Christmas is Coming!
The Christmas season is upon us. Christmas items and decorations have been in the stores since Halloween. Everything is happening so quickly right now. We just about finished putting the Thanksgiving dishes and leftovers away, and we are starting to plan our Christmas dinner.
So, if we can, we should stop and take a breath. Let us inhale the Holy Spirit and be infused with the true spirit of Christmas.
As Saint Katharine reminds us, Jesus came as an Infant with tiny feet that would take tiny baby steps. We can begin to make positive changes in our lives by taking the small first steps. How deeply do we feel connected to God? Are our prayers routine or do we think about what we are praying? Do we include those cranky neighbors in our prayers? Maybe their crankiness is due to some secret suffering about which we know nothing. Maybe our prayers will spur their guardian angels to help ease their pain.
Imagine, if you will, being in the manger with Mary, Joseph, and the Infant Jesus. Can you smell the straw? Are there shepherds around you? Can you see the star in the sky? Mary holds her Son, close to her heart. As Saint Katharine told the Sisters in her 1908 Christmas letter, “His Immaculate Mother did not hold Him more truly in her arms that first Christmas midnight than you will have Him, heart to heart,” after receiving Holy Communion. Every time we receive Holy Communion, we hold Mary’s Son, heart to Heart. Saint Katharine prayed that each of us would “be born anew with the new-born Babe at Christmas.”
The First Sunday of Advent heralds the beginning of the new liturgical year. May it be a new year for us filled with peace and a deeper relationship with God.
Stephanie Morris, Ph.D., A.S.B.S.
November 18, 2024
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