just a childhood formulaic riddle, spirit knocking on the door of our consciousness forces us to awaken to new possibilities.  My friend Ann’s condo, replete with sounds and noises from unearthly visitors, resonates with a loud knock, or rap on her wooden front door.  The wooden door is closed and behind a locked metal security door so no one can make contact with the wood, yet the sounds echo throughout her living room – loud enough that her neighbors hear it, too!  Ann gave up going to the door to see her anxious caller because after dozens of times, she found no one there.

Spirit knocks on our door, too.  Many times Spirit is there asking for an invitation to enter our lives, yet finds us not home to answer.  Over and over, we hear the call to a greater life, and either ignore it or find we cannot face the greatness it offers.  We must prepare ourselves equally to knock on the door of opportunity and to answer the call when opportunity beckons us.  Take the initiative to dare for a great life and you may just receive a “treat!” you weren’t expecting!

Bump
From fender benders, to bumper cars, we often equate a bump with a collision in transportation.  We’ve all heard the “bumps in the night” which startle us from sleep yet we dismiss such noises as the house settling or our pets rousting about.  Bumping into unseen forces, we sometimes feel a hovering entity or looming feeling surrounding us, daring to collide with our circumventing comfort zone.  With our bodies as vehicles transporting us on the planet, collisions occur naturally with others and with Spirit around us. 

Nothing to fear, these gentle bumps into our beingness serve to remind us and alert us of the awakened world in which we roam.  Like the bumper in a pinball machine, Life stands there, solid and immovable, waiting for us to bump into it.  We dart off in a different direction, most times not due to any epiphany of understanding, rather from the shock of the bump itself – the bump we created. 

When Life or Spirit bumps into us, it renders a touching reminder for us to awaken to the events and emotions around us while we make our way on the planet.  From the premonitory diversion to avoid an accident, to the gentle nudge into something better, Life reminds us of the power of the Infinite as a gentle teacher. 

Whoosh!
The older we grow, the quicker time passes.  Our perception and vantage point change as time reflects against the accumulation of our experience.  Time, as we interpret it through man-made dials and clocks, remains constant and some say, circular or infinite.  Unseen thoughts, entities and even energies wrap around us, check us out, and whisk away – in an instant.  The indescribable feeling of déjà vu, or the instinctive choices we make, represents our higher selves responding to Life. 

When life streaks by us in our unaware state of the daily banal, we waste precious time in the coma of disengagement.  Awaken from the sleep of drudgery and live the life you want to live!  Too often we “wake up” and we find our children getting married – wondering where did their childhood go?  Could twenty years pass without your conscious awareness of it?  Worse yet – did those years whoosh by without our enjoyment and fulfillment of precious moments?
Halloween reminds us to step outside of our normal persona to experience something new.  With the eerie knocks, bumps and whooshes, we attract that which we fear but know is real.  It’s easy to blame playful ghosts for the pranks they often wield on us, when our true fears lie within us – and we’re too afraid to face them.  As nurturer of our spirits and benevolent guide, Life knocks on the door of our consciousness offering us a deeper existence, bumps into us and diverts us onto a higher path and whooshes by us reminding us it’s never too late to wake up!

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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I’m happy to share with you that I have just completed and published a book, Miracle Power You Can Use Today, with the sub-title Seven Secrets of Spiritual Growth for Your Wealth, Health and Happiness.

This is a Messenger Mini-Book, which means that in addition to reading the book, you will have access to an online journal where you can personalize your experience through supportive material, lessons and exercises I have provided for you. This is a fairly new concept and gives an added dimension to what appears to be a small pocket-sized book.

Also, you are invited to give this book to someone after you are done reading it; and through a Pass Along Tracking System you will be able to access the book’s history to view its “life” and its impact on the people who have also chosen to share and pass it along.

The mini-book is also available in ebook format for immediate access, and has the same online journal access as the printed version.

For information on how to order and purchase the printed book or the ebook, click on the “spiritual resources” tab at the top of this page. There you will also find information and links to other additional recommended spiritual resources.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Yes, it’s FINALLY here – here’s some news from Song Chengxiang that you may have been waiting for . . . 

