Today's message is very unlike the messages we hear everyday all around us...
BUY This! Buy That! Christmas is all about buying presents for each other....I have spent many years going into debt in December - taking the rest of the year to pay it off.....
What heavenly good has that done? What difference has anything I bought for anyone made in their lives? Can anyone really remember what they received from me for Christmas?
So what message is really important at Christmas?
The message that God gives us today! Prepare our hearts and our souls for the Lord. How do we do that? Repent...turn from sin....turn toward God....Love God and Love one another.
Hopefully, my family and friends can tell you how much I love them - not by what I have bought them, but by how I treat them. How I love, how I forgive, how I serve them. If I make mistakes or hurt them, I say I am sorry. I am far from perfect...but I try to keep my eyes on God.
This is the message John the Baptist is proclaiming - Prepare the Way of the Lord!
How are our lives preparing the way of God to those around us?
Is anyone of our family closer to God because of us? Have we proclaimed God's love through our actions?
In the first reading: "Give comfort to my people!"
In the responsorial psalm: Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
In the 2nd Reading:
what sort of persons ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, - because we don't know when He is coming, we should always be this way...
In the Gospel - John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the Lord. He preached repentance - knowing Jesus would come to help us with the Holy Spirit.
No, we cannot do this on our own...only as we stay close to God/Jesus/Holy Spirit in prayer; Humbly asking how we can be more Holy each day - repenting for our sins and then proclaiming God's great love and mercy to those around us - through our actions.
What do our lives proclaim? Especially during this Christmas time? Is is peace, love, forgiveness?
I pray that God will continue to guide me, forgive me when I fall short, and help me to be Holy and ready for Him when He returns. In the meantime - I want my life to proclaim God. It may not be "popular" - but I know it is the way of the Lord.
Have a blessed 2nd week of Advent!
Nancy
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