Day 25 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  A Savior is Born.

Scripture:  "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord"  (Luke 2:11).  

Reflection:  Thank you.  This is the message of today's reflection.  Thank you God Almighty Father for sending your Son into the world to save us.  I pray that today will be a day of heartfelt gratitude for God's presence in our lives.  God is always with us.  He always Loves us.  He is always ready to heal us and make us new.  Today is a time to rejoice, to be grateful, to make a decision to allow Christ to grow within us, and through us to others. 

Questions:  In what ways can I wish Jesus a Happy Birthday today?  In what ways can I show my gratitude to God for His presence in my life?  Am I willing to allow Christ to change my heart?

Prayer:  Dear Jesus, Happy Birthday! Thank you for coming into my life.  Lord, you now open the doors to Heaven for us.  Open my heart, and grant me the grace to follow you.  Help me to accept your unconditional love.  Help me to believe in a Love so great, without conditions.  Help me to let go of my pride, and surrender everything to you.  Give me the gift of faith, hope and trust in you.  Fill me with your Love and allow your Love to spill over into everyone in my life.  Thank you for taking on my humanity and saving me from eternal death.  Help me to accept the Divine life you offer me.  Through you, I can obtain Heaven.  Help me to be your follower and grant me the Joy of Christmas.  Grant that I may know your Love in a New Way, Today!  Amen.  

Merry Christmas!  May God Bless you and everyone near and dear to you with the Peace of His Birth, this Christmas and always!

Day 24 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  SILENT NIGHT.

Scripture:  "Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart"  (Luke 2:19).

Reflection:  Christmas Eve is a nice time to follow Mary's example and to quietly reflect on our relationship with God. No matter how the past few weeks of Christmas preparation have gone we have a new opportunity right now to pray and reflect.  If the true meaning of Christmas has gotten away from us this year, we can take a few minutes now to open our hearts to Christ.  Every moment is a moment to start over.  We can ponder in our own hearts what God's presence in our lives means for us.  Take this time to create your own silent night, your own silent few minutes, to have your own time in prayer with God, one on one, friend to friend.  The One who loves you, is always reaching out His arms to you.  Pick up the infant Jesus in your heart tonight, hold Him close, tell Him what's on your mind, and be at Peace.  

Questions:  What do I treasure?  What means most to me this Christmas?  Can I stop whatever I'm doing and put aside a little time for prayer?  Can I give my heart to The Christ Child this Christmas?  Am I willing to let go of all of my anger towards God for the past, and give Him a new place in my heart?  Give Him all of my heart??  

Prayer:  Dear Lord, thank you for this time together.  Thank you for this night.  Thank you for all of your blessings seen and unseen in my life and in the lives of my loved ones.  I know you are holding them tight tonight, watching over them.  I know you are taking care of me and that you hear every prayer.  Lord, touch my heart.  Help me to enter into the silence of this Holy night, and fill my soul with Peace ... Your Peace.  A Peace no one else can give me but you.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Join us again tomorrow for our final reflection in these 25 Days of Christmas Scripture Reflections.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 23 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  Glory To God. 

Scripture:  "Suddenly a great company of the Heavenly Host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests'” (Luke 2:13-14).  

Reflection: God's favor rests on you.  God wants to pour out His peace upon you. God invites us to enter into a new relationship with Him, one so closely united to His Divine nature by means of His uniting Himself to our human nature.  God becomes man in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  God takes on human flesh, and becomes one of us.  This is an extraordinary thing, and the angels in Heaven sing praises to God for His great love for us.  The message this Christmas season is this:  God wants to be close to us, to be close with us.  He is here, now, offering His hand to us. See the child Jesus reaching up His arms to you now, asking you to please accept Him, and all the Love that He is. God is Love. 
And Love, loves us.  

Questions:  Do I ask God for peace in my life, in my heart, in my family?  Do I ask God to show me ways I can be a person of peace and bring peace into the situations going on in my life right now?  Am I open to forgiving, to healing, to restoration of broken relationships? To what degree do I want peace, only for myself in prayer - or can I bring peace to others by my actions as well? 

Prayer:  Lord, you took on my human nature out of Love for me. With a desire to restore my brokenness, you have come to set me free.  Please deliver me from all the fears I have of following you.  Help me to realize that you are the answer to my life. You are the answer to every stirring of my soul.  Help me to pray to you in a more intimate way, sharing my heart with yours.  Thank you Lord, for coming to earth, and remaining with us always.  Help me to be a peaceful presence in the lives of my family and friends.  Restore me and renew me once again. I rejoice with the angels in glorifying your name and I ask for this
unshakeable Peace you promise to your followers.  Amen.  

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 22 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  Humility  

Scripture: "You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger" (Luke 2:12).

Reflection:  Jesus comes to us in the plain, ordinary circumstances of life.  The King of Heaven and Earth comes into the world as a helpless newborn.  He goes on to live a quiet life prior to His three years of preaching followed by His death and resurrection.  God became a man. What humility.  We also are called to practice humility and to continue to find Jesus in the ordinary circumstances of our lives.  This is where He still lives in the world today. 

Questions: Where do I look for Christ in my life? Do I look outside of myself or within me?  Do I look for Him in the big things or in the small ordinary moments?  Can I ask God to reveal Himself to my heart in a new way from now on?

Prayer:  Dear Lord, my heart is searching for you.  My limited intellect cannot comprehend your Glory or your plan, but my heart knows that you are present with the human race. You have not abandoned us.  You are Emmanuel -  God with us.  I ask for the gift of humility, in accepting my part in the plan of salvation.   I ask for the grace to find you in "the little things" of life.  Please grant me the grace to let go of my pride, to open my eyes wider, and to rely on you more.  Grant me the humility to surrender every area of my life to you, my God and my all. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 21 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  NO ROOM IN THE INN  

Scripture:  "And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn"  (Luke 2:7).  

Reflection:  Jesus wants to make His dwelling within us.  God is searching for our hearts, but too often He finds the door closed.  Or maybe we open the door when we feel we need Him, and leave Him outside the rest of the time.  The heart of our Christian spiritual life is accepting Jesus as our all, as the center of our lives.  Therefore, giving Him only a portion of our hearts doesn't give Him the room He needs to work in us.   

Questions: Where is Jesus in my life?  Is He shut out of my heart?  Is He only on the surface of my heart?  Is He in my heart for a time or is He in my heart always?  Are we willing to let Him in?  

Prayer:  Dear Lord, I like to think that the door of my heart is always open to you, but if I take a close look I can see plenty of occasions where I try to squeeze you out of my life for a time.  Please grant me the grace to welcome you always.  Help me to surrender my heart to your Heart, that the door may always be open for you to enter.  Please live within me. Please come into my life in a new way, today.

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 20 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  WHY WAS JESUS BORN ..

Scripture:  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free"  (Luke 4:18).  

Reflection:   We are in the heart of the Christmas season now, and while we await the birth of our Savior, it's a good time to reflect on why Jesus came to earth.  We find the answer in the above scripture from the gospel of Luke.  Jesus came to set us free.  From what?  From Satan, sin and death. 

From the beginning of time sin has been our downfall.  Sin leads us away from God, but God is so good and merciful that He sends His own Son to redeem us from our sinful nature and infuses into us a Divine Nature through His Holy Spirit at Baptism.  Jesus came to bring hope and healing and freedom from fear.  He came to set us free from the enemy, to forgive our sins, to heal our hearts, and show us the Love of The Father.  He came to restore what was broken by sin.  He took upon Himself all the sins of the world on the Cross and bore the punishment for our sins. Through acceptance of Jesus Christ, we can now live with Him forever in Heaven.  Because of His sacrifice, because of who He is, we are washed clean of our sins.  The Blood of Christ has made everything new again.

Questions:  When I think of Christmas, do I see the whole picture, Jesus birth, death, and resurrection?  Do I thank God for the gift of His coming?  Do I accept that I am a sinner in need of a Savior?  

