Christmas in January

          On Christmas night of ’23, I had been infused with a sudden certainty that 2024 was going to be Christmas year. Naturally, my first thoughts were of happiness because who doesn’t want a beautiful Christmas to never end? But the deeper I probed that knowing, the more I had to admit that going by the kind of Christmases I often experience, a Christmas year would likely be more than just joy and giddy happiness. A new prayer taught to me gave the earliest indication of Who would be leading the weave of this brand-new year and how it might possibly play out.

          On the last day of the old year, just before the year went to its final rest, a fresh prayer was gently pressed into the creases of my spirit.

Our Lady,

Give me Thy Heart

The moment I perceived it, the prayer made so much sense. I had always grappled with a busy heart. Busy with thoughts, busy with storms. Mine was a heart that struggled to rest. It’s humanly impossible to keep from getting caught up in squalls, but I think I’m about done being sifted by troubling winds. It is time to learn to face the shifting winds of life with more peace, steadfastness, stoicism … and quiet. And who better to learn it from than the Mother of God?

          Heaven must have been waiting for me to reach that bridge of awareness, hence, the prayer, Give me Thy Heart.

          Still, things did not end there. Since the message of coming miracles, I’ve been attempting to shed off some of my spiritual inhibitions, trying to pray big. I put forth my usual timid prayers but then, remembering, follow up with more robust ones – which is why my daily prayer since January was born has been,

Our Lady,

Give me Thy Heart,

Thy Mind and

Thy Spirit

          As I began reciting that prayer every day since, each day of ’24 has worn different coats. There’ve been December days in January. Days of dark skies and icy rains which used to come in December in the old times, have now descended upon us early in the year. I am snug and safe in a clean and cosy home, the Christmas tree still fat and laden with decorations and the fairy lights strung up, winking away gently.

          There was one exceedingly difficult workday when I learned anew the bed of thorns of being a forever-stranger to this community here. A day when I flinched all the hours of it, from the poison of a sprawler’s revelry of meaningless mirth which I could never be a part of.

          More days of coming home from work, very tired, yet finding grateful and soothing rest in the smiles and love, in the chatter and laughter of my children.   Busy days that wind down into quiet nights that keep watch by the gates of life.

Christmas days

          And all through the week of new January, something has been holding fort within me. A quiet watchfulness reigns. A tiny patch of silence into which no troubles encroach.

          Someone has found a room within me.

Mother of

heart,

mind

and spirit