Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: Let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also, do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need? ~Words of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego, Dec. 12, 1531Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent and Our Lady of Guadalupe, hold me close in the crossing of your arms for with you I have all I that could ever want or need -- Jesus, the fruit of your womb! Amen!
"Looking at her, we recognize the loftiness and beauty of God's plan for everyone: to become holy and immaculate in love (cf. Eph 1: 4), in the image of our Creator.... What a great gift to have Mary Immaculate as mother! A mother resplendent with beauty, the transparency of God's love. " ~Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 12/8/2007Ave Maria! Tota pulchra es, Maria! You are all beautiful, Mary! God's grace makes you so! You "let all God's glory through" at every moment of your life, whatever you were doing, wherever you were -- Nazareth, Bethlehem, Egypt, Cana, Calvary, the Upper Room, and now united with your Beloved Son forever, reigning "in splendor with Jesus our King." The Almighty has done great things for you, Mary -- and for us, too, especially in giving you to us to be our loving Mother. Help us to shine with God's love and yours, to reflect the glory of your Son, who is forever the light of the world. We love you, dear Mary! Your praises we sing! And we rejoice forever with you in the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Ave, ave, ave Maria! Amen! Alleluia!
Ave Maria! Today we remember St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (AD 339-397). At first glance, he seems to have been an unlikely candidate for this ecclesiastical office. He was a young lawyer with a successful career, not yet even baptized, when the Bishop of Milan died and, amidst much tumult, the crowds elected Ambrose bishop. These were harrowing times for the church, so it's not all that surprising that his response was to run away. But God's grace prevailed and transformed Ambrose. Go here and here and here and here and here to learn more about this extraordinary man who became the first of the 33 Doctors of the Church.Lord, teach me to seek You, and reveal Yourself to me when I seek You. For I cannot seek You unless You first teach me, nor find You, unless You first reveal Yourself to me. Let me seek You in longing, and long for You in seeking. Let me find You in love, and love You in finding. Amen.Another prayer of St. Ambrose that I particularly like, especially when I am preparing for the sacrament of confession, is this one:
O Lord, who has mercy upon all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of Your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore You, a heart to delight in You, to follow and enjoy You, for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, when I start to run away from Your Son, come after me, please, and bring me back to Him. Amen.
But it is a wonderful thing that we are not happy with ourselves, because the most terrible thing would be that we are at peace with our faults, absorbed in ourselves, blaming our faults on other people...the tenderness, the sweetness of Advent is wedded to that great mystery which begins with the call: Now is the time. Now is the hour. Wake up and be made perfect in holiness.O Jesus, living in Mary, I'm happy being unhappy with myself as long as it makes me more aware of my deep need for Your salvation and brings me closer to You. Mary, Virgin of Advent, please, always lead me to Your Son, the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Amen.
Ave Maria! The call to repent rings loudly and clearly in today's Gospel (Matthew 3:1-12). And in case I don't get it, St. Augustine explains it well in one of his sermons on repentance (see below). Now is the time for faith, he says, now is the hour of mercy. Now! Not tomorrow when perhaps I shall feel like it -- and what if I don't? -- but NOW! Now is the acceptable time, of God's favor, now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). The Kingdom of God is at hand!Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
The gospel tells us that some people were rebuked by the Lord because, clever as they were at reading the face of the sky, they could not recognize the time for faith when the kingdom of heaven was at hand.
It was the Jews who received this reprimand, but it has also come down to us.
The Lord Jesus began his preaching of the gospel with the admonition: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His forerunner, John the Baptist, began his in the same way: Repent, he said, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Today, for those who will not repent at the approach of the kingdom of heaven, the reproof of the Lord Jesus is the same. As he points out himself, You cannot expect to
see the kingdom of heaven coming. The kingdom of heaven, he says elsewhere, is
within you.
Each of us would be wise therefore to take to heart the advice of his teacher, and not waste this present time.
It is now that our Savior offers us his mercy; now, while he still spares the human race. Understand that it is in hope of our conversion that he spares us, for he desires no one’s damnation.
As for when the end of the world will be, that is God’s concern. Now is the time for faith.
Whether any of us here present will see the end of the world I know not; very likely none of us will. Even so, the time is very near for each of us, for we are mortal. There are hazards all around us.
We should be in less danger from them were we made of glass. What is more fragile than a vessel of glass? And yet it can be kept safe and last indefinitely.
