Spiritual progress is the law of your being. Am I keeping sobriety in first place in my mind? Anything that makes us forget our number-one problem is dangerous to us. When we find ourselves getting upset over something, we must realize that it’s a luxury we alcoholics can’t afford. As we go along in A.A., we learn to recognize the things that may upset us emotionally. We must never let any other problem, whether of family, business, friends, or anything else, take precedence in our minds over our alcoholic problem. is “First Things First.” This means that we should always keep in mind that alcohol is our number-one problem. Courtesy and kindness, regularly practiced, help me to live in emotional balance, at peace with myself. The only amends I can make to those untraceable individuals, the only “changes for the better” I can offer, are indirect amends made to other people, whose paths briefly cross mine. These people are untraceable, and direct amends to them are not possible. When I survey my drinking days, I recall many people whom my life touched casually, but whose days I troubled through my anger and sarcasm. “Jesus, I want to praise you and honor your mother today.Made direct amends to such people wherever possible. So go ahead! Celebrate your heavenly mother’s birthday today! By becoming man, he not only made us partakers in his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), but he also showed us how to live a fully human life as a child of God in the real world.Īs we honor Mary’s birth, we give glory to God, who sent his son Jesus into our world to be like us in all things but sin. As a man, he walked the earth and experienced all of the triumphs and temptations, all the joys and sorrows that are common to each one of us. He, too, was born-to a woman in the ancient Middle East. He is fully human, just like his mother and all those ancestors. But by virtue of his mother, he is also God like us. Jesus is the second Person of the Trinity and Emmanuel, God with us. That truth helps us understand not only Mary but also her son. She is a real person, someone we can relate to, with a birthday like any one of us. She is not just the esteemed mother of the long-awaited Messiah. But Mary is not just the grand fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. She is, as Isaiah prophesied, “the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,” the One who would be “God. Yes, she holds a very special place in the history of Israel. That’s one of the reasons why we celebrate Mary’s birthday. But on today’s feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, this genealogy helps us to understand that Jesus was born into our world at a particular historical moment, to a specific, real family of people. (Matthew 1:1)Īh, a good genealogy-don’t we just love to read one of those? Actually, our natural reaction may be just the opposite as we look at the paragraphs of names of ancient men who “became the father of” other ancients, whose names we might not even recognize. Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Not a subscriber? Subscribe for only $12 (Save $4). Subscribers: Please log in to view the Mass readings. DAILY MASS READINGS AVAILABLE WITH A SUBSCRIPTIONĪccess daily Mass readings, meditations and articles, as well as special resources, by becoming a subscriber or logging in.
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