Are you ready for Christmas?
What is really implied by this question is; have you finished your Christmas shopping, decorated your house, sent out Christmas cards, and baked your cookies? For any number of us the list will vary slightly.
Last Christmas I had an enlightening moment. It was about 10 days to Christmas and I was asked “Are you ready for Christmas?” I replied “NO” I am not. By this time, I had completed my shopping, baked all my cookies, my house was decorated and all my Christmas cards were sent out. Why wasn’t I ready?
Being ready for Christmas is not about all the trimmings and parties. Well, what is Christmas really about, then? I am sure most of you know where I am going with this.
I wasn’t ready for Christmas because I had not taken the time to purchase Advent candles, we were not reflecting on the birth of Christ in our daily routine as a family; I hadn’t yet gone to confession and I hadn’t yet made a donation to a charity or family in need in our community.
So I vowed that next year would be different. Is it? So far, I have not started shopping or baking yet. It’s still early isn’t? I am not fretting, in the end all these things get done somehow anyway. I have already purchased my Advent candles, and I have signed up to receive daily e-mail with Advent prayers and activities for the kids from Advent Adventures at: http://www.holyheroes.com/?Click=670
We have our information for the family we are adopting this Christmas, and we’ve signed up to participate in the Christmas Eve liturgy at our parish.
The start of Advent is a special time of year. This time of year especially it’s important, that we contemplate and reflect on “the word made flesh” and I attempt to ensure that together with my family we will make special time for reflection every day.
Why would God, who is a supreme being, perfect in every way. Looking down on us from Heaven, where there is joy and peace and love, surrounded by His angels and saints be so concerned with us, that He would send His son to become one of us. A God, become human. We all know as much as we may be dignified creatures, there are some very unpleasant human traits that Jesus had to contend with, fatigue, hunger, physical illness and pain- just to mention a few. Why leave heaven to become on of us?
A week ago, I took some time to watch a movie with my husband. While this movie is not one I would recommend for the squeamish viewers, and it is definitely NOT a family movie. The end of movie really struck me. Perhaps some of you may have seen it, “30 Days of Night.” Well, it takes place in a small town in Alaska, where the sun will not shine for 30 days, so of course, some ghastly vampire like zombies come to town to feast on the town’s people. While a few of the characters attempt to hide out and fight back, there is one particular character named Eben, who stands out above the rest. His strong family ties and values are apparent throughout the film. He comes to the conclusion that the only way to defeat this evil and to save his friends and family is to become one of the ghastly creatures. To become one of them also means he must die like one of them. He makes this decision, with no concern as to what it means for himself, all that matters is saving others. This self sacrificing choice is driven out of his love for his family and friends. Sound familiar?
Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
Secondly, this time of year presents a unique opportunity to look at the Mother of Jesus. There are a few feast days coming up commemorating the Mother of our Lord: December 8th – Immaculate Conception; December 12 – Our Lady of Guadalupe; January 1st – Mary Mother of God. As we look to Mary we see her quietness, her humility and her strength. She would have to have had a strong faith and great courage to say “YES’ to bearing a child who is the son of God. Mary would have to have been without sin, God would not have chosen any woman to be the earthly Mother of his son. She was highly favored with God and therefore we too should look to her as an example of faith, humility and strength. Contemplate our own willingness to say “YES” to all the Lord asks of us.
And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. Luke 1:28-30
One of the ways I am recommending my friends and family to contemplate Mary this advent, is by working with a team to plan a Morning of Spiritual Renewal in Brampton ON on December 13th. Please contact me if you would like to attend and I’ll provide the details for you.
Thirdly, with my husband and the children we have started a sacrifice list - one of the many great ideas from “Advent Adventures”. Every day/week they choose a sacrifice out a handful of folded papers in a Christmas box. On this little paper there will be a concrete task or additional prayer idea for them to fulfill that day/week. They actually look forward to getting a new paper from the Sacrifice list – imagine finding joy in the midst of making sacrifices
Of course, we have decorated our home, we will attend a select few Christmas gatherings and company Christmas parties and perhaps even host a party in our home, but our focus always is on keeping Christ as our centre, contemplating His birth and allowing him to be born in our hearts once again!
Have a blessed Advent season!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Time Is A Gift
As I plan out my days and try to fit in so many tasks, i.e. working, caring for my family, volunteer work, writing, planning events, etc. I realized I also have to plan for Christmas, which is now only about 1 month away.
