predication.net

Nature lost patience

We know that living systems took about three to four billion years to form. At first glance, this is – measured by human scales – a very long time. Still, when we realize what all had to be done for life to appear on Earth finally, and especially when we take into account the fact that developments that are not controlled “from above” is random and therefore very slow, we conclude that this time is short for nature to perform this exceptional performance. The literature does not lack an attempt to roughly estimate the time required to give birth to the simplest living creature (virus) based on the number of probabilities.

We start from the well-known fact that knowledge of a virus requires about 1,000 bits of information. (Recall that 1 bit of information represents the knowledge of one of two possibilities.) Based on the relationship between the number of information in bits and the probability of occurrence of a certain phenomenon (H ≈ ln p), it can be calculated that the probability of the virus occurring by random grouping is approximately p ≈ 2‒ 1000 ≈ 10‒300. If we really assume that the time required to “trigger” the necessary chemistry is approximately 1 hour, then the number of all viruses generated in one hour (assuming this process took place in the oceans) would be obtained by multiplying the probability by the factor Voceán / Vvírus ≈ 1033, where the letter V denotes volume. The number of all viruses produced by the Big Bang would be obtained by multiplying the number of hours elapsed since that time (1013). Thus, we conclude that the random grouping had a chance to generate only about 10‒300 x 1033 x 1013 ≈ 10‒254 viruses. It follows that for at least one whole virus to be produced from the Big Bang so far, it would have to take 10254 times more hours than has been the case. In practice, this means that such a mechanism could never happen. And yet nature has done it in less than four billion years!

This estimate can be commented on in two ways: First, to state that external (for example, extraterrestrial) intervention was necessary in this case, or – secondly – to look for mechanisms by which nature was able to accelerate the development process radically. One biologist humorously commented the second option: “Nature’s past is straightforward to explain – it has simply lost patience.” proved to be viable. We have already mentioned both in the previous text. One of these mechanisms is selection, which takes place (thanks to autocatalysis) already at the molecular level and accelerates evolution already in the prebiotic era.

The second very effective process in this respect is phase transitions, i.e., qualitative changes. There is always a radical reduction of the so-called degrees of freedom. We can illustrate this problem.

Imagine a string on a violin. With the help of a string, we get it into states “far from equilibrium,” in which it has already lost stability. At that moment, a huge amount of commotion begins to be generated in her, which forces her to a certain time-varying rhythm. These disturbances propagate at high speed along the string to the attachment points, from where they bounce back and interfere with the original disturbances. If they have unsuitable wavelengths, they are eliminated by mutual interference after several reflections. The “winner” of this competitive struggle, which is technically often called the “principle of enslavement,” is the commotion that has the optimal wavelength in the given conditions. It is such a wavelength that it fits exactly an integer multiple of halves on the whole string.

The whole “enslavement” process43) takes less than about 0.1 s, so that the human ear does not register it at all and perceives only the resulting “mod,” such as the tone “a.” One does not realize at all that nature has carried out – thanks to the validity of the laws of dynamics – an amazingly efficient selection process, in which an extremely numerous ballast was spontaneously eliminated and only one (or several) viable configurations remained.

The same is true of other sudden qualitative changes, and something similar may have happened in connection with the emergence of genes. Thus, nature was not forced to try all possible and conceivable variants. Still, through effective selection in the middle of great ballast, it could move incredibly quickly to new, more viable qualities. On its way to life, nature used – figuratively speaking – not ordinary, but “seven-mile” boots.

Despite these compelling “physical” arguments, some biologists remain skeptical about whether life could actually be born on Earth by spontaneous evolution because of the time it would take for nature to seem very short. This is one reason why they are counting on the possibility that life may have been brought to Earth from other cosmic regions, which could eventually shed light on a mystery in the “six-day” scenario of the world’s creation, which we have already pointed out.

We know that living systems took about three to four billion years to form. At first glance, this is – measured by human scales – a very long time. Still, when we realize what all had to be done for life to appear on Earth finally, and especially when we take into account the fact that developments that are not controlled “from above” is random and therefore very slow, we conclude that this time is short for nature to perform this exceptional performance. The literature does not lack an attempt to roughly estimate the time required to give birth to the simplest living creature (virus) based on the number of probabilities.

