Rejoice, rejoice always in the Lord! This exhortation, which flows throughout today’s liturgy, is born of deep faith in the goodness of God. We are, humanly speaking, faced with challenges and difficulties all the days of our life. With the blessing of faith we can persevere through hard times. Our hearts can hope and our spirits can rise above the temporal to be embraced by the Divine. It is indeed a reason to rejoice, and rejoice always, in the Lord. Luke, in the Gospel passage for today, notes that the people were filled with expectation about a Messiah and were asking John how they might prepare their hearts. The answers John offers are simple and practical; actual deeds and choices the people could make. Their question is often our question as well; “What should we do?” One lesson from John’s clear answers could be that we need to focus on simple and practical choices as we decide what to do each day to prepare our hearts for God. As we journey deeper into this Advent Season are we becoming more conflicted, more harried, more tense about making things “perfect” for Christmas? Are we bothered by the ways “others” are doing their preparations? Are we filling our hearts with our desires or are we able to empty our hearts and calm our minds to make room for the coming of our Lord? What actual deeds and choices can be done today, or this week, to provide a calm space in our lives? What type of simple, practical change in our routine could release us from mounting stress and anxiety? An exhortation is a communication emphatically urging someone to do something! The exhortation offered in today’s liturgy is to rejoice in God’s goodness. May we be blessed with insights as to what we should do in order to know joy, and to bring joy to others, always. Sister Lori High SLori@nativityschool.net
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Hickok
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