Overhearing friends and family talking about “finding time” to do this or that, go shopping or bake in order to prepare for Christmas, has inspired me to write about this, I think its “timely” considering the season we are preparing for.
I recall something a good friend of mine shared with me “time is a gift”
If time is a gift, why do we struggle with time? Why do we all seem to never have enough time? Can we really ever “find” time?
The reality of it is we have all the time we need to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Like any great gift we are given, it’s not the gift itself that makes it valuable but how we use it and how we care for it. How do I manage my time?
I’d recommend some reflection on this. When I sat down to truly look at how I was spending my time, I realized that so much of it was spent on things that were not helping me; in fact, many things were hindering me. Spending time idling on the internet, watching TV shows, and being a bit of a scatter brain when I attempted housework. While I was working on one task, I was thinking of the 20 other things I need to get done, losing focus and becoming sidetracked. Certainly, leisure activities like, watching TV and internet are not in themselves totally wrong, but they can easily use up hours worth of time that can be spent on more productive tasks.
First I found myself making a list of priorities: a sort of to do list in order of importance. Then I have to ask myself a few questions: What do I want to accomplish today or this week? What tasks have to be done to accomplish it?
Then what I did was create a daily schedule, holding myself accountable for every moment of the day, from the time I awake to the moment I go to bed at night.
We all have to be accountable and responsible for how we spend our time. I start my day by entrusting it to God in prayer and end the day in thanksgiving, reflecting on what I did and how I can do better tomorrow.
God created time, when he created day and night; therefore He is outside of time. He created us for heaven, therefore we are naturally meant to be with Him outside of time, as well. This brings much consolation to me, as I realize I will not “find” time, instead I must make good use of the time God has given me.
In my next post I will share what comes to mind when I hear the question: “Are you ready for Christmas?”
Overhearing friends and family talking about “finding time” to do this or that, go shopping or bake in order to prepare for Christmas, has inspired me to write about this, I think its “timely” considering the season we are preparing for.
I recall something a good friend of mine shared with me “time is a gift”
If time is a gift, why do we struggle with time? Why do we all seem to never have enough time? Can we really ever “find” time?
The reality of it is we have all the time we need to accomplish what we need to accomplish. Like any great gift we are given, it’s not the gift itself that makes it valuable but how we use it and how we care for it. How do I manage my time?
I’d recommend some reflection on this. When I sat down to truly look at how I was spending my time, I realized that so much of it was spent on things that were not helping me; in fact, many things were hindering me. Spending time idling on the internet, watching TV shows, and being a bit of a scatter brain when I attempted housework. While I was working on one task, I was thinking of the 20 other things I need to get done, losing focus and becoming sidetracked. Certainly, leisure activities like, watching TV and internet are not in themselves totally wrong, but they can easily use up hours worth of time that can be spent on more productive tasks.
First I found myself making a list of priorities: a sort of to do list in order of importance. Then I have to ask myself a few questions: What do I want to accomplish today or this week? What tasks have to be done to accomplish it?
Then what I did was create a daily schedule, holding myself accountable for every moment of the day, from the time I awake to the moment I go to bed at night.
We all have to be accountable and responsible for how we spend our time. I start my day by entrusting it to God in prayer and end the day in thanksgiving, reflecting on what I did and how I can do better tomorrow.
God created time, when he created day and night; therefore He is outside of time. He created us for heaven, therefore we are naturally meant to be with Him outside of time, as well. This brings much consolation to me, as I realize I will not “find” time, instead I must make good use of the time God has given me.
In my next post I will share what comes to mind when I hear the question: “Are you ready for Christmas?”
Monday, November 17, 2008
Weekend Retreats
Here I am just returned from a weekend retreat for Women; a silent retreat at that. While this was only my second "silent" retreat, I remember the first time I planned to attend, the 40 hour silence seemed like an awkward challenge, but it was also so appealing. How often as a working woman, wife and mother of 2 energetic boys do I get any silence for a any good length of time.
Well, it's 40 hours of silence with Christ. Now that makes it even better. This passed weekend's theme was on St.Paul the Apostle, keeping with our Holy Father's inspiration for all of us Catholics to get to know St. Paul.
Our Holy Father's inspiration is timely and wise. St. Paul was a truly convinced apostle and he is a great example for us.
The retreat master's relationship with Christ shined through all of his talks and we were blessed with the insights and inspirations that came through.
Well one of the inspirations for me, has led me to actually begin to post on this blog.
