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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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2 Advent
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Second
Sunday of Advent - B Cycle - Mark 1:1-8
A theologian had a painting of the crucifixion in
his study. It showed John the Baptist with a long bony finger pointing
to Jesus. One day a visitor asked, "What is your job?" The theologian
walked over to the painting and said, "I am that finger." Do our lives
point people to Christ? Or do they turn them away from Him? Before you
answer, remember what Gandhisaid, "I would have become a
Christian if ever I had met one."
In a recent year, Joseph Donders writes, "One
third of
all the books in the United States were written on Jesus."
Given that remarkable fact, can you fault the Church
setting up the training camp season that is Advent at the opening of a
new Liturgical year?The Church gives us four weeks to burn off
ten pounds of ugly spiritual fat. Thus we will be properly ready to
greet the Nazarene on His annual Christmas visit.
St Mark today in 1:1 heralds Him without any
hesitation as "Jesus Christ the Son of God." He shows no doubt, no
hesitation.Talk about clearing the decks for action. Plato
wrote, "To find the maker and father of this universe is a hard task;
and when you have found him, it is impossible to speak of him before
all people." I do not know whether the Evangelist Mark ever read that
line while working in Rome with St Peter. But one point is certain.
Mark tells us in in this Gospel he disagrees with Plato.
Elizabeth Vanek catches the spirit of this season:
"Advent is the season of the pilgrim God...We often speak of our
journey towards God, but, in reality, it is God who does most of the
traveling." The last four miles you might say He leaves to us. The
ideal would be to cover one mile in each of these Advent weeks. The
first mile should already be behind us. The slowest of us can walk a
mile weekly in even the oldest sneakers.
Instead of selling out, a bishop suggests that our
challenge is to stand out. This Advent abstain from food one day each
week to better understand what hunger is. And why not give 10% of your
income to a charity? Stand out.
Advent is designed to bring out Abraham Lincoln's
better angel in us. We should be advancing toward the peace this season
promises. And, as Donders says, "peace is the opposite of pieces; to be
at peace means to be of one piece."
We should all make this verse quoted by
William Barclay the capstone of this Advent: "In youth, because I could
not be a singer, I did not even write a song. I set no little trees
along the roadside because I knew their growth would take so long. But
now from the wisdom that the years have brought me, I know that it may
be a blessed thing to plant a tree for someone else to water or make a
song for someone else to sing."
John the Baptizer's message can be summed up
in that one
word, "Repent." In Mark 1:5, the Master Himself also went on
the record, "Repent and believe in the Gospel."
What better way to turn over that famous new
leaf than
arranging a prime time rendezvous with the Teacher in confession.
St Augustine wrote, "The confession of evil works is the first
beginning of good works." Barclay notes that it is only when we say, "I
am a sinner" that Jesus can say, "I forgive." CS Lewis writes that
though God made us without our consent, He will not save us without our
permission.
And, as we walk away from that encounter with the
Master,dwell on the story that says that Christ takes all our
confessed sins and hurls them to the bottom of a deep lake. Then on the
lake shores, He nails a large sign that reads "NO FISHING."
George Eliot reminds us, "It's but little good
you'll do watering last year's crops."
A woman had a vision of Jesus. She went and told her
priest. He said, "I will not believe unless your Christ tells you my
sins. The woman returned. The priest asked what his sins were. She
replied, "Jesus said He has forgotten them."
It is well said that if you want God to be
pleased with you, then you must please God. Confession would be a good
start.
The monk says that this Christmas, instead of
dreaming of and unhappy. Become a Christian that Gandhi would
admire.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
2 Advent
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Turning Our Eyes to the Source of our Comfort
The
people of the first reading had hit the wall.They had bottomed
out.In their worst nightmare, they never thought their lives
could get so bad.They really did it to themselves. Although the
were the Chosen People, and although they celebrated their deliverance
from Egypt every Passover, they still pushed God aside, even out of
their lives.They had become wealthy.They thought they had
less need for God then ever before.It was almost as though they
forgot about Him.Certainly, they were too proud to recognize
their own weakness.The nations around them saw them as an
important military ally.Full of themselves, they made treaties
with the pagans.They worshiped the pagan gods of these
nations.They diluted Yahweh’s faith and profaned the Holy Land.
Then, they bottomed out.First the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was
defeated and taken into captivity by the Assyrians.Then the
Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom, Judah.The people
were led off into slavery, literally bound together with hooks in their
noses.The Temple and the Holy City were destroyed.They
wanted to be like the pagans, and now they were forced to live in a
pagan land and serve pagans.
