{"id":744,"date":"2019-01-07T19:08:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T19:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/?p=744"},"modified":"2019-01-07T19:08:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T19:08:47","slug":"spiritual-director-december-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/?p=744","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Director &#8211; December 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201c\u2026<em>they departed for their country by another\nway<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp; Matthew 2:12<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nstory of the Magi making their way to find the new born king is one for us to\nponder with great hope for our own journey of faith.&nbsp; Led by a sign from God, a star, they\nfind Jesus the One sent by God to rescue and redeem the world by a message of\nLove, Joy and Peace.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\njourney of the Magi was surely one of uncertainty and many questions.&nbsp; What would their search lead them to?&nbsp; What would they report back to Herod, and\nwhat would his response be to what they found?&nbsp;\nWho would they meet along the way?&nbsp;\nWould there be doubters trying to sway them from what they sought?&nbsp; Would the star occasionally be overshadowed\nby clouds?&nbsp; Would they need to correct\ntheir bearings or even change course?&nbsp;\nWhen they arrived would something more be asked of them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nobstacles the Magi may have encountered are not different from what we\nencounter in our search for Jesus.&nbsp; Fear,\nuncertainty, doubt, distractions and questions can overshadow our signs, our\nstars.&nbsp; Likewise, what the Magi found is\nnot unlike what we too find&#8211;the pure love and wisdom of God in our Lord Jesus\nChrist.&nbsp; They would not encounter a king\non a throne, but rather a king in an unusual and humble setting\u2014a manger.&nbsp; They would meet a king who comes to rule by\nhumility and compassion.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scripture\ntells us that the Magi would not return from this meeting by the same\nroute.&nbsp; So too is our journey of faith\nand encounter with Jesus.&nbsp; When we truly\nmeet Him, we simply cannot return from where we came in the same way.&nbsp; When we receive Him in the sacraments we\u2019re\nchanged.&nbsp; When we give of ourselves, and\noffer our self-gift in the service of others, we too experience an\nepiphany.&nbsp; And like the Magi, our\npilgrimage takes us on a different road than from where we came.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We,\ntoo, will find Christ if we are willing to search for and recognize the signs\nfrom God in our own time that lead us to Him.&nbsp;\nAs this Christmas Season comes to a close, we\u2019ve once again experienced\nthe great mystery and the reality of Emmanuel\u2014God with us.&nbsp; May they bring about our own Epiphany in this\nNew Year<a>\u2014<\/a>a closer walk with the One who comes to\nsave all of mankind!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>De\nColores!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Deacon\nWayne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2026they departed for their country by another way.\u201d&nbsp; Matthew 2:12 The story of the Magi making their way to find [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=744"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bellevillecursillo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}