BEINGS NOT DOINGS +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø It is fair to say that our culture is a doing culture

Ø We have become human doings over human beings

Ø We’re made to think we always have to be doing something and if we are not, we are wasting time

GOD’S DONG +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø This mindset can also affect our spiritual life

Ø It can make inroads on our faith and how we view our relationship with God

Ø We can easily slide into the mindset that our salvation is all our doing

Ø This approach often leads to make little or no time just to be, to be with God

Ø It leaves little time for silence and stillness

Ø The result is that we can miss the truth that our salvation is first and foremost God’s doing

Ø Pope Emeritus Benedict reflected on the Annunciation to Mary is these words

Ø “The mystery of the Annunciation to Mary is not only a mystery of silence; it is also, and even more, a mystery of grace

Ø We must ask ourselves: What is the real reason why Christ decided to be born of a Virgin?

Ø Salvation comes not from human beings and their own powers, but solely from God and his gracious action

Ø God intervenes where there is a human vacuum; God starts at the point at which, from the human point of view, nothing can be done

Ø The salvation of the world is exclusively God’s doing and therefore occurs in the midst of human weakness and powerlessness

Ø From the viewpoint of the Bible, the Virgin birth is in the last analysis a sign that what occurs is a pure act of grace on God’s part”

Ø Benedict makes a good point of how our salvation is purely a gift from God

Ø God’s doing not ours