Advent 2012

I hope this finds each of you in good health and having a good start to the Christmas Season. As you scurry about getting ready for the celebration of Christmas, I hope that you take some time each day in thoughtful prayer talking to God about the coming of His greatest gift ever - the birth of His Son. Advent has now started. Max Lucado wrote a great little book a few years back called “One Incredible Moment” Celebrating the Majesty of the Manger. It is one of the best books I have found to get you in the right frame of mind for the coming of Christ’s birth.

Faith Hope & Love

1 Corinthians 13:13

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

God is Love. It is as simple as that. God is pure Love. Do you know why the greatest of these three gifts is Love? When we pass from this life to eternity with God, we will not need to have Faith that God exists, because we will see Him. We will not need to Hope in the resurrection because we will have been through it and know that it is true. We will see that God is pure Love and his Love for us does not ever end. That is why “the greatest of these gifts is Love!”

God, who is Love, created man in His image and likeness. That means we are closer to God in our makeup than any other creature He created. He meant for man and woman to walk and communicate with Him regularly. But, we were tempted by Lucifer, made a poor choice, and fell into sin. God did not abandon us - He still Loves us and promised to send a Savior for all of us. We did lose the chance to see God and talk with Him face to face daily - we did get kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and we do now have to face death. But, God sent us the savior He promised - His Son, Jesus was born on Christmas and He came to bring us God’s own Word. Jesus dwelt with us - He lived, worked, ate, drank, and suffered like we do. He celebrated at the wedding of a family friend when He turned water into wine at His mother’s request. This first miracle shows us that God Blesses the sacrament of marriage between a man and a woman as a Holy Covenant. He cried at the tomb of His friend, Lazarus just as we cry when our loved ones die. Jesus cried, even though He knew that He would shortly bring Lazarus back from the dead and that someday Lazarus would be in heaven for eternity. Think about that one!

 Jesus walked this earth for thirty three years, preaching God’s Word for the last three. What did mankind do? We beat Him and hung Him on a cross - but God the Father still did not give up on us - rather, Jesus opened the way to heaven for each of us by His death and suffering. Think about that for just a moment, and thank God for that every night before you go to sleep.

This is the Year of Faith in the Catholic Church. Take the time to thank God for your Faith and then reach out to someone else and share some of your Faith with them. God Bless each of you, and have a Blessed and Joy Filled Advent Season!