Happy Birthday Jesus

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the land
Not an inn had a room not even a bed.
The couple walked on with donkey in tow,
In hope that baby Jesus would soon be there.

They knocked on each door, and everyone said
There is no room, for you to lay your head.
But one kindly man had a stable to spare,
He said you can have your baby there.

At last it was Christmas and in a stable with sheep,
They welcomed their baby into the world and lay him to sleep.
The wise men came with their gift and their presents,
To welcome the Lord on this earth from Heaven.

Twas a glorious day that out Lord did come,
And now we shall celebrate all he hath done.
Happy Birthday Jesus have a good day,
All who love you have many thanks to say.
We know that we fail, we stumble and fall
But we know that this season is for you and I thank you on behalf of all.

Merry Christmas everyone and don't forget "Jesus is the reason for the season"

AMDG

The best offense is a good defence?

How often we here this quote in the world of sport, and it is true a team cannot win if they cannot score, defence is key. However, let us not forget them importance of attacking, while the above may be true it is also as true to say a team will not win if they do not score, I am talking about the offence, we mustn’t forget the necessity of attack if you hope to win, because without it all you can hope for it a tie.

I’m not, however, talking about sport today, I am writing to remind us all of the importance of attacking for the faith. We often hear defend the faith, which is undoubtedly something we need to do especially in this culture of death. However if all we do is defend how can we win? The best we can hope for is a tie. We need to be ready to take a stand and attack. We see in our culture the poison Satan has produced, it is obvious he has infiltrated our defence so clearly merely defending is not enough, after all it's not called the spiritual battle for nothing. In a war if all one side did was hold out their shield and never raised a weapon to fight they would eventually lose. This is evident in our world, and even though Jesus won the war by dying on the cross there are still many battles raging around us.

I'm sure we've all seen movies when a girl has been hurt or taken and her father or boyfriend go after her, fight for her, take a stand and vow that her life is greater than his own, that he would fight to the death if he must. Jesus did this for us; he fought for his bride the Church. He fought to the death and now it's our turn to return the favour. If we love Christ like we proclaim we have to show it, we must FIGHT for the faith. Throughout history martyrs are numerous people died excruciating deaths because they fought for Christ, because they loved him. Looking around us we can see that simply defending the faith is not enough because our defence has wavered and broken and our society has succumbed to the ways of death, of Satan.

How do we fight? Prayer is first and foremost, everyday for peace and an end to the culture of death. We stand and declare our faith every chance we get when we are asked about our faith do not shy away, as we are often inclined to do because we want to avoid the awkwardness, myself included. We refuse to participate in the enemies work and strive constantly to help others and ourselves become more like Christ.

We are Christ's hands and feet and we must stand up for him, if we love him we must fight for him because love is sacrifice. After all Satan fights for his kingdom, so stand up Christians and embrace your cross and fight for the Church, Jesus went first and now if our turn to fight.

AMDG

break time blog

In the midst of study and exams I thought I'd take a break and make a post, well lets be honest I don't do a whole lot of study so it's not really much for me to take a break, but well done to you, the reader, for taking a break from your busy life to read what I have to say.

I want to make a recommendation today, last time I posted about music and iPods well today's blog is running along the same thread. For a couple of years now I've listened to a Podcast series called "The One True Faith" it is an AMAZING series of Catholic teachings, answering questions, breaking down lies or misconceptions of the Church, encouraging others in faith, apologetics, basically it is sound awesome Catholic teaching. It was recommend to me a few years ago and I go through phases of listening to them constantly and not listening to them for months but right now they are a go! I wont lie some aren’t as good as others but that is to be with anything. On a whole I find them an awesome way to learn a bit more about Catholicism and how to live it out in a world that tells us we are wrong. It is originally a T.V. show but has been adapted to podcast; you can download hundreds of episodes totally FREE and legal off iTunes, each lasting about 40 minutes of pure to goodness Catholic teaching.

I know this hasn't exactly been the most riveting update in the world of blog but it is one that I felt I had to make eventually, so if you don't already or haven’t heard of the series I thoroughly recommend you have a listen, it is a great way to learn about the faith as you go about your day!

AMDG

Jam for Jesus

Please excuse the title I wanted something alliterative and this is all I could come up with, but that is not the point.