Motivate to approach the sacrament of reconciliation
We have become accustomed to the fact that Jesus is always the center of attention. Where he appears there, happens some sensation. It stirs up the level of peaceful life with every deed or word. , as if nothing had happened, he would tell the paralyzed:
“Man, your sins are forgiven … Get up, … take your bed and go home” (Luke  5,20.23.24).

Imagine, albeit with difficulty, but still what it looked like in the spaces where Jesus taught. Many people came. Simple and educated, some because of it they saw, others to listen to him, and others to study him. They sat around, and they were ready to listen to him, who taught them as having power. When it then opened the roof, and the stretcher rose before their eyes, they were burned and outraged at the same time. But Jesus saw it the sick and his faith and the faith of those who brought him. You were aware of what the man in the bed was going through, that to come before him actually meant publicly confessing his sinfulness. But Christ did not heal not only his soul but also his body. He was not outraged, as some of the crowd; he was enthusiastic about them by faith. He directly cooled the outrage of the crowd from the remission of sins when he said, “Get up and walk.” (Luke 5.23).

Beloved, what about us? After all, we will literally become participants in a short time, something similar. Ads have been pouring in from us for a long time. The children are sure all the nooks and crannies of your dwellings are surpassed. There is also something adult about us inside and reminds you to smile, be nice; you haven’t had time to clean this up yet, you still have to buy you what you give
on the Christmas table, etc. But what about slowing down, stopping, and thinking. When he is born a little while, Christ also wants to tell us: “Man, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:23).

And we have one huge advantage over the paralyzed. We can tell him in silent confession. No one will look at us; we will not disturb anyone. Only we will be at the kneeling position, and He present in the person of the priest. Preparing the interior for his arrival is certainly not an easy thing, and it takes the courage men had when they decided to run the paralyzed over the roof. Let’s prepare for the holy confession. Is it still far from Christmas? I do not deny, of course not yet; there will come a time when we will have anger and many other opportunities for sin but lets the courage as men of the gospel had, as the sick man in the bed had. Let’s try to convince ourselves and our loved ones who have not found their way to Christ for years to try now. Let’s not excuse that others will look at them as weirdos and people without a backbone. What if it is through them that Jesus wants to work a miracle and show his power. After all, none of us doesn’t knows if this Christmas will not be the last one for us. We also know that a child can do miracles. It also softens the hardest heart. When two thousand years ago, the family was looking for where to head, only a bastard was found for them to bow down. We can offer that little child much more, your heart. Let us not let him stand outside and knock on the door of our heart. Let’s contribute to a more beautiful survival of these holidays. Lord, we will welcome you among us for a moment, please give us courage with what paralyzed before you, that we may purify our hearts, and we may all receive you into our hearts,
by which the way to You is overgrown with thorns.

Nowadays, it is naive to believe in some “god” somewhere “up there.” In the past, people believed in various gods, forest women, dwarves, giants, dragons, etc. But today, we no longer have to resort to some myths. Science today reveals the real world. No one today believes in fairies or forest women. So why believe in any God and heaven that is above us and hell somewhere underground? Today we know that there is no sky above the sky, but the Universe. Our Earth is no longer considered the center of the world; it is just one small planet in the middle of a huge cosmos. And below us is no hell, but a molten slurry of the earth’s mantle and an even deeper earth’s core. Nowhere is there a place for hell where devils torture and torture sinners, nor is there a place for heaven, angels, and God. Where would they live? How do they fly somewhere between stars and planets? Funny. As ridiculous as the idea that God, if any, would be interested in anything as insignificant as humanity and the Earth in general. Therefore, no thinking person today can believe in God with a serious face and at the same time keep his sanity…
This is a common accusation by atheists who claim that God’s idea is irrational – that is, contrary to common sense, and a person who values ​​his reason cannot accept the idea and idea of a”supernatural God.” When Gagarin returned from space, his statement flew around the world: “I did not see God there.”

