Holy Spirit of God, nurture within me the gentleness and strength of your holy love…

 
Luke 1: 5-80 & Luke 2:1-22

 
The Advent of the Christ Child whose feast day we celebrate at Christmas is all about holy and steadfast love. Zechariah’s devotion to his priestly duties and his faith in God made him and his wife, Elizabeth available to receive the new Elijah, the forerunner of God’s Messiah, that is John the Baptist. John the Baptizer, even in the absence of his elderly parents, nurtured his own love for Father God, and went around Judea preaching the unwelcome message of repentance to prepare The Way. Mary’s love for God made it possible for the Holy Spirit of God to plant within her his only, beloved Son, so that, indeed, she was ‘full of Grace’ in person. The grounded and gentle love of Joseph covered Mary and the Baby Jesus within her before and after birth with a mantle of protection and strength. The angels, who constantly behold the face of God, unleashed the harmonies of the universe, that is of Love Incarnate, in proclaiming the Glory of God in the Highest at the birth of the Son of Man who was the Son of God, and the Redeemer of the world. And the shepherds of Bethlehem and the wise men of all ages followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit of God to find Love Incarnate, come as a child, born in the humility of a cave into the peasant family of Mary and Joseph. In all of these manifestations of love, there was no selfishness, no power-grabbing, no bitterness or resentment, and no sign of failure or giving up.  Advent and the Incarnation & Nativity of Christ proclaims loudly and clearly the gentleness and strength of God’s holy love.  Will I, like Zechariah and Elizabeth be obedient to this love? Will I, like Mary and Joseph, allow myself to be so filled with Grace that the Word of God can be borne in my actions and words? Like the angels, will I proclaim this magnificent Love of the Father with my voice? And like the shepherds of old, will I follow the star, that is the Holy Spirit of God, to behold Christ Jesus face to face, wrapped in swaddling cloths as a baby and crowned with thorns as an adult? Holy Spirit of God, nurture within me the gentleness and strength of your Holy Love.   
 
I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
 
May your Christmas be full of love for one another.  Then it will be merry!
Catherine Doherty, in donkey Bells
 
…O Come, Let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!...
May the Lord Bless you and Keep you and your Family in his Peace and Joy throughout this Holy Season of Christmas!
 
Soli ad gloriam Dei
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