But
in their poverty they became rich.They refused to become
pagan.Having their identity stolen from them madethe
people more devout followers of Yahweh, even though they
were in Babylon, far from the land He had given them.They had no
power except their faith in the All Powerful One.And they
realized that they had more power than the could ever need.God
witnessed their conversion.He heard their prayers.And He
sent His prophet to preach consolation for Israel.
“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God.Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to them that their service is at an
end, their guilt has is expiated.Indeed they have received
double for their sins.But , now a voice cries out in the desert,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’”
Over
and over in the history of God’s people as well as in our personal
histories,the events that led to Babylon are repeated. But when
we put our complete faith in God, we also receive deliverance from our
enemies.We think that we have it all.Then we allow
evilinto our lives.We allow something to destroy
us.Actually, we destroy ourselves by relying on our own
abilities instead of the Power of God. But then we bottom out.We
find ourselves completely alone.Through the Grace of God,
through the prayers of others, we come to the Wisdom that we are only
alone if we forget about Him who said He’d always be with us. We are
people of faith.We realize that no matter how bad a life might
have become, no matter how deep we or someone else may have sunk, there
is no depth that God will not descend to in order to pick us up and
grasp us to Himself. In fact, some of the greatest Christians, some of
the greatest saints, have been people who have hit the bottom and then
experienced the mercy and compassion of the Lord.The rest of
their lives are spent proclaiming His Mercy to the world.
There is no such thing as a bottom To our Loving God.There is
nothing that we might have done which excludes us from His compassion
and consolation.“Give comfort, comfort to my people,” the
prophet is instructed.What is it that we have done that has been
so terrible.Have we destroyed others?Have we taken a
life?Have we destroyed our own lives?Are we tempted to
think that our sins are too great or too habitual for God to have
compassion on us?Do we feel this way?Do we know others
who feel this way?“Give comfort to my people,” the Lord
says.There is nothing that the Lord does not want to forgive.
So
often we underestimate God. We think that maybe God can help us a bit,
but to get Him to solve our dilemma, well that’s asking too much. And
to request over and over again to that He forgive the same problem,
well, that seems to be way beyond the limit of His compassion. We
forget that God set no limits to His Love. Perhaps we think that we do
not deserve His mercy and compassion.We are correct there.
We don’t deserve Him, but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t give
Himself totally for us.Look at the cross.How can I look
at the cross, how can you look at the cross andunderestimate
what our God will do out of Love?
“Prepare the way of the Lord,” both the prophet of the first reading
and John the Baptist in the Gospel proclaim.Prepare the way of
the Lord.Help others to realize that they are loved by their
God.People need to hear from us: Yes, sometimes we bottom
out.We are human.Sometimes we may crash. But we are not
too depraved for God to cry tears over us just like He cried over
Jerusalem. There is no limit to God’s love.
In
the last century a devout Christian, Helen Lemmel, wrote a very simple
little hymn.It’s called Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Turn your
eyes upon Jesus. Look full into his wonderful face. And the things of
the earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His Glory and Grace.
In
this season of gift giving, we can give a wonderful gift to ourselves
and to others.This gift is the reassurance that Jesus loves us
and loves them.“Comfort, give comfort to my people.” Turn to
Jesus.Trust in our Merciful Lord.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
2 Advent
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Sins
of Impatience
(December 7, 2008)
Bottom line: We need to learn God's time - to avoid those sins of
impatience that cause so much harm. If we wait patiently, he will give
us every good thing.
The theme this Sunday is about God's time and our time. To illustrate
this, I will begin with a humorous story:
A man once had a conversation with God. He asked, "Lord, I have always
wondered about time. What is a thousand years like for you?" God
answered, "For me a thousand years is like a second."
The man then asked, "What about money? What is a million dollars like
for you?" And God answered, "For me a million dollars is like a penny."
The man became eager and said, "Lord, could you give me one of those
pennies?" God answered, "No problem, but you will have to wait one
second."
Today St. Peter reminds us that God's time is different from ours.
"With the Lord," says St. Peter, "one day is like a thousand years and
a thousand years like one day." Then Peter exhorts us, he urges us to
be patient because God is patient with with us. "The day of the Lord
will come," he assures us.
Patience is such an important virtue. It means waiting, sacrificing
some immediate satisfaction for the sake of a greater good. Impatience,
on the other hand, is the unwillingness to wait, wanting it all right
now.
