Winding Up Work Before Christmas with Compunction
Every year finds me trying to "clean up" my work before Christmas. I finish up this or that - loose ends, bits of work that can't wait for January. Get my work area in order - clear out that caught up to me during the year. Make sure any commitments made to clients are fulfilled.
Soon the blessed Twelve Days of Christmas will begin. I want to spend as much time as possible celebrating the birth of Our Lord with my family and friends. Work takes second place (although I'm sure to have some little project, some reading or writing or thinking to do!).
Meanwhile, as I do every day this Advent, I pray,
This year I "discover" the spirit of compunction. How did I not know about this before? (This is why daily spiritual reading is so important: you learn so much every day!) But here it is, helping me through these last days of Advent.
My reading teaches me that compunction is a mysterious recasting of the soul in innocence and purity. How appropriate for Advent! Thank you, Lord, for teaching me this right now, just in time before Advent ends. How grateful I am for this lesson, for your deepening my understanding, for your gentle direction of my soul all these years to draw me closer to You.
The saints understood compunction, most especially those like St Peter and St Augustine who knew the depth of their sinfulness because of the things they did during their lives. I learn that
the poor sinner, bowing his humbled head at the feet of his crucifix, and feeling the Divine Savior drawing him to His heart and embracing him, experiences as much beatitude as souls who were never stained by sin have felt in their ravishing colloquies with Jesus...The soul who understands this is no longer depressed by her faults. She goes to Jesus in all simplicity and begs Him to repair all, to purify her, and to supply for her insufficiency. She humbles herself constantly in His presence, knowing her weakness. She begs Jesus to root out her bad inclinations and to destroy the root of evil hidden in her heart. (Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R)
Dear Jesus, help my spirit of compunction this Advent, especially as I work these last days before Christmas to get my business in order. Please, by Your grace and Your mercy, help me as well to get my soul in order.
Soon the blessed Twelve Days of Christmas will begin. I want to spend as much time as possible celebrating the birth of Our Lord with my family and friends. Work takes second place (although I'm sure to have some little project, some reading or writing or thinking to do!).
Meanwhile, as I do every day this Advent, I pray,
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in my heart!
This year I "discover" the spirit of compunction. How did I not know about this before? (This is why daily spiritual reading is so important: you learn so much every day!) But here it is, helping me through these last days of Advent.
My reading teaches me that compunction is a mysterious recasting of the soul in innocence and purity. How appropriate for Advent! Thank you, Lord, for teaching me this right now, just in time before Advent ends. How grateful I am for this lesson, for your deepening my understanding, for your gentle direction of my soul all these years to draw me closer to You.
The saints understood compunction, most especially those like St Peter and St Augustine who knew the depth of their sinfulness because of the things they did during their lives. I learn that
the poor sinner, bowing his humbled head at the feet of his crucifix, and feeling the Divine Savior drawing him to His heart and embracing him, experiences as much beatitude as souls who were never stained by sin have felt in their ravishing colloquies with Jesus...The soul who understands this is no longer depressed by her faults. She goes to Jesus in all simplicity and begs Him to repair all, to purify her, and to supply for her insufficiency. She humbles herself constantly in His presence, knowing her weakness. She begs Jesus to root out her bad inclinations and to destroy the root of evil hidden in her heart. (Fr. Joseph Schryvers, C.SS.R)
Dear Jesus, help my spirit of compunction this Advent, especially as I work these last days before Christmas to get my business in order. Please, by Your grace and Your mercy, help me as well to get my soul in order.
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in my heart!
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