{"id":1582,"date":"2013-12-22T01:00:36","date_gmt":"2013-12-22T07:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1582"},"modified":"2013-12-03T09:44:04","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T15:44:04","slug":"spending-advent-with-mary-the-mother-of-jesus-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/?p=1582","title":{"rendered":"Spending Advent with Mary, the Mother of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/tn_MP9003848811.jpg\"><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\" \/><strong><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=1582&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\"><\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0December 22, 2013 \u2502<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>4<sup>th<\/sup> Sunday of Advent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0Mary\u2019s Visit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Reflection<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Remember the story in the Gospel of Mary going to visit her cousin, Elizabeth? It is a truly wonderful story of how they met that day. For both of these faithful women, the unfolding of God\u2019s purpose and power was before them. In these holy moments, both hearts were aroused with divine passion.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise for us in these final days of Advent. Let Mary\u2019s Visit be to your own house. She brings Christ with her. Keep your focus on this, that faithfulness is not mere lip service, but<br \/>\nactually translates into actions, such as giving birth, feeding the hungry crowds, calling others to truth, or giving up your life for love. Mary\u2019s journey was not easy, but she did not travel it alone. We may also be called to difficult work, but we can always count on God to be with us through the ones given to us as companions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Share with others or ponder alone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Who is your spiritual companion? To whom would you go at<br \/>\ntimes of mystery and need, as Mary did to Elizabeth?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Think of those whom you know for whom there is no one to<br \/>\noffer support and love. These may be people living very near to you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>O God, in Mary\u2019s Visit we see great signs of hope and encouragement for us. Thank you for sending people into our lives to love and support us. Amen.<\/p>\n<p>Used with Permission<br \/>\nAuthor: Bill Huebsch<\/p>\n<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=1582&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":[741,1438,1427,1252,1440,1447,1443,1446,1444,1216,524,1389,818,820,189,659,1210,1442,1441,1445],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VlJd-pw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582"}],"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=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nativitycatholicchurch.net\/adult_faith_life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}