Merry Christmas from the Corrigan's

[ryancorrigan]

Hello and Happy Jesus' Birthday from the Corrigan's!

We are doing very well and are enjoying the end of fall season with our family.  We enjoyed jumping in big piles of leaves with the boys (and then raking and bagging them) as well as chasing little Joshua around.  He is into everything these days....haha.  We had to uber childproof our house from this little guy :)  Things at IHOPKC are going well.  I continue to stand on the wall of intercession and cry out for mercy for our nation, and I am finishing up as a grading assistant for a 4th year IHOPU class on the book of Isaiah taught by Allen Hood.  Its one of the most challenging classes in the university so it was a doozy grading all those papers. The students had to write a detailed outline of all 66 chapters of Isaiah, as one of their major assignments.  I really enjoyed helping students with their work and serving a new generation of future missionaries and ministry leaders.  Sally is great as usual.... she is so steady!  She is amazing!  Check out the attached Christmas card she put together for you all. 

I would encourage all of you to spend some time meditating upon passages such as Is. 7:14-15, Is. 9:1-7, Luke 2:8-20 during this advent season.  Just thinking about the God of all Glory becoming a baby in the womb of a virgin and being born in a manger should cause us to do exactly what those angels in luke 2 did.... break out in praise "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST"  

here is one of my favorite devotional quotes about the incarnation of Christ:

“In the Middle Ages, the life-long devotion of St Bernard of Clarivaux to the Christmas mystery began one Christmas Eve when, as a sleepy little boy, he was given a vision of ‘the infant Word...being born of the Virgin His Mother, fairer in form than all the sons of men’. One Christmas Day, four centuries later, St John of the Cross, while at ease with his brethren at recreation, took the image of the Holy Infant from the Crib and danced round the room, singing all the while: ‘My sweet and tender Jesus/If thy dear love can slay/it is today’...Francis [of Assisi] could not even utter the name ‘Bethlehem’ without stammering with emotion, ‘like the bleating of a sheep’. Three years before his death...he obtained the Pope’s permission for the making of a replica of the Manger, in order to arouse devotion to the Child Jesus and His birth. ‘He has a crib made ready, hay brought in, and an ox and an ass led to their places. The friars are summoned, the people arrive, the forest resounds with voices, and the venerable night is rendered solemn and radiant by a multitude of bright lights and by resonant and harmonious hymns of praise. The man of God stands before the crib, filled with devotion, bathed in tears and overflowing with joy. Solemn Mass is celebrated over the crib, with Francis, the levite of Christ, chanting the Holy Gospel. Then he preaches to the people standing about concerning the birth of the Pauper King, whom, when he wished to name Him, he called, out of tender love, the ‘Babe of Bethlehem’.” - John Saward, Cradle of Redeeming Love: The Theology of the Christmas Mystery (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), p 30., p 35-36

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!  We couldn't keep our full time vocation of prayer without your help :)