The long-awaited Quantum Confidence with The Morry Method system has just been released.

There are only limited number of copies available, grab your copy before it is too late.

Launch time is 11:00 am Eastern TODAY, Tuesday, October 6.

Here is the link to get your copy as soon as it is launched:

Click Here!

Whatever problems or frustrations you have
right now in your life, it all comes down to
your inadequate self image. This is the root
cause of all your problems in life.

The Quantum Confidence system is by far the
only “The Morry Method” brainwave
entrainment system that eliminates the root
cause, and frees you from your personal
bondage of the present inadequate self image.

And it employs a combination of advanced
cutting-edge brain technology based on
latest scientific research, including “The
Morry Method” brainwave entrainment
technology, the revolutionary new “Quantum
Triliminal” technology, hypnosis, advanced
subliminal technology, etc.

For the first time EVER, average people like
you and I can benefit from so many advanced
latest technologies in one system.

Get It Here!

Best of all, it’s guaranteed to work.

Just listen to what people are saying on
the blog after using a small sample
recording from the system:

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Al Says: (September 28th, 2009 at 2:51 pm)

Although I’ve been listening to TMM for
quite some time I noticed an immediate
change on listening to Quantum Confidence
Lite.

It seems like a whole layer of anxiety has
been removed very quickly and I am feeling
stronger and well, more confident.

Since this is from a few days of using the
“lite” version I am looking forward eagerly
to using the full version.

Thanks a million Morry
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Lorne A Says: (September 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm)
 
I know that I needed to boost my self
confidence to help manifest the things I
desire.

The big thing I wanted to achieve was a good
manger position. I have been listening to
Quantum confidence for about a week now & I
feel more confident for the majority of the
day.

I got a call on Thursday for an interview &
had my second interview on the weekend. I am
now waiting for the call I have got the job!
I do not believe in coincidence… and think
it was the Quantum confidence that helped me
get the good paying job.

Thanks Morry!

Lorne

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DANIEL Says: (September 28th, 2009 at 3:05 pm)

I have everything that Morry has created.The
results are undeniable.

I challenge anyone to listen to this sample
and not feel much better and relaxed.You do
nothing but listen.Your brain hears these
tones and is soothed by the recording.

I go to sleep every night with the
Triliminals playing in my headset. I have,
like a lot of other people tried all the
other stuff out on the market and this is
the cutting edge product.

These recordings are needed now more than
ever in these very challenging
times. Confidence is everything.

Also another very critical thing is that
Morry is passionate about his product and
despite being busy coming up with more
recordings he is very accessible. You owe it
to yourself to get his programs.

I also am a full time stock trader and one
of the biggest obstacles for any trader is
being too emotional. It usually leads to bad
decisions. I can honestly say that my
emotions are no longer an issue as I am
relaxed and focused. My equity has gone up
as well.

Dont let life live you, you must learn to
truly live life. This is a tool that will
help. I wish you all well in your journey to
a better life.

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michelle Says: (September 29th, 2009 at 1:49 am )
 
I have been struggling with math for years
and was currently not understanding my
course in college at all about to give up.

I decided to try working on it while listening
to the morry method, and sure enough i got
on A on the assignment and quiz the next day
which is something i never thought i would
be able to do.

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These are what people got from using just a
small 20min sample from the entire system of
a set of 10 CDs.

Imagine what the whole system can do for
your own life and the life of your loved
ones.

Get a copy for yourself, it will be sold out
very fast.

Here is the link to grab your copy, at 11:00 am today:

Quantum Confidence

To your success

song chengxiang

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And here’s a P.S. you can be happy about:

They offer a life-time money back
guarantee, if you don’t like this system for
whatever reason, return it anytime and get a
full refund. No questions asked! You can see
how much confidence they have on this
system.

Grab your copy now before they’re all gone:

Click Here Now!

PPS. Feel free to forward this announcement to any
of your friends that needs it the most.

God is Blessing You Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

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The Infinite Field Magazine makes its debut today. I encourage you to take a look at this digital magazine, filled with interesting and inspiring articles written by a wonderful group of people. I feel fortunate to be included in the magazine too, with my article “Laughter in Heaven.”

