A joyous day today with the first day of Advent. We welcome a new liturgical year, and I consider the liturgical year the preeminent year, transcending the temporal calendar year. The spiritual realm continues whether or not people recognize the fact; and thus the new year begins today, and the spiritual seasons evolve accordingly.
Here at Te Deum Hermitage, I so appreciated the couple from the parish bringing His Real Presence in the consecrated Host from Mass. They greeted me with a "Happy New Year!" Yes! Someone else considers today the first day of the new year, for it is. They said the priest proclaimed from the pulpit, "Happy New Year!" to all assembled.
The purple Advent and Lent pottery is now in use: a mug and saucer, and a bowl for a lentil-and-rice lunch.
The nausea is increased today despite the pain meds, but lo, there is a non-forecasted pressure front that rolled through in the form of a storm. Yet, I filled holes in the closet frames that are now shimmed, with doors installed to see if they fit properly. Next I will remove the doors only so that the frames can be painted.
If, and only if, the nausea subsides enough to get up and stay upright, I will begin installing the pocket door. I've never done one of these (and I'd only framed and installed one other door before these closet doors), so I have some studying to do.
The theme of this First Sunday of Advent's Scripture readings is that of being prepared for Christ. "Be aware! Be watchful!"
It is true; we do not know the day or hour in which the Lord will come to take us with Him, to judge our lives, our minds, hearts, and souls. He comes to take us with Him further into His Light and Love for eternity in heaven, or if we are to continue with learning our soul lessons and be purified enough for divine union, or if we are taken to the consuming fires where hope is no longer available to us.
Hard to think of the latter possibility. Yet the Lord speaks of the fires of hell; and we are warned often enough. The bridesmaids who do not keep oil in their lamps, the rich man who did not offer Lazarus even a drop of water or a crust of bread, and found himself in Sheol, wishing he'd lived his life compassionately and generously, and wanting others to be reminded and warned. Too late!
Sometimes I take a good whiff of spiritual smelling salts, and it is enough to startle me into the reality of what on earth am I doing! Have I grown lax? Indeed, and surely I have. Or does the Lord accept my penitential circumstances, my physical sufferings, my striving and trying to do all for God--is it what the Lord desires of me? Is there enough delight and praise of God in my daily efforts?
Am I being foolish working on this place, trying to relate the efforts to omnia pro Deo prayers and praises? Going through the process, suffering along the way, hoping to make good what was bad, to provide a lovely place for someone else who will not have to go through what I've been through, not be deceived by a realtor, inspector and first contractor?
Some look upon it as a financial must; and indeed I am stripped to nothing and now nearly nothing of the personal loan given. But to me it is all spiritual, the purpose behind the efforts, the praying done in here in the silence of solitude, of being for the most part hidden from the eyes of men, just my entire being visible always to the Lord.
Today a man came for the new mattress; and I will get a refund from the company. I am officially and forthwith sleeping on the floor, with the floor my only place to rest off and on, such as now with laptop, my head propped on a couple of pillows, taking a back break before I figure out how to hang the pocket door upstairs. The mattress is a surprise for the man's four-year-old daughter--strangers, but now in my thoughts and prayers as people I can visualize and with whom I had brief conversation.
I suppose above all else, this place, this experience, this struggle of now nearly five years, has been a means of teaching me to be prepared. I have had to prepare this place for whomever will be here next. Each year at Advent, in here, I remind myself that I am preparing a place for Christ Himself. A mattress on the floor used to be the manger, and now it is a sleeping bag laid out, and a couple blankets on top of it. The hermitage is a stable, and in years past it was in far more rough condition with rats and birds coming inside and plenty of them dead and trapped in the wall and ceiling spaces. So there were animals about the stable!
As to the soul itself, I am going to ask the Lord to guide me in what He desires that I prepare, that I become aware, of that which I should be watchful in my thoughts, words, and actions. Already I've been shown some aspects to change, of which I've written previously, when others ask for counsel and advice, or even for my opinion on matters temporal as well as spiritual.
Mostly, though, today I am reminded to be as expectant and delighted with the first day of the liturgical new year as this is the beginning of waiting and watching, of growing and developing for and with and in the Lord. For new birth comes forth when we give over to God's guidance and care, when we keep trying to love and to love to learn to love God and all His Creatures and Creation.
Happy New Year, one and all! Happy New Year in the Lord Most High: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
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