Advent Wait Joyfully – Teaching Others – God’s Spirit is in us! – Vincentians Fast and are Patient

Vincentian Day of Prayer and Fast

Advent Wait Joyfully

Part of the struggle we have is when we meet other people on their journey whether they are in prison or they are out with their own family – we want them to be on the same stage in their journey as us. We are getting ever closer to the celebration of Christmas and the birth of Christ. It is a challenge for us to wait patiently not only for ourselves but also for others.  The third week for me is the best.  I try to be filled with joy and others as well.  I’ve had a very joyful experience on this third week of the journey.  Doing Christmas hampers and have been given great donations after a homily. We were in a position of more friends in need up 30% and money down to 40%. We were very grateful for the help from businesses, especially my son’s restaurant, which adopts 10 families every year, but this year they adopted 19 families.  Even my dentist donated to our hampers.  The week was full of joy and the waiting was a blessing.  We are now in the fourth week.  This week and every week we pray for peace as we light the candle of peace.  May you and those we serve feel the peace always in their midst.

Teaching Others

It is always a good thing to teach others.  I feel so blessed to have done this in the Catholic School System, the Catholic Diocese and my parish.  Most often you do not know the impact you make.  But lately I am hearing good stories from many at all levels.  Today is no different in what we try to convey.  The product is the same.  We are loved so much and God is with us.  It truly is a gift from God to welcome the poor and especially the refugees and immigrants.  We show them our love and become friends.  This is not overwhelming because we move slowly, but we do make a difference and we feel their love.  This is God’s goodness.  We are not necessarily of the same faith, but after a while we feel free to pray together.  We teach others about goodness and serving them.  They learn we must help those in need.  My gift, not that I expect gift,s is two of our friends on the neediest list have returned God’s goodness and helped two other families.  This is a moment of thanking God.  It is a true blessing.

God’s Spirit is in us!

I want to give You, Lord my unconditional “yes.” May You find in me a fertile soil for sowing and harvesting Your loving projects.  Plant your Spirit in me, so I can give it to others.  Even the worst of times become huge blessings if we let them unite us to Jesus. This kind of means, we do not complain.  It is so joyful to give to others in both bad and good times.  His spirit is in us and God will never abandon us. Compared to eternity, our current problems are little, very little indeed.  God will make good use of everything for our benefit! He defeats evil by making blessings come from it. Even the worst of times become huge blessings if we let them unite us to Jesus. With Christ and in imitation of how he suffered for the sake of others, we offer to others what our hardships have taught us, and thus our sufferings become ministries. Our sorrows find valuable meaning, which produces a joy that gets multiplied beyond measure. Feel God’s spirit always through the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Trinity has our backs.

Vincentians Fast and are Patient

We must be patient while we wait for the Lord to convert our trials into triumphs. To maintain an attitude of joy, we must remain firm in our faith, not doubting that the Lord is concerned about us. And we must not complain, because complaints mean that we think we know better than God does about how our problems should be resolved and how long it should take. God really does care and is of course working on our behalf to produce many wonderful blessings from our sufferings, just like Jesus says in the Gospel reading: “Blessed is the one who takes no offense in me.”  We fast whenever we can.  In my mind the best fast we can do is to give up gossip and judgement.  We need to keep ourselves on the side of God, so fast from everything that takes us away.  Our good deeds reveal God’s goodness in us.  Always use patience when serving the sheep and tending the lambs.  We are so protected with His patience and love.

Blessings, Lynn