“When the moderator openly asked Provine if there was” the possibility of being an intellectually honest Christian evolutionist … or we had to turn off our brains at the church door, “his answer was very straightforward:” You really have to turn off your brains. “
(in Lee Strobel, Case Creator)
So how is it?
FIRST EXPLANATION: WHAT IS “SUPERNATED”?
• Imagine you are in the middle of the ocean, alone, in the waves, fighting for your life. What is your ability to do to save yourself? What can the ocean offer you to save you?
• And now the helicopter will suddenly arrive and save you. Is this intervention “natural” or “supernatural”?
The answer:
• If you think ONLY IN THE BOUNDARIES OF THE OCEAN, it is SUPERNATURAL. There are no helicopters anywhere in the ocean, nor are they any natural inhabitants of the ocean. Helicopter – this is something foreign that arrives from behind the world’s borders, which is the ocean. There should be no real, real, or non-existent helicopters in the ocean world, so BELIEVING IN THEM IS IRACIONAL!
• Conversely, if you consider the WHOLE WORLD, not just a part of it (which is the ocean) – then helicopter rescue is NATURAL, and you can rightly expect it, believe in it, and hope for it because there are places on the coast where a Coast Guard helicopter is normal. And natural and is normal and natural to fly and save people. TRUSTING A HELICOPTER TO SAVE ME IS FULLY RATIONAL AND LOGICAL!
This is exactly what our watch game is, respectively. Watch factory:
• If you consider the factory to be “WHOLE WORLD” ONLY and ignore everything beyond its borders, then the DESIGNER idea is irrational because there is no designer inside the factory and there is nowhere to exist (the factory is fully automatic, there is no “office”) someone like that could sit).
• BUT IF WE ACCEPT that the walls of the factory do not end the Universe, on the contrary, the factory is only a part of a much larger world, then the idea that somewhere outside the factory (at home, in his villa) lives the designer and operator of the factory, who even controls its operation and can its run to intervene (via computer and internet) is by no means unnatural, supernatural, or irrational – and it usually works in our world as well…
What does this mean?
•, many things in the world are normal, logical, rational, and natural.
• But if we start to consider only part of the world (e.g., only the ocean as in the example) and exclude other parts of it (land and coast guard in the same example), many manifestations and things will seem supernatural. We will consider them irrational and foreign to the world we have confined ourselves to, and faith in them will be considered contrary to common sense.

To point out that we expect the Lord a lot in the past, it was customary for a new king to ascend to the throne in the land of the messengers so that everyone may know who their new master is and to whom they have to pay homage.
In the Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples and shows, “Go and proclaim, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Math 10: 6). He sends them to announce the arrival of a new king who has come from heaven to saved everyone. And because the time of salvation begins, it is necessary to turn around. This is Jesus’ own call, which is now to be taken by his deputies’ apostles. Like John the Baptist, they diverge and declare to the Jewish people that the Messiah they were waiting for is already coming. They proclaimed that God had fulfilled his promise, and he did not forget what he had sworn to David.

Imagine the hope that the disciples must have aroused when they began to announce that the Messiah that the prophets prophesied and awaited him longingly would come now, in their days. How much hope for the future with this announcement in people about aroused. The hope that people assured themselves and others that it would be better tomorrow, that the Messiah will finally be here tomorrow. This hope gave them a new rhythm to life, a new stimulus.
And as it is in our lives, dear brothers and sisters, we have been here for five days of Advent. A time when we should prepare our hearts for the coming of the king – Son of God, Jesus. The Church is telling us these days, as the disciples are announcing: “God’s kingdom is here, let’s use this time of Advent and level the sidewalks of our heart. ”It is up to us to use it. We can go to him to approach with resentment, or we can survive it to the fullest and thus prepare for the king’s welcome. Therefore, let us open our hearts and ask the Lord together to help us survive this Advent the way He likes it.

