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A Prayer for Advent

By Bernhard Eyb

Thou mothering earth
Hast received the live seed
Into the dark
Good shelter of soil.
The mantle of night
Thrown wide over us,
And the sun as it goes
Its swift and short journey,
Speak to our hearts
In warning and promise.
Thou Earth hast borne up
The footsteps of Mary
Journeying patiently
Southwards to Bethlehem;
And the Earth bears us
Today in our travail,
That we may bring forth
Christ in our spirit.
So may we await Him
Sent by the Father
Healer and bringer
Into our being
Of the true gold.

Adam Bittleston, in Meditative Prayers for Today, available at http://www.steinerbooks.org/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=264

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November

Lord among the seven candles!
Giver of the light undarkened!
Helper of the souls who struggle
With their passions’ bitter visage
On the wide stairs of the Night—

Thou who bearest from the Father
Sun-Life changeful and unchanging,
Healing for the spirit’s weakness
When it weaves from wandering shadows
Error that denies Thy Being—

Christ whose love calls forth the roses
From the cross on which we suffer;
Guardian of the door to Heavens
Where the deeds on earth unfinished
Through God’s grace prepare fulfillment—

Thy strong soul unite our feeling
With the souls of men who journey
From the earth to distant star worlds;
And with those who seek the entry
To the earth which Thou has hallowed.

Adam Bittleston, in Meditative Prayers for Today, available at http://www.steinerbooks.org/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=264

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Are You a Zombie?

Movie review and Anthroposophical commentary by Arthur Hildreth Jr.

The next time you are in front of the mirror take a good hard look and ask yourself, Am I a zombie? In fact, take note of your behavior in the company of others and ask again, Am I a zombie? You might also look around you and take note of anyone else you think might be a zombie. You may be surprised with what you find out about yourself and the people you think you know and those you see at school or work nearly every day. You may even believe the buzz in the media and the subject of some six hundred movies in the last forty years of a coming zombie apocalypse. You might even believe you are living it, or not living!

Until recently, zombie movies have been more a warning of impending doom depicting flesh-eating corpses whose condition spreads to all who are injured, eaten or killed by them. The term Zombie has many meanings in today’s culture from a mixed alcoholic drink to a flesh eating reanimated corpse. Warm Bodies a Zombie movie based on Isaac Marion’s novel and released in February 2013 has an advertising tagline, “He’s still dead but he is getting warmer.” This movie, taking place mostly after the “Zombie Apocalypse”, is a romantic comedy and offers hope rather than doom. Read more

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International Newsletter, fall 2013

Click on link to access the Newsletter in English.

[download id=”109″]

The password is michaeli.

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A Michaelmas Sermon

A sermon given after the gospel reading from Matthew 22: The Parable of the Wedding Feast.

We often speak of Knighthood in the time of Michaelmas, as in the song: “Let me of God a fighter be, in the knighthood of the Grail!” And in a festival for children, we may bring to the children the ideal of the knight: to ever serve the Good;  and test them with challenges of aim, balance and courage which can help them serve and develop knighthood in themselves.

The highest ideal of the knight however is something called Minne, what often is simply translated as LOVE. But this love is something different than the often sentimentalized “chivalric love” of the age of knights—it is far more than anything personal. This love that the knight aims to develop is not merely a protective love for the “damsel in distress”, but rather, a far-reaching love of humanity which longs to serve the divine in each human being. It is a love seeking the essential being of the other, that which is most important and true. The knight seeks and serves that which is becoming in the other as a highest ideal and a life task.

Read more

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Michaelmas Prayer

A meditative prayer by Adam Bittleston

We need in the light of our day
The eternal Light of the Word of God.
When we see with our thoughts this Light
On the path which leads from the cave
Where thinking and seeing our shadows,
Into the fields of life

Into the freedom of the heart—
We shall meet Michael
Who reveals how Christ
Awakens thinking
That it may serve God. Read more

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No Truer Friend Than Christ

True friends are people who prove themselves over time. They truly listen in a way that draws out of us strengths we did not know we had. They stand by us in our trials, offering their support. Their constancy gives them a depth of knowledge about us, both of our strengths and of our weaknesses that allows them to be a gentle and loving mirror in which we can truly see ourselves. The result is that we are known. We feel accepted, just as we are. We are loved.

Christ is truly our truest friend. Read more

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North American Newsletter, Fall 2013

Click link to download and view the current Newsletter:  [download id=”106″]

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New Legacy Giving Coordinator Hired

The Christian Community in North American would like to welcome Mary Hirsch as our first Legacy Giving Coordinator. Ms. Hirsch has been hired by The Region to assist our individual communities in the development of their own Legacy Giving Programs.

Ms. Hirsch brings to this new position over 23 years of extensive experience ranging from public relations and marketing to planned giving, major gifts and capital campaign management. She has worked in large non-profit organizations, state universities, two Waldorf schools and a charitable foundation. As the Advancement Director at Kimberton Waldorf School, she launched Waldorf Works – a mission-based sustainable fundraising program that attracted over 500 people to campus over two years. She was Director of Development at the Waldorf School of Princeton, Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Director of Planned Giving at Rider University.  Read more

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August

Upon fields and orchards

Growing towards harvest

there look with blessing

The spirits of heaven;

And their gaze searches 

Men’s hearts for ripening.

In the close weaving

Of manifold fates 

Read more