Happy Birthday, Jesus!

        The Lord has everything, you should think, so what can we give him??  Relatively, we (his followers) have even more than he for we have him! ~ surely there can't be anything fuller or more fulfilling than that.  Meanwhile, he still lacks the love from many, so many, too many.  My suggestion for wishing him Happy Birthday is to do all we can to bring other souls into his fold.  His great love deserves to be realized, accepted, and appreciated by all.  To not know him is to not know love.  

On Selfish Gift-Giving

        Gift-giving sounds unselfish enough, but it could be otherwise.  I remember that once many years ago, I bought a number of unusual, not-to-cheap toys for a youngster just to impress him and his parents.  That was the wrong motive.  Any giving with the desire to want others to notice your generosity, wealth, or taste so that you may feel good is basically selfish.  Giving should have foremost the receiver's happiness and needs and, last not least, the Lord in mind.  Remember how Jesus advised all to always give in secret, keeping ourselves totally out of the picture?       

On Spiritual Greed

        Greed is bad in any form.  There are times you receive a particular favor from the Lord, such as a special feeling of joy or an inspired thought, and wish to have more of the same.  This to me is spiritual greed.  The danger is that you seek these favors rather than the Lord himself.  If you receive them, be grateful but don't get elated.  And if you don't receive anything special from the Lord, be equally content for you already have the Lord himself.              

Dining with the Lord

        I love today's Communion verse from Revelation 3: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me."  The Lord is ever so polite, gentle, patient, and loving.  How long are we going to keep him waiting outside the door??  I can't think of a better time than dining with the Lord.

A Proper Time for Everything

        In today's Gospel Reading from Luke 1, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was asked what he wished the newborn child to be called.  The moment he wrote "John is his name" on a tablet, his mouth was opened and his tongue freed (he was made mute earlier when he didn't believe that his wife, Elizabeth, advanced in years, would bear a son as the angel Gabriel had told him).       

        It just makes me realize that there is a proper time for everything and God knows exactly those times at which his wishes will be fulfilled.  There were times when I didn't know which way to move and I prayed hard about it.  Then something like a signal showed up and I was able to move.  Patience is required here (the perfect example is seen in our Lord waiting for us to turn to him).

Holy Spirit, the Great Teacher

        In Psalm 25, today's Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist asks the Lord to teach him his paths.  Teaching is the word here.  The Holy Spirit is the greatest teacher there is, and spiritual growth is so much more important than gaining physical strength or  intellectual knowledge.  The Spirit teaches one by revealing "secrets" of God's love to the heart.  All schools and teachers in the world can make you more knowledgeable about things of the world, but only the Holy Spirit can make you holier and more pleasing to God.  

Best Gift for God

        Again, it's Christmas gift-giving time.  In today's 1st Reading from 1 Samuel 1, Hannah the mother gave Samuel the child to the Lord. 

        What would be the best thing for us to give to God?  It's easy to give what we don't need or from our surplus without hurting ourselves the slightest bit.  I think the best gift we can give to God would be ourselves, for he deserves what's most precious to us.  A side-benefit: once we surrender ourselves to God, all subsequent giving becomes easy and painless.  

Keeping Jesus in Us

        As Christmas comes closer, we anticipate the coming of Jesus.  When we pray or sing "Come, Jesus," we express our yearning for him.  For us Catholics in the state of grace, the Lord is already dwelling within us.  We only need to pray that we'll be holy enough for him to continue his dwelling happily in us.  Receiving the Lord himself in the Holy Eucharist every time only serves to intensify and deepen this union with him.  (I consider this the greatest privilege we have in this life.)

Using Our Free Will

        As I drove to Mass this morning, I realized that God is capable of doing anything, except that in our case the free will he has given us can prevent him from doing what he wants to do with us.  We can use this free will to either keep him out or let him in ~ it's our choice.  

Wonder of Wonders

        Although I believe in God without any doubt, I still find it hard to get over how God can love us so much that he willingly died in our place.  Then I think about how we who believe get to know God intimately and become his adopted sons and daughters.  Wonder of wonders!

Curing "Stupidity"

        This morning I recalled many of the "stupid" things I did in my past.  Those were the days when I did not know the Holy Spirit well.  Now I know that God wants everything we do to be motivated by love.  The stupid things I did before were all motivated by me with no concern for God.  

        Since the voice of the Spirit is always gentle, we must learn to listen carefully with our hearts.  At any rate, the more we unite with the Lord (through receiving the Holy Eucharist and prayer), the more we become Christlike, and the clearer the promptings of the Holy Spirit will be to us.  In time, doing God's will becomes our second nature ("our only nature" would be even better).        

God with Us

        Isaiah prophesied: "...the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel."  Emmanuel means "God with us."  So, as we commemorate the birth of Jesus at Christmastime, let's also remember that God actually decided to become a human being to live among us, and that he'd be with us always as he had promised.

Be Open to God

        Be open to God to let him enter to accomplish what he wants done in or through you, just as Mary opened up to the Holy Spirit for her to conceive and bear a child, our Lord.  Nothing is impossible with God! 

Think Before You Sin

        When you sin, it's like putting up an eviction notice asking the Lord to get out of you.  How do you think he would feel?  Can you bear not having him staying with you?  You'd better think twice before you sin. 

How to Pray

        Present your prayer to God as if it's a most beautiful gift you have found for him.

A Time of Giving

        Christmas is a time for giving ~ so let us give to God all we have and shouldn't have: our life, health, soul, talents; our family, material possessions; our sins, fears, worries, angers, pains, hang-ups, bad habits, plus any other thing you can think of ~ the more the merrier. 

No Sin, No Fear

        It came to me that we have fears because we sin.  Jesus committed no sin, so he never had any fear.  Agony yes, but never fear.  A sinful person does not trust in God and never feels secure, so fear easily sprouts from his heart.  A holy person feels secure in God and has no room for fear to take hold in him.  Where the Holy Spirit dwells, fear does not exist.    

A Christmas Exhortation

        Christ is the light of the world.  If you turn your back to hide from this light, you shall remain in darkness.  But if you turn to this light to let it shine upon you, you will feel its warmth and gentleness and also the love and mercy of God.  Reject this light in this life and you shall never see it again.  Accept this light now and you are on your way to living eternally with God.  It's that simple, so don't make it hard on yourself and on God.