Thoughts and impressions of the idea are not only lost from the plan but also persist. It cannot be compared to an object that does not change. Therefore, we cannot be photographically immutable from normal memory. We must always take into account her mistakes. Extensive memory loss is most often caused by gray bark disease, and thus esplanes also suffer from malnutrition. The memory reservoir is, so to speak, unlimited. 70-90% of esplan cells remain empty, unused. Therefore, the more we know, the easier it is to acquire additional knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge takes place by association. The more experiences are accumulated in the memory, the more the mind can create more thoughts. We forget many experiences of thought, lessons that we do not remember. It will partially or completely disappear from the plan. It surprises us that in fever, anesthesia, we say things completely forgotten. They remembered the soul consciousness. If we are aware of one idea more often and more strongly, this idea glows in individual nodes than others. One can only announce an idea that is stored in memory. Human thinking is not purely substantive but is based on the feelings and desires that give it a personal character. The esplanes are clean, empty, and waiting for what will be sown in them for a newborn. It depends on what valuable and noble is stored in them. The child learns easily and learns without difficulty. He remembers everything he is brought up for without difficulty. It really depends on what good or bad will be sown in him, what kind of education the child will receive. Frequent cases of delayed development of some children’s comprehension compared to others are due to insufficient development of esplan. It is not right to make such children feel inferior or punish. In the elderly, the esplanes are no longer so formed, and the newly formed ones cannot maintain perceptions, thus weakening the memory. Past things that have elapsed long ago are awakening in esplanes, while fresh things from new ones are being planted. In the endangerment of life, if we are in danger of heading, there is a sharp ripple of the gray cortex. All the lower and upper esophagus suddenly oscillate strongly. At that moment, we will live our whole life again. We live the moment in the presence of good and bad deeds.

We live in a time when many of us follow the example of the lives of others. Some would like to dress like this or that star, others would like to have such abilities as this or that the athlete, and others do not even hide the fact that they would actually want to be this or that
the personality of public life personally.

In the Gospel, Jesus healed two blind people and then forbade them to do so to say when they are threatened, “But let no one know” (Mathew 9:30). Today we know exactly why Jesus forbade the healed survivors a miracle not to talk about it. His hour has not yet come. However, always in the gospel at he remarks to such a plea that these people are doing the exact opposite of what Jesus asks of them. To
some extent, it is natural because the one who has survived a miracle or some great thing can not keep quiet. He feels he has to tell others. After all, let’s imagine that a very well-known person came to us, and even would she also gave us some great gift. Could we be silent? Don’t tell anyone anything about a visit or a gift? In such cases, a person lasts a maximum of one day without at least in hints he didn’t tell his closest or neighbor what had happened to him because of his we do not reveal inner feelings and joys outwardly only with words, but with all our behavior, the whole attitude. For example, when someone is sad, they don’t have to tell everyone. They see it in his face, in his movements. Like sorrow, there is joy, astonishment, anger, etc.

He who leads a religious life is also evident in him. He doesn’t have to shout down the street that he is a Christian. He should behave in such a way that everyone can feel it from his attitudes.
Saint Francis of Assisi once told his brothers to prepare to preach after lunch to the town. They passed silently throughout the city and returned. Why didn’t we preach? The brothers asked him. We preached, by our example, the answer was. Today’s world is full of words but eager for examples. Young people, and not only them, long
have some pattern, some example. And they are right because of one example; they will learn much more than hours of teaching. But here, for the most part, one emerges: “Yes, he’s right, so am. I like it when someone shows me an example; it’s just a pity that there are so few of those examples. ”And here we are, another question arises: Why are there so few examples? The answer is simple: Because those who should give them do not give them. And who should give them? Well, all of us, dear brothers and sisters. Because by giving us through the Church, the sacrament of baptism and confirmation – he has received us into his chosen people and has poured out his Spirit on us, to be heralds his kingdom. Both by word and by example and especially by example.

Therefore, let us behave in such a way that our lives are an example of the Christian life for others, lest we be like two blind men, who disobeyed Jesus, but to do his will, and so they preached the kingdom of God among men by our deeds.

Have you ever hesitated? Did it have serious consequences?
The driver hesitated at an intersection and caused an accident. He was glad that nothing serious happened to anyone. However, the damage to the cars was great. They repaired the cars within a month. Today they drive.
John has been giving the same sports numbers for years. He hesitated last week and lost the first prize. He had his plans. He dreamed that if he won, he would travel a lot, among other things. He is a believer, and although he was very sorry, he did not make it a tragedy.

