Christian Reflection and Prayer

This is our "morning after," so to speak: a
time to treasure all the Christmas events.
A time to ponder them in our heart. A time
to begin pondering what we want in the New
Year. How do we deal with the Christmas
story? What's it all about? How do we make
sense of it? What does it mean for our life?

A man who was feeling this kind of pain
decided to go to his doctor for a physical
checkup. After hearing the man's complaints
and conducting the examination, the doctor 
said, "You have to remember that after fifty,
it's just patch, patch, patch." A woman who
heard this story said that there is a much
better way to tell that you've reached the
"patch, patch, patch" stage in life. She said,
"It's when you wake up every morning with a
terrible hangover -- and you haven't been
anywhere the night before."

Jesus is not offering us a "patch, patch, patch"
existence. He wants to lead us into a style of
life that will make us whole. And we don't have
to wait until we're having those terrible hangovers.
He wants us to experience genuine living now if
only we will say "Yes!" to God by embracing a
style of life in which we place our trust in the
power of love in every situation. Accept your
assigned role as God's dependent child and, in
new and beautiful ways, the power of love will be
released in your life, and you will begin to
experience the joy and wonder of becoming the
kind of person you were created to be.

If, on this morning after, you're going around
feeling as though everything is patch, path, patch
then you have missed the overwhelming
statement of the Christmas Event: The virgin will
 conceive and give birth to a son and they will call
 Him Emmanuel, a Name that means 'God is with
us'" (Mt. 1:23).

GOD IS WITH US

(from Sunday Sermons Online)