Main menu
You are here
St. Gabriel and All Angels
The Liberal Catholic Church in Fairfield, Iowa
Advent 1 - Discrimination
Fr. James Palmer, Rector
December 2, 2018
• Advent is a season of preparation:
◦ To prepare for the Advent of Christ.
• In the early days, they were looking for His return:
◦ Yet Christ already dwells in each of us.
◦ He is present in every person, every creature,
◦ And every atom of creation.
◦ To prepare for the Advent of Christ.
• In the early days, they were looking for His return:
◦ Yet Christ already dwells in each of us.
◦ He is present in every person, every creature,
◦ And every atom of creation.
• What we call the “birth of Christ”, what we
prepare for:
◦ Transformation in our own consciousness:
◦ A transformation, an inner revelation,
◦ That helps us to yield to a closer Union with His
◦ Spirit, His Life – which is our own higher self.
• Advent then is a season for preparing to accept,
◦ Transformation in our own consciousness:
◦ A transformation, an inner revelation,
◦ That helps us to yield to a closer Union with His
◦ Spirit, His Life – which is our own higher self.
• Advent then is a season for preparing to accept,
acknowledge and ultimately to yield our small self
to the living presence of Christ:
◦ Within ourselves, allowing it to guide and direct
◦ Our every thought, word and action;
◦ And to find Him working outside in the world,
◦ In every circumstance and in everyone we see.
• The work that God has given us is that:
◦ We believe in this living presence of Christ,
◦ Whom the Father has sent;
◦ And that we work to awaken to the fullness
◦ Of that presence in ourselves and in the world.
◦ Within ourselves, allowing it to guide and direct
◦ Our every thought, word and action;
◦ And to find Him working outside in the world,
◦ In every circumstance and in everyone we see.
• The work that God has given us is that:
◦ We believe in this living presence of Christ,
◦ Whom the Father has sent;
◦ And that we work to awaken to the fullness
◦ Of that presence in ourselves and in the world.
• This week’s intent is discrimination:
◦ The ability to discern clearly that essence of Life:
◦ To see the Spirit, the Christ, in everyone;
◦ Amid ebb and flow of everyday living,
◦ To locate, live and offer ourselves to That Presence
◦ More fully with each experience that comes.
• God is speaking directly to us
◦ All the time, in all that happens, in all that comes
◦ The ability to discern clearly that essence of Life:
◦ To see the Spirit, the Christ, in everyone;
◦ Amid ebb and flow of everyday living,
◦ To locate, live and offer ourselves to That Presence
◦ More fully with each experience that comes.
• God is speaking directly to us
◦ All the time, in all that happens, in all that comes
to us.
◦ It just happens that is in a different language – the
◦ It just happens that is in a different language – the
language of Spirit.
◦ His Life is omnipresent, we simply have to tune-in
◦ His Life is omnipresent, we simply have to tune-in
to His wavelength.
• And this takes discrimination:
◦ To separate out His words, His Life, His Peace
◦ From all the visible activity that appears
◦ To be happening in our world and in ourselves.
• And the less static we have going on inside,
◦ The clearer and more direct will be our receipt of the
• And this takes discrimination:
◦ To separate out His words, His Life, His Peace
◦ From all the visible activity that appears
◦ To be happening in our world and in ourselves.
• And the less static we have going on inside,
◦ The clearer and more direct will be our receipt of the
Divine Word.
• This is how Christ redeems us –
◦ By bringing us to know Him as our self,
◦ And then to see Him wherever we look.
• This is how Christ redeems us –
◦ By bringing us to know Him as our self,
◦ And then to see Him wherever we look.