The prophet Isaiah invites us: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1: 3)

These words of the prophet are not only an Advent challenge but also a challenge to the new church year, as well as to the rest of our lives. Advent is the time to prepare for the feasts of the Nativity. Advent is arrival, expectation, preparation. God is coming to us. We get a pattern of how to welcome him.
John the Baptist did not hesitate. He is fulfilling his mission, which God has set for him in his mother’s womb. Baptism and the proclamation of repentance. He confesses when they consider him the Messiah: “He comes after me mightier than I am. I am not even worthy to bend down and untie his shoelaces. ”(Mark 1: 7). In other words, John can be said to live in the presence of God. It doesn’t matter. John is not a man who would be most interested in the needs of the body, food, clothes… John is a man of great spirit who fulfills everything that God expects of him. John is not a reed swept away by the wind. John is a role model who never betrays his conscience and performs his duties faithfully. He is firm in his character, kneeling only before God, for whom he is willing to lay down his life. His life addresses that many from all over Judea and Jerusalem come to the Jordan River and are baptized with repentance to remission of sins. For John’s example, many do not hesitate and prepare for the coming of the Messiah.
Both the prophets Isaiah and John the Baptist are an example of our approach to our obligations to God. John the Baptist teaches by word and deed that Jesus must grow in us. The world’s salvation is not in sweet words, chosen food, soft clothes, pleasant living, but in fulfilling God’s will. As God, Jesus fulfills the will of God the Father. Both the prophets Isaiah and John the Baptist freely do God’s will in their place and to the best of their knowledge. And they teach us that. “Prepare the way of the Lord.” (Mark 1: 3) God asks each person not to hesitate in his life journey and to fulfill the tasks he has received from God. The words “prepare the way of the Lord” always means to do God’s will, and the words “level his paths” are a call to repentance for sins, a call to abandon sin, a call to satisfy oneself for sins committed.

John the Baptist is an example and a model, a challenge, and an admonition for us Christians not to hesitate. They teach us what and who we are to be: oaks not reeds, people of truth, people of faith, people of character. John the Baptist is an example to us so that we should not be fooled by external appearance, comfort, opinion, what others will say, but so that we do not hesitate in what God wants from us. John the Baptist teaches us to follow the simple Christian path, not look to the right or the left, even though our path would not be easy or pleasant. John the Baptist’s life is our school; we must never antagonize God, even if we have to stand up to the whole world. After all, God is above everything, and only in Him can we have everything.
Many Christians are indeed a reed without their own thinking, without their own convictions, without their own opinions, without Christian principles; they forget that they are still standing before God. A Christian must not be an evil merchant who sells everything for nothing. John also felt hunger and thirst and cold in the desert. He didn’t hesitate and was what he was supposed to be. A Christian must not forget that he also has a soul. It must not be one of those about which St. writes. Paul: “Their god is the belly.”
St. Francis called his body “brother donkey.” He, too, felt the need for a body. She keeps him in check, controls her sensibly, watches over his needs.
God does not send us to the desert, and we do not have to behave in such a way that we draw unnecessary attention to ourselves or that our behavior, their way of life are like St. John Baptist. We are to fulfill our mission toward God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Only he who is the master of himself and the friend of God can do that. He who does not hesitate will achieve the goal.

Yes, many have hesitated, and yet today, they are saints. Did we hesitate too? God has not ceased to care for us. The proof is today’s call from the Gospel. Even today, many are abandoning their evil paths of life and balancing them, beginning to walk on the right paths. Every sin, weakness, passion, mistake, mistake can be abandoned, and a new life can begin in the presence of God. None of us is excluded from this new life. When we know who we are actually waiting for, whose birth holidays we are preparing for, it deserves a change in our lives, as the old legend says.