I’m sure you, just like me listen to music, and most probably own an iPod. I simply LOVE my iPod, but at times I know I don't use it for all the right reasons. Even though the majority of my music is clean cut and Christian I do have to admit to having a minority of songs that include, to some degree; swearing, blasphemy or are otherwise promoting sin. But not anymore. I have decided to cleanse my iPod of any and everything that is not Christian or at least has TOTALLY clean wording and not promoting anything sinful, basically my iPod now has to fit the standard of: if I handed my playlist to Jesus would he be pleased or dismayed? (Just to clarify I'm aiming for pleased).

If you're anything like me you probably listen to your iPod daily, this is why it is so important that what you listening to promotes the Kingdom of God, because, as the old adage goes "you get out what you put in" we need to be constantly in EVERY facet of our lives be feeding ourselves things that are for the good of God, that will constantly remind us of his sacrifice, and for us this may mean sacrificing some of the more ‘popular’ music. If we listen to secular music it can bring us down, and subtly instil in us a sinful mindset allowing Satan a foothold in our lives without us really realising.

If you have already one upped me and your iPod already meets this criteria then perhaps you could refuse to listen to any radio station that is not Christian or that promotes the secular way of life.

If you are looking at this and thinking it makes sense but you don't want to give up top quality music feel free to comment and I can recommend  some awesome Chrsitian music!

We must strive to give EVERY area of our lives totally to God and that is why, even though it may seem fanatic, or frivolous our iPods too must be pleasing to God because we are a generation that loves technology but we must always remember to love God more, he blessed this earth with the amazing people who invented these things (RIP Steve Jobs) and therefore we should use them for his glory.

AMDG



Kia Kaha

For those of you who are anything like me these last few days we have been back at school have been somewhat, shall we say difficult.

If you know anything about me you will know that going to school daily is a major drudgery for me, I do not like it, at all. The reason for this is because I feel that my time there is being wasted, I feel as though I accomplish very little and am unable to do anything which glorifies God there. In my head I know that school is the place where I have to be at this point in my life it is my vocation. However I am not as accepting of my call as Jesus was to his cross. In these last few days at school I hope that I will be able to embrace my cross as Christ did his, I know that I am weak but I can do all things with Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).

Kia Kaha everyone and please continue you striving in the challenge, not long left.

AMDG

The Challenge

With the end of high school rapidly approaching I feel caught somewhere between elation and despair, for so long I have been simply longing to be free but now, with this reality looming I am starting to realise I will miss it, well perhaps not school but rather the people who are there. This realisation hit me when I nearly broke down reading the letter in regards to our leavers mass, like “oh my gosh I am actually LEAVING school the only thing that has been my constant for 13 years.”

No doubt I am certainly excited for NET and this new chapter in my life but as I begin to walk towards this amazing new journey I have decided I need to fully dedicate myself to my remaining weeks at school, this doesn't necessarily mean scholastically cause we all know how much I hate the work, but rather in what has been the theme of our senior year "to leave a legacy." A question that has been on my heart recently is have I been living enough for Christ, the one I'm so excited about being able to fully serve next year? The real question: "if someone met me would they leave me knowing I loved Christ, would they recognise me as a Christian?" I have to admit at school my answer would generally be no, sure in the past I have done things that set me apart from the crowd but it seems recently I have become complacent. The only way to reconcile this as far as I'm concerned is to go hard for Christ in my remaining time at school, to be a witness for his love, because if we who claim to love him don’t then no one else will.

My challenge to whoever is reading this is to make sure people know that you love Christ, to be a witness to his name, always. Especially to any leavers, like me, you won’t see the majority of these people again so why not make a fool of yourself for Jesus, he is the one who gave you the ability to do so, therefore we "should give to Christ what is Christ’s." I know I am going to do my best to stamp the legacy of Jesus’ love at school and I pray that you will take on this challenge with me.

AMDG

Another day, another blog.

I always said "If I go on NET I'll write a blog" well with this new journey drawing ever nearer I thought I'd get a head start on the blog, so here it is.

The only real reason for me to create a blog is so I can share my thoughts, my spiritual journey and whatever else I get inspired to write, I will apologise in advance for what I'm sure will be innumerable spelling mistakes and for what may well prove to be the dull, mundane words of a 17 year old girl. Whatever this blog proves to be I hope that you may be able to take something away from reading it, but even if you don't I will continue to write cause maybe, just maybe one day I'll write something worth reading and that my words may glorify the one who inspired them, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Either way AMDG.

For all that is inspired by Christ to him be all the glory.