Advent...A New Beginning

Winter Snow makes the red rocks seem vibrant

"Come and save us, Lord our God; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved."  ~ Psalm 80:4

When I got around to checking on this blog, I was shocked to see how long it had been since I had last written a post. This blog and the posting on it are what I believe the Lord is calling me to, even if no one else ever reads my musings.
So, when praying about what I should do to prepare the way for Christmas and the Coming of the Lord into my heart again, I was led to review my blog. The Lord definitely wants me to use my skills to write a blog. I don't feel particularly skilled or think that I have things worthwhile to say, but He keeps calling me back to it, so He must see something in me that I have been ignoring. So, here we go again.

All this deep introspection has been because of a podcast I listened to on how to determine my apostolate. There were five questions and the first one was "What things do people compliment you on?" So, as I was praying about this and pondering what things I have been complimented on, I was once again brought back to writing and photography. The point of the first question is that if you are good at something...the example used was cooking and that is definitely not one of my skills :-)...then that may be something that the Lord is using as a way to reach people. If, the example goes on, I am good at cooking, then perhaps that skill (question number two, which I will address tomorrow) may be what God wants me to use to reach out to people and evangelize them. I think the point of the podcast is to help us realize that the "E" word (evangelization) doesn't have to be something scary or something that we are reluctant to do. Going door to door to share my faith is not something which would ever come easily to me. However, reaching out by writing is something that has always come easily...more easily than speaking, in fact. It also brings me to my other Advent offering.

An Advent Angel

It has been a custom of our local women's group to anonymously give Advent gifts to someone in our parish family. It's just a way of reaching out to them and letting them know that they are loved and cared for, not only by the "Advent Angel" but by God, who has called a person to give something of themselves to the person(s) of their choice. As a group, we draw names from among those who are attending our meetings, but the group won't meet this year until the third week of Advent, so I felt called to reach out to a couple at the beginning of Advent. The couple the Lord chose for me is a couple a little older than myself and they are facing the challenge of a serious health condition for which there seems to be no remedy. But, as we all know, God has remedies in mind of which the world knows nothing. So, it is my hope and prayer that my reaching out to this couple will enable them to accept God's will and that God will also bless them with a miracle of His choosing. This week, I have sent them a card with some simple bookmarks enclosed. Each week in Advent, I will give them something until Christmas. The ultimate gift, of course, is Christ and as He gives Himself for the Life of the World, perhaps I can give them Christ in the Eucharist by giving as the final present a gift of Masses for them.