Let Us Pray! – To be souls filled with God Renounce all things Be attentive to God Lovers of the Cross Docility to the Holy Spirit – So that all things may be renewed Prayer – To be true servants of God Fidelity in the little things – May the designs of God be fulfilled Faith in the action of Providence Prayer and Penance Adoration of Jesus Host – To live in intimacy with God The reading of the Gospel – May God’s Kingdom come! Prayer – To hasten the hour of salvation for the Church and the world Invitation to fight – May God find these generous souls Be true – With grace and truth Patience – Graciously! Do violence to ourselves – To attain holiness The summit of Adoration No one can serve two masters The anguish of God What is most pleasing to God Aging is a Grace Secret of Happiness – The Beatitudes The true essence of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ ADVENT Prepare the Way of the Lord ADVENT Prepare the Coming of Jesus ADVENT Awaken Thy Power, O Lord, and come! CHRISTMAS Beside the manger CHRISTMAS He came unto His own and His own received Him not… EASTER Jesus, Light of the World Purgatory, an instrument of Divine Mercy A page from the Gospel – Jesus lost and found in the Temple The Feast of the Visitation and of the Magnificat The Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Secret of the Rosary Mary, Mother of God and our Mother Glorious Saint Joseph, our Model Saint Michael the Archangel, Champion of Humility

Beside the manger

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God DEAR brothers and sisters, Christmas has arrived again. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, said Jesus. As supreme proof of His Infinite Love, the Son of God gives Himself to humans. Let us go together to the Manger, if you will, and contemplate Infinite Love, God, making Himself a little child for the salvation of the human race. You are already familiar with the whole story that surrounds the coming of the Messiah, our Redeemer, but that story is so beautiful, that we ought to repeat it and ponder its extraordinary consequences.

Sin, the source of all evil

The story begins on a very sad note, it is true. Adam and Eve, our first parents, sinned grievously in earthly paradise by disobeying God. This is what we call original sin. It resulted in a divine condemnation: You shall eat your bread by the sweat of your brow... and you, Eve, in pain shall you give birth to children. In other words, from now on, because you have offended Me, your life will be filled with bitterness, sorrow and tribulation. You turned away from Me, so I will cast you away from Me. And this condemnation applied to the entire human race to come. Before this sin, Adam and Eve conversed familiarly with God and saw Him face to face, but that sweet familiarity was broken by sin. Man made himself unworthy of it, and he was condemned to never see the face of God again. This was a dreadful chastisement for eternity. But in His mercy, at the same time that He was chastising them, God made a sublime promise to Adam and Eve, the promise of a future Redeemer, a Saviour. Then came the patriarchs who communicated this promise to their children, from father to son. The promise was conveyed from generation to generation while humans hoped and waited. The Redeemer would come, God had promised it; and these great patriarchs were sanctified by this wait alone, in the hope that someday the promise was to be fulfilled. They lived and died without having seen the fulfillment of this promise. Then came the prophets. With far greater detail and precision, they too predicted the Messiah, the Liberator. They prophesied not only His coming, but the manner in which He was to come, and how He would live and die. And this waiting for the Messiah, the One who was to repair the disaster caused by man, lasted four thousand years!