The rich king, who lived in luxury, comfort, and dining at the rich table, was not evil, had a good heart, and longed for God and prayed, but could not experience the joy of God in his heart. He felt that God was far from him.
One night, while lying in a soft bed, he could not sleep. He wondered why he had these difficulties with God. Suddenly he heard a strong voice under the windows. He went out on the balcony and shouted angrily, “Who’s bothering me? What is going on? ” Said the hermit, who, with his consent, had a hermitage nearby,“ I am looking for my goat, which has escaped me! ” And the hermit will answer him, “And why is my king so foolish that he thinks he will find God in a soft robe, resting on a golden bed?”

The legend ends positively. The king took the hermit’s words to heart, changed his lifestyle, his relationship with things and people, and died in a mess of holiness.
When we too desire to live in the presence of God, in preparation for the feasts of God’s birth, it is right that we change our relationship with God, our own life, his values, but also our neighbors and things. We don’t want to hesitate anymore—Vice versa. We want to live with God not only in solemn moments but also in daily duties. Today we don’t even have to take off our clothes, and we don’t have to fast. Just a lot easier. Perhaps to give more time and activities to God, neighbor, or your soul.

Advent is indeed a time when we are loudly and powerfully invited to change our lives in the spirit of the words: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1: 3) Let us not hesitate. The car can be repaired, it can be survived without winning, but will not today’s hesitation in the call for a change of life be the last?
Let us ask for the strength to fulfill the voice of the gospel, the voice of the caller in the wilderness with the words of today’s psalm: “I will hear what the Lord God will say. Indeed, salvation is near to those who fear Him ”(Ps. 85: 9, 10).

Famous physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics E. Schrödinger
wrote (1935) a book called What is Life? Based on that time, available information tried to apply the laws of thermodynamics on living systems, and his reflections on this topic summarize the statement: “Living the system is fed by negative entropy. ” To a layman in physics, this statement he says nothing, but it is not such a big problem to transform it into plain language. A certain level of internal organization characterizes All-natural systems. Its measure is physical, a quantity called “entropy.” The more organized the system, the more it is characterized by lower entropy. If a living organism develops from less organized to more organized, must entropy “Exhale” to the surroundings, in other words – must receive from somewhere “Negative entropy” so that its total entropy can shrink. The mechanism of these processes has long remained unknown.

Another famous scientist I shed some light on this issue. Prigogine, who won the Nobel Prize for his contribution to science. Figured out
that in certain circumstances, the system may be “self-organizing,” IE
reduces your entropy. However, since the universal law applies, according to whose entropy of a closed system can by spontaneous processes in only grow inside, the (local) decrease in entropy must be indicated to compensate by faster degeneration of the surroundings. In common parlance, we call it “devastation of the environment.” It’s the price you pay for that some systems can self-organize. What mechanisms? A certain organization can be introduced into the system as well as outside. This usually happens in the social systems in which the organization implements certain rules (laws) generated by the managing authorities. Analogous processes possible to be realized even in the inanimate sphere. Art paintings on Windows can create an artist, but they can also arise spontaneously if we provide suitable conditions – necessary humidity and reasonable low temperature. The categories of direct entropy reduction in the system should also include acts of creations.

Given the above facts, we can make sense question: What processes a person is. It’s clear behind that creative intervention “from the outside,” or just spontaneous development, resp. Both? There are still three competing answers to this question: creationists, “scientific creationists,” and evolutionists. According to the first, man is with all that is in him. The product of the “ad hoc” Creator interaction, the second group, also admits a certain evolution but attributes substantial changes to God’s activities. In contrast, the third group believes that everything one has at his disposal
could have arisen by spontaneous evolution. The last opinion does not have to bind only to materialist-oriented thinkers necessarily. 

We know the theologian. Simultaneously, the paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin declared that „everything from inanimate matter to the human soul is subject to the evolutionary process. ” In other words, God in human creation he could entrust this task entirely to “evolutionary technologies ’. This is the view taken by Mr. Prigogine, who wrote that “We do not know an obstacle for which life could not arise spontaneous evolution from inanimate matter.” So it can also be human the soul, a product of evolution? This is a grave question, and it deserves its deeper analysis.

