Mary uttered the ultimate word of surrender. When the angel told her she would have a child, she said, “Let it be with me according to your word.”  Her surrender to the will of God made it possible for her to bring God into the world.  The church has since called her theotokos, “bearer of God,” sometimes translated “mother of God.”

Each of us is called to be theotokos, a bearer of God.  Look for opportunities this week to bring Christ into your life and your interactions with other people.

Peace and blessings!

Bob

John the Baptist brought a new idea into an old world and encouraged people to change the way they think (repent, metanoia).   We tell ourselves a story--a sequence of thoughts.  I wondered how many thoughts do we have each day?  So, I posed the question to Google.  One website answered:  “There are four web sites I have found that range between 12,357 and 60,000 thoughts per day”  Another website, by the way, estimated that 80% of those thoughts are negative.

Albert Einstein said:  “You can’t solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.”  Pema Chodron suggests that if we want to change our lives, we need to change our story--the sequence of thoughts we have; our consciousness.

One source referred to an unnamed Harvard study that concluded we have three new thoughts each day.  These new thoughts are like John crying in the wilderness:  “Prepare the way of the Lord.”  They are a call to repentance, a change of thinking, a new story, a new consciousness.

I wish I could tell you how to introduce those new thoughts into your consciousness.  I admit I’m stumped.  I’ve asked myself and my psychologist and psychiatrist friends, “Where do thoughts come from?”  I’m hoping that if I could figure out where they come from I might be able to influence them, create them, modify them and so on.  Unfortunately, my expert friends don’t know much more than I do.  Now where does that thought come from?

If we have the power to create new thoughts, by our self talk or affirmations, perhaps, then we could create anew reality.  Of course our self talk or affirmations may be composed of thoughts we're already thinking so we haven’t consciously created them.  My question comes back, “Where do thoughts come from?”  In any case the new thoughts that do come have the potential of leading us to repentance, a new way of thinking, a new consciousness, new stories, new life.  Ah Jesus will be born in us as these new thoughts take root.

Peace and Blessings!

Bob