Christmas Mental Prayer 2020

It's Christmas, don't worry. I'm not neglecting my family or the joy of the season. This is a prerecorded episode. I am happily enjoying Christmas midnight mass and time with family and friends, that is if you're listening to this on Christmas day. If you're in the future, I suppose you can ignore everything I just said, but that's beside the point. This is the Christmas episode and I wanted to do a special mental prayer focusing on a Christmas sermon from Gregory Nazianzen who died in AD 389. I actually have a podcast on Saint Nonna, who was Gregory's mother. He was from modern day Turkey, which was known as Asia Minor. He wrote a wonderful sermon on the celebration of Christmas and we're going to use a short passage from that sermon for today's meditation. Let's begin!

Full Script

This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ

Gregory Nazianzen (+AD 389)

Welcome to Mental Prayer with Shalone Cason. Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple podcasts. Everywhere else, please like, share, and subscribe. You can also support the podcast for as little as $1 a month. And if you have questions or comments, I would love it if you leave me a voicemail. All links are in the description. Now, let’s begin, as always: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It's Christmas, don't worry. I'm not neglecting my family or the joy of the season. This is a prerecorded episode. I am happily enjoying Christmas midnight mass and time with family and friends, that is if you're listening to this on Christmas day. If you're in the future, I suppose you can ignore everything I just said,but that's besides the point. This is the Christmas episode and I wanted to do a special mental prayer focusing on a Christmas sermon from Gregory Nazianzen who died in AD 389. I actually have a podcast on Saint Nonna, who was Gregory's mother. He was from modern day Turkey, which was known as Asia Minor. He wrote a wonderful sermon on the celebration of Christmas and we're going to use a short passage from that sermon for today's meditation. Let's begin!

So with mental prayer, there are many ways to go about it. I prefer reading a short passage multiple times while focusing on different questions, such as what the passage means, how it makes you feel, and how you can live better.

So let’s read that passage again, this time think about how this passage makes you feel.

• This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ.

Let's read that passage again, and continue to think about how this passage makes you feel.

• This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ.

Next, let’s read the passage again, but this time I want you to think about what this passage means to you:

• This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ.

Let’s read the passage again, and continue to think about what this passage means to you:

• This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ.

For this next reading, I want you to think about how you can live holier based on the passage

• This is our present Festival; it is this which we are celebrating today, the Coming of God to Man, that we might go forth, or rather (for this is the more proper expression) that we might go back to God — that putting off the old man, we might put on the New; and that as we died in Adam, so we might live in Christ.

Based on this passage , you should resolve to avoid all sin.

However, you should especially resolve to avoid one particular deadly sin:

(Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Pride, Sloth). You can find out more about the deadly sins at sdcason.com/sin.

This has been Mental Prayer with Shalone Cason. Don’t forget to leave a review on Apple podcasts. Everywhere else, please like, share, and subscribe. You can also support the podcast for as little as $1 a month. And if you have questions or comments, I would love it if you leave me a voicemail. All links are in the description. Until next time, stay holy my friends and we are going to close out as always: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Peace out.