God's "plan of kindness"

Dear friends, Advent, the liturgical season that we have just begun and that prepares us for Christmas, places before us the luminous mystery of the coming of the Son of God, before the great "plan of kindness" with which He wants to draw us to Himself, to make us live in full communion of joy and peace with Him. Advent invites us once again, in the midst of many difficulties, to renew the certainty that God is present: He came into the world, becoming a man like us, to bring to fulfillment his plan of love. And God asks us, too, to become a sign of His action in the world. Through our faith, our hope, our love, He wants to enter into the world again, to make His light shine again in our night.  ~Pope Benedict XVI, 12/5/12 General Audience

Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, may God's "plan of kindness" bear fruit in us that we, like you and with you, may give birth to the Everlasting Light, Jesus, your Beloved Son, for the salvation and joy of the whole world.  Amen.