Divine Infant of Bethlehem, Come and Take Birth in our Hearts
It's Advent. Advent is "prep" time. Whatever business you're in, you know how important it is to be prepared.
It's also a New Year - a new Liturgical Year. So it's time to get ourselves in sync with the mind of our Holy Mother, the Church. She's calling us right now to prepare our minds and hearts for the big day: Christmas.
My last four posts were all about being prepared. They outlined a way to make sure that the important stuff in your life and your business gets done everyday. So now that Advent's here and we have our plan in place, we should all be ready to get the ball rolling this week.
I don't know about you , but every once in a while in my job, I'm not as prepared as I should be. Sometimes it's because a deadline has been imposed and my only choice is simply to do the best I can - which might mean not being able to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Since I'm not a lawyer, that works OK sometimes.
But other times, I must say it's because I'm tired, or just lazy. Being prepared all the time can take a lot of work. And I guess I'm just not disciplined enough to be perfect all the time in my preparation.
When that happens (not too frequently, thank God!), it helps if I think of Our Lord. I think something like: "Can you in a million years picture Jesus showing up not prepared?" Just try to picture that. You can't.
Maybe he was tired at times. Maybe He was even tempted to be lazy (He was tempted at times; He just never gave in.) After all, when He started His public life, crowds followed Him wherever He went. They had to see this "great Prophet" who would not only thrill them with His preaching, but actually heal them from their physical and spiritual illnesses.
I would imagine there were times when He maybe wanted to rest, or take a break. But His great love overcame His weariness or any temptation to laziness. He loved us so much, He just wouldn't let what He wanted override what He knew we needed: the Truth.
So every time He appears in the Gospels, He says the perfect thing, does the perfect thing - even feels the perfect way that a loving person would feel under the same circumstances. And He stayed that way right on through His Passion and Death.
Since it's always a challenge for me to keep Christ present in my mind and heart while I'm buy at work, I think that's what I'll work on this Advent: preparation.
First, I'll prepare each day. I'll focus on doing the important thing for the day and not let any distractions get in the way. I'll make sure that whenever I have to speak with clients and colleagues, I'm prepared for whatever the subject of our meeting or conversation is supposed to be. No "winging it" this Advent.
And maybe, by God's grace, I'll remember the Divine Infant of Bethlehem in a special way, as I keep myself prepared during my busy work days. I'll remember that while I prepare carefully for my work, I need to also prepare my heart for Him.
He's coming soon you know.
Diving Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts.
It's also a New Year - a new Liturgical Year. So it's time to get ourselves in sync with the mind of our Holy Mother, the Church. She's calling us right now to prepare our minds and hearts for the big day: Christmas.
My last four posts were all about being prepared. They outlined a way to make sure that the important stuff in your life and your business gets done everyday. So now that Advent's here and we have our plan in place, we should all be ready to get the ball rolling this week.
I don't know about you , but every once in a while in my job, I'm not as prepared as I should be. Sometimes it's because a deadline has been imposed and my only choice is simply to do the best I can - which might mean not being able to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Since I'm not a lawyer, that works OK sometimes.
But other times, I must say it's because I'm tired, or just lazy. Being prepared all the time can take a lot of work. And I guess I'm just not disciplined enough to be perfect all the time in my preparation.
When that happens (not too frequently, thank God!), it helps if I think of Our Lord. I think something like: "Can you in a million years picture Jesus showing up not prepared?" Just try to picture that. You can't.
Maybe he was tired at times. Maybe He was even tempted to be lazy (He was tempted at times; He just never gave in.) After all, when He started His public life, crowds followed Him wherever He went. They had to see this "great Prophet" who would not only thrill them with His preaching, but actually heal them from their physical and spiritual illnesses.
I would imagine there were times when He maybe wanted to rest, or take a break. But His great love overcame His weariness or any temptation to laziness. He loved us so much, He just wouldn't let what He wanted override what He knew we needed: the Truth.
So every time He appears in the Gospels, He says the perfect thing, does the perfect thing - even feels the perfect way that a loving person would feel under the same circumstances. And He stayed that way right on through His Passion and Death.
Since it's always a challenge for me to keep Christ present in my mind and heart while I'm buy at work, I think that's what I'll work on this Advent: preparation.
First, I'll prepare each day. I'll focus on doing the important thing for the day and not let any distractions get in the way. I'll make sure that whenever I have to speak with clients and colleagues, I'm prepared for whatever the subject of our meeting or conversation is supposed to be. No "winging it" this Advent.
And maybe, by God's grace, I'll remember the Divine Infant of Bethlehem in a special way, as I keep myself prepared during my busy work days. I'll remember that while I prepare carefully for my work, I need to also prepare my heart for Him.
He's coming soon you know.
Diving Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts.
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