Flower

Flower

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

This Season, Focus on the Eternal

"The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring about everlasting peace on earth." - Saint Mother Teresa



Recently, I was asked by someone from this group who will remain nameless: “How do you find time to do all the things that you do?” It was a good question, and honestly, I didn’t have an answer. Sometimes, I feel like there are not enough hours in the day for me to accomplish everything that I would like to do. Therefore, I steal hours from the night.


December is probably the busiest month of the year. Most of us are feeling overwhelmed by this time… too many parties, decorations to be put up, Christmas cards to be written, gifts to be bought and wrapped, food to be made… and if you add a trip to the mix, then it’s a recipe for insomnia.


Yesterday, in the midst of my busyness, I decided to pay a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Normally, I only stay five minutes, but when I stopped at the Church of the Little Flower on my way home from a doctor’s appointment, the Blessed Sacrament chapel was empty. Nobody was keeping Jesus company. Therefore, I stayed for half an hour. And in that half an hour, I wrote today’s Advent Journey’s meditation. I think it helped that the Blessed Sacrament chapel is named after St. Joseph, and I sat in front of the St. Joseph statue. He definitely helped me write the meditation.


Did I have half an hour to spare? Definitely not. But I always heard that when we give Jesus our time, He multiplies it. And He definitely did that for me yesterday. I accomplished more in an afternoon than I normally do in one full day. By 3 o’clock, I had crossed out everything from my “To Do” list. I even had time to write tomorrow’s Advent Journey’s meditation. I’m usually behind, now I’m one day ahead.


While at church, I also grabbed a copy of the Sunday Bulletin. I read Father Manny’s column, and this sentence caught my eye: “All too often we get bogged down with the superfluous and the mundane this season instead on focusing on the eternal.” It’s so true, and I can see it on the dwindling numbers on our Advent Journey. Even though I cannot see who reads my meditations, I can see how many people open it. On the first day, 142 people opened the meditation. It doesn’t mean they read it, but at least they were curious. Yesterday, only 34 people opened the meditation. Somehow, in just 17 days, we lost 108 people. It could be that the journey has gotten boring, but I have a feeling that the busyness and craziness of the season is the culprit. We are allowing “the mundane” to take over and we have lost sight of “the eternal.” Our agendas are so packed that “we don’t have any room in the inn for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”


We have one week left until Christmas so it’s time to refocus our attention on the reason for the season. I will finish by borrowing Father Manny’s words: “Don’t delay! The light from the Advent wreath is getting brighter. The Advent calendar is getting shorter. It’s time to right the ship and make room for the joy and light of Christ this Christmas.”


Copyright © 2024 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.

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