Just click here and you’ll enter the whole new and interesting world of The Infinite Field. Congratulations to Synolve Craft, publisher of this new concept spiritually-oriented magazine. Just scroll through the pages; you can increase or decrease the page size as you please. Enjoy!

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(An article by Heather K. O’Hara)

A great master is someone who comes along and hurls you over the edge of the cliff, because he knows you can fly.

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These ideas on genuine happiness come from a friend of mine. Enjoy!

Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find happy people who continue to live fascinating and wonderful lives. Then thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere – “How did their life become so sweet? How come they still can manage to laugh and play despite a busy stressful life?”  Then I pause and observe for a while… I figured out that maybe, they start to work on a place called ‘self’.

So, how does one become genuinely happy?

Step 1 is to love yourself.

My theology professor once said that “loving means accepting.”  To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfection is the courage to discover ways on how to improve oneself and recover from mistakes.

Genuine happiness is also linked to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the question “how to be genuinely happy.”

When we discover a small start somewhere from within, that small start will eventually lead to something else, and to something else. But if you keep questioning life like it has never done you any good, you will never be able to find genuine happiness.

Someone has said that life is about finding out about right and wrong, trying and failing, winning and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. Failure in a person’s life has become as abundant and necessary as air. But this should not hinder you from becoming happy.

How to be genuinely happy in spite all these? I tell you… every time you exert effort to improve the quality of life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your sick dog, fail on board exams and trying again, life gives you equivalent points for that.

Imagine life as a big score board like those which are used in the NFL. Every time you take a step forward, you make scoring points. Wouldn’t it be nice to look at that board at the end of each game and think to yourself “Whew! I got a point today. I’m glad I gave it a shot.” instead of looking at it and murmuring “Geez, I didn’t even hit a score today. I wish I had the guts to try out. We could have won!”

Genuine happiness isn’t about driving the hottest Formula 1 car, nor getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest 13th month pay, or beating the sales quota. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life doesn’t always go to the fastest, the strongest, the bravest or not even the best.

So, how do you become genuinely happy?  Every one has his own definition of ‘happiness’. Happiness for a writer may mean launching as much best selling books as possible. Happiness for a basketball rookie may mean getting the rookie of the year award. Happiness for a beggar may mean a lot of money. Happiness for a business man may mean success.

So, really now, how do we become genuinely happy? Simple. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. It’s about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistake and telling yourself “Oh, I’ll do better next time”, you carry with you a flame of power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try – that will make you a genuinely happy person.

When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults you pass step 1 in the project “how to become genuinely happy”. For as long as you know how to accept others, you will also be accepted. For as long as you love and know how to love, you will receive love back tenfold.

Again, throw me that same question “how to become genuinely happy?” and I’ll refer you to a friend of mine who strongly quoted: “Most of us know that laughter is the best medicine to life’s aches and pain. But most of us don’t know that the best kind of laughter is laughter over self. Because then you don’t just become happy… you become free.”

God is Blessing You, right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions.

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Watching President-Elect Obama speaking in Philadelphia before his train trip to Washington, D.C., on Saturday, I was reminded of three personal experiences.

The first memory was of my wife, Kathryn, and I attending the annual convention of the Association of Unity Churches in Philadelphia in the summer of 1976, the year of the 200^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

When making our reservation at the hotel I had requested a king-size bed, but when we arrived to check in the desk clerk informed us that the only king-size bed available was in the Presidential Suite. He said they would go ahead and put us in the room but that we may have to move to another room after two or three nights because they were expecting a VIP who would be occupying the room upon arrival.

We readily agreed to the arrangement and proceeded up to the room on the top floor of the hotel. It was an enormous room with windows on three sides of the hotel overlooking the historic city. There was a full open kitchen in the middle of the room and the bedroom containing the promised king-size bed was off to one side. Throughout the suite were scattered seven television sets in addition to several sofas and other furniture. We later found out that President Gerald Ford had occupied the suite the weekend previous.

Kathryn and I felt we should take advantage of our accommodations to invite some of our friends up for refreshments. So I went out and shopped for various drinks and mixers, iced tea, cokes and snacks, while Kathryn called up some of our arriving minister friends.

