breakfast of champions
I wake up hungry--every day. After my alarm rattles me out of bed and I have hit the snooze button once (as I can only bear to do this once as I wrap my rosary around it to remind me that better things await me than sleep) I then pull back the covers and start saying the Our Father to get my spirit percolating and plugged in to the Power source.
I head down the stairs to the "best part of waking up" and no, it is not Folgers in my cup, it is a cup overflowing with Love from Him.
And as I have been told that "nothin' says lovin' like something from the oven," I very much look forward to my FRESH, HOT "DAILY BREAD," something far more satisfying than what I can pop out of can or bake up myself. This is Bread, straight from heaven, This is Jesus in His Word written to me. I grab my Magnificat and my journal, and I pray that God will speak to me directly from His word. Then I begin reading the daily Mass readings; the beautiful liturgy of the Catholic Church. I write about each portion of the Mass in my journal: the prayers, the readings , the Psalms, the Gospel message. Each is saying something to me that I need to hear for that very day. And then I pray about what I have read and that He, by His grace will show me... how I can love Him more this day than I did the day before because of this encounter with Him and what He has lovingly revealed to me in His word.
You see, God's Word is always fresh, always new, always life-giving and satisfying. No matter how many times I read or re-read it, it is always "fresh out of the oven" hot and ready to fill the empty places in me. How? because his Word is "a Living Word"(Hebrews 4:12) and "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16). He wants me to take it in as I would food, for it is to sustain me for the marathon journey of life.
We are told in Scripture to be the "aroma of Christ for God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing." 2 Corinthians 2:15. Basically we are to be wafting the "Sweet smells of Christ" to everyone in the world! My world begins and ends each day in my home- and that, quite frankly, is the hardest place to pass the "smell test!" If I do not start my day with "baking up something great with Jesus" I am afraid I have an "aroma" but it is not of Jesus. It is of my own human flesh and efforts, not nearly so intoxicating and enticing as the one that comes from being with my Lord.
After getting my daily fill, "pre-gaming" my day as I like to think of it, I then, by His grace, can face the ones who matter the most to me, the ones who call me "wife" and "mom." I get them lovingly out the door and off to school, and I can go to Daily Mass where this Manna from Heaven truly comes down in a Sacramental form, physically, to give me a supernatural feast for my soul. What a turbo-charge for any day!
So... now with the time change, use it to your advantage! Wake up! Get up! Read up! Pray up! Mass-up! You will never regret one minute you spend with our loving, life-giving Lord--because as our favorite breakfast tiger loves to say...He's "GRRRRRREAT!"
"One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Matthew 4:4
Dear Lord,
I want to know You more. I realize that requires getting to know who You say that You are, not just who I think that You are! Please "wake me up" to You and the things and ways of You. Give me a desire for the higher things because You ultimately are the only One Who can truly satisfy my hunger and thirst. Show me Yourself in Your Word and in Your Sacraments, Your gifts to us. And please keep me choosing You this day."
I ask this in the Name of the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Amen
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