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

To prepare the coming

of JesuS

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God I would like to say a few words to you on the occasion of this holy Advent Season, a period in which Christians ought to prepare themselves spiritually for the great feast of Christmas. In the liturgy, the First Sunday in Advent opens a new liturgical year. The purpose of the Liturgical Cycle is to invite Christians to revolve around the great mysteries of the life of Jesus throughout the year. In this way, we can see and contemplate all the greatest mysteries of the life of Jesus and His holy Mother, and deepen our understanding of their meaning. So when a new liturgical year begins, it is an occasion for a new start. Just as our life on earth must be, in a way, a constant new beginning. Every day, every morning as we begin our day, we should get down to it with ardor, as if we were starting our first day in the service of God. It is not rare to begin with drive and enthusiasm, but as time goes on and routine and contradiction set in, our drive tends to slacken. That is why we must get back to the task continually, get back to it with gusto, with heart, even if we do not feel that enthusiasm. When the masters of the spiritual life instruct beginners in the life of evangelical perfection, they always exhort them to set their ideal very high. “Aim high, very high,” they say, “because with time, our enthusiasm tends to diminish; nature drags us downward.” That reminds me of the following anecdote: A certain little boy was in the habit of making his sign of the cross in a very showy, exaggerated manner. One fine day his father asked him, “What’s going on, little fellow? Why do you make such an immense sign of the cross?” The little boy replied, “I noticed that as people get older, just about everybody makes the sign of the cross smaller and smaller, and it gets very little. So I thought that if I make it very big now, maybe I will do it just right when I get older!” It’s only a story, but it does somewhat illustrate our tendency to follow the law of least effort, to make things easy. Anyone who has shot with a bow and arrow or even with a gun knows that to hit the target, you have to aim a little higher, because the projectile’s flight path always drops. This law of gravity exists even in the spiritual realm. But in the spiritual order, there are happily some powerful means to overcome it. The Advent Season, for example, is a time to adjust our aim, a time to reform what is faulty in our life. This word “reform” scares us a little, yet it is a necessary reality: we must always reform, adjust our life so that it will be more and more in conformity to the Will of God. This is what Saint John the Baptist, the Precursor of Jesus our Saviour, preached: Make ready the way of the Lord, make straight the paths before Him. Let every valley be filled; let every mountain and hill be brought low. Let the crooked ways be made straight and the rough ways smooth. Then all mankind shall see the salvation that comes from God. The entire ministry, the entire mission of Saint John the Baptist can be summed up in this preparation of the way of the Lord. His life, his energy, his sanctity, his gift of prophecy are all consecrated, destined for this great mission. And how did Saint John the Baptist go about preparing the way of the Lord? By preaching a baptism of penance. For in order to see the salvation that comes from God, Saint John the Baptist exhorts us to do penance. And in what manner? The great penance to which he invites us is the adjustment of our life to the Will of God. He invites us to detach ourselves from all that is contrary to God, all that is crooked in our life, all that does not go in a straight line to God. He came to teach penance, the reform of hearts. Because it is the heart that sins; it is the heart that separates itself from God, the heart that we must set straight again. Make ready the way of the Lord... This is the invitation I want to make to you for Advent, and this invitation is one to renouncement, because Jesus said, If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. This means first of all to renounce sin, all that offends God and displeases Him in our life. Renounce our whims, our sensualities. After the four weeks of Advent, we will celebrate the beautiful, great feast of Christmas. But to recognize the Child Jesus so that He may manifest Himself to us, my brothers and sisters, we must apply ourselves to straightening out our entire life, purifying our heart. Jesus wants to manifest Himself to the world and specifically to each one of us, in a very personal way, but first we must remove the obstacles, that is, all the unruly attachments to earthly things and pleasures. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, says Saint John. These are very serious words. So then, we must renounce the World, that is, its spirit of pride, its love of pleasure and honor... The World is selfishness, sensuality, all that flatters my passions in every way. That is what we must renounce to truly be disciples of Jesus, so that He may communicate Himself to our soul and take us into His intimacy. The divine little Jesus will soon be here. Will my way have been made straight? Let us prepare ourselves with application, my brothers and sisters, for this beautiful feast of Christmas, to which very precious graces are attached. Even if the Birth of Jesus, the Incarnation of the Word of God, took place more than two thousand years ago, with each celebration of the Nativity and the other great feast days, God reserves very special graces to souls that are well disposed, souls that have prepared His coming. Let us say to Jesus, “Lord, You are coming, and I want so much to penetrate Your divine mysteries, I want so much to be in communion with You, enter into Your intimacy, be conformed to Your good pleasure in all things. But you see, I have all my human, natural tastes which are opposed to You; help me to detach Myself from them.” Jesus left His heaven out of love for us, He wants to communicate His wisdom to us. But how will we be able to understand His lessons if we remain so earthbound? The Church compares the four weeks of Advent to the four thousand years of the waiting, the longing of humanity for the coming of the Messiah. And that is what our Advent should also be, my brothers and sisters: a state of longing for God, for this divine Child who is coming. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus has us sing, “And for my purgatory, I choose Your burning love, O Heart of my God.” Our spiritual mistress teaches us that it is the burning love of God that should be our purification, our purgatory. Such love does not go without suffering; it is a love that hurts, and at the same time fills us with joy. There is a paradox here, but it can be understood a little when we consider human love. When you love someone, you suffer over it and at the same time you feel the joy of loving that person. Suffering and joy are both present, and sometimes it is hard to say which of the two is the greater: suffering or joy. That’s how it is, because the earth is not heaven; one day in heaven, happiness will be unalloyed, free from suffering. Dear brothers and sisters, I invite you in a very special way, before Christmas, to recollection; do not let yourselves be distracted, all the while being active, attentive to your duty. Let us prepare the coming of the Child Jesus in the company of the holy Mother of God and good Saint Joseph. Let us be attentive to Jesus, think of compensating for humanity, which generally prepares Christmas in frivolity. Instead of casting stones and saying, “Oh, the world is heedless!” let us say, “Lord, forgive them. They do not know the greatness of the Mystery of Christmas. I myself ought to know it, and see how distracted, heedless and inattentive I am. I still let myself be dazzled by the tinsel; forgive me, and help me to prepare Your coming well.” Christmas will be a heavenly day for us inasmuch as we will have done away with what displeases God, the vain seeking of earthly pleasures and consolations. Let us recall this formula of our Father John Gregory: “When the earth fails us, Heaven bends down to us.” This is the grace I ask for myself and for each one of you: that we may be attentive to the Child Jesus who is coming. Let us prepare the way of the Lord, so that we may know the salvation that comes from God.