Reclaiming Our Children

Preparing for Christmas - Dealing with Sorrow instead of Joy

Mind & Spirit

Theresa Bonopartis
December 5, 2017 

Let’s face it, not everyone is filled with joyful anticipation when it comes to thinking about the holiday season and the birth of Jesus. Instead, many people are filled with dread and sorrow during the season of Advent as they anticipate Christmas.
There can be a variety of different reasons for these emotions, from loneliness, to a past sin, to dealing with family, a death of someone close to you, or the pressures of spending money that you may not be able to afford. The list can go on and on.

This holly, jolly time of year can feel more like a quagmire of depression!

Season of Sorrow

For years, it was a torturous time for me. The abortion in my past would be magnified in everything I saw and heard. Mary’s “yes” to life in a difficult situation, shone a bright light on my “no”.
I envisioned all the toys Santa would never put under our Christmas tree for my missing son, and there was an empty place at the holiday table where he should be sitting. My sin screamed out at me throughout the Advent season. At times it was unbearable.
Years later, as a single parent (I made a poor marriage choice because of my wounds from abortion) I would spend countless Christmas Eves crying because I was unable to get the tree into the stand, or I would be totally frustrated at the toys that I was unable to put together.  It made the loneliness I felt, and the absence of a father in the home more apparent. l felt like a failure.
Then, of course, came dinner with family and my father who had coerced me into the abortion. The monster in our family that no one mentioned…ever! Yet we all knew he was there.
Everything around the season was self-centered and painful.
I tried to force myself to feel some joy for the sake of my children, but it was an act, and I was always happy when the holiday season was over.

You can read the rest here

The Devil Beside Me

 

There is no doubt that the devil uses our wounds of abortion to try to gain access to our heart. His lies and deceit are ever waiting to shake our confidence in the love of God, our forgiveness, and His Mercy.

• “You are not forgiven. How can anyone forgive that terrible sin ?”
• “You have not changed, you are the same person you were before you are only kidding yourself.”
• “God does not exist, if He did the world would be different. Look at all of the suffering.”

It can go on and on. It is no surprise that Satan uses the very things that brought us to despair on a physical and psychological level to attempt the same thing on a spiritual level. 

The spiritual ramifications of sin, turn us far from God. We flee in guilt, shame, and fear believing we are beyond saving. It is only when we go to Him in humility and trust in His love for us that we begin to heal. As we enter into personal relationship with Him and come to know His love for us, we receive a new found confidence because we are “born again” in the spirit, and our confidence is in Him not ourselves. We know what He Has done for us through the forgiveness of our sins.

We begin to live by grace, but it is no secret that if we lose that grace it would not be long before we found ourselves doing the same things we did when we were not living in union with Him.

Yes, the devil is always beside us laying in wait for the opportunity to confront us with our past. His taunting are bond to bring up our deepest wounds, abandonment, fear, guilt, shame, despair. His lies will continue to assail us to some degree during our life on earth, but if we have confessed our sins we cannot listen to this father of lies. Our sin is forgiven and we must own that in our heart because Jesus said it is true.

So when you are besieged by doubt and taunted by the devils ploys, remember not to trust in your feelings, but instead ;

• Pick up the phone and get some spiritual support
• Do not isolate even though this is what you may want to do
• Make acts of faith
• Pray, pray, pray
• Unite your sufferings with Christ for the conversion of sinners

Yes, the devil and even your own thoughts will always taunt you in this life until your death,to some degree ,but Christ has conquered death and won for us the forgiveness of our sins and everlasting life. Cling to Him and there is no way the devil can win.

 

A Wait that is a Hope

I came upon this post from 2009...thought I would share it again....

ADVENT INVITES US TO PERCEIVE THE PRESENCE OF GOD

 VATICAN CITY, 28 NOV 2009 ( VIS ) - In the Vatican Basilica this evening, Benedict XVI presided at first Vespers for the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year for the Church.

   In his homily the Pope reflected upon the meaning of the word Advent which "Christians used", he said, "to express their relationship with Jesus. ... The meaning of the expression advent also includes that of 'vistatio', ... a visit, which in this case means a visit from God: He enters my life and wishes to address Himself to me".

   "In daily life we all know the experience of having little time for the Lord, and little time for ourselves. We end up becoming absorbed by 'doing'. Is it not often true that it is activity itself that possesses us, society with its multiple distractions that monopolises our attention? Is it not true that we dedicate a lot of time to entertainment and leisure activities of various kinds?"

  "Advent, this potent liturgical period we are entering, invites us to remain silent as we come to appreciate a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are signs God addresses to us, signs of the care He has for each of us. How often does God make us aware of some aspect of His love! To maintain what we might call an 'inner diary' of this love would be a beautiful and rewarding task in our lives. Advent invites us and encourages us to contemplate the living Lord. Should not the certainty of His presence help us to see the world with different eyes?"

  The Holy Father went on: "Another fundamental aspect of Advent is that of waiting: a wait that is, at the same time, a hope. ... Hope marks the journey of humankind, but for Christians it is enlivened by a certainty: the Lord is present in the events of our lives, He accompanies us and will one day dry our tears. One not-far-distant day everything will reach fulfilment in the Kingdom of God , the Kingdom of justice and peace.

   "Yet", he added, "there are many different ways to wait. If the present time is not filled with meaning, the wait risks becoming unbearable. If we await something, but at this moment have nothing - in other words, if the present is empty - then every passing instant seems exaggeratedly long and the wait becomes an over-heavy burden because the future remains too uncertain. When, on the other hand, time has meaning and at every instant we perceive something specific and valid, then the joy of waiting makes the present richer".

   The Holy Father encouraged the faithful "intensely to live the present, where we already obtain the gifts of the Lord. Let us live projected towards the future, a future charged with hope". The Messiah, "coming among us, brought us and continues to bring us the gift of His love and His salvation. He is present among us and speaks to us in many ways: in Sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily life, in all creation, which changes its appearance depending upon whether [we see Him] behind it or whether [we see it] shrouded in the fog of an uncertain origin and uncertain future".

  "We in our turn", Pope Benedict concluded, "can address Him, present Him the sufferings that afflict us, the impatience and the questions that arise in our hearts. We are certain that He always listens to us! And if Jesus is present, then there can be no meaningless or empty time. If He is present we can continue to hope, even when others can no longer offer us their support, even when the present becomes burdensome".