Skip to main content

My first Christmas.

Unfortunately, my memory doesn't remember my very first Christmas as a little baby, but this year I have the fortunate blessing of being an uncle for my precious little nephew. When you think of Christmas or at least when I think of Christmas, the first thing I think about is presents. But there is a presence that I have come to yearn for this time of year, and that presence is the Lord. I became more alive spiritually when I was 21, when I prayed a prayer that changed my life. In the quiet of my bedroom, I offered my life to Jesus Christ. Being a Catholic, I went through all the necessary sacraments that I was brought up to receive. The first sacrament was reconciliation, and I did this in grade school, probably in grade one or two. We then moved to Markham, and I attended St. Patrick's elementary school which surprisingly still looks the same. Right next to my grade school is the church that I attended at 21, and have returned to lately. We had a religion class, and sometimes the priests would visit us from our church next door. These were sacred moments for me and I will always cherish them.

In high school I believed in God, attended church, but I never felt that I really knew God. I had a childlike faith in grade school, but in Catholic high school my faith was one of distant respect, not one that was truly alive. Although being confirmed, in grade school when I was 21 I had to make my faith my own. Some call it the born again experience, but what my heart really knew was that I truly discovered who Jesus Christ was to me, and my belief and faith truly came alive as an adult. I drifted from my catholic faith, but never renounced it. Experimented with eastern ideas, but throughout my absence from the church, as I was discovering truths about myself and about life, the Jesus I had rediscovered that day in my room when I prayed a sinners prayer was showing me things about life, my identity, my spirituality and my love for God that ultimately brought me back to my roots many years later.

If I could write a spiritual diary, which I plan on doing one day, I would title it something like "The boy who got lost in the woods, and found his way home" I would talk about the dangers that I have been through, the joy I lost and found, then lost again and am now in the process of rediscovering that joy through my faith in the Lord. Being that I never went to seminary, it would have to be a layman's rendition of the joy and faith, that I knew and discovered in my childhood which is now being practiced as an adult. Part of my journey has been going deeper into the mystery of my Catholic faith, and seeing God in that light through the eyes of a child.

We all have that child living in us as I have discovered, and there is an innocence in my walk with God right now, which day by day is building me into a stronger person of faith. The rediscovery of faith can be so exciting at times, that all you want to do is live it out and talk about it all the time. I spent years and I still enjoy studying the scriptures, and still talk about the bible in a podcast, what lead me to a deeper faith I have to admit was a better understanding of Christian doctrine. I wanted to talk about the Catholic catechism in this blog, and what it says about Jesus Christ, because what I believe the Lord is showing me about himself right now is more about His humanity.

Untill I get a better understanding of the doctrine of the Christ's humanity, I am a little bit reserved to talk about in a doctrinal way, other than to say that Jesus was fully God and fully man. There is a mystery about the incarnation, and I don't want to treat it lightly. This is what we celebrate this Christmas as Christians, the incarnation of the Son of God. I would like to close by quoting a verse from the Gospel of St. John; 1:14 NIV The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.


Jesus truly the Son of God, made his dwelling among us. The bible calls him the word. For right now, I will sit with this mystery, and praise God for it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some Bible Verses on Money.

  Bible verses about money. I bet you didn’t think the bible said that? Proverbs 23:5 When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.  1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Proverbs 13:11 Wealth quickly gained is quickly wasted — easy come, easy go! But if you gradually gain wealth, you will watch it grow. Psalm 62:10 Don’t make your living by extortion or put your hope in stealing. And if your wealth increases, don’t make it the centre of your life. Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storeho...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Story.

  In 1999 I suffered a mental health crisis and admitted myself into the hospital where I live, in which I was given a mental health diagnosis. I didn’t want to receive medication at the time, but unwillingly accepted it. I was in the hospital for about two months, when I asked my doctor if I could go home, and he said yes, even though he thought it would have been better if I stayed longer.   I was glad to be home though, but at 25, it took some adjusting to feel truly at home. One of the problems I was having at home was it was hard for me to eat the food in the house. I was having a psychosis where I felt the food wasn’t mine, and I literally had to go out to eat, or buy bread from the supermarket and take it home to eat it. Eventually this wore off, but I don’t remember how long.  I was now on ODSP and had a check come to me every month in order to have financial support. I would occasionally have a crisis, and ask my mom to drive me to the hospital, but eventually th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why has the church lost its capacity and power?

  The church has modernized itself and in the process has lost something very valuable. It has lost its capacity to be personable. The way we reach lost souls is by seeing them, by getting to know them, and by recognizing them, but people are getting lost in the church. The church has become a busy place and is also becoming a less holy place. To make disciples we have to get to know people, and technology in the church is depersonalizing souls, and depersonalizing God for them. Faith becomes a marketable commodity, whereas in the past, churches and their leaders nourished and valued personal faith. While faith is still valued, it’s becoming something that is marketable, which reminds me of the story of Jesus in the temple turning over tables (Matthew 21:12-17). The problem isn’t that the church doesn’t work or doesn’t want to share the gospel, it could be how we are doing it. The church is currently being run like a business, and each Christian metaphorically speaking has a profit...
Post a Comment
Read more