Wishing you, as you need: a Merry, Blessed, Christmas with comfort that is for you!

"Come, let us rejoice in the Lord, proclaiming the present mystery;

 for He has broken the middle wall of partition, 

and the flaming spear shall turn about, 

and the Cherubim shall admit all to the Tree of Life. 

As for me, I shall return to enjoy the bliss of paradise from which I was driven away before, by reason of iniquity; for the likeness of the Father, and the Person of His eternity, which it is impossible to change, has taken the likeness of a servant, coming from a Mother who has not known wedlock; free from transubstantiation, since He remained as He was, true God, and took what had not been, having become Man for His love of mankind. 

Wherefore, let us lift our voices unto Him crying: 

O You Who was born of the Virgin, O God, have mercy upon us."

~ Vespers of Nativity

***

These words remind me of Elder Zacharias' talk that I went to earlier in autumn...

I need to get back to that talk...

***

I know that the holidays are really tough for a LOT of people.

For us it's the first year without our beloved Aunt Karen;

other's I know just had family fall ill or need emergency surgery; 

or we are grieving; or we are in a long term intractable situation 

that we can't leave or get out of; or we are no further ahead and

are discouraged; or deeply lonely without a clear way out; so many things.

YET...the words of the Vespers of the Nativity of Christ is clear... 

He has broken the middle wall of partition, 

and the flaming spear shall turn about, 

and the Cherubim shall admit all to the Tree of Life. 

Let us remember our true Hope, Christ born at Christmas, to be,

as my priest in Ottawa once said in a homily about Christ's incarnation,

that Christ has come to dwell with us in the mess of our lives.

WITH us.  Even though things are not as we would wish Christ to see us in.

Our homes, at least inside of us, are not yet clean, uncluttered or beautiful

but yet Christ comes to us, wants to be with us and it is HE 

who, with our cooperation and openness to Christ, to the Holy Trinity,

to the Holy Spirit growing in us, that inside of us can, little by little,

be a bit more clean, a little less treacherously cluttered, a little beauty shining in.

The older I am (nearly 42 now) the more I see that we have so much in us

that needs Christ (well really everything inside of us) and that there is so much

internal disarray (just look at the fruits of the spirit and get back to me if you are thinking

your internal self is not in disarray, most likely you are somewhere near where I am when I 

I admit it to myself, disarrayed, distracted and in need of God's healing). 

But God gives us HOPE, right here at Christmas time.

That Christ is born to dwell among us.

That God is WITH us, born on Christmas day.

That as untidy and disordered as we can be, God is with us, hear to help us,

to pull us out of the waves that overcome us, is full of love,

mercy and a way that, while not easy, is the only way to 

the Resurrection, the transfiguration, the new life that is really what we are wanting,

no matter how many "things" we wish to get at Christmas or see others getting,

knowing that we can't have those "things"... what we really desire, 

and what so many do not know they desire,

is the Christ who comes to us at Christmas, as a little Child and

who is full of mercy and light, the Hope of all the world.

Many of us have heavy hearts and I pray also that our Guardian Angels

will help us find Christ and that we will understand the protection,

the love, the goodness, that we are called to go towards...

Let us pray for one another.

For all those who have no one to care for them or pray for them;

for those who are lonely; alone; for those who

are on the streets, homeless or in troubled homes;

for those who have everything they need except the emptiness inside them; 

for those who are in spiritual or physical peril; for those who find 

Christmas to be painful or full of stabs of grief.

For all those who are joyful, for the young who are loved and smiling on Christmas;

for the young who don't have family and are alone;

for everyone, everywhere, 

that God will bless, save and have mercy on us all.

To all who celebrate Christmas now:

Christ is born! Glorify Him!