Prayer:   Dear Jesus, The Spirit of The Lord is upon you.  You are The One predicted to set humanity free from death and bring us into everlasting life.  Please open the doors of life to me.  Please break open the bars of my heart and open up the floodgate of your grace into my soul.  Pour out your Spirit upon my life, just as it is, just the way I am.  Whatever my current circumstance I can be set free in my heart.  You alone, have the power to make me new and bring me to Heaven.  I ask Lord, for the special graces I need at this time of my life.  I ask you to set me free from everything that blocks my personal and spiritual growth. Help me to let go, and open up my whole being to your Healing Love.  Amen.

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 18 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  Everlasting Father.

Scripture: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"  (Isaiah 9:6).

Reflection:  "To us a Son is given."  The Mystery of The Trinity is revealed to us.  One inseparable God in three Divine Persons.  Within the person of Jesus Christ we experience God The Father, the One who sent Him.  Jesus is sent into the world to save the world from sin and eternal death, and so we see within Him an eternal Father who wants us back ... who wants to restore us to wholeness.  We see a Good Father, a Loving Father, a Merciful Father, an Everlasting Father. 

When God The Father, our Creator made us we rejected Him and because of that sin entered the world and the human heart.  But here He comes to us again in Jesus, calling us back, and with the authority to now cleanse us from our sin through the Blood of His Son on the Cross.  He then pours out His own Spirit upon us in Baptism, giving us a share in His Divine Life once again.  We see in this that God is a tender and compassionate Father, who continues to call us to Trust Him.  He has no ulterior motive.  He just wants to Love us, and wants us to share in His Divine Love - forever!

Questions:  Do I think of God as a good and tender Father?  What does the word "Father" mean to me?  Is it possible that I compare God to other fathers?  Am I willing to see things differently, from God's perspective?  What areas of my heart needs a Father's Love?

Prayer:   Dear Heavenly Father, you are truly my Father, my Creator, my God.  I love you and I want to know you better, in a real and meaningful way.  Through your Son, Jesus Christ, whom you sent into the world for my sake, I can have an actual relationship with you.  In my heart and in my spirit, in all that I do, be with me.  Pour out your Love upon me, and heal all areas of my heart that need a gentle Father's touch.  Help me to open my heart to you God The Father, in a new way. In Jesus' name.

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.

Day 17 of our 25 days of Scripture Reflections for this Christmas Season:  Mighty God. 

Scripture: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace"  (Isaiah 9:6).

We continue to reflect on this scripture from Isaiah Chapter 9 when the Messiah to come will be called "Mighty God."

Reflection:   Jesus comes to us as a small, helpless infant in a humble stable, but make no mistake, He is the King of Heaven and Earth and He is all powerful.  What makes Christ powerful is His Love.  It's a Love the world has never seen.  It's total Love.  It's complete Love.  It lacks nothing.  It is not conditional.  It is all embracing.  It’s a Love that heals, that restores, that delivers.  A Love that sacrifices for love of others.  God’s Love is a Love that sets us free.  And this is why Jesus came.  To bring the power of His Love to life.  Jesus reveals a Mighty God, who reigns in goodness, gentleness and humility .. things that the world would never recognize as power.  He comes to wash away our sins, and unite us to Himself, in order that we might share in His Divine Love, forever.  He is not weak, He is not powerless.  He is God.  The Christ Child is Love incarnate, and there is nothing more powerful than that.  As Christmas gets closer, may our hearts open wider to the unconditional Love of God.

Questions:  What do I think of when I think of God's Power?  Do I think of strength or battles or judgment?  Do I consider God's Love to be the most powerful presence on earth?  What area of my life needs the power of God right now?

Prayer:  Dear Lord, you are a wonderful and Mighty God, and I desire to know the power of your Love in my life.  Please take my life, just the way it is, and open my heart to receive your unconditional Love even in this very  moment.  The world teaches me that I have to earn love, that I'm not good unless I do something good, that others are better than me.  But you reveal a different kind of Love.  You reveal The Truth.  You show us a Love that is everything for everyone.  Your Love can work wonders, and I ask you to work wonders in my life and in the lives of my family and friends.  In Jesus' Mighty name. Amen.

Join us again tomorrow for another spiritual reflection.  May God Bless you, and everyone near and dear to you.