The room began to fill up rapidly and soon was abuzz with happy people enjoying connecting with each other. One of the early arrivals in the suite was Rev. Ernest Wilson, a beloved longtime Unity minister from the Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City; he found a corner seat on a comfortable sofa and settled there with drink in hand.

A few of our friends jumped up to help prepare drinks and snacks in the kitchen as more and more people arrived, including a contingent from Trinidad who, led by Rev. Violet Assam, sashayed down the corridor to the room chanting, “We don’t care what you do; we behold the Christ in you.”

We discovered that, unbeknown to us, the people manning the desk in the lobby were sending people up to the room as being a reception for arriving ministers and teachers. It got pretty lively in there and we got a call from the desk saying that there were some complaints about the noise we were making and could we tone it down a bit.

It all provided a happy memory of our visit to the “City of Brotherly Love” and the convention in that 200^th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence.

As a postscript to the above story, we were indeed moved to another room after a couple of nights or so because we were told that the VIP was going to arrive. We never did find out the identity of the VIP, but we were delighted to be moved to what was called the Queen Suite which was much more comfortable and cozy than the Presidential Suite. In fact, Bill Fischer, the director of education for the Association, had the room opposite ours and he asked us how we rated such a nice room; he said his was the size of a shoebox with just a view of a brick wall through the window. We were truly blessed.

The second memory that was triggered was when I saw the televised broadcast of President-Elect Obama giving his speech on Sunday to thousands of people from the steps on the Lincoln Memorial which caused me to reflect on the occasion in that same location in 1963 when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

Since I didn’t relocate to the United States until November, 1967, I was not present for that powerful moment. But in 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated, I was working in downtown Chicago on West Monroe which was quite near the area where angry and grieving people were turning cars over, burning and looting. That tragic event was forever seared in my memory.

Seeing all those people gathered in the National Mall on Sunday also brought back to mind the 1994 convention of the Association of Unity Churches in Washington, D.C. That was the year I was president of the Association; in February of that year Kathryn and I had left our ministry in Roanoke, Virginia, to go to St. Petersburg, Florida, where I became senior minister at First Unity Church. We had friends from both churches attending the convention. What a wonderful experience that was! We had enough free time that we were able to visit the Lincoln and Washington memorials and walk the Mall beside the reflecting pool, stopping to pay our respects at the awe-inspiring Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall along the way.

The third memory is the association I can’t help but make between this historic inauguration of President Barack Obama and the pride I felt when I became a naturalized citizen of this great country on the Fourth of July in 1985 at Monticello, the former home of President Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia.

There were people from 96 countries becoming citizens on that special day, and Senator John Warner along with two judges was there to welcome us into our citizenship. Also attending the festivities were forty-two members of our Unity church in Roanoke, Virginia, who had travelled up to Monticello on a charter bus. It was an occasion I will never forget.

In the same way, we who are witnesses to the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44^th President of the United States of America at such a critical time in the history of this country, is an occasion none of us will ever forget.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

You can go directly to the blog, at

http://spiritualsolutionsblog.com/blog/

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com

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Here’s another great blog post from Karl Moore at www.karlblog.com

Are you battling with a problem that you cannot do anything about?

If so, let it go!

It may not be the answer you want to hear, but once you let go, life lightens up for you.

You see, there are some things you can change and there are some things you can’t change.

Learning to accept what is will help your life flow without stress or turmoil.

Knowing what you can or can’t change is the key.

For example, you book a camping holiday but accept that you can’t do anything to book nice weather. So, if it blows a gale and throws down enough rain to fill a lake, you just have to accept that’s the way it is.

You then have choices …accept the way it is and moan or accept the way it is and have fun.

Accepting what is allows you to bring out your better qualities.

When you stop dwelling on the things you can’t change, you avoid anxiety and all those pesky emotions that make you feel frustrated and depressed.

You start to flow with life.

So, if you’re in a situation that is causing you some stress, first ask yourself … Can I change this?

If you can, then do so!

If it’s something that you really can’t change, then ask yourself …

Can I accept this?