So many of our problems come from impatience. Consider our current
financial meltdown. Bankers, eager to make a quick profit, told young
people that they could have it all, now: a new house, a new car,
everything. No need to wait. Well, our impatience to have it all has
sadly caught up with us.
This Advent I invite you to examine your conscience in terms of
patience. We hear today that, when John baptized people, "they
acknowledged their sins." When you think about it, almost every sin
involves a lack of patience. For example when I lost my temper, maybe
flew into road rage - that showed a glaring lack of patience. Stealing
and cheating are also sins of impatience: Rather than working hard, a
person simply wants to grab things. And even sins like fornication,
adultery, pornography, cohabitation and contraception are sins of
impatience. Rather than respecting God's plan for marriage and human
sexuality, a person wants it all and he wants it now. As a society -
for about fifty years - we have been experimenting with cohabitation
(living together) and contraception (birth control). Contrary to all
the promises, cohabitation and contraception have not brought us
strong, happy marriages. Just the opposite.
We need to return to the basics - and there is no virtue more basic
than patience. It means discipline, hard work, sacrifice, waiting for
the right moment. Patience is difficult. But it does bring great
rewards. I mentioned cohabitation and contraception as examples of
impatience - and the negative impact those practices have on marriage.
On the other hand, couples who wait until marriage and who use natural
family planning have a significantly lower divorce rate. It is not
foolproof, but it does indicate that patience brings blessings even in
this present life. Once again, patience is not easy - and I need to
learn it just as much as you do.
Advent is a time for precisely that - to learn patience. It is a season
of "waiting in joyful hope." Today we lit the second candle of the
Advent Wreath. The Advent Wreath (in its modern form) was invented to
teach patience. A man named Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808-1881) had
founded a home for poor children in Hamburg. The children kept asking
him how many days were left until Christmas. As a response, he
developed the Advent Wreath with its candles to give the children some
idea.
We use the Advent Wreath for a similar purpose - to learn patience: To
wait, not nervously, but patiently. For sure, things sometimes seem
dark, but the Advent Wreath says that the light of Christ has come -
and that it will grow. We need to learn God's time - to avoid those
sins of impatience that cause so much harm. If we wait patiently, he
will give us every good thing. Teach us, Lord, to wait patiently until
the proper moment. Teach us, Lord, to wait in joyful hope.
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General Intercessions for the Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle B (from
Priests for Life)
Spanish Version
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
2 Advent
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
2 Advent
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Dec,
07, 2008
Mark 1: 1-8
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
Second Sunday of Advent
Gospel Summary
At the very outset, Mark declares his gospel to be the "good news." He
dares to say this in a world that is broken and weary because this
gospel announces the consistent divine initiative to bring about a new
creation where peace and harmony will prevail over pride and violence.
This new beginning occurs at the coming of Jesus and easily transcends
the original creation in scope and significance. If in fact God's dream
for a world of peace and justice has not been fulfilled, it is due
entirely to the obstacles, which we have placed in its path.
And so, when Mark tells us that the career of John the Baptist was
described already in the words of Isaiah, he is also telling us that
opening the road for the coming of the Lord is still a major problem.
We are still preventing the coming of the Lord by refusing to open
ourselves to the radical implications of the message of Jesus.
It is for this reason that the baptism of John is called a baptism of
repentance. It represents an expression of regret for having refused to
accept fully the implications of the coming of the Lord. On the other
hand, it has a positive aspect also which is a declaration of personal
readiness to make room in our lives for the Lord, however costly that
may be.
In this way, we can be prepared for the new baptism of Jesus, which is
not only in water but also in the Spirit. This implies a full and
conscious acceptance of the teaching of Jesus, which would result in
putting aside self-centeredness and beginning to be more loving and
caring toward others. If that really happens, we will soon see what the
new creation can be. For, as Chesterton once said: "Christianity had
not failed; it just hasn't been tried!"
Life Implications
One of the major ways in which we prevent the coming of the Lord is our
fear that, if we don't focus our attention primarily on our own
interests, we will lose control of our lives and be pulled apart by the
needs of others. We are afraid that, like Humpty Dumpty, we will
disintegrate if we don't spend most of our time keeping ourselves
intact. But Jesus says that we must become like that grain of wheat
which allows itself to be consumed and thus becomes much more than it
had previously had been (John 12:24). In the resurrection, God shows
how all the pieces can be put back together and how a single, generous
seed can become a wonderful harvest.
