Come, you nations, worship the Lord,
for today a great light has shone down upon the earth.
for today a great light has shone down upon the earth.
1 JOHN 2:12-17
My Soul's Beloved,
The things of the world appeal to our baser instincts and our desire for instant gratification. Temptation, like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, is enticing and tantalizing until we give in to it, once we do we are trapped and enslaved. Today, the beloved disciple warns all disciples young and old in the faith to be on their guard against the threefold temptations that keep us from enjoying a life of union with God - the world, the flesh, and the devil.
We who are baptized are grafted into Your Body and as children of the Father sealed in Your Spirit, we are heirs to the Kingdom of God. You came into the world to reveal the Father to us. You are the image of the invisible God - the Incarnate Word of the Father in whom all that is, came to be. You make Your dwelling in us through Your Holy Spirit this is why evil has no place in the hearts of God's children. Anyone who loves You and believes in You is saved by You.
We have overcome the Evil One by the power of the Word that is in us and can have no part with the temporal things of the world. Anyone in love with the world can have no claim on the love of God, our Father, for all disordered desires are opposed to the transcendent, the eternal, and the divine.
We were created for God and nothing that the world has to offer such as:
- the lust of the flesh: “Lust of the flesh is not limited to disordered sensuality. It also means softness, laziness bent on the easiest, most pleasurable way, and any apparent shortcut, even at the expense of fidelity to God."
- the lust of the eyes: "the disordered desire for material things, as well as that deformation which views everything around us — other people, the circumstances of our life and of our age — in a merely human way."
- the pride of life: "this is the worst of all evils, the root of every false step. The fight against pride has to be a constant battle,.. It is the arrogance of the Pharisee whom God cannot transform because he finds in him the obstacle of self-sufficiency. It is the haughtiness which leads to despising others, to lording it over them, to mistreating them."
- the lust of the eyes: "the disordered desire for material things, as well as that deformation which views everything around us — other people, the circumstances of our life and of our age — in a merely human way."
- the pride of life: "this is the worst of all evils, the root of every false step. The fight against pride has to be a constant battle,.. It is the arrogance of the Pharisee whom God cannot transform because he finds in him the obstacle of self-sufficiency. It is the haughtiness which leads to despising others, to lording it over them, to mistreating them."
These cravings when we indulge them become an open, bottomless pit, and the more we feed them the greater our darkness and emptiness. God alone satisfies all the desires of our heart for we are made for Him alone. Let us abide in His will we will abide in His love forever.
PSALM 96:7-10
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
We belong to You and offer You praise and thanksgiving for all You have given us that our lives may be a continual hymn of glory and honor to You and the power of Your Name that saves.
We rejoice as we continue our celebrations of this glorious season of Christmas - a time when earth and heaven come together in wonder and awe at what God has done for His children in the Incarnation of His Eternal Word.
What offering can we bring to our God as we enter His courts to praise and worship Him? We bring Him the eternal Sacrifice of His only, beloved Son, who became the willing Victim for our sins and paid the ransom with His Life for our redemption. This is why the demons tremble with fear and why they hate us so much; they will not rest until they drag as many souls as they can to hell.
But we have a King who is God and His Word saves us. You have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. For freedom, we are saved - freedom to love God and to live in His love in this life and forever in the next.
LUKE 2:36-40
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
In today's liturgy, the passage selected from the Gospel of Luke trains the spotlight on Anna, a prophetess. We are told that she was the daughter of Phanuel and belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was married as a young girl and widowed after being married for just seven years. She teaches us that life is not over when we suffer personal loss no matter how devastating. She saw it as an opportunity to dedicate her life wholly to serving God. She was eighty-four years old and we are told that in all the time since she became a widow she never left the Temple but served God night and day with fasting and prayer.
She was rewarded for her faithfulness by being led by the Holy Spirit to see You with Mary and Joseph. Recognizing You as the One sent by God to deliver His people, she began to praise God and spoke of You to all who were waiting with longing and expectant hope for the Messiah. United with God and filled with His Holy Spirit, she is part of a privileged few, the shepherds, the wise men, and Simeon, to receive the Good News of glad tidings and with them became the first of Your disciples and missionaries.
The Word of God concludes by saying that after Mary and Joseph did all that the Law required they went home to Nazareth. Meanwhile, the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favor was with him. The Son of God and the Son of Man.
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