Yes indeed the World has many distractions to offer, those who feel they have worked very hard to earn a living and just need a break will turn to them more readily. We move from one season to the next with pomp festivities. Soon before we realise it we are at a new year. Unless the days are filled with the love of God in our hearts we are running on empty.
God who is faithful is asking for our faithfulness. Just like Anna who dedicated her life to service of the Lord our God. What joy it was for her to witness the promised saviour of the world. The experience of having the living God with us is what moves us to share it with all who will listen just as Anna did.
Lord Jesus let Your will be done in my life. Amen
First reading
1 John 2:12-17
Observance of the will of God
I am writing to you, my own children, whose sins have already been forgiven through his name;
I am writing to you, fathers,
who have come to know the one who has existed since the beginning;
I am writing to you, young men, who have already overcome the Evil One;
I have written to you, children, because you already know the Father;
I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the one
who has existed since the beginning; I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and God’s word has made its home in you, and you have overcome the Evil One.
You must not love this passing world or anything that is in the world.
The love of the Father cannot be in any man who loves the world, because nothing the world has to offer – the sensual body, the lustful eye,
pride in possessions– could ever come from the Father
but only from the world;
and the world, with all it craves for, is coming to an end; but anyone who does the will of God remains for ever.
Gospel
Luke 2:36-40
There was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. She came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.
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