Advent 4 - The Gift Exchange - Week # 4

We’ve almost made it! Was it just like last year or did we actually do something different this year to change our Advent Season?

Check out our message series 

Anticipation, even for great things can be stressful. Think about our last vacation and all the preparation for hotels, travel arrangements, new clothing, etc. The process takes time and can be difficult but the destination makes it all worthwhile. As we move through this last week of Advent and can clearly see our DESTINATION IS NEAR, we know the small things we’ve accomplished and the bigger things we have planned for our future journey in life are possible. But we also know these last few days could ruin the entire trip. The stable is in sight! 

Let us pray when we finally see God face to face he will repeat the words of Elizabeth in today’s Gospel, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

Please try this activity as a family:

Take 2 minutes and pray together as a family that we can help each other recognize God’s presence, not just at Christmas time, but all the time, and that we can recognize how God continually works throughout the year in our lives. In honor of Mary’s “Yes,” pray together the Hail Mary.

Advent 3 - The Gift Exchange - Week # 3

Our message series called “The Gift Exchange” builds upon the reality that this is one of the busiest time of the whole year. The hectic pace can even make it hard to enjoy and manage the numerous expectations and demands placed on us. These can become “obligations” instead of “opportunities”. Our series is dedicated to discerning together how to make our “yes” to the numerous requests we receive, a response build upon the best one we can make, all the difference so that is to set our priorities on God. But that response can get crowded out by all the other “yeses” we’re making. How do we make our first “Yes” the best. Our message series will be all about setting priorities for the season and celebrating Christmas well.

You may wish to listen again to the Audio of the Lord’s Day Message

At this point please use the video Message for this series – Week #3

This 3rd week of Advent focuses on the Journey to the stable. We’ve prepared, decided on a path and now we’re on our way to our destination. Where are the choices we’ve made thus far this Advent Season leading us?

The Journey, whether on vacation, or in life can be challenging. From the backseat we hear, “Are we there yet?”Once at our destination, we soon hear, “I’m bored.” “What should we do?” In today’s Gospel, we hear that phrase 3 times—once from the crowd, once from the tax collectors and once from the soldiers. “What should we do?”

This teaching anticipated something greater to come — Jesus the Messiah — and the gift of the Spirit of God that He would bring. Just as the mission of John the Baptist was to prepare the coming of the Lord by raising the spiritual consciousness of the people, our own compassionate response to others makes possible the greater work of God in us and on our behalf. Teacher, what should we do? The answer is simple and clear - forgetting self.

This third week of Advent invites us to develop in our life Discernment so that we choose the most life giving “Yeses”. It calls us to gentleness so that we can achieve peace and it calls us to forgetting self so that we may live lives of service to others which gives us perspective, which in turn, leads to Joy. The beauty of this part of the Gift Exchange is that is that it is about learning these skills in the midst of the menu of options before us, so that we experience Joy not for a Sunday, or a season, but for our entire lives. These are not just Advent habits – but life habits!

Please discuss these two questions as a family:

1. This Advent has been focused on the stable: our preparaton of Jesus’ coming, our choice of the right path and not necessary the secular one, and the actual journey. What have you done differently this year during Advent than in previous years?

2. Have your choices been a source of joy for you? If so, why? If not, why not?

Advent 2 - The Gift Exchange - Week # 2

If you think about it, there are so many forks in the road on our spiritual journey, we could have
an entire set of flatware before the age of 30. We are always faced with the question of choosing
the right path. Many times the right path is not the easy path.

During this second week of Advent, we’ll focus on choosing the path. If we don’t have any
idea of our final destination, the choice is next to impossible. We have to know where we are going
and that’s the whole purpose of this season for each of us.

Luke’s Gospel is fitting to get us to focus on choosing a path as we hear, “Prepare the way of
the Lord, make straight his paths…The winding roads shall be made straight and the rough ways
made smooth…”

Let us pray that this Advent Season will enable us to stay on the right path or choose a better
path so our heavenly destination becomes clearer and easier. Remember, we are “Stable-Bound.”
The gift that awaits us at the end of the path is beyond our comprehension.

Please discuss these two questions as a family:
1. Name a time in your life where you had a choice between two “desirable” options or paths.
2. What did you choose and why? How did you feel?

Your may wish to listen again to the Audio of the Lord’s Day Message

At this point please use the video Message for this series – Week # 2