Holy Spirit, help my soul to magnify the Lord and my spirit to rejoice in God my Redeemer….

Luke 1, 46 - 56

Receiving presents was perhaps the most exciting part of Christmas for me as a child. But the older I have become, the more I realize how great a gift a child is to a mother, and that Mother Mary received the greatest gift of all mothers in the infant Son of God who was Son of Man, “God Saves”, the Redeemer of humanity, that is Jesus. Her response to receiving this gift was to break out into a full-hearted song of praise, magnifying God and rejoicing in the fact that God’s mercy is beyond all human plans and projects. God’s mercy instead reaches out through time and space to bring each human being into the Life and Light, and the Creative Hope of the Holy Spirit. This Christmas whether one is poor or rich, marginalized or privileged, a child or an adult the same gift that was born through Mary is being held out to each one of us. Jesus noted that is especially poor, marginalized, suffering and child-like people who best recognize the gift of Emmanuel, God-with-us; but indeed by accepting this Christmas gift of the incarnation of Jesus, the poorest person can be the richest, the most outcast the most privileged, and a person who is suffering deeply, a wise teacher of others.  No matter our age, our place in society or our location in the world, we can always find, accept and unwrap the gift of God’s love in Christ Jesus. Then we too will need nothing else to be able to respond with full-hearted joy and rejoice in the Lord, which gifts us beyond all telling!  Holy Spirit help me to receive the gift of Emmanuel within me, so I too can magnify the Lord and rejoice in God my Saviour.
 
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them. (Psalm 25:10)
 
He became what we are that he might make us what he is.
St. Athanasius
 
Soli ad gloriam
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