Inspiration for your journey to God!

Tag: disciples

Until He comes again!

Until He comes again!
Until He comes again!

Today we begin a new season in the liturgical year – Advent.  It’s actually the beginning of a new year in the liturgical calendar, so Happy New Year!  In the past I’ve written about some of the beautiful Advent traditions of the Catholic Church (check them out by typing “advent” in the “categories” section and my previous posts should come up).  I’ve written about ways to prepare for Christmas – Jesus’ first coming.  Today I’d like to focus on ways to prepare for Jesus’ second coming.

Just two days ago the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of St. Andrew, one of Jesus’ first disciples.    I sat and read the Gospel for the day (Matthew 4:18-22 and decided to do a lectio divina.  At first glance I thought, there’s not much to chew on here – Jesus says to Peter, Andrew, James and John, “come follow me.”  He says the same to us.  Done, right?  NOT!  I wasn’t giving up without a fight, I knew there was more to glean, so I kept at it.  Sure enough the Holy Spirit provided, as it usually does.  I asked myself, what did it take for these 4 men to give up everything they knew, all of their comforts, to follow Jesus at the drop of a net?  It took faith, sacrifice and trust.

Faith

Peter, Andrew, James and John had not only heard of Jesus, they personally witnessed His power.  Shortly thereafter they were called and followed.   They must have believed that Jesus was “the Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  God said “listen to Him” and they DID.  They possessed the faith they needed to make the Trinity a priority in their lives.

Sacrifice

Talk about sacrifice!  I would find it very difficult to walk away from my family – no questions asked.  Could I “drop my net” and leave my loved ones in the middle of the sea without asking questions?  Probably not.   I would need answers. Even when I got answers, I’m not so sure they’d be enough to leave it all behind.

Trust

How obvious the trust these men had in the Lord!   They heard His voice, they listened and they followed.  They knew nothing about what to expect, they knew nothing about where they were going and they knew nothing about when or even if they would return to their normal lives.  What they DID know was that this man they called Jesus was worth following and that He would not steer them wrong!  

Advent

This Advent I would like to take a different approach to the season.  Actually, I’d like to add my own tradition to the beautiful traditions of the Church.  I’m still going to patiently wait to decorate for Christmas.  I’m still going to focus on the reason for the season. I’ll pray with my Advent wreath and Jesse Tree.  However, I will also take stock of how much faith and trust I have in the Lord and how much I sacrifice to follow Him.  

 Advent is one of my favorite seasons. I absolutely love preparing for the coming of Jesus.  I literally feel like I’m sprucing up my house for a special guest to arrive on Christmas day and in a way, I am.   However, reading Matthew’s Gospel made me think of something else.  As Christians we believe that Jesus will come again, right? So how am I preparing my “house” for His second coming?  How am I preparing my soul for Jesus to take residence there?  In keeping with the theme of faith, sacrifice and trust, here’s what I’m thinking.

Practicing DEEP faith

This week, in his homily on the Feast of St. Andrew, the deacon talked about some powerful words the Bishop uses during ordinations.  While holding the book of the Gospels together with the priest or deacon to be ordained the Bishop says “believe what you read, teach what you believe, practice what you teach.”  Isn’t that what deep faith is all about? 

This Advent maybe we can think about whether we TRULY believe what we read in the Gospels. Do we read them enough?  Do we teach what we believe?  Teaching what we believe looks different for everyone, but how are we teaching what we believe?  Is it even important to us to teach what we believe? More importantly, is there integrity in our teaching?  In other words, are we practicing what we’re teaching?

Being counter-cultural

In today’s world and especially during the season of Advent (which the world mistakenly believes to be the Christmas season) –  sacrifice is not on anyone’s mind – in fact, overindulgence is.  So how can we sacrifice for Christ this season? We wait more, we spend less in order to teach what we believe – that the reason for the season is Christ, not gift exchange.  How can we sacrifice the rest of the year?  By stepping out of our comfort zone and doing more for Christ even when it’s inconvenient, even when we have our sights on something else.