The meaning of Advent

ADVENT = ARRIVAL. It calls on Christians to meet Christ in our daily lives and prepares Christians for his glorious second coming. Fortunately, the Advent season is not just a time of shopping spree, although ancient customs are intertwined with Christian traditions. No need to be stunned by Christmas carols at a time when Advent songs should be given space = totals.

From time immemorial, the Advent wreath has been a symbol of victory and royal dignity. It represents the symbolism of the cross of Christ or God’s eternity and unity and has clear rules for what it should look like. Colors are important. The color of Advent is purple!
Green twigs (conifers or holly represent life) with 3 purple ones (dignity, repentance) and one pink candle (consecrated friendship). The candles are lit counterclockwise. Wreaths with a fifth – white candle – in the middle are also common. It is lit on Christmas Day and symbolizes Christ.

1st candle – The first Advent – iron – Sunday is lit. This year it is published on November 27. The candle is called Hope.
2nd candle – The second Advent – bronze – Sunday is lit. This year it is published on December 4. The candle is called Peace.
3rd candle – The third Advent – silver – Sunday is lit. This year it is published on December 11. The candle is called Friendship and should be pink.
4th candle – The fourth Advent – golden – Sunday is lit. This year it is published on December 18. The candle is called Love.
5th Candle – Lights on Christmas Day after sunset. It is white and consecrated to Christ, who dispels darkness because He is the Light.

So let’s not waste the chance that Advent time offers us!

Customs and folk customs of Advent
During Advent, when spinning wheels were spinning in rooms and kitchens and girls and women were spinning at spindles, there was a lot of talks.

December 4 – St. Barbara’s Day – helpers in need, patrons of the dying, patrons of miners. The saint was known to have spent her youth locked in a tower because her father was very worried about her. Among the servants who brought her food was a Christian who converted her to faith. At that time, the parents were very afraid of such actions of their children, condemned them, and usually hit hard. Barbara’s father also wanted to force his daughter to renounce Christianity, when even threats of murder did not help, he handed her over to a judge. He could torture her, and when he had her flogged, she remarked that it was as if she were being stroked by peacock feathers. The terrible abuse continued by cutting off the girl’s breasts and trying to drive her through the streets of the city. But according to the story, an angel appeared at that moment and covered her bleeding body with a white cloak. “

In our country, however, in many other countries, people cut cherry twigs on this day. They put them in a bowl of water to bloom beautifully by Christmas Day. The girls gave each twig the name of a boy and believed that they would marry the one whose name would bloom first. At other times, it was calculated how many days after Barbara the twig would bloom to determine the happiest month of next year.

December 6 – The feast of St. Nicholas has long been associated with the belief in wealth. Traders were happy to close complex deals that day. The generosity of the saint is based on the story of the gift of three daughters to an indebted father. The man wanted to sell his daughters to a brothel, but Nicholas threw money into the room through an open window for three consecutive nights. With them, the father could not only repay all debts but also give his daughters decent equipment. Nicholas lived in the 4th century in Myra, Asia Minor, with extraordinary devotion and a sense of justice gained popularity among the broadest sections of the population.

Around Nikolas’s person, most of the customs related to his gifts to all children have been preserved. On the eve of the holiday, a man with a white chin visits the children and gives them sweets, but he also blesses them. Nicholas wore the traditional bishop’s robe, which consisted of a cloak with a hood lined with fur, a high paper cap on his head, and a crutch in his hand. The angels wore white shirts, and the devil pulled on a usually long, black fur-turned fur coat, belted with a chain and bells on it. The children had to kneel in front of them and pray: “Santa Claus, good uncle, I pray your prayer, put your full leg on, give us a little of your gifts, or honey hobbies, or poppy seed cakes, lead you, Uncle Nicholas, many good things you have. “

In connection with this holiday, St. Nicholas markets were held for the first time. They sold various pastries, figurines and other small toys, typical of this time. They were made of dried fruit, unfixed clay or pieces of wood. The tradition of St. Nicholas has been applied with great tenacity for several centuries to this day and has its firm place at a time when traditions are no longer so important.

December 13 Saint Lucia – this day is characterized by folk lore: “Saint Lucia shows its power because it gives us the longest night.”