Acceptance can be challenging because the ego fights it.

It’s in our nature to try and control and shape a situation to suit us. When we can’t, our ego cries, shouts and makes as much noise as possible.

Realize that it’s just your ego that holds you back, and gently accept. 

T.S. Eliot once said…

“Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it.”

Life will flow more freely when you accept what is.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

PS. I would like to recommend Karl’s blog to you. You’ll notice I’ve shared quite a few of his blog posts in the past; they are most often inspiring and insightful. It’s free to join his mailing list to receive blog posts in your email; just go to www.karlblog.com and you can subscribe in the box at the top right-hand corner of his blog pages. Meanwhile, enjoy a Christmas card from Karl.

Click here to view it – http://www.karlchristmas.com/

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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Christmas combines probably the greatest gathering of customs and traditions from many people of many lands, and probably the greatest event in human history, when all of those customs, folklore and traditions come together into a harmonious whole to bring us what we know as the Christmas season. How wonderful that is.

As we remember our traditions and take part in family customs, or perhaps see our children involved in a Christmas pageant, it recreates in us each year a true spirit of Christmas.

The very first Christmas pageant was put together by St. Francis of Assisi. He put on a Christmas pageant with real people and real animals, and the people it is said were so blessed by this that they spontaneously burst into joyous song. And that started community singing or carol singing. So both the pageant and the carol singing originally came from St. Francis of Assisi. 

We think about all the traditions that come together at Christmas and we sometimes wonder where they come from. Like the Christmas tree for instance. The Christmas tree originally, for the Germans, symbolized the Garden of Eden, because it came from a play called the Paradise Baum which meant “The Tree of Paradise.” It was a medieval play. The Tree of Paradise became the Christmas tree.

At that time the play was enacted outdoors, then later suppressed and the people were not allowed to perform the play. So they took the tree, instead of having it outdoors, they took the fir trees indoors. And that’s when it began to become the Christmas tree. At first there was nothing on the tree; it was just a live tree that was taken indoors to remind people of the evergreen, the life that was always there in the midst of the darkest winter.

But is said that Martin Luther was walking through the countryside one evening; it was a dark yet starry and moonlit night and the moon was shining on the snow-tipped branches of the evergreen trees. He was so taken by this scene that when he arrived home he tried to explain it and have his family envision that scene, and in order to help them envision the scene he lighted candles and attached them to the limbs of the fir tree that was in the house.

That’s how the tradition started of having lights on the Christmas tree. We don’t have just regular candles on Christmas trees anymore. You know why? Well, in the early days when that happened there were a few fires.

When I was young and growing up in England we used candles; we had little clips that fitted on the branches of the tree and the candles slotted into little metal cups. The candles were about the size of birthday cake candles and were usually spiraled and they fit into the cups, and we lit the candles on the tree at Christmas time. Of course, later on actual lights were used on the Christmas tree.

So the Christmas tree is a very special symbol for us all, isn’t it? And mistletoe. Think about mistletoe and you may wonder where the tradition of that came from. Well the beginning for that was way back in the first and second centuries. The Druid priests considered the mistletoe holy, and on the fifth day after the close of the winter solstice they would go out and use a golden knife to cut the mistletoe off the holy oak trees. And they would distribute the sprigs of mistletoe to the people in the village. The mistletoe was said to be sacred and it would keep away all of the woodland spirits or evil spirits that might enter their home. So they would hang it over the door and it would keep those evil spirits out.

Do you know where they word “mistletoe” came from? The mistletoe came from an old Anglo-Saxon word or two words, “mistel” and “tan.” At first it was called “misteltan.” And “mistel” simply means “dung.” And “tan” means “twig.” So it was the dung which the birds dropped that grew on the twig. At first, instead of thinking of just seeds that were passing through the birds, they thought the birds actually brought the berries that were there.

Soon it grew into a greater symbol. In Scandinavia they had the idea of the mistletoe representing fertility.

They had a goddess of fertility called Freya and a god of the summer sun called Balda. Freya rescued Balda and brought about his resurrection through the mistletoe. So they recognized it had life-giving powers; that it brought humans back to life. In Scandinavia, too, they hung it over the door frames to keep evil spirits out and to bring life into the house. So it has a long history.