Of course it is exposed to accidents, but it is not liable to old age and the suffering it brings.
We therefore are the more frail and infirm. In our weakness we are haunted by fears
of all the calamities that regularly befall the human race, and if no such calamity overtakes us, still, time marches on.
We may evade the blows of fortune, but shall we evade death? We may escape perils from without but shall we escape what comes from within us? Now, suddenly, we may be attacked by any malady.
And if we are spared? Even so, old age comes at last, and nothing will delay it.
~St. Augustine, Sermon 109, 1: PL 38, 636Dear Jesus, living in Mary, love and mercy are Your treasure. May they be mine, too, as I answer Your call to repent now.
Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, pray for me to become all that Your Divine Child is calling me to be.
Amen.
Ave Maria! Our response to the responsorial psalm at Mass this morning -- "Blessed are those who wait for the Lord!" -- made me think once again of Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman. Among his sermons is one entitled "Watching", which is undeniably part of waiting. The following passage from this sermon is often quoted during Advent:Year passes after year silently; Christ's coming is ever nearer than it was. O that, as He comes nearer earth, we may approach nearer heaven! O, my brethren, pray Him to give you the heart to seek Him in sincerity. Pray Him to make you in earnest. You have one work only, to bear your cross after Him. Resolve in His strength to do so. Resolve to be no longer beguiled by "shadows of religion," by words, or by disputings, or by notions, or by high professions, or by excuses, or by the world's promises or threats. Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls "an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart," and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none,— any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek His face; obedience is the only way of seeking Him. All your duties are obediences. If you are to believe the truths He has revealed, to regulate yourselves by His precepts, to be frequent in His ordinances, to adhere to His Church and people, why is it, except because He has bid you? and to do what He bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to approach Him. Every act of obedience is an approach,— an approach to Him who is not far off, though He seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides Him from us. He is behind this material framework; earth and sky are but a veil going between Him and us; the day will come when He will rend that veil, and show Himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for Him, will He recompense us. If we have forgotten Him, He will not know us; but "blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching … He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants" [Luke 22:37, 38.] May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.
Mary, Virgin of Advent, teach me true obedience as I watch and wait with you. Amen.
Mary is the "Domus Aurea," the House of Gold
Why is she called a House? And why is she called Golden? Gold is the most beautiful, the most valuable, of all metals. Silver, copper, and steel may in their way be made good to the eye, but nothing is so rich, so splendid, as gold. We have few opportunities of seeing it in any quantity; but anyone who has seen a large number of bright gold coins knows how magnificent is the look of gold. Hence it is that in Scripture the Holy City is, by a figure of speech, called Golden. "The City," says St. John, "was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." He means of course to give us a notion of the wondrous beautifulness of heaven, by comparing it with what is the most beautiful of all the substances which we see on earth.
Therefore it is that Mary too is called golden; because her graces, her virtues, her innocence, her purity, are of that transcendent brilliancy and dazzling perfection, so costly, so exquisite, that the angels cannot, {16} so to say, keep their eyes off her any more than we could help gazing upon any great work of gold.
But observe further, she is a golden house, or, I will rather say, a golden palace. Let us imagine we saw a whole palace or large church all made of gold, from the foundations to the roof; such, in regard to the number, the variety, the extent of her spiritual excellences, is Mary.
But why called a house or palace? And whose palace? She is the house and the palace of the Great King, of God Himself. Our Lord, the Co-equal Son of God, once dwelt in her. He was her Guest; nay, more than a guest, for a guest comes into a house as well as leaves it. But our Lord was actually born in this holy house. He took His flesh and His blood from this house, from the flesh, from the veins of Mary. Rightly then was she made to be of pure gold, because she was to give of that gold to form the body of the Son of God. She was golden in her conception, golden in her birth. She went through the fire of her suffering like gold in the furnace, and when she ascended on high, she was, in the words of our hymn,
Above all the Angels in glory untold, / Standing next to the King in a vesture of gold.
Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman
Meditations on the Litany of Loretto, for the Month of MayMary, Virgin of Advent, help me to yield in obedience and faith as you did to the burnishing of God so that I too may shine with His everlasting radiance. Amen.
