A JOURNEY TO INTEGRITY - ADVENT 2017 - DAY 19

Integrity... to rejoice in the Lord

21st December, 2017

Song 2: 8-14 (or) Zeph 3:14-18; Lk 1: 39-45

To rejoice in the Lord - not all can do that! Only those who have yearned for the Lord's will, those who have been seeking the presence of the Lord and those who have allowed the Lord to work on them, in short, as we were called to yesterday, only those who have surrendered themselves to the Lord can truly rejoice in the Lord! 

Rejoicing in the Lord is not a mere external show or temporary state of life, it is an interior disposition and a permanent mind set. Those who truly rejoice in the Lord, do so even at the times of the difficulty and struggle. My mind goes out to two unforgettable people whom I have encountered in life: a young person, bedridden for years, but always with a holy smile on the face never willing to be pitied at; and another elderly person, who was paralysed one side, who never liked to be even asked 'how are you', for according to him he was fine and blessed! I would wonder from where they drew their strength? Were they faking that smile or that positive attitude? No, they were people who had surrendered their life totally into the hands of the Lord. 

When we do so, when God matters much more than anything else in life, when God's will supersedes any other priority in my life, I will sense that interior joy and that permanent mind set, that makes me rejoice in the Lord, and rejoice always! That is integrity - remaining in the Lord always and rejoicing forever! 

CHRISTMAS NOVENA - Day 6 - 21st December

21st December: O Rising dawn

O Morning Star,
Splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

Based on Isaiah 9:2 and Isaiah 60:1-2, the title in Latin O Oriens, actually means literally O Rising Sun or Dawn, but for poetic sense translated as Morning Star, refers to the power of God's light to lead us from ignorance to knowledge and from mere knowledge to enlightenment. 

The Symbol is the Rising Sun, which dispels the darkness of the night and wakes the light of the morning, inviting all to life and activity. The coming of the Lord for us is a wake up call, an invitation to live as people of the light and not of darkness!

The prayer is for ENLIGHTENMENT, that in this world of confusion and crisis, confounding choices and staggering philosophies, we might remain always in the light of faith, that not only helps us see the Lord, but see with the eyes of the Lord (as Lumen Fidei instructs us).