Advent 4 2015

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Holy One, Like Mary, make us brave. Make us resourceful. Make us courageous. Like Mary, make us open to You coming here through us. Like Mary, make us full with song and blessings and hope against hope. Like Mary, make us sure of what we we long to believe, that your promises will be fulfilled. Holy One, Like Elizabeth, give us wisdom. Give us endurance. Give us leaping joy within. Like Elizabeth, give us sure confidence in recognizing the God bearers among us, and like Elizabeth, may we offer strong blessings to those God-bearers. We pause in these next moments, to ponder how you are calling each of us to bear You in our lives. We pause in these next moments, to offer our prayers for this world so in need of You. Holy One, As you have with our sisters and brothers in faith throughout the ages, inspire us to bless and be a blessing, to midwife and to bring forth your mercy and your Light in to this world. In the name of all that is holy, Amen. - revkarla

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception 2015

<Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did. — St. Maximilian Kolbe>

<When we were little, we kept close to our mother in a dark alley or if dogs barked at us. Now, when we feel any fear, we should run to the side of our Mother in Heaven, by realizing how she is to us, and by means of aspirations. She will defend us and lead us to the light. — St. Josemaria Escriva>

<In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal. — Saint Bernard of Clairvaux>

Advent Reflection: Mary's Enthusiastic Yes

painting: Henry Ossawa Tanner
American African American painter in the 1890s
more here: http://bit.ly/1wb3cVL

<For a moment I hesitated on the threshold. For the space of a breath I paused, unwilling to disturb her last ordinary moment, knowing that the next step would cleave her life: that this day would slice her story in two, dividing all the days before from all the ones to come.//The artists would later depict the scene: "Mary dazzled by the archangel, her head bowed in humble assent, awed by the messenger who condescended to leave paradise to bestow such an honor upon a woman, and mortal..." //Yet I tell you it was I who was dazzled, I who found myself agape when I came upon her— reading, at the loom, in the kitchen, I cannot now recall; only that the woman before me— blessed and full of grace long before I called her so— shimmered with how completely she inhabited herself, inhabited the space around her, inhabited the moment that hung between us.//I wanted to save her from what I had been sent to say.//Yet when the time came, when I had stammered the invitation (history would not record the sweat on my brow, the pounding of my heart; would not note that I said "Do not be afraid!" to myself as much as to her) it was she who saved me— her first deliverance— her "Let it be," not just declaration to the Divine but a word of solace, of soothing, of benediction for the angel in the doorway who would hesitate one last time— just for the space of a breath torn from his chest— before wrenching himself away from her radiant consent, her beautiful and awful "yes".>

– Jan Richardson

artist, author, UMC minister 

http://adventdoor.com/

http://www.janrichardson.com/

ADVENT 2: Monday: You're Beautiful with God's Beauty

con source: http://bit.ly/1IoCkeS)

 <Gabriel greeted her: "Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you." Mary was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you! / And Mary said, "Yes, I see it all now: I’m God's partner and element, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.> - The Message Bible translation

We are all pregnant with the Christ. Each morning we make Mary's decision, will I be God's co-creator? Will I l put aside my ego for the sake of peace? Will I lay down my expectations to follow God's path for me? Mary was the first to do so, all for the sake of the Christ.

(p.s.: I KNOW this has nothing to do with the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, i just think it's just a lovely story about Mary.)