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Here is an Advent-themed devotion from the writings of Henri Nouwen for today.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for your good, who leads you in the way you should go.  O that you had paid attention to my commandments!  Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.
                                                                                                                                         Isaiah 48:17-18

When you pray, you open yourself to the influence of the Power which has revealed itself as Love.  The Power gives you freedom and independence.  Once touched by this Power, you are no longer swayed back and forth by the countless opinions, ideas and feelings which flow through you.  You have found a center for your life that gives you a creative distance so that everything you see, hear and feel can be tested against the source.  Christ is the man who in the most revealing way made clear that prayer means sharing in the power of God.  It enabled him to turn his world around, it gave him the attraction to draw countless men out of the chains of their existence, but it also stirred up aggression which brought him to his death.  Christ, who is called the Son of Man and also the Son of God, has shown what it means to pray.  In him, God himself became visible for the fall and rise of many.

Reflection
We are most ourselves when we are closest to the One in whose image we are made.  As we grow in the spiritual life, we do not lose our sense of self, but come to see ourselves most clearly in our sharing of the life of Christ.

Taken from: “The Lord Is Near: Advent Meditations From The Works of Henri J. M. Nouwen.” p.15.

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