La venue de notre Sauveur

Finally, after four thousand years, the Repairer, the Saviour, the Master arrives on earth in a cold cavern, surrounded by the good Blessed Mother Mary, Saint Joseph and two animals, the ox and the ass. This is how the event awaited for four thousand years, the greatest event in the history of humanity, takes place. The Holy Gospel relates it in a few lines: And it came to pass while they were there,3 that the days for Mary to be delivered were fulfilled. And She gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. It is simply amazing to think that a waiting period of four thousand years, this waiting for the God-Man, could end in a scenario that is practically insignificant at first sight. And in this already, my brothers and sisters, we must recognize a definite design of Divine Providence. There was no room for them. The Holy Family had a little house in Naz-areth, but the Son of God was to come into the world without a stone on which to lay His head, even at His birth. He comes as a stranger, rejected even by His own. And in order for this to happen, He arranges things so that almost the whole world is turned upside down by the edict of Caesar Augustus, commanding a census of all his subjects. It is to obey this command that Mary and Joseph leave Nazareth and find themselves with no room for the birth of Jesus. Blessed Charles de Foucauld said, “Jesus, the Son of God, took the last place so strongly that no one has been able to wrest it from Him.” Why did God do this? It was to teach us, as of His birth, humility and detachment from earthly things. The vast majority of people think only of establishing and organizing themselves well, as if they were going to live on earth forever; they want to have a good time without thinking of eternity to come. In the destitution of the Manger, at once the Infant Jesus begins to correct, reform, redeem. He comes to carry out the Redemption. The entire Gospel is summarized in the Manger. The Infant Jesus is already teaching us, but without words, in silence. All is silent, even nature is silent. Jesus comes at night so that all will be even more silent: total silence to receive the Word of God, the Word! meaning the Word of God who comes to communicate Himself to man. The first manifestation of the Word of God is silence. The Gospel continues: And there were shepherds in the same district living in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood by them and the glory of God shone round about them, and they feared exceedingly. And the Angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all the people; for today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you: you will find an Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a Manger.” This little Child, the Word of God, comes to show us the way. Later He will say, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life... He who follows Me does not walk in the darkness. Walk in My footsteps, receive My doctrine. He is already teaching us this doctrine in the Manger by His example. And He will also say, I have given you an example, that as I have done, so you also should do. At Christmastime people talk of nothing but gifts, they give presents to one another. But whose birthday is it at Christmas? It is the birthday of the Infant God. He is the One we ought to present with gifts. Have you ever thought about what we might offer the divine Child that would really please Him? More beautiful decorations? More beautiful ceremonies? More Christmas carols? Oh no!

Our answer of love

The most beautiful present we could offer the Child Jesus is to act as He does in the Manger. And what does He do there? He gives Himself to us, He surrenders Himself to redeem us and open heaven for us. Although He is God, this Child comes to give a total gift to His creatures. So, my brothers and sisters, what is the finest present we could offer Him? The total gift of self! Nothing could give greater joy to the Infant God. And this gift is made in the heart. As we pointed out, Jesus undertakes the great work of the Redemption in profound silence, because that is how we too must act. In the silence of our heart, we make the total gift of our entire being to Jesus, who has accomplished follies of love for us. Let us forget the things of earth, except strictly for accomplishing our duty of state. Let our sole preoccupation be to love Jesus. That is the great and only remedy for sin: to love God without reserve. Then sin would automatically vanish from our life. Why are there so many sins, sometimes even grievous ones? We do not love God... not enough, at any rate. We love ourselves, we love creatures, we maintain all sorts of attachments and whims, and that is what alienates souls from God. People like to say that Christmas is the feast of love. This is true, but love must be proved. There is no genuine love without giving, and we understand this in the human realm. Just telling someone, “I love you, I love you,” is far too easy. Love is proved by giving. The fuller the gift, the truer the love; and the Son of God wants a total gift from us. Let us give Him love for love. Why are there so few saints on earth? And why are humanity and the Church in their current woeful state? It is because few souls are giving themselves totally to God. True, we are poor humans, miserable and powerless. How will we ever be able to master ourselves and give all to God? Let us form a true prayer in the depths of our heart: “My Jesus, look upon my powerlessness and my incapacity, I am so lax; but I truly want to give You the present of the complete gift of myself. You are the source of all grace. I beseech You, my Jesus, grant me the grace to do everything for You. Grant me the grace, dear Jesus, to always renew my gift of self in humility, obedience and charity, by seeking all that pleases You and avoiding all that displeases You. Grant me this grace Yourself, my Jesus, for without You I can do nothing.” We will be the first ones to benefit from that total gift. Which are the happiest souls on earth? Which are the ones that savor God? It is those souls that set aside the things of the earth to occupy themselves with God and dedicate themselves for their neighbor. “The more the earth fails us, the more Heaven takes an interest.” Sometimes God seems very far from us, but perhaps it is because we are too attached to earthly things. These words may seem rather austere for Christmas, but we cannot contemplate the gift of the Child Jesus in the Manger and think only of amusements and celebrations at the same time. Peace on earth to men of good will, said the Angel. What is good will? It is one that is conformed to God, one that bears a resemblance with His. Do we want to really taste the joys of Christmas? Let us be souls of true good will, disposed to do everything to please God. When God threw Saint Paul from his horse, he said, Lord, what will you have me do? And Saint Alphonsus Liguori says, “That is how he became a vessel of choice, a saint...” with this prayer which sprang from the depths of his heart, a true prayer. In the name of all of you, my brothers and sisters, I will say this prayer to the Child Jesus: “Lord, what will You have us do?” Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to intercede for us with Her Holy Child, so that we may have this total availability in the hands of God. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.