"If St. Paul were alive today, he would probably have a blog"
It's amazing that once we get to know Christ, and the Saints that are true examples for us, we realize that everything changes. I have often shared that I feel like a child in this new found relationship with Christ. An infant who soon realizes that when they cry out their parents actually come to console them and fill their need to be fed, changed, bathed, etc. This is what Christ does for me. He feeds me with his word and His body in the Eucharist at mass. He has changed my heart, my will and given me new hope through my conversion. He continues to purify me through reconciliation. As any good parent He also showers me with love, laughter, joy and encouragement to take on new challenges.
Well, it's 40 hours of silence with Christ. Now that makes it even better. This passed weekend's theme was on St.Paul the Apostle, keeping with our Holy Father's inspiration for all of us Catholics to get to know St. Paul.
Our Holy Father's inspiration is timely and wise. St. Paul was a truly convinced apostle and he is a great example for us.
The retreat master's relationship with Christ shined through all of his talks and we were blessed with the insights and inspirations that came through.
Well one of the inspirations for me, has led me to actually begin to post on this blog.
"If St. Paul were alive today, he would probably have a blog"
It's amazing that once we get to know Christ, and the Saints that are true examples for us, we realize that everything changes. I have often shared that I feel like a child in this new found relationship with Christ. An infant who soon realizes that when they cry out their parents actually come to console them and fill their need to be fed, changed, bathed, etc. This is what Christ does for me. He feeds me with his word and His body in the Eucharist at mass. He has changed my heart, my will and given me new hope through my conversion. He continues to purify me through reconciliation. As any good parent He also showers me with love, laughter, joy and encouragement to take on new challenges.
Our Testimony: Church Teaching Changed our lives
Our conversion story really starts 10 years into our marriage. While Dave and I were both raised in Catholic families, we really had a vague understanding of what it meant to be Catholic. We attended mass on most Sundays, prayed occasionally, mostly in time of struggle and went to confession once or twice a year. (Lent and Advent) We were truly following the minimum precepts of the Catholic faith.
Our change of heart happened when we learned the Church’s teaching on openness to life which comes from God’s plan for marriage and family.
We did not always follow the Church’s teaching. We obviously had our share in the responsibility in the decisions we made, but part of the reason we made the choices we did was because we did not know, no one ever told us and if they tried too, we did not fully understand it. We thought we had a choice on how to plan our family. Of course we had a choice to follow God’s plan for marriage and family or to let sin into our marriage.
When we allowed sin into our marriage, our intimacy was hindered. At the time we didn’t know why things were going wrong, we just knew something was wrong. Our arguments became focused on how often, who initiates. I was feeling like an object for his pleasure, and spending intimate time with Dave was feeling like an additional chore to add to my list of things to do. Dave could not understand what I was going through, when I tried to communicate with him, Dave took it personally. As a result, we grew distant and then other parts of our marriage were affected to.
Once we put ourselves in a position to learn God’s plan for marriage and family, we felt like our eyes had been opened. We learned that God designed marriage for the good of man and woman and for the healthy future of society. God created the world and all the creatures in it. But he gave human beings a special dignity, knowledge, intellect and natural law. He loves us so much; he shares his creative powers with his creation. So that out of our love for each other, in the marital embrace we too, can create new life; we do the physical act and God implants the soul. It’s beautiful, how could we not want to be a part of this creation? We realized God’s plan was in line with our human nature, and that it was about love and trust. The conjugal act always has to be in balance that its purpose is for openness to life and unity. When we use contraception we take away the openness to life, which respects our full human nature, all because we want the focus to be solely on unity and enjoyment. Being able to create life is a precious gift, yet we want to squander it, trample on it, for the sake of physical enjoyment.
Looking back we can see the consequences of our choices. Those consequences were both spiritual and physical. Spiritually we had taken God out of the equation. By using contraception we were saying to God, “I believe in you, but I don’t trust you to know what is best for our family.” We paid a hefty price for this choice, unnecessary struggles in our marriage, unhealthy relationships and harmful habits that went against our marriage vow and disrespected our own dignity as human beings. Not to mention that I now know the “pill kills” How many spontaneous miscarriages/abortions did I have those 10 years – only God knows. I am so thankful God’s mercy is endless! Physically, well after 10 years of ingesting unnecessary hormones, my uterus has aged an extra year for every year that I was on the pill, at the age of 33 I am already showing signs of being pre-menopausal; I have increased risk of heart attacks and cancer, just to name a few. When Dave went in for a vasectomy, it took something away from our marriage bond, we were incomplete. Thanks to our conversion, he has since reversed the vasectomy and offered up the unnecessary risk he took undergoing the surgery and the pain in recovery for all the souls who are yet to come into the light of God’s endless mercy and love. We had a naturally good working reproductive system; we had 3 pregnancies, (one miscarriage, caused by the pill) and 2 beautiful boys. We tampered with our human nature, and now it’s not so perfect.
