{"id":1423,"date":"2013-12-05T01:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T07:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2013-12-03T09:06:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T15:06:38","slug":"spending-advent-with-mary-the-mother-of-jesus-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1423","title":{"rendered":"Spending Advent with Mary, the Mother of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"print-this-button-shell\">\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"print-this-button\" onClick=\"parent.location='https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1423&printthis=1&printsect=1'\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Print This!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<!-- Print This Section 1 Start -->\n<div class=\"print-this-content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1401\" title=\"Spending Advent with Mary the Mother of Jesus\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/tn_MP9003848811.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"193\" \/>December 5, 2013 \u2502 Thursday of the 1<sup>st<\/sup> Week of Advent<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1>Mary\u2019s Trust<\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Reflection<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A big part of Advent is learning to trust in God. This entire season has its focus on the Feast of Christmas when we celebrate God\u2019s powerful love, incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth. Learning<br \/>\nto trust means we must believe in what we do not see with our human eyes. It means learning to see with our \u201cinner eyes,\u201d or with the eyes of our heart and soul.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mary did this. How could this young girl have trusted so deeply in the message which God sent to her heart through the Angel? And yet she did. Perhaps the words of Psalm 118, which she<br \/>\nmay have known by heart, came to her conscious mind: \u201cIt is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.\u201d Mary knew that God was her eternal rock, no matter how humble a person she may have been.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So with Mary today, let us learn to trust in God, absolutely and completely. For this trust to become real, we need to be free of the \u201cwisdom\u201d which comes from anywhere other than God. With<br \/>\nMary, let us hear the word of God and put it into practice, leaning on God as our rock.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share with others or ponder alone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How do you hear the voice of God echoing in your own life?<br \/>\nTo what does God call you? To what does God call the Church?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Go out on a limb today. Take a loving action toward someone,<br \/>\neven a stranger \u2013 a random act of kindness or love.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mary, help me grow to trust in God as my rock in the same powerful way that you must have done. Help me to build my house on the rock of this trust, rather than the shifting sands of ungodly words and actions. Amen.<\/p>\n<p>Used with permission<br \/>\nAuthor: Bill Huebsch<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"print-this-button-shell\">\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"print-this-button\" onClick=\"parent.location='https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1423&printthis=1&printsect=1'\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Print This!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<!-- Print This Section 1 Start -->\n<div class=\"print-this-content\"><div class=\"clear\"><\/div><\/div>\n<!-- Print This Section 1 End -->\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div><\/div>\n<!-- Print This Section 2 End -->\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1264,1273,1274,1263,1276,1275,1271,1266,1261,1268,1265,818,820,1262,1260,1210,1270,1269,1267,1272],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VlJd-mX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2270,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions\/2270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}