Are you ready for your forty days in the desert?
Continue reading “Where God is Revealed”Tag: Gift
Watching for God
The Gift of a Daughter
I’m so lucky one of my favorite humans is also my daughter. Twenty-eight years ago I was given a gift. Little did I know that as I unwrapped the layers of this precious gift, it would make me a better person.
Continue reading “The Gift of a Daughter”Imperfect Path
If we were perfect and whole, we wouldn’t need God. When we let them, our failures, imperfections, and limitations can open our hearts of stone and move our rigid mind space toward understanding and patience.
When we enter the spiritual search for truth and for ourselves through the so-called negative and deal squarely with what is—in ourselves, in others, or in the world around us—it takes all elitism out of spirituality. We are humble and walk the imperfect path.
There is no more counterintuitive spiritual idea than the possibility that God might actually use and find necessary what we fear, avoid, deny, and deem unworthy. This is the clay the master potter uses to shape our hearts to His kind of love because we can’t love like this on our own.
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
—Martin Luther King Jr.
We are called to love imperfect people imperfectly
“Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” —Matthew 25:40
Loved in the Waiting
God reveals himself to us in little ways and gives us time to respond. He uses everything for our good, even the times of waiting. It’s like waiting during pregnancy when we anticipate a new life to be born. This is the microcosm of our life. What are you currently waiting for: Hope, patience, community, peace? We are assured that we are not alone in the waiting, we are loved.
Continue reading “Loved in the Waiting”Choosing Love
We can change, we can remake ourselves and we can rebuild our lives. How? One choice at a time. Do you know what your role is in God’s plan? Are you firmly aware of your mission and purpose to bring the light of Christ to our world? Our brokenness can keep us blind and searching in the darkness. I’m convinced that sometimes this is the easier path than taking a risk in doing something different. Instead, we get stuck in the comfort of our minds and limited thoughts that narrow our possibilities. This is exactly where the evil one wants us.
Continue reading “Choosing Love”The Gift of Being Loved
Today is the feast of Epiphany which brings to completion what the feast of Christmas began. The redemption has become real, in us and upon us. The Lord has come to visit us, has made us clean, has joined us to himself most deeply. We know we are loved.
Continue reading “The Gift of Being Loved”Eternal Word
Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1–5
On this, the seventh day of the Octave of Christmas, we are given a mystery. The mystery of the “Word.” It’s a language that is veiled and yet revealing at the same time. It presents Jesus to us as the “Word.” He is the Word who takes on flesh and is eternal, from “the beginning with God.” The passage goes on to say that the Word was God and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Lord, Jesus, Eternal Word of the Father, I thank You for coming among us and for making Your eternal dwelling present to us. Thank You for the great mystery of Christmas. Help me to always celebrate this season with great joy and gratitude, and also with a sense of mystery. May I always realize that the mystery of Christmas will never be fully understood. May this mystery draw me closer each and every day so that I may fall more deeply in love with You, my eternal God. Jesus, I trust in You.
The Prophetess Anna
Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas
There was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:36–38
Today, the sixth day of the Octave of Christmas, we honor the prophetess Anna. She, like Simeon whom we honored yesterday, spent her days in the temple worshipping God day and night. She anticipated the coming Messiah and, by a personal and special revelation from God, recognized His presence as He was presented by Mary and Joseph.
Reflect, today, upon Anna the prophetess. Try to imagine the joy in her heart as she spoke of this newborn King. And pray that her joy and prophetic example will inspire you to continually proclaim the Lord to all whom God puts in your path.
Lord, may I always remember the reason for Christmas. May I always keep the joy of Your coming among us at the center of my celebration. You, dear Lord, are the greatest Gift ever given. I thank You for Your life and I pray that You will help me to share the Gift of Yourself with others. Jesus, I trust in You.
From Tragedy to Glory
Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Fourth Day of the Octave of Christmas
When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Matthew 2:16
Today on the fourth day of the Octave of Christmas, we are given a similar witness to the one we received on December 26, the Feast of the Martyrdom of St. Stephen. But today’s feast presents the same evil in a different and even more tragic light. Here, out of envy and hatred, Herod had countless innocent children killed in an attempt to eliminate Jesus, the newborn King.
Reflect, today, upon that which is most painful for you this Christmas season. Whatever it may be, you are invited to unite your hurt and pain today with the sorrow of the families who lost these little ones. Let God do for you what He ultimately did for all of them. Let His Incarnation, death and Resurrection transform your hurt into a crown of martyrdom. In the end, the Lord will be victorious in your life if you let Him.
Lord, I surrender all hurt, pain and confusion to You. I unite myself, this day, with the sorrow of those who lost these little children and I trust that their lives, as they reign now in Heaven with You, are a sign for me of things to come. Your birth into our world was the greatest sign that You are our Savior and that You can turn all things into good. Jesus, I entrust my life to You and know that You will right every wrong. Jesus, I trust in You.
Smitten With Goodness 