The longer I live in the light of God’s holiness, the more I become aware of the subtle, deceptive sins of my heart, the nagging idolatries, and the places where I lack godly character. As I walk with the Lord, I become increasingly aware of the labyrinth pathways of sin that course through every area of my life.
I simply cannot stand before the searching light of the glory of God’s holiness with an open heart and walk away proud.
The longer this light shines on me, the louder my cry for grace grows. The longer I live in the presence of God’s holiness, the more I become aware of the depth and extent of my sin, the more I am dependent on God’s grace, and the more I am amazed by his patience.
How beautiful God designed it this way. Lifting the veil to my neediness. Bringing me to humility and my knees, turning me to right order my desires and give my gifts to my Savior, divine born man in the most humble way on Christmas Day.
One of the side effects of living in a world of busyness, excess and noise is that we lose being attuned to proper discernment. If we have had a good Advent, preparing our hearts for Christmas, hopefully we have slowed down, started awakening to the Spirit and listening to Gods voice in a deeper way. Take a few moments to allow these words from Dr. Gregory Popcak, from Unworried, fill your mind and heart:
Movements of the spirit that enable us to experience more of God’s grace and love and enable us to become more of the person God wants us to be are “consolations.” Consolations represent the loving counsel of the Holy Spirit that draws us into deeper communion with God and helps us make choices that are consistent with becoming the whole, healed, godly, grace-filled person we are meant to be.
By contrast, desolations represent the counsel of an evil spirit attempting to pull us away from God or throwing up roadblocks to us cooperating with God’s grace to become the whole, healed, godly, grace-filled people we are meant to be.
Tuning in to consolation and desolation allows us to recognize where our thoughts are coming from.
We often take our thoughts for granted as coming from ourselves, but this is very often not true. It’s important to recognize when the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us something – and also when an evil spirit is whispering lies in our spiritual ear.
Read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:1-18
Reflect: Thank you for journeying with Smitten with Goodness as we prepared our hearts for Christmas. Now that we have finished, you might be wondering what is next? How do I maintain the spiritual momentum I developed this Advent?
Respond: Help me to pray and establish a dedicated time to dialogue with You, developing a personal relationship and solid foundation for living a spiritual life. Draw me towards your word, reading the bible (protip: start with the Gospels, Psalms or Proverbs) and meditating on what the living word is telling me. Let me apply what I hear to my life.
Read: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:4–8
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Love. Love or Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Jesus makes charity the new commandment and it is superior to all virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.” Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.
By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, “binds everything together in perfect harmony”
Colossians 3:14
Respond: We love because you loved us first Lord. Thank you for your birth, for being fully human and divine, to show us the way to love. Help me love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all love. Help me love my neighbor as myself for your love. Help me forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon for all whom I have injured.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Hope. Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. . . . “The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.” The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. By hope we desire, and with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life, and the graces to merit it.
The past must be abandoned to God’s mercy, the present to our fidelity, the future to divine providence.
St Francis de Sales
Respond: God, relying on your infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
Reflect: Living in the Theological Virtue of Faith. Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that the Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will.
Poor human reason when it trusts in itself substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.
St. John Chrysostom
Respond: God, I firmly believe that you are one God, in three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; I believe that your Divine Son became man and died for our sins and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
Reflect: Living in the Cardinal Virtue of Temperance. Temperance is the practice of self-control. The virtue of temperance gives me self-restraint and orients my body to God’s desires for me. When I love my body and keep it clean and pure, moderate what I eat and drink, continent in the use of touch and pure in all my senses, I possess self-restraint. Infused with faith, hope and love, I bring modesty, self-control and chastity into the world. I live with a pure heart.
As too great care for bodily things is reprehensible, so reasonable care is to be commended to preserve health for the service of God.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Respond: Lord, let me use the gifts I have received and pass on the love that I’ve been given.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Reflect: Living in the Cardinal Virtue of Fortitude. Fortitude is to remain firm in the midst of difficulty and be constant in the pursuit of good. When I cling to God, I live with courage and fortitude. This allows me to possess myself. I can face adversity with patience from an inner vision of mercy. Infused with God’s faith, hope and love, I can bear the good fruit of patience, kindness and goodness.
Fortitude is the disposition of the soul which enables us to despise all inconveniences and the loss of things not in our power.
St. Augustine
Respond: Lord, help me soar high on eagles wings with my strength and trust in you.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39
Reflect: Living in the Cardinal Virtue of Justice. Justice is giving due to God and to our neighbor. When we consistently give each person their due, including ourselves, I bring justice in the world. Justice is how I relate to my neighbor in God. Infused with faith, I bring faithfulness to my neighbor. Infused with hope, I bring gentleness. Infused with love, I bring generosity.
There is no peace without justice, and no justice without forgiveness.
Pope John Paul II
Respond: Lord, seize us with your power and light, help us protect all life, to prepare for a better future, for the coming of your Kingdom of justice, peace, love and beauty.
Preparing our heart in Advent. Read, Reflect, Respond
Read: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first commandment. Matthew 22:37-38
Reflect: Living in the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence. Prudence is the foundation of wisdom where we think wisely and are able to discern good. When we cling to God, whose nature is wisdom, we are led to love, joy and peace. This participation in directing our will and desire toward good, helps us see and cooperate in God’s grace. When we live in this flow, we bring the peace, joy and love in our hearts to those we encounter in our lives.
Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the action that we do. If you want to bring happiness into the world, go home and love your family.
St. Teresa of Calcutta
Respond: Lord, help me be prudent and give thought to every step I take.
Smitten With Goodness 