Straight Roads, Filled Valleys and Lowered Mountains




     Dear readers - yes.  I am alive.  Although my blog posting has said the exact opposite.  Over the past 48 hours I have been knocked out, had four wisdom teeth pulled, and have been either sick to my stomach or sleeping for the remainder of the time.  Yes, as in the words of a friend, "If wisdom teeth are so wise, why are they extra?"  I have yet to find an answer.

     So I return with vigor and victory to shower you with blog posts.  OK, just one.  Since I am on the last leg of my Tylenol dosage and my mouth is starting to hurt again. 

     Today I went to morning Mass and the Gospel today is about preparation.  (common theme in Advent, eh?) and Father Tom was talking about preparing ourselves for the Lord. 

      We all, I am sure, do a LOT of preparation for Christmas.  Your to-do list is full of house decorating, cookie baking, present buying, light hanging, Christmas partying, well wishing and gift wrapping.  But what about you to-do list for your soul?  After all, on Christmas morning we are to receive Christ into our hearts.  How is that path to your heart looking?

     The path to our heart that Christ enters in right now could be in pretty sad shape.  Perhaps there are some mountains of pride we've put in Christ's way.  Or some valleys of depression, despair and general gloom.  Even some winding roads of trying to convince ourselves of the morality of our bad actions could be hindering Christ.

     John the Baptist tells us to "Repent!" and make the valleys high, the mountains low and all roads straight so Jesus can have the easiest path to our hearts.

     How do we do this?  You can make a point to go to confession (penance services are probably starting up around your parishes), and sometimes simply stopping and thinking about the reason we are even celebrating Christmas can put things in a better perspective.  Christ came down as a helpless baby and then took upon all of humankind's sin and died for us.  We have so much to be thankful for and so much to prepare for.

     Christ's coming is worth some big preparation.  Thank goodness we still have sixteen days to get things in order - the things that really matter.

     Once again, sorry about the long break between posts! 

God bless!

Chloe M.

p.s. Grandpa is back home, they are thinking it was a small stroke.  He has follow up appointments soon.  Hopefully those can confirm some theories and see if we need to do anything else.  Thanks again for all the prayers!