To be baptized in Jesus means to choose to commit oneself to live as
unselfishly as one's freedom permits…which usually means a little more
than we think is possible. This doesn't mean that we should become
doormats but it does mean that the needs of others must not be the last
and least concern in our lives. In other words, it means to put our
lives and our futures into the hands of a gracious God as we strive to
make the love and gentleness of Jesus present in our world.
All of this may sound like a life of endless self-denial and very
little fun or happiness. However, such a conclusion can be reached only
by those who have not really tried to live by the wisdom of Jesus. The
fact is that those who really care about others are the happiest people
on earth. In this Sunday's gospel, John the Baptist urges us to remove
the roadblocks of fear and self-centeredness in our lives and thus
assure a truly joyous Advent celebration.
Demetrius R. Dumm, O.S.B.
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
2 Advent
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Second
Sunday
Isaiah 40, 1-5.9-11; Psalm 85;
2 Peter 3, 8-14; Mark 1: 1-8
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
"O come, o come, Emmanuel."
"But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so
that we might receive adoption as sons." (Gal 4:4-5) This is "the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God": (Mark 1:11) God has visited
his people. He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his
descendants. He acted far beyond all expectation - he has sent his own
"beloved Son." (Mark 1:11) (CCC 422)
The Catechism beautifully expresses what we anticipate and celebrate in
this Advent season. We take special efforts in liturgy and life to
prepare ourselves anew to receive our Lord in the commemoration of his
birth in a fitting spiritual way as we answer the call of John the
Baptist to "Make ready the way of the Lord, clear him a straight path."
We also mark the historical birth of Christ in a continuing witness of
the historicity of our faith. What we recite in the Creed did indeed
really and truly take place.
We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter
of Israel at Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the
emperor Caesar Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died during the
reign of the emperor Tiberius, is the eternal Son of God made man. He
"came from God," (Jn 13:3) "descended from heaven," (Jn 13:3;6:33) and
"came in the flesh." (1 Jn 4:2) For "the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as
of the only Son from the Father...And from his fullness have we all
received, grace upon grace." (Jn 1:14, 16)(CCC 423)
Many movies and television shows treat the subject of faith and the
supernatural. Some books purport to be "autobiographies" of God, some
seek to remake Jesus Christ as a sinful human being, denying His
divinity. Some of the most popular entertainment denigrates the
authentic Christian faith and attacks the Church. It is often the case
that when a religious figure or authority encourages Christians to
avoid buying or reading certain books or viewing certain films that are
inimical to the faith, there is a public outcry against "book banning",
and fear-mongers dredge up images of a rebirth of the inquisitions or
book burnings.
For those who understand that salvation comes through faith, and that
the faith must be loved, cherished and protected, it just makes good
sound sense to avoid books, films and any influences that would deny or
undermine what we know to be the truth. What good could come of reading
a book which denies the Son of God existed, that he knew who he was,
that he rose from the dead? What of a movie that denies the need for
faith, that attacks Christ's Body, the Church, or commits sacrilege
against the Sacrifice of the Mass? St. Paul teaches in one of his
letters, "say only the good things men need to hear." Our Lord reserved
his most severe condemnation for those who scandalize the faith of the
weak. It is for these reasons that we seek out those things which feed
and nourish our faith, and reject or avoid those things which are
destructive or corrosive of our faith.
The first and ordinary means of growing in the Faith is our encounter
with Christ in Word and sacrament. In the liturgy, the source and
summit of our Christian life, we have the highest source of the
upbuilding of the kingdom within us and within the communio of our
Catholic Church.
Active participation in the Mass helps us to avoid experiencing it as
an empty ritual. Begin or renew the practice of the prescribed postures
for the Mass, for these are practical means of entering more deeply
into the Paschal mystery fully present in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
These include, (1), a bow of the head at the holy names of Jesus, the
three persons of the Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saint of
the day in whose honor the liturgy is offered; (2), a profound bow at
the words: "by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin
Mary and became man" in the Creed; (3) the striking of the breast at
the words "that I have sinned through my own fault" in the Confiteor;
and (4), the "strongly recommended" sign of reverence, such as the
genuflection while in procession to receive Communion or kneeling to
receive the Body of Christ.
By our actions as well as our words we show our sincerity as we pray "O
come, O rod of Jesse's stem; O come, O come Emmanuel." Let us grow more
profoundly in our desire for the coming of the Lord in the liturgy that
we may be found acceptable on the great day of His coming in glory.
