Advent 2014 // Yes to Jesus
Before we begin today's study, we have a couple of GOOD NEWS items to announce!
- Though today is our last day of the Advent study, we have a BONUS post for you that will be published on Monday. A last hurrah before Christmas! Thank you all for joining us in our Advent Study - it has been a remarkable journey.
- No study emails will be sent Dec 23-Dec 28.
- Join us for our next study: Genesis 5-9, Noah's Ark + Becoming a New Creation. It's just in time for all those New Years Resolutions. It starts Dec 29th. More info here, found at the bottom of the page.
- Did you get the chance to listen to the Advent talk by Carmelite Sister, Sr. Carmelina that went LIVE yesterday afternoon on our website?! Click here to read about it & listen! You will LOVE IT! What's better than a free, downloadable, Catholic talk?!
- Lastly, starting Jan 2015, HOMWF will be hosting Live Online Bible Study Sessions via Google Chat. Our first meeting will be January 3rd at 11 am PST, covering the first week of the Genesis/Noah's Ark study. If you want to dive deeper into the studies & grow more in HOMWF sisterhood, this is for you! Come as you are - PJs no PJs, make-up no make-up - just don't forget your bible & a cup of coffee or tea, along with your shining face!! Event link will be emailed closer to the date. Online sessions are tentatively scheduled the 1st + 3rd Saturday of each month.
Day 18 of Having a "Mary" Christmas in a Martha World
In this season, we have so many obligations and to dos. For us alone, we have to finish buying gifts, we have to pack our bags, wrap our gifts, my husband Christopher has two fire company Santa runs, we have a family Advent party, and probably a million other things I can not think of off the top of my head. IN a season of wanting to spend time with people, making sure we make it to every party, of wanting to go Christmas caroling, ice skating, gingerbread house making, and the list goes on. But we have to realize that it is okay to say "no" to the world so that we can make time to prepare for the Lord, to make sure that we have time to spend with our family and not just make another obligation of Christmas.
When we keep saying "yes" to every offer that comes, and we keep saying "no" to Jesus, we are those inn keepers that said no to Joseph and Mary. We need to be the inn keeper that said yes, and made room. We need to make room for the Lord.
We need to take the next few days especially, to make sure that we are saying "Yes" to Jesus and giving ourselves that ok to say no to the world. Those obligations can wait, those cookies can wait. Say yes to spending time in prayer, Say yes to meditating with the pope during this advent season. Say yes, to putting yourself in Mary's sandals during this time. Say yes to really evaluating what Christ’s birth really means to you. Mary said yes, can you?
“Yes, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let this be done unto me according to thy word.”
Mary decided when the Holy Spirit impregnated her, that each and every day she would have to make the decision to keep her head and chin up. That each and every day she would have to say, “Yes” to carrying our Lord and all the ridicule that was brought upon with it as well. That she would have to say, “no” to people pushing her to divorce Joseph, to those pushing her to go into hiding, and to those that said she should be ashamed, she said no.
So during this most precious holiday time, can we make sure to say yes, just as Mary did to Jesus? To make sure that we have devoted the needed time to Him. Have we said yes to praying and cleaning and preparing our heart for him? Have we said yes, to welcoming Him into our “inn?” Or are we going to just put Him in the stable because that is the only place we have for him. This Christmas, say yes to the Lord. Prepare room for him.
HOMWF is happy to announce & offer our first ever study journal! For this Advent study: Having a "Mary" Christmas in a Martha World, we are gifting our email subscribers with a free, downloadable study journal! Click the banner to subscribe!
*If you already receive our emails, you can click the journal banner at the end of the email you got this morning to open & print your HOMWF Advent Study Journal!*