[Pearls Ep 147: Bringing Sunday into the week.]
In Friday’s email we reminded ourselves that Advent is difficult. Just as Revelation 12 describes the ancient enemy waiting to devour the Christ Child during birth, he lies in waiting to devour us spiritually.
In Revelation 12:4, just prior to that telling of satan waiting to devour the child, it says this, “His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven”.
The Church has always understood this to mean that Satan led a third of the angels in heaven in rebellion against God. Satan devoured a third of the angels – ensnaring them in his rebellion.
He desires to ensnare us in the same ill fate.
Along those lines…
God has a perfect Christmas present for you this year. One very special gift that will draw you closer to Him. Perhaps it’s a greater awareness of His love for you. A new spiritual friendship. A new-found confidence in sharing Christ with others. A deeper devotion to the Eucharist. A deeper love for your spouse. Supernatural release from a deep-seated vice or anxiety. Whose to say? Other than God, that is.
Satan desires to devour that gift. The means and methods at his disposal are legion. But his go-to technique, the trusty scheme that almost never fails, is also his simplest ploy. It is to weaponize the the busyness and distractions of the “holiday season.” Here’s how St. Cyprian puts it, “The devil is described as a serpent because he moves silently and seems peaceable and comes by easy ways and is so astute and so deceptive … that he tries to have night taken for day, poison taken for medicine.” And he tries to deceive us into thinking all our other Christmas plans and preparations are more urgent than simply spending quiet time with God each day.
May we humbly suggest that as part of your time of daily prayer, to pray for the grace to recognize Christ’s Christmas gift when you receive it. Something like this:
“Lord, as I prepare for Your coming at Christmas, I pray for the one perfect Christmas gift that You desire for me and that once Christmas arrives, and in your perfect timing and manner, You may make known to me what it is.”
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith –
Interior Life
Postscript: Revelation 12
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.
Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems.
Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne.