{"id":1471,"date":"2019-12-03T07:40:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T11:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/?p=1471"},"modified":"2023-12-11T11:37:09","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T16:37:09","slug":"173-preparing-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/?p=1471","title":{"rendered":"173- Preparing for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/12257294\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/backward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/87A93A\/stats-code\/season15replay121_2\/\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"100%\" height=\"90\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Christmas boost that supports and encourages us can be found by taking time for spiritual preparation with the prayers and meditations of Advent or the Nativity Fast. Good news! It doesn\u2019t take much effort for &#8220;Preparing the Way.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Nativity-challenge-button-revised.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus with Nativity Fast Prayer Challenge- Praying for Peace\" class=\"wp-image-1476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Nativity-challenge-button-revised.jpg 500w, https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Nativity-challenge-button-revised-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 85vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption>Metropolitan Gregory&#8217;s 2019\/18 Nativity Fast prayer challenge \n(American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the USA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.acrod.org\/consecration\/prayerchallenge\/\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metropolitan Gregory&#8217;s Nativity Fast Prayer website page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:32px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" src=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle.jpg\" alt=\"1st candle being lit by a small child on Advent Wreath\" class=\"wp-image-1467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle-1400x934.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/1st-candle-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>1st candle being lit on Advent Wreath.\u00a0 Photo from: <a href=\"https:\/\/frontierdreams.blogspot.com\/p\/about-me.html\">frontierdreams.blogspot.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:65px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/?p=288\">To Listen to Part 1: <em>&#8220;Ways to Extend Your Christmas\u00a0 Experience&#8221;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I value feedback through the comments section here<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">OR- Better via email at <a href=\"mailto:NikosSteves@gmail.com\">NikosSteves@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Constant Procession tells of key apparitions of the Virgin Mary since she\npassed on from the world and how she serves humanity through Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The origin of these podcasts began with my book <em>Constant Procession.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(An e-book copy of the book can be found here on the website.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Constant Procession; the podcast; is published here every Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve read the entire book from cover to cover (Installments 93-110)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/?p=516\">To listen from Installment\n93<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Christmas boost that supports and encourages us can be found by taking time for spiritual preparation with the prayers and meditations of Advent or the Nativity Fast. Good news! It doesn\u2019t take much effort for &#8220;Preparing the Way.&#8221; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metropolitan Gregory&#8217;s Nativity Fast Prayer website page To Listen to Part 1: &#8220;Ways to Extend &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/?p=1471\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;173- Preparing for Christmas&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nikossteves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}