As 2023 ends, I reflect upon the joyful times and the not so joyful times. In prayerful contemplation, I feel gratitude as I accept and embrace it all. I have laughed, cried, celebrated, and grieved, and here I stand.
As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, I have met the year’s events with faith and have grown resilient. Now it’s time for me to release it all as I embrace the days, weeks, and months ahead.
I learned during the past 12 months – from my joys and sorrows and everything in between! I am prepared for the new year. I release limitations and embrace my hopes and dreams. I release my adverse ego as I fully embrace my DIVINITY. I step boldly and bravely into the new year.
Christmas Eve brings back memories of childhood anticipation. What’s in the packages under the tree? What other goodies will be there in the morning?
Now I relish the anticipation of the joy my gifts will bring as I watch my loved ones opening their presents. This joy blooms in my heart as the Advent season culminates in preparation for Christmas day. I double down on my conscious awareness of my DIVINITY.
I still my mind and become present. I contemplate the awe of the shepherds as they heard of Jesus’ birth. I think of the veneration of the kings who traveled to honor him. I embrace and amplify my feelings of awe and wonder.
This is the time of year when daylight increases. Similarly, I increase my awareness of the light, love, and joy I am.
The focus of the third Sunday of Advent is love. The PRINCIPLE of LOVE is present in ITs entirety in us and everywhere at same the time. My use of the PRINCIPLE of LOVE can result in dispelling the darkness of loneliness and even conflict with the light of harmony and togetherness.
I also know LOVE is the basis of our important ability to desire. In Keep a True Lent (p. 146), Charles Fillmore said, “Sincere desire is a form of prayer.”
Love is secular and sacred, human and divine, immediate and immortal, personal and universal. Amid seasonal greetings for hope, peace and joy, I appreciate the importance of the POWER of LOVE. I am responsible for expressing love throughout the world by my words and actions. I am kind, patient, compassionate, empathetic, encouraging, supportive, and so much more.
I seek to embody peace. No matter what might be happening around me, I can rise above that which troubles and distracts me, all that takes my attention away from my spiritual life and my DIVINITY.
PEACE is PRINCIPLE and IT is always mine since it is an aspect of my DIVINITY. When peace feels far away, I re-center myself. I return to the practices I use to calm my mind and open my heart. As I relax and enter the Silence, I center upon my DIVINITY and manifest peace.
That peace is my own. Returning to activity, I carry peace with me. I bring harmony to my interactions, calm to my reactions, and tranquility to every corner of my life. I will be peaceful because I am inherently PEACE Itself.
FAITH is one of the 12 POWERS; IT is a DIVINE IDEA or PRINCIPLE. ITs uses range from hope to conviction. As Advent season begins, I feel a quickening, a renewal deep within me as I embark upon the spiritual journey leading to Christmas.
I may have hope for lasting peace, greater love, or abiding joy. But as I have grown spiritually, I have learned to look for those things within, to claim them as expressions manifested from my DIVINE IDENTITY. Once I do that, I may begin to see them manifest in my life.
Like my other POWERS, it’s up to me to use my Power of FAITH wisely. I have conviction that world peace, love, and joy are possible here and now. I am using the POWER of FAITH with IMAGINATION to envision each manifesting with ease and grace.
