Good Evening (or Afternoon for everyone at home),
I hope everyone is doing well! I'm doing very well. Today was an "ordinary" day. It started off beautifully with 7:30am Mass in the Manger grotto at the Church of the Nativity. The Franciscans who run the Roman Catholic part of the church were very nice and let us take their Mass. It was beautiful to get to experience Mass there again.
Today was also a class day. The lectures today were on the Spiritual Direction course I'm taking. It was a good chance to get some good pointers for being a future spiritual director. If you have never experienced spiritual direction, I highly recommend it! What a gift! As a seminarian I'm required to have a spiritual director. However, required or not, it is such a blessing in my life. As we are learning, the purpose of a director is to help the directee grow in their relationship with God. That is the primary task of a spiritual direction relationship. Having someone to walk with you on that journey and assist you spiritually is a total blessing.
Free time today was spent just hanging out with the guys. I got to go to my favorite coffee shop too. I was able to have mocha and read my book for class. A nice way to spend the afternoon.
Tomorrow we visit the site of Jesus' Baptism and the Mount of Temptations. These are going to be two great sites! They are very "human" sites I would say. In Baptism, Jesus sanctified the waters of the Jordan allowing us who are Baptized to receive the Holy Spirit. With that comes immeasurable graces and virtues. The Mount of Temptation is also a key site for you and I. In being tempted something happened to Jesus that happens to you and I...He was tempted! The only difference, He never gave in. He never sinned. One of the things we can take from this though is that Jesus understands temptations and understands we as humans get them. We can turn to Him in our time of temptation and ask Him for the grace to overcome them just how He did. This isn't to say this is easy, but He is with us. The Holy Spirit is with us. And the grace is with us to overcome the temptation and defeat the sin! A little prayer I was taught to pray when temptations arise, whatever they may be, is "Jesus, Saver of Souls". That's it. That little phrase. I've come to make it my own little prayer by adding, "Jesus, Saver if Souls, save my soul so I can save souls for you." The "image" of whatever was tempting you may still be there after this prayer, that's only normal and how our brains work. If we try not to think of something we start to think of it. But it won't have the power over you. Jesus deflates temptations power by His grace. It just takes our part of asking for the grace.
Alrighty it's getting late over here. Please know of prayers and please pray for me.
-Chris
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