We would be overjoyed and blessed to welcome to new life into our family. We are praying to accept God’s will for us, as we have now put this aspect of our marriage back in God’s hands, where it should have been all along. Now our marriage has improved 10 fold, and we are being showered with God’s graces. We have a new found hope and joy in our suffering. We share our story with anyone who is willing to listen to it, in hopes that many more couples will learn without having to go through the same suffering we endured. It takes wisdom to learn to from other’s mistakes.
We recommend further reading and education in this area of God’s teaching. There is so much available to us within the Church’s 2000 years of experience.
God Bless!
Our change of heart happened when we learned the Church’s teaching on openness to life which comes from God’s plan for marriage and family.
We did not always follow the Church’s teaching. We obviously had our share in the responsibility in the decisions we made, but part of the reason we made the choices we did was because we did not know, no one ever told us and if they tried too, we did not fully understand it. We thought we had a choice on how to plan our family. Of course we had a choice to follow God’s plan for marriage and family or to let sin into our marriage.
When we allowed sin into our marriage, our intimacy was hindered. At the time we didn’t know why things were going wrong, we just knew something was wrong. Our arguments became focused on how often, who initiates. I was feeling like an object for his pleasure, and spending intimate time with Dave was feeling like an additional chore to add to my list of things to do. Dave could not understand what I was going through, when I tried to communicate with him, Dave took it personally. As a result, we grew distant and then other parts of our marriage were affected to.
Once we put ourselves in a position to learn God’s plan for marriage and family, we felt like our eyes had been opened. We learned that God designed marriage for the good of man and woman and for the healthy future of society. God created the world and all the creatures in it. But he gave human beings a special dignity, knowledge, intellect and natural law. He loves us so much; he shares his creative powers with his creation. So that out of our love for each other, in the marital embrace we too, can create new life; we do the physical act and God implants the soul. It’s beautiful, how could we not want to be a part of this creation? We realized God’s plan was in line with our human nature, and that it was about love and trust. The conjugal act always has to be in balance that its purpose is for openness to life and unity. When we use contraception we take away the openness to life, which respects our full human nature, all because we want the focus to be solely on unity and enjoyment. Being able to create life is a precious gift, yet we want to squander it, trample on it, for the sake of physical enjoyment.
Looking back we can see the consequences of our choices. Those consequences were both spiritual and physical. Spiritually we had taken God out of the equation. By using contraception we were saying to God, “I believe in you, but I don’t trust you to know what is best for our family.” We paid a hefty price for this choice, unnecessary struggles in our marriage, unhealthy relationships and harmful habits that went against our marriage vow and disrespected our own dignity as human beings. Not to mention that I now know the “pill kills” How many spontaneous miscarriages/abortions did I have those 10 years – only God knows. I am so thankful God’s mercy is endless! Physically, well after 10 years of ingesting unnecessary hormones, my uterus has aged an extra year for every year that I was on the pill, at the age of 33 I am already showing signs of being pre-menopausal; I have increased risk of heart attacks and cancer, just to name a few. When Dave went in for a vasectomy, it took something away from our marriage bond, we were incomplete. Thanks to our conversion, he has since reversed the vasectomy and offered up the unnecessary risk he took undergoing the surgery and the pain in recovery for all the souls who are yet to come into the light of God’s endless mercy and love. We had a naturally good working reproductive system; we had 3 pregnancies, (one miscarriage, caused by the pill) and 2 beautiful boys. We tampered with our human nature, and now it’s not so perfect.
We would be overjoyed and blessed to welcome to new life into our family. We are praying to accept God’s will for us, as we have now put this aspect of our marriage back in God’s hands, where it should have been all along. Now our marriage has improved 10 fold, and we are being showered with God’s graces. We have a new found hope and joy in our suffering. We share our story with anyone who is willing to listen to it, in hopes that many more couples will learn without having to go through the same suffering we endured. It takes wisdom to learn to from other’s mistakes.
We recommend further reading and education in this area of God’s teaching. There is so much available to us within the Church’s 2000 years of experience.
God Bless!
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