An Idea We Can All Participate In.........

Found a blog with a Hanukkah story and suggestion that we could all do, even if not near an Iranian embassy, even if not Jewish.









The Christophers have a saying about lighting one candle ...
"It is better to light one candle than to Curse the Darkness".

If we each kept this in mind all the time...
"what a bright world ....this ....would ....be....."

I can still hear the song from the old TV.



Bookworm has pointed us to an article by Emanuele Ottolenghi from Dec. 20, 2005 at National Review Online where she suggests that we all light a candle on the third day of Hannukkah symbolically.

This year, Christmas and Hanukkah coincide. Perhaps, we can all join for freedom just as was done long ago.

We as Catholics should find no conflict in joining our Jewish 'older Brethren' in the suggestion she offers us. We are, or should be, familiar with the story at least to SOME extent, as we include the Maccabees in our Bible, and we have our Tabernacle Light present at the altars.

• 1 Maccabees
• 2 Maccabees

So read the rest of her article, the ending of which is below, and read Bookworm's blog about it, and spread the word to Light One Little Candle in a Dark Night on Dec 27 as a message to those in the darkness of tyranny and hate from Iran and elsewhere.

And God Bless!

Merry Christmas (and to my Jewish friends, Happy Hanukkah!)

from the NRO article:

So here's an idea that ordinary citizens can adopt as a reminder to governments that in the end, for any hope to survive, we need freedom to triumph over tyranny. This year, Hanukkah coincides with Christmas. On December 27, the third night of Hanukkah, Hanukkah candles should be lit in public ceremonies across the streets, in front of Iranian embassies around the world. Jewish communities should organize a lighting ceremony in all those capital cities where Iran has an embassy, and in New York it should be done in front of the U.N. building, right beside the Iranian flag. According to Jewish law, anyone can light the Shamash, the candle that is used to light all others. Prominent leaders with bipartisan support should be invited to perform this symbolic act to reaffirm the light of freedom over the darkness of tyranny. And other public figures should endorse this initiative as a message to the Iranian authorities.

The idea was recently launched by two London activists, and is already gaining support and sympathy elsewhere. Rome may soon follow, and so should other capitals of Europe and the Western world.

Since the free world's leaders remain unwilling to give a strong and decisive answer to Iran's tyranny, ordinary citizens should perform this simple gesture of defiance, which for centuries Jewish families and communities across the world have done. This is a reminder that in the end, despite the odds, the light of freedom must, and therefore can, triumph over the darkness of tyranny.

— Emanuele Ottolenghi teaches Israel studies at Oxford University.