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God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.
- Pope Francis
(What spiritual gifts are you hoping to receive this Christmas?)
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ML 3:1-4, 23-24; PS 25:4-5AB, 8-9, 10 AND 14
LK 1:57-66
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
“No. He will be called John.”
But they answered
her,
“There is no one among your relatives who has this name.”
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, “John is his name,”
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart,
saying,
“What, then, will this child be?
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” USCCB Lectionary
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Luke 1:57-66 (Zechariah names his son)
Jews believed that a person's name influenced the development of his or her character. They believed that to know a
person's name was to have entry into that person's soul. The story of the naming of John the Baptist points out the influence of God in the life of this last Jewish prophet.
* How did you get your name? What qualities of character does your name suggest to you?
* Look
in the mirror sometime today and tell yourself, 'God doesn't make junk.' Smile at yourself and pray for the grace to love yourself.
* Spend some time with the passage "The hand of the Lord was [is] with him [me]."
Paperback, Kindle
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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) ____________ Chapter 7: Belonging to God (excerpts) Most of the great heroes of the Bible weren’t especially religious people before encountering God. They were quite ordinary individuals, living their lives, more or less minding their own business. Consider Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Mary, and the Apostles of Jesus: their life-changing experiences of God were not the fruit of some great spiritual quest. Perhaps they were somewhat authentic in their reasoning and choosing. . . Some of them, like the
Apostle Matthew, seemed to be scoundrels, deeply immersed in false self values of accumulating wealth and status. The Apostle Paul was a murderer, stopped in his tracks en route to another campaign of killing Christians.
Yet God chose to enter into relationship with these people! All throughout the Bible, the initiative lies with God. It is a story of God-breaking-in, intervening, revealing Godself to us in ways we would not have guessed.
Just in case we didn’t comprehend the testimony of the Jewish history, God made sure we got the message by taking on human form in the Person of Jesus. Now we could see and hear and encounter the loving action of God in a manner that we could understand. He came, He loved us, and we killed Him for it. Even at His death, however, He
identified with the most rejected of society, promising paradise to a thief crucified with him. Then to demonstrate that it was indeed He, the Lord God Himself, Who had come to us, He rose from the dead and shared with us the blessing of His Spirit
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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