Surrender all

This is a tough one.  Trust goes hand in hand with surrender.  How difficult that is for us humans, especially if we’ve been “graced” with the need to control.  These past few months I have been actively focusing on trusting the Lord with my life.  I believe it has everything to do with the book I just finished reading entitled Forty Weeks (I know I keep mentioning it but it has changed my life).  

So for me, in order to focus on trusting more, I have to make a conscious effort to invite the Holy Spirit into my daily life.  I have to invite the Holy Spirit into my prayer, into my thoughts and into my decision making.  This is not easy, but it CAN be done.  We just have to be aware, awake and conscious of the present. We cannot let ourselves be distracted with worry, anxiety or thoughts of the past or the future.  

Will you join me this Advent season?  Will you slow down and take stock of how well you are preparing your soul for the coming of Christ? How deep is your faith?  Are you willing to sacrifice for the one who sacrificed for you?  Will you trust that whatever He wills for you is infinitely better than anything you can ever control into being for yourself?  What are you going to do until He comes again? God bless you!

Commissioning the twelve

 

Twelve Apostles, Australia

Twelve Apostles, Australia

Jesus commissioning the twelve – we read about this in Matthew 10:7-15.  Today I decided to do a lectio divina with this passage.  I write about lectio divina in one of my pages – I hope you’ve had an opportunity to read about it if you’ve never heard of it. It is a powerful practice and one you will crave once you start doing it.  I cannot stress enough how God’s awesomeness becomes apparent when you open your heart to His Word. I’ll get back to this in a moment.

As some of you may know, I wake every morning at about 4 am.  My phone and headphones are usually on my night stand (for no other reason but to use my prayer apps – the phone is actually on “do not disturb”) and while my husband gets ready for work, I pray, meditate and/or read.  I get out of bed around 4:45 to prepare his lunch and after he leaves at 5 am I get back in bed with my headphones on and meditate or read some more.  At this time I usually use the Pray as you go app and then do Divine Office.   Today I read the daily mass readings, which included the Gospel of Matthew, and then I did Divine Office.

During lectio, the phrase that struck me in this Gospel is:  “make this proclamation ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'”  We’ve heard this before and we’ve also heard of the sense of urgency implied in that proclamation.  Christ is coming, prepare yourselves!  Today, I got a different message.  What does it mean when something is “at hand?”  “At hand” means nearby.  According to the web “nearby” can be interpreted two ways:  1) close in time or about to happen; 2)  readily accessible when needed.  When we apply the second interpretation to the “proclamation” it becomes:  The Kingdom of Heaven is readily accessible when needed!  Aha!  Amen!

Jesus goes on to  tell his apostles to take nothing for their journey.  He’s sending them out as “laborers” and implies that all of their needs will be provided for by those who receive them.  That seems like a lot to ask.  It’s going to take a lot of trust on their part and also much discipline to take nothing for their journey.  One interesting note here, which I heard in yesterday’s homily – the twelve have gone from being called disciples to being called apostles.  The root of the word disciple is discipline.  Apparently, they have passed the test.  They were disciplined enough to become the first apostles, close followers of Christ.

How does this apply to us?  Today, who is supposed to do the work of the original apostles?  We are!  This Gospel gives us direct instructions.  It’s calling us to empty ourselves – of all our possessions and distractions, of the things we’ve learned, to release the thoughts that force us to operate from the mind and to unlearn our way back to God, to become like little children in order to operate from the heart.  The message is clear, be disciplined in order to become His present day apostles!

As I continued my “studies” today, the message became clearer.  This is why I say God’s awesomeness becomes apparent when you open your heart to His Word.  Romans 14:17-19:  “The kingdom of God does not mean eating or drinking this or that, it means righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit.  If you serve Christ in this today you will please God and be respected by men.  So let us adopt any custom that leads to peace and our mutual improvement.  Wow!

So back to the proclamation: The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  This takes on a whole new meaning for me today.  Here’s what I hear Jesus saying when commissioning the twelve:  “Make this proclamation: righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit is readily accessible when needed!”  Isn’t it comforting to know that we have the authority, through the Holy Spirit, to access righteousness, peace and joy whenever we need it?  All we have to do is be disciplined in our practice and be open to the movement of the Spirit.  More importantly, we’re expected to share this news with others.

Be disciplined – you too have been commissioned!  God bless you!

 

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