CHRISTMAS GREETINGS—A Special Message from the Men’s Cursillo Director to His Team on Christmas Day By Jim Barker
The following reflection was written to the Men’s Cursillo Team on Christmas Day. It is inspiring for all particularly the Cursillo Community:
Friends of great faith, Merry Christmas to all of you!
You are a blessing from God! Each of you are part of a much larger gift in my life, and to the lives of so many others given by our loving Father. Know that you are a gift that continues to point the way to a deeper and most loving way, to a relationship with our loving God – Father, Son and Spirit…
This morning presented a different kind of Christmas morning. And for the first time in many years, it was just Beth and I. Our children and grandchildren didn’t stay over Christmas Eve, leaving us on this Christmas morning with silence… I lit the tree and sat there – it was so quiet… so powerful!
My prayer had no words – just the presence of Christ that filled my soul to the point of tears… the greatest gift…
And it just reminded me of the reality of who I am, and how God has had His eyes on me long before I was ever known to this world – a God who in His timing, couldn’t wait for me to be formed into a relationship of love and friendship with Him.
I pray that today on this Christmas Day, you feel that too…
I needed that reminder because sometimes I forget that He’s in every part of my life, that’s when I lose track of who I am. And isn’t that so true for most of humanity over the years. But God’s plan through the incarnation saves us over and over again, entering our humanity to show us how to live a life of love, friendship, compassion, forgiveness, and faith… A life of dying and rising, a life that sometimes looks as if we are losing ground, but as our eyes of faith are opened wider, it’s easier to see that we are continually gaining ground in this life we are given… What an awesome God!
The world today is a fragile place just like it was when Jesus was born into our humanity, and today in this same broken world, we are called out every day to deliver the Jesus who lives in us, just as Mary did…
And I know you do it well as I’ve witnessed it over the years. Cursillo is a powerful place where Grace meets resistance… It’s a place where you and I deliver the gift of Christ in a powerful way! And as I always say – the gift is ours in the knowing, that the power of Cursillo shows us that the time and place of delivery is everywhere and anywhere we are in this world.
So let us live a life of offering as Mary did, and let’s pray to be freed of the feelings we sometimes carry of inadequacy and unworthiness – our resistance!
Let us continue to pray for the trust in ourselves just as Mary did so that we can allow God to work His grace through us…
I pray that the presence of Christ will fill your heart & soul to the point of “tears of joy” for all that He gives us, not only in this season of Christmas as we know it – but to the Christmas that happens every day in our lives as we continue to seek and know Him…
May the Peace of Christ live in you always!
Jim