Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis

between receiving and giving.        

Goethe

 

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  The Fourth Gift ~ Ministering

Ministering - what a strange word. What does it mean?

Most of us experience minister as a noun (and it is usually a man who is the head of a local church.) But minister is, most significantly, a verb and that is how it becomes a gift.

Ministering means to provide caring, guiding, teaching, healing, attending. If you were to write a list of active gestures of love, you would have a definition of ministering.

As I struggle to develop a right sense of ministering, I always think of angels. Right ministering is angelic.

Do you trust that angels offer you the gift of ministering? Do you know that angels want to meet your needs for knowledge, care, strength, confidence and equanimity?

When other human beings minister to you, they are collaborating with the angels.

And do you know in your heart of hearts that those human beings who minister, can attend to and provide for your inner needs without a selfish agenda, judgment or demand?

Can you receive their love?

So much of the social challenges we face today could be salved and solved if we were encouraged to recieve and give ministering.

You do not have to wait for ministering. You can ask for it. You can say "I need the gift of caring attention. Please minister to me." Say this outloud at least three times right now. Say it until it feels right.

Can you ask for love?

Do you know the joy of ministering? Do you offer your attention to those in need? Are you one of those ministers who can only give ministering, but cannot receive it? The joy of ministering is only known when it is first received and then given.

In the Lifting the Veils course that guides participants through an autobiographical review of their first seven years, I ask them to recollect someone who made a difference in their life - not a parent or someone they were close to.

Now I ask you to think back to those first years and find the early gifts of ministering. Remember those someones who were guided by the angels to attend to your nascent sense of self.

During the Holy Nights, the angels are bending down to minister to each of us. Reach up and receive their gifts.

 

I invite you share your experience of receiving and giving voice with the Inner Christmas Community.  

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Each message has a topic based on the theme of the year. I offer a creative exploration of the topic, and a number of questions to consider around the topic as a way to find your individual relationship to the topic and a new, clarifying, liberating perspective on yourself.

Reading the messages is not the experience of the Holy Nights. The Holy Nights are a cosmic experience that can only be felt within your own soul. Be confident and know they are YOUR Holy Nights.