Day 15 of Having a "Mary" Christmas in a Martha World
Luke 10:38-42; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Pretty lights everywhere! Snowmen in our front yards right next to Santa on our roof or the life-size nativity set in front for all to see! We see commercials where we can find all the discounts of Christmas décor. Decorating our homes and our rooms for Christmas can be a great tradition and a fun way for the family to spend time together. But we are constantly bombarded with a spirit of doing! We can feel obligated to decorate and buy when sales are on. These things can be a distraction just like how Martha was distracted by serving.
During this time do we also feel the need to go to confession? To get the family together and serve at a soup kitchen or write letters to our soldiers who cant be home for Christmas? Do we look internally at our actions and why we do what we do?
Now is a time to not just decorate our homes but to decorate our temple! This is a time to dive deep into prayer and prepare these couple of weeks to celebrate our Lord’s Birthday! This is why we decorate our homes. Let us not forget to clean and decorate our own temples. Do we need to go to confession? Have we kept a regular prayer life and talked to God to continually build our relationship with him? Have we called our family members and friends that might be harder for us to keep in touch with? Have we given to others, in a type of service, and not expected anything in return?
A good way to keep our hearts and minds on God as we prepare for our Lord’s birth is to look to Mary. Think about consecrating yourself to Jesus through Mary. (HOMWF is a HUGE Consecration Advocate!)She is the surest and quickest way to our Lord. Fr. Michael Gaitley wrote a book called 33 Days to Morning Glory. Check it out and if you already have, maybe think about renewing your consecration.
Going back to the story of Martha and Mary: What does Jesus tell Martha in that moment of her distraction? “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; only one thing is needful.” Only one thing is needful. What is that one thing Jesus is talking about? I encourage all of you think about that in prayer today and write about what that one thing is in your life and how God might be calling you to get closer to him.
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