Sue O’Donnell. 06.12.20
“The Spirit of God lives in you and He is far greater than the spirit of the antichrist that is at work in the world.” (1 John 4 v 4)
True love is selfless.
This love is in us when
Touched by the Holy Spirit,
We are living in Christ Jesus.
The Eucharistic Christ comes to us,
To forgive, heal and love.
He comes to rebuild us
By and through the Holy Spirit,
The Spirit of true love.
Love is experienced in the Eucharist,
The highest gift of God,
Given in His Son,
Whereupon we are challenged.
Challenged to change.
No longer to judge.
No longer to condemn.
Challenged to love instead.
Our hearts are softened.
Our minds are inspired.
Our lives are redeemed.
Our prayer deepens.
We long to belong to our Saviour.
We desire to be more
And more like our Brother.
We depend more fully on the Spirit,
We are changed by loving kindness.
We have to respond to this.
Jesus is our Eucharist.
We are built up in love
Each time we receive His body.
For Jesus is holy.
We become His entirely,
Faith, trust and dependency
All in the ascendancy.
Touched, shaped by the Spirit,
He who like Christ Jesus,
Is entirely holy.
We repent of our shortcomings
Are sorry for our failings,
Are ashamed of our sinning,
The Spirit acts through Jesus.
He touches us firmly.
We resolve to be more kindly,
So obedient to holy authority,
Obedient to be reverent,
We look to Jesus.
We focus on His holiness
Longing to become like this,
We pray the Eucharist,
Every Sunday is glorious,
We receive Christ Jesus.
The Spirit makes this
Transubstantiating bread and wine,
Into a holy banquet
Prepared in heaven for us.
We are redeemed
Exactly as at the †.
Jesus lives now in us,
Loving us even now,
Whilst His works in progress,
Is holiness developed by the Spirit.
Thank God for Christ Jesus.
Thank Him for our Eucharist.
Jesus is our love and forgiveness.
We claim Him.
He claims us.
The Spirit acts in us.
We rejoice in this celebration,
The Eucharist means rejoicing.
We are loved back into wholeness,
Jesus the Christ, forgives us
As at the †.
Our life is renewed,
We are imbued by the Spirit,
The Spirit who is love.
What gift from above!
The Father is in Jesus,
In us, by the Spirit,
Because Jesus is ours.
We are in the holiness
Of Eucharistic Love,
True love now
And for us as family
Ever this will be.
“...we are able to receive mercy and discover God’s abundant grace that will help us, no matter what the nature of our needs.” (Hebrews 4 v 16 The Truth)
“The Lord’s love never ends. His mercies never stop. They are new every morning; Lord, Your loyalty is great.” (Lamentations 3 v 22, 23 NCV)
Dearest Father, Your wish is for us to be in the closest union possible with Your Son’s divine will and sacred heart, and therefore the Lord Jesus comes to us in the Eucharist. For this true love I praise and thank You.
The Lord Jesus shares in our humanity to invite us to share in His divinity. What a wondrous love He offers us in the Holy Eucharist. Surely there can be no better way during Advent, nor at any time, than to prepare for an occasion of significance by partaking of the Eucharistic Christ.
Of old, when messages from angels were thought to be binding on humanity, You sent Lord God, an angel to Mary to foretell of the birth of Christ Jesus. Many accepted this without question. Yet today, many question the reality of this virgin birth.
Oh that we would pray to believe, pray to ask to understand Your will and way better. For those blessed by faith, Your will and Your way is revealed to us by Christ Jesus. We need to be close to Him.
Thank You that we can pray the Holy Eucharist, responding to the invitation to taste and see of Your goodness. By the Eucharistic Christ we are invited to taste of His holiness. What an incredible honour!
Thank You that with partaking of a Eucharistic Christ, we are blessed to receive of the Holy Spirit, because our Saviour Brother having shared our human lot, knows how difficult its trials and tribulations are to overcome.
Thus the Spirit of love is sent to us. We are grateful to be taught to combat ungodly viewpoints and behaviour as the Spirit convinces us that in becoming close to Christ Jesus, we come close to You, Father God.
Let us ever delight to live in the truth of Your love and mercy. For we are lost to gaining entry to heaven without this. Christ Jesus comes to set us free from all errors of judgment and understanding, so we do not
condemn ourselves.
We are commanded to believe that Christ Jesus is Your Son, our Saviour, Redeemer, Lord and Master. Jesus is Your living Word of truth at all times and we must heed Him.
He taught us a new commandment, to love others as we love ourselves and to allow others to love us. This becomes possible when the Lord Jesus shares the Holy Spirit with us. But we have to pray and ask to receive.
As we pray the Holy Eucharist, we are renewed in the power of holy love, knowing we are receiving mercy and we feel encouraged, strengthened, uplifted, blessed, thank You, Eternal Father.
We have to live a life of love which comes from You, through Jesus, to us by means of the Holy Spirit. To be open to this is to experience a second birth, making us a new creation, without condemnation.
Having experienced hope, peace and joy in this way, I ask that we share the experience of living within the Trinity, as widely as is possible.
Father God, send forth Your Spirit, the Spirit of Christ Jesus, and He will renew the face of the earth because He acts in love.
“Create in us a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within us.” (Psalm 51 v 10 the singular invocation made plural) We need to make ready for Christmas. There is always a danger we are so busy about worldly days of doing this, we overlook the spiritual need.
“Do not cast us away from Your presence”, (based on v 11) that wonderful presence of Christ Jesus, especially as we turn to the Eucharistic Christ to receive love and the mercy of forgiveness.
“And do not take Your Holy Spirit from us”, (Cont) or else we will fall foul of the worldly spirit of Christ Jesus, as the world has stolen our true celebration.
We must repent of this violation, with a fresh resolve to broadcast the news of the salvation available to us in Christ Jesus, as the Holy Spirit touches us. May He impact upon many more hearts and minds.
Thank You that the breath of the Holy Spirit breathes love upon us, the love of Christ Jesus, Your love, holy Father. We become truly blessed, fully blessed by faith.
Let us prepare to meet Christ Jesus, as He is coming to meet all who long for spiritual healing and the deep cleansing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ way is effective because He enters through both heart and mind, emotions
and will, asking the Holy Spirit to invade our conscience.
Let us make ready now, clearing away all the rubbish so nothing, especially not satan, can prevent Christ Jesus coming to us.
To celebrate the Lord Jesus, the promised Messiah living, dying and rising again for our welfare now and eternally, is truly joyous.
“Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing O mountains! For the LORD has redeemed His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted.” (Isaiah 49 v 13)
We move forwards towards Christmas, jubilant will be that day, when we remember Christ Jesus incarnate.
“For look, Yaweh is leaving His home, down He comes, He treads the heights of the earth.” (Micah 1 v 3 TNJB).
Truth shines out like the brightest day. Let us pray to Christ Jesus, joyfully anticipating His coming to love us, to restore us to wholeness, by blessing us with the reality of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Lord God of great glory, we praise and thank You for all Your love and mercy as the almighty Trinity ever at work to help us. Amen.
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
CHRISTMAS
Key Themes
LOVE
