fathersullivan.com

Friday, 12/2/16

Early Christians, by adding up the ages of all Old Testament persons from Adam, had arrived at the notion that people have been on this earth for four thousand years

As well, those early Christians had made it a practice of reviewing the world’s religious history through the 365 days of each year. Every year they thought of Jesus being born again on their December 25^th. They thought of him being crucified on their Good Friday, rising on Easter; of the Spirit coming down on their Pentecost Sunday. Up to four weeks before Christmas they relived all the ages leading up to the end of the world.

Then, in the four weeks of  Advent early Christians reviewed the world’s pre-Christian history through four ages. The one candle lit this week turns our thoughts to the earliest religious people.

In 1856 Germans, digging in a valley, or a thal  belonging to a man named Neander, came on the bones men-like people. These Neanderthall people took care of their old who could no longer walk.  They buried their dead with care, burying with them things that could be handy in an after life; and they marked them with a red dye that seemed to send a message to the beyond.