Christmas Eve 2023

Dear Spiritual Family,

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come: Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing.” 

Thus begins the song being sung around the world today in churches, in the public squares and in homes. On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, on this Christmas Eve, indeed the key to such joy is found in the Celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ. And that Celebration is anchored in our hearts as we open ourselves more fully to the Truth that as we recognize and honor Jesus, so do we recognize and honor and “receive” the absolute Truth about our Selves.

The two go hand in hand. In some New Thought churches and centers, there is a sentiment that gives less emphasis to the beauty and power of Jesus birth and more to the re-birth of the Christ within. If we believe that Jesus is the Great Example, not the great exception, are we not thereby diminishing the majesty and glory of the Example Itself and diluting the majesty and glory of everyone?

Jesus came to show us who we are and to teach us how to remember the Truth and live from it. The more we focus there, the greater the gifts of Heaven we receive and the more able we are to convey those gifts to the world. 

And what are these “gifts?” They are imbedded in the Advent “lessons” – a rock-solid Faith in God, Everlasting Peace, Unconditional Love and Ineffable Joy. These treasures are our Divine Inheritance. Living from these gifts does indeed bring healing and light to the world. As we dwell on the Example of our Wayshower and his teachings of forgiveness and understanding, his extreme lesson that proved our Immortality and his very willingness to take birth, our hearts are alive with adoration for him. 

In A Course in Miracles, he offers this wisdom: “The miracle of life is ageless, born in time but nourished in eternity. Behold this infant, to whom you gave a resting place by your forgiveness of your brother, and see in it the Will of God. Here is the babe of Bethlehem reborn. And everyone who gives him shelter will follow him, not to the cross, but to the resurrection and the life.”

May we all, as this Christmas is celebrated and treasured for its deepest meaning and its dearest gifts, remember that the Holy Help that we may ask for in any moment, in any place, is always here to lift us up, that our joy may be full and our lives ever more, a true Gift to our Father.    

Merry Christmas Dear Ones!

We love you,

Rev. Steve and Mary