Poll-Release Monday #38

Here is this week's poll question:

Do you display an Advent wreath in your home during Advent?

Vote in the poll in my sidebar and let me know. In case you don't know what an Advent wreath is (or you would simply like to learn more about them) I have provided the following links:

• Advent Wreath Prayers and Customs
• The History of the Advent Wreath
• Sacramental: The Advent Wreath
• Making Advent Wreaths
• The Advent Wreath: Background, and How to Make Your Own Wreath
• Wikipedia: Advent Wreath

I will also add these links to my Advent resources page.

As for last week's poll question ("Have you read the pope's new encyclical [Spe Salvi]?"), here are the results:

• No, but I plan on reading it: 13 (65%)
• Yes: 6 (30%)
• No, and I doubt I ever will: 1 (5%)

To all of those who voted, "No, but I plan on it"....I'm holding you to it!! As an incentive to read Spe Salvi, here are some links to summaries and commentaries of the encyclical:

• Spe Salvi: Pope calls for living hope "daily" through prayer
• Papal Encyclical Attacks Atheism, Lauds Hope
• Pope's New Encyclical Calls for a Rediscovery of Hope
• Spe Salvi challenges modern society and today's Christianity to self-examination of hope
• Spe Salvi facti sumus—in hope we were saved
• Benedict XVI offers the second in a possible triptych of encyclicals: 'Saved by Hope'
• Firm Hope Is Necessary for Facing Difficulties
• Spe Salvi, the Pope's Encyclical on Christian Hope
• People Need God to Have Hope, Pope Says in New Encyclical
• The Encyclical on Hope: On the "De-immanentizing" of the Christian Eschaton
• Spe Salvi, says Pope Benedict

You may also wish to read the articles I collected in a previous post that explain the theological virtue of hope. May we fix our eyes on the source of our hope during this Advent season (read Spe Salvi if you don't know who/what that is!!)

Pax Christi,
phatcatholic