Give yourself the gift of love for Christmas

By Mary Regina Morrell
©Catholic Online 2004

"Compassion, sensitivity and openness come when a person feels comfortable with who he or she is, and when he is willing to give the quality of that energy to another human being. But, remember -- it serves no purpose to give the quality of your inner being to people who either abuse it or deny its virtue. Give your gift to one of those many deserving people in this world who would honor the gift and do something positive with it." Gary Null, Be Kind To Yourself

Recently I had the great gift of spending some time at the house of a priest friend I greatly admire and respect. His house is always warm and welcoming, a reflection of the man himself. But at this time of year the rooms are invariably filled with delightful Christmas decorations, the most beautiful of all being the variety of Nativity scenes that seem to grace every room. To see the story of Bethlehem displayed in so many ways is always a powerful reminder of our need to honor the Christ child as the center of every part of our lives.

But this year, as I recalled sad conversations with those who were hurting, it brought to mind, also, a child of God most of us don't honor often enough - ourselves.

There are any number of experiences that can hinder our acknowledgement of our uniqueness, our goodness and our giftedness - a culture that values the shallow; past failures or, at least, our perception of failure; criticism or rejection by our parents, our teachers, our friends.

We learn at an early age that the easiest way to be affirmed is to meet someone else's needs or expectations. But when we come to see our worth as only through the eyes of others then we waste our energy feeling we are not good enough, talented enough, wise enough, attractive enough.

We live in our limitations and forget the words of Scripture - "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:13,14).

We forget that in honoring who we are we honor the God who made us. We forget that the commandment, "Love your neighbor" ends with "as you love yourself."

Fortunately, for me, God has blessed my life with a wise and wonderful woman who taught me, from her "being' as well as from her teaching, that it is possible to care for ones self and not be selfish, to acknowledge one's gifts without being prideful, to embrace one's impact on the lives of others without being arrogant., to be proud of who we are without losing our humility.

She has shown me time and time again that we make many choices in our lives and every one can either enrich or diminish who we are as children of God. When she bows to me in greeting and says, "Namaste," which translated means, "The God in me greets the God in you, the Spirit in me meets the same Spirit in you," she pays honor to the sacredness in each of us.

She has helped me reclaim the lessons taught to me by my parents to honor the gift God has given me in life, to honor who I am as a person and to fill my life with those who honor me as well.

And that is the best gift of all.

______________________

Mary Regina Morrell is a free-lance writer,columnist and author of Angels in High Top Sneakers from Loyola Press.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562.1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

Gift, Love, Christmas, Honor

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