I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we
"meet Christ in the liturgy," Father Cusick (Copy with Permission)
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
2 Advent
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Sermon
by Father Alex McAllister SDS Index
Second Sunday of Advent
On this Second Sunday of Advent we hear the account of the ministry of
John the Baptist as given by the Evangelist Mark. We should pay
attention since in the coming liturgical year we are going to work our
way gradually through Mark’s Gospel.
He is much briefer than the others and misses out a lot of material
that we find in other Gospels, for example there is no account of the
infancy of Jesus. Mark’s Gospel is about what Jesus does and where he
goes.
An important word is “immediately”. Jesus does something and then
“immediately” does something else or quickly moves on to another place.
By this we get a strong feeling of movement and progress in Jesus’
ministry.
And in Mark there is a stronger emphasis on the conflicts Jesus has
with the authorities. This is immediately evident here in the account
we are given today of John the Baptist. He is everything the Priests,
Scribes and Pharisees are not.
They are in the Temple, he is in the wilderness. They live luxurious
lives, he lives a primitive life. They are unpopular, he is immensely
popular. They are proud, he is humble. He proclaims the immanent coming
of the Messiah, they do everything they can to obscure his coming. And
the more you look the more you will see further contrasts between them.
It is important that John proclaims the Advent of the Messiah in the
wilderness. The desert for him is a symbol of the religious situation
of Israel.
They were formerly a people with great faith and trust in God who had
led them into the Promised Land. But now the religious authorities were
content with a comfortable, outwardly-conforming sort of religion and
see no room or reason for change.
John attracts the common people into the wilderness to hear his message
of repentance so that they are purified and spiritually ready for the
coming of the Messiah. They perceive him to be a genuine prophet and
are convinced by his message.
That he proclaims his message in the hardship of the wilderness gives
his message an added air of authenticity.
Advent itself is designed by the Church to be a sort of liturgical
wilderness to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.
During Advent everything in the liturgy is more sombre and stripped of
adornment. It is designed to be a time of reflection and repentance. We
are ask to pay renewed attention to prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Our difficulty today is that Advent is completely overlooked by society
at large. Even in these financially straightened times Advent is swept
aside in favour of a frenzied consumerist preparation for Christmas.
We should do what we can to create some space in our lives and in our
homes so that we can keep Advent in a proper way. But I fully
appreciate that this is a lot easier said than done.
John the Baptist never attempted to draw people to himself; his first
and foremost concern was to point people in the direction of God and to
warn them to prepare themselves for the immanent coming of the Messiah.
This is our task too; not to proclaim how wonderful and worthy we are
but to point people to Christ and to tell them about his goodness and
how true salvation is to be found in him.
Like John we are road-menders; it is our task to open up paths along
which Christ can travel.
We cannot bestow God’s grace upon a person. We cannot bring about a
conversion. We are unable to enkindle the gift of faith in another, let
alone in our own lives. Only God can do these things.
Neither does he need our help, just as Jesus never needed John’s help.
But God invites us to carry out this task, just as Jesus went along
with John and submitted himself to Baptism at John’s hands.
Jesus invites us to cooperate with him in his task of saving the world.
He asks us to help him open up paths in other people’s lives down which
he can travel. We cannot bring anyone to faith, that’s something
between the Lord and the individual. What we can do is prepare the
ground.
A good example of this is in families. Parents try very hard to bring
their children up as believers. But they know that belief is ultimately
the free choice of the child. The most they can do is by word and
example to show how much they value their own faith.
We can guide our children in the ways of faith. We can pray with them
and discuss together all kinds of religious issues but ultimately the
choice of whether to turn to the Lord or not is theirs and theirs alone.
Sometimes might mean that we feel just like John the Baptist “a voice
crying in the wilderness” but we should persevere. Without becoming
hectoring or forceful, we should persist in this God-given task of
removing the obstacles that often grow up between our children and God.
The road to faith is full of rocks and deep potholes. If we can help
those around us by levelling the path we will be doing the work of God.
Sometimes this might simply mean giving good example. On other
occasions it might be clarifying the teaching of Christ to those who
misunderstand it. Or it might mean helping someone to interpret
particular events in their lives so that they can more clearly see the
hand of God at work.
There are many such ways to be a John the Baptist in our world today,
many ways to pave the way for the coming of Christ into the lives of
those around us.
Advent is a time of waiting and readiness. But there is nothing passive
about it. Although it lasts only a month in the Liturgical Calendar it
actually lasts a whole lifetime.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
2 Advent |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
the author.
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