sent, 4 Advent 2018 the need

On this Christmas Day 2018 family and food; presents and traveling forms a major part of the day. As I close Advent 2018 I have been meditating on how I have been like two sisters in Luke’s gospel, Mary and Martha.

I can be busy and whinny; I can be thoughtful and attentive. I am both. Jesus simply wants me to sit with Him. He does not send me anywhere; Jesus wants me at His feet; like shepherds and Magi; as Mary and Joesph. This day he wants me to sit by Him and be loved. Listen to the one thing that is absolutely needed- Him. He is what I need. Be with Him.

‘At the Home of Martha and Mary

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”‘

Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace; that where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light. that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted; to understand, than to be understood; to love, than to be loved. For it is by self forgetting, that one finds. It is by forgiving, that one is forgiven. It is by dying, that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.

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