I’ve been a bit “under the weather” with a bad cold and used the time to re-immerse myself in my novel-in-progress, The Magdalene Mystery.
The characters are coming to life on the page. I’m sending them to Rome and Provence, in pursuit of a legacy as they try to avoid danger. In this draft I’m complicating the journey, increasing the stakes, fanning the fires of conflict and romance. At the same time I’m searching into their past and getting to know them better. I’m hoping that in this way you will too.
Today is the Second Sunday after Epiphany, and as I croaked my way through the hymns during Mass and tried to focus on the great Eucharistic prayers, I thought how I loved this season in the Church Year. It is a time of epiphanies, and the Gospel lessons all reflect manifestations of Christ, who he is: last week, the story of the boy Jesus in the Temple; today, the story of Christ’s baptism by John; next week, the story of the Wedding in Cana. In each account Christ is revealed.
Today, the sermon touched on another aspect of this manifestation, the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Just as the Holy Spirit descended on Christ at his baptism, he descends upon each of us in our baptisms as well. We are indeed temples of the Holy Spirit from that moment on, a hopeful and strengthening thought, a thought I sometimes forget.
So we are all inspired, in this sense, in-spired, breathed upon by the creative spirit of God. He is within us, prodding us, guiding us. We, in our more holy moments, make God manifest by our lives, our loves, our sacrifices.
I came home thinking about this amazing gift, God in us. Christmas was God with us, Emmanuel. Epiphany is God in us, God himself baptizing our souls.
And waiting for me at home were the first reviews of my recently released novel, Hana-lani, something to encourage me as I dive back into The Magdalene Mystery, as I pray for epiphanies and manifestations, hoping God will work through me in some little way, will manifest himself in me, through me. It seems so presumptuous to even think such a thing, and yet that is what Christianity is all about, God coming to us to be one of us, to be with us, to be in us. Deo Gratias.
Reviews will soon be posted on my site, and now are posted on:
http://readerviews.com/ReviewSunderlandHana-lani.html
http://www.bestsellersworld.com/2011/01/16/hana-lani-by-christine-sunderland/
Christine Sunderland
Christine Sunderland 