At My Master's Feet

Credit: Lynne Marie Davis


I was pleasantly surprised today at Mass to learn that this was the First Sunday of Advent. Our priest, a cheerful, charismatic Scotsman who loves using slideshows in his homilies, greeted us at the very beginning of his celebration with a rousing, "Happy New Year!" It seems the Church recognizes the beginning of Advent to be the New Ecclesiastic Year. I was overjoyed -- a time of new beginnings! Our Lord inspired me to reset my priorities at just the right time. With that knowledge, I now look to the objective He has set before me.

Advent, as described by our priest, is a "time of waiting". We are literally taking 4 weeks to prepare for the Coming of Christ. This is an important date to arrive at! How exciting, how anxious! What do we do to prepare?

Whenever an important guest is to arrive, we spend a rediculous amount of time preparing. Cleaning, cooking, decorating. As of late, I have found myself feeling overwhelmed and anxious at the state of my home and the desire to have it ALL cleaned madly and right away. But today, the Holy Spirit has been nudging me in the opposite direction. I am reminded of the story of Martha and Mary, the two sisters of Lazarus, from Luke 10:38-42. I am expecting Jesus, and spend my time madly rushing around trying to get my home in order. But Jesus is already here, present in the arms and heart of my daughter and husband. Rather than stressing myself over the details, I should be making time spent loving and serving them my first priority. So the rest of this Advent season, my goal is to commit myself to sitting at the feet of my Master and learning what He has to teach me. I will share these lessons with you in a new series here entitled At My Master's Feet. I suspect it will be an ongoing series, stretching well past Advent. But I eagerly wait to see what He has for me to learn.