Grateful For Jesus

 Merry Christmas to All!

    It is my hope that all of you were able to attend Mass (whether in person or virtually) for this celebratory solemnity!  I also hope that this completed Advent Season has prepared your hearts for Love Incarnate!  You are all in my thoughts and prayers, as always.

    I'm not big on presents, but I thought I might share with you one, that I received.  It is a formatted, gratitude journal!  In spite of the restrictions and lockdowns because of Covid, etc. there is so much to be grateful for.  I'm sure you can name people and things that help keep you going.  But, more importantly, I invite you to reflect on your level of gratitude for Christ's birth.  It happened so many years ago, and yet it is still worth praising God for!  

    This Christmas Season, I invite you to look past the holiday food and presents, and visit Jesus in your nativity scene.  He has neither of these things (well, until the Wise Men came on Epiphany).  Look past the holiday decorations, and see Jesus for Jesus.  

    The Son of God, our Redeemer, comes into the world, to be a tangible Truth, because of His great love for us.  Merry Christmas!

Fourth Week of Advent

 

                Happy Fourth Week of Advent!  I decided to post via letter, to make sure I also reach out to those who are following the blog. 

                As we make the final preparations for Christmas, I would like to reflect on Sunday’s gospel, written by St. Matthew.  Though it had taken place nine months earlier, it brings us back to the Mystery of the Annunciation.  I see this scene as something the Blessed Mother looks back on, just before the day she gives birth to Jesus, our Savior, in Bethlehem.  Then I hear in my head different songs artists have written, like “Mary Did You Know?” and “Breath of Heaven.”  It brings me to this interior conversation with her, and asking “What was going through your mind?”  I must also add the question, of “What was going through St. Joseph’s mind?”  It must have taken a lot of faith and trust, believing that this child his wife was to give birth to, was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

                In reflecting on these questions, we can ask ourselves how we can respond with Mary’s same fiat, and St. Joseph’s humble submission to the will of God, in Christ’s birth. 

                Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!