Dear Friends,
“ILLUMINATE HIS LIGHT!”
We have quickly arrived to the Fourth Sunday of Advent. “God is with us”.
Yes, our Emmanuel is with us!!! There is so much to be grateful for this weekend and every day of our lives. Matthew’s Gospel tells us, “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”
How many times have you had an “annunciation” from the Lord asking you to do something? Depending on your age, you must have had several visitations from Him asking you to participate in the plan of eternal salvation. Maybe, if you are like myself, we have missed some annunciations. Maybe, if you are like me, we have recognized those visitations but put them off. Maybe, if you are like me, this Advent , we aret thinking more attentively and perhaps more seriously about tthese “annunciations” the Lord is putting before us.
Christmas Day is coming again. We like our Christmas, do we not? Family, friends, blessed tables of bounty, gifts exchanged and graces surrounding us that brings a warming to our hearts and souls. In the midst of all this and whatever you may be embracing, what moments of “annunciation” will you be willing to attend to from these Advent Days we have had for some three plus weeks now? What has the God we believe in asked you to be attentive to?
I think of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah and all that was happening around their lives before the births of their sons. God asked each of them to be part of a plan that would bring salvation to all peoples. I believe that invitation did not end with the birth of John and Jesus. That invitation, may I suggest, continues today in our very lives. We are called upon in our own “visitations” to be part of the fulfillment of eternal salvation.
What have you seen and heard? Are you afraid of anything that God has asked you to be or do? Do you have words to express an answer to that in heart, soul and maybe even speech?
Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, John and Jesus had words to respond to what God had placed before them. We have prayed words as of Mary, a Fiat that she said, YES to God’s will and invitation. We know Jesus’s own words on the worst of human suffering, “Your will be done.” So, here we are in a few more Advent Days where there are “visitations” before us. Are we present to these “angels” and gifts of the Holy Spirit? Can we face what God is asking of us and be vigilant in not only wanting a comfortable Christmas Day but to be comfortable in being disciples, sisters and brothers of the Messiah in proclaiming and living a life that proclaims we know what it is to follow this “Prince of Peace, Wonder Counselor, God Hero, Father Forever?”
Our theme is and will continue to be this Advent/Christmas Season, “ILLUMINATE HIS LIGHT.”
I would love to hear how you might illuminate His light. I pray, I may be humble enough to share how I am doing the same these wonderful days.
I want to close by sharing a hearfelt gratitude to Sally Whitbeck, Phyllis Hagen and Margie Benza who have had a wonderful gathering of stewards from both, Saint Catherine of Siena and the Church of the Transfiguration, who have truly blessed hundreds of lives with Christmas Illumination of His Light. These wonderful women and all of you who responded to help others have blessed Christmas with a true response to an invitation and annunciation to bring God to others. I cannot thank each of you enough. There is that familiar saying we have heard, “God is good. All the time.” It is true and visible in the generous lives of Sally, Phyllis, Margie and all who were present to this generous season of giving!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! God bless you!
With faith, hope and an eye hopefully open to my next“ annunciation”,
Father Rob