Daily Thoughts: The point of
Advent and of Christmas in many ways comes down to being reminded that “God is
with us!” Sure we might say that is the
point of every day, but during Advent and Christmas – Emmanuel – become a
special focus, a special refrain. The great Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart
gave a Christmas homily in which he said that Christ is born three times.
Christ was first born over 2, 000 years ago. Second, Christ will be born at
some point in the future when he comes again and thirdly Christ is born every day
in our hearts.
Yes, each day we have the opportunity to
give birth to Christ. We have opportunity to bring to the world like Mary and
Joseph, Emmanuel, God with us! We do it by following in Mary and Joseph’s
footsteps, by say yes to God’s invitation to be part of this journey of faith
called life. We do it by living our lives to the fullest, by sharing the image
and likeness of God in which we have been created with the world. We do it by
trusting in God’s love and by living in hope.
My friends today is a new day so let us
give birth to Emmanuel today through the hopeful living of our lives. Have a
great day everyone!
Daily Prayer: Loving Jesus,
you often held up a child and told us that children are worthy of blessing in
your Kingdom and an example to us of how to grow in wonder and awe of people,
places and things. Help us to return to the heart of a child so that we might
proclaim your Kingdom with minds and hearts full of wonder and awe! Amen.
(Adapted from a prayer by Fr. Michael Greene, C.P.)
Runner’s Thoughts: “If you always
put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it'll spread over
into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality,
into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must
not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
(Bruce Lee) For Mary and Joseph there were no limits. Like running there
are no limits in our faith. We must always remember nothing is impossible with
God. Perhaps in life, in our journey of faith and in running we need to always
remember this.
Daily Blessing: Happy Wednesday,
Hump Day everyone! We might say that today is “Hump Day” for December in a week
we will be celebrating Christmas So today we begin the downhill roll to Christmas
and the New Year!
The snow seems to be over here in
Pelham. The sun is out and they say the temperatures will slowly warn into the
50’s over the next few days that will probably mean that the snow will be gone
by Christmas – I want to speak to the person in charge here!
I hope you day has begun well and that
it will be a good day throughout. My mission at Nativity of Our Blessed Lady
continues to go well. Despite the ugly weather yesterday we had a nice and
spirited group last night as we celebrate our second evening. The mission
closes tonight with mass so please keep the faith community of Nativity of Our
Blessed Lady in your prayers and also the preacher. If you are in the area of
East 233rd Street in the Bronx come and celebrate with us tonight!
In the spirit of our readings today I
pray that God will bless us with a spirit of wisdom today so that we can
understand the “dream” that God us for us and that we be blessed with the grace
to live out that dream! May God gift us with compassion and generosity today so
that we might bring Emmanuel, God with us, wherever we go and to whomever we
meet. May we always be a family, a Church, a faith community bound together by
a dream of justice, forgiveness, reconciliation and love. Blessing to all today
and always – especially to my niece and goddaughter Alice who celebrates the
gift of life today! Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul
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