Ave Maria! Yesterday I was delighted to see at Catholic News Service an article entitled "Meaning of season lost by rushing Christmas celebration, bishop says." Here, here! Don't we know it, too! In his first pastoral letter, "Waiting in Joyful Hope!" , Salt Lake City Bishop John C. Wester reflects upon the meaning and beauty of this "season of joyful hope, a time of preparation and waiting." He not only urges us to keep true to the spirit of Advent but also offers us some practical suggestions on how to accomplish this. Hold off on decking the halls until December 24! What's the rush? Put up a Jesse tree for Advent, then a Christmas tree for Christmas. For us Catholics, the Christmas season continues until the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, celebrated this year on January 9, which gives us ample time to savor and celebrate the blessed nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.We might wonder what lesson there could possibly be for us with so few facts about this apostle of Christ. Cardinal Newman explains it all quite clearly. "Our lesson, then, is this; that those men are not necessarily the most useful men in their generation, not the most favoured by God, who make the most noise in the world, and who seem to be principals in the great changes and events recorded in history; on the contrary, that even when we are able to point to a certain number of men as the real instruments of any great blessings vouchsafed to mankind, our relative estimate of them, one with another, is often very erroneous: so that, on the whole, if we would trace truly the hand of God in human affairs, and pursue His bounty as displayed in the world to its original sources, we must unlearn our admiration of the powerful and distinguished, our reliance on the opinion of society, our respect for the decisions of the learned or the multitude, and turn our eyes to private life, watching in all we read or witness for the true signs of God's presence, the graces of personal holiness manifested in His elect; which, weak as they may seem to mankind, are mighty through God, and have an influence upon the course of His Providence, and bring about great events in the world at large, when the wisdom and strength of the natural man are of no avail."
We must not let ourselves be fooled or sidetracked by those "who make the most noise in the world" -- and their name is Legion for they are many. We see their flashy pictures on the covers of glossy magazines, we hear their booming voices above the murmurs of us common folks, we're momentarily seduced by their charisma that outshines our ordinariness. They do good and, as Cardinal Newman points out, a certain number of them are true instruments of great blessings. But all that glitters is not gold. And, as J. R. R. Tolkien wrote in The Lord of the Rings:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
The true gold of an individual is not always immediately apparent, and it most likely will never be lauded by the world. Helen Keller once stated that "The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker." God doesn't call all of us to be heroes, but He does need countless ordinary people to be honest workers in His vineyard. Our gold is shiniest when we respond to our Lord and Master as St. Andrew did, quick to respond when He calls us, glad to serve Him in whatever way He chooses, no matter how obscure or lowly. Then one day it can be said of us as it's been said of St. Andrew and all the men and women throughout the ages who have left everything to follow Christ: "Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Romans 18:10).
Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, I rejoice with you that God chooses the lowly for the praise of His glory! Amen.
O Jesus, living in Mary, come be our light and our life!
Dear Mary, Virgin of Advent, show unto us the fruit of your womb, Jesus!
O God, what love can we have sufficiently worthy of the infinite goodness of our Creator, who from all eternity has determined to create, preserve, govern, redeem, save, and glorify all men in general and each man in particular? Ah, what was I when I was not? What was I, I who even now when I am something am still only a mere, pitiful worm of the earth? Yet from the depths of his eternity God thought thoughts of benediction in my behalf. He meditated and planned, yes, determined, the hour of my birth, of my baptism, of all the inspirations he would give me, and in sum, of all the benefits he would do me and offer to me. Ah, is there kindness like to such kindness? ~St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God (Bk 12, Ch 12)
Oh Lord my God, so worthy of all praise, may every moment of every day of my life be one of humble thanksgiving to You and for You! Amen! Alleluia!
"If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of our faculties is exempt from his empire. He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God (Rom 6:13). " ~Encyclical of Pope Pius Xi on The Feast of Christ the King, December 11, 1925
To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever! ~1 Tim 1:17
Ave Maria! Or rather, given today's splendid solemnity, Ave Christus Rex!
Hail, Christ the King! We praise You and worship You, our gracious and glorious King, who shepherds us, delivers us, and leads us to eternal life. May our lives be a continual sacrifice of praise, offered in gratitude to You who have made us into a kingdom of priests for our God and Father. May we serve You by serving all our brothers and sisters as You have served us, to the laying down of Your life on the Cross. May we work together to proclaim Your gospel of peace and to make known the Father's love. Now and forever, we honor and adore You, our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Love and Mercy!