The Romans also recognized it as a symbol of peace and whenever they came to a place where there was mistletoe in the oak trees in winter, they would lay down their arms if they were facing enemies and declare a truce between them.

Mistletoe gradually came to symbolize love and of course after that there came the kissing under the mistletoe which is an inevitable conclusion and a lovely practice.

Holly was also recognized as a very much prized but prickly decoration for doorways and windows, especially on doorways because it was said to either keep evil spirits out or snag them before they could get in. It was a sort of like fly-paper for fairies or something.

There was also a legend that the crown of thorns that Jesus wore at the crucifixion was made up of holly leaves, and that’s how the holly wreaths came about for us in our day.

So as we look at all these things, we think “Wow, let’s look at all the other symbols that are there.” One we don’t use so much in the United States is the wassail bowl. Have you ever heard of that? The wassail bowl really originated with the Anglo-Saxons round about the fifth century. At their feasts they used to pass around the golden cup of mead or wine, and they would salute each other with the words, “Was Hale!” And it meant “Behold!”

So it became the wassail bowl, and they used to fill it with wine and other magical ingredients and carry it around to all the households of the village so that everyone could drink of that wassail bowl.

The Christmas stocking and the idea of hanging it on the mantelpiece, the fireplace, was at first a stocking hung on the fireplace to dry. And the story goes that St. Nicholas came by and accidentally dropped a bag of gold in the stocking; and it took off from there.

The children of Amsterdam used to place wooden shoes or clogs inside the fireplace so that when St. Nick looked down he could see the shoes there, and if he saw them they were sure to get goodies. Later they purposefully substituted socks or stockings for the shoes because the shoes were not flexible but the stockings were and they would hold a lot more goodies.

The Yule log comes from Scandinavia, a dark country and very cold in the winter time. At the beginning of the winter season the men would go out and get the biggest log they could find and drag it back to the baronial hall where they would put it in the fireplace and light it; it would stay lighted all winter because they would keep feeding that log.

The tradition was that the Yule log would be lighted from the Yule log of the previous year, so the fire would always be going. The word comes from the Feast of Juul; that’s where we get our Yuletide from.

Where did Christmas presents or Christmas gifts start? Well, long ago, gifts used to be exchanged at New Year; it was a pagan custom. Then the early priests suggested it would be better at Christmastime since it was a time of goodwill and looking after the poor. So they started to go around collecting money and jewelry in boxes for distribution to the poor. At first they called those boxes “priests boxes,” the gradually began to call them presents. Then as the Christmas tree came along, the presents were either on or under the tree.

Christmas cards were started in about 1846 by a man named Joseph Kundle, He made them out of a lithograph plate and hand-painted them. It didn’t come into vogue until 1862, some years later, and then it all started off. Now today, in the United States alone, we send more than two billion Christmas cards every year.

The greeting “Merry Christmas!” comes from England. In the olden days on Christmas morning the villagers would throw their windows open and would call out to their neighbors “Merry Christmas!” And it sort of captures the jollity of the whole Christmas season and all the traditions, doesn’t it, and brings it all together.

So we say today, “Merry Christmas!”

We become filled with the spirit of Christmas because all of those traditions have carried us right up to this point today. And Christmas is a time of light, isn’t it? We look around and we see the beautiful lights. My wife, Kathryn, and I love to ride around the area at night and look at the Christmas lights.

The Christmas trees have a sort of enchantment for children and adults alike. And when we see a wreath, either in a window or on a door, we know that it proclaims a holiday.

We have a sense of upliftment when we see all of these decorations. And surely, Christmas itself, the idea of Christmas and what it’s all about is a time of light, isn’t it? Where the star shines brightly and the heavens are radiant with light, and the whole season is bright with the sense of welcoming the Christ child. It’s a time of light. It’s a time of love. It’s a time of giving.

One person said that “Christmas is whenever and wherever someone is touched by that ever-living and ever-giving Spirit of God, so that their hearts are opened with the expression of unselfish love.”

So, Merry Christmas to you!

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

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