Advent-ure towards E-Life — Inn-terested?

Advent-ure towards

E-Life — Inn-terested?

by Ian Mascarenhas

   Got big plans for Christmas?  How about this preparation time of Advent?  Don’t let it race by.  It is the foundation for how we truly prepare ourselves to remember and  celebrate Jesus’ coming 2000+ years ago and into our lives each day.

   Jesus came that we might get reconnected for E-Life (eternal life, the bigger picture).  Make room for Jesus in your Advent days and your Christmas celebrations.  Any inn-terest in Jesus’ Presence?  There wasn’t any room at the inn for them; will we have place at our gatherings?

   Your creativity helps to make it Advent-urous.  Don’t $pend Christmas with the wrong focus; keep Christ as the biggest part of Christmas.

Have a blessed & joy-filled Christmas!

If you’re thankful and you know it, Share your blessings

If you’re thankful

and you know it,

Share your blessings

by Ian Mascarenhas

   This isn’t the “Hokey Pokey.”  It is the season of Thanksgiving, and we Christians/Catholics should practice thanks-living.

   Do you appreciate what you have?  I heard a quote, “Happiness is not having what you want.  Rather it is wanting what you have.”

   Thanks-living is extending “Thanksgiving” into other parts of our lives.  When Jesus talks about “Feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, welcome strangers, etc.,” (in Matt. 25: 31-46) He calls and challenges us to care for others’ needs

   We do this by sharing our time, talents, efforts and resources.  Jesus added “when you do this for the least of my brothers (and sisters) you do it for me.”

   Giving thanks is important; living thankfully is an other-centered mindset (not self-centered).  Just Share it!

Lessons from a Worm

One day (in Feb. 2013) as I walked along a stone path I noticed a worm, wiggling on that path.  On both sides of the stone path were white rocks.  There was good soil beyond one side of the white rocks.  I walked a couple of steps past that worm.  Then I looked in the dirt and found a small twig, which helped get the worm into the soil by some plants.  It then slithered away, to burrow into the soil.

Suddenly I realized God was teaching me something in this experience.  The worm was in the wrong environment, and would not survive unless it got back into a proper setting.

This lesson paralleled my thinking into how each of we (children, youth, young adults and adults) need to be in good environments that we may thrive.  We encourage and support each other in those directions. Community building is our responsibility, and strengthening relationships/friendships is so much a part of our faith.

God’s messages and lessons can come from some of the simplest things.  We must be aware and openly receive from such opportunities.  They come mostly through whispering (quiet ways), not always in thunderous booms.  It is our challenge to pay attention for the softly spoken words/images/sounds/etc. from God.

Build A Fire Right -- for light, for warmth, for faith

Lesson learned from a Jewish prayer book -- to build a fire right :

We were invited to a Bat Mitzvah, and as I sat at the temple, reading the prayer book, the section was about constructing a fire.  It was about setting up the wood so the pieces were not too close together, to allow air to flow through, that the fire might flourish.  I realized that is true for our faith development also.  If the components are too compacted, then it is harder for flames of our faith to be fanned well.

The opposite is true too, when the wood is spread out too far, that does not allow the flames to be sustained, and the fire cannot start, or it goes out too quickly.  Our faith, to flourish, needs us to be close to those who would encourage and support us in that direction, but not so compacted that it smothers the sparks and flames.  Be Christ’s light for the world, God’s spark of faith for each other, and ultimately hearts are warmed in these relationships.

We encourage and support each other in direct and indirect ways.

Wisdom is such an underrated and often misunderstood treasure.