Spreading the Light of Christ

There is a mom at my parish who I often saw and would say hello to, but she always had to ask me my name, she could never remember it! I found it funny, and rather humorous, but one day she decided that it was ridiculous she could not remember my name, so she made an association with my name.

My name is Amber, and she made an association with Ember because Amber is a warm golden color and so she remembers my name because embers glow in a fire and she claims that I am always glowing.

We as Christians are called to live a life of joy. This mom tells me that she used this as an association to remember my name because I am always glowing. We are called to live a virtuous life and to glow with love, to have a fire of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are called to to be joyous and to shine with the love of the Lord.

Today, I encourage you all to shine with the joy and love of the Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to live in your hearts and be source of strength, in order to love as fully as we are able.

I'm sure you are all wondering: How do we obtain this joy?
Prayer. Simple as prayer. You must must must take quiet time each day to give to Christ that is meant to give Christ time to speak to your heart. You will always need Christ in your life and will not get far without Him. Take time each day to pray quietly. Start small, with just 10 minutes and gradually build - it will be easy because once you get started you will not want to stop. When you experience the joy of  Jesus, you will continue to return to Him constantly because he will become your source of joy and you will want to spread his love throughout the world, to each soul you meet!

Here is a simple prayer to get you started, it is one that I say daily!

Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere we go.
Flood my soul with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of you.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with
may feel your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only you my Jesus.
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine, so to shine as to be light to others.
 Amen,