With Saint Andrew, we too run to tell the world that we have found what gives meaning to our lives, Jesus our hope, the promised Messiah. After searching so much, finding in Christ the reason for one’s existence is the fundamental discovery of our lives. Saint John Paul II reminds us: “In reality, it is Jesus whom you seek when you dream of happiness; it is he who awaits you when nothing you find satisfies you; it is he who is the beauty that attracts you so greatly; it is he who challenges you with that thirst for radical commitment that does not allow you to settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to lay aside the masks that make life false; it is he who reads in your hearts the truest decisions that others would like to stifle. It is Jesus who awakens in you the desire to make something great of your life, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to let yourselves be swallowed up by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves with humility and perseverance to improving yourselves and society, making it more human and fraternal.” Let us proclaim to the world what God has given us the grace to experience.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30
Saint Andrew the Apostle
The fisherman Andrew is the first of the apostles we meet in the Gospel: together with a friend, he follows the preaching of John the Baptist, who points out: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (Jn 1:36). Andrew runs to inform his brother Simon (who would become Peter): “We have found the Messiah” (Jn 1:41). The two brothers have returned to their work as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, but they leave everything at once when Jesus invites them to follow him and says: “I will make you fishers of men” (Mt 4:19). A Coptic text contains this blessing of Jesus to Andrew: “You will be a pillar of light in my kingdom, in Jerusalem, my beloved city. Amen.” According to tradition, the apostle was crucified in Patras on November 30, 64, and his relics are still venerated in Constantinople.
For further reading:
• With Living Water November-December 2020
TUESDAY 1o DECEMBER
Blessed Charles de Foucauld
At the age of 30, Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) rediscovered a simple faith centered on Jesus, which led him to become a Trappist priest and bear witness to Christ among the peoples of the Sahara. The 1o In December 1916, he was murdered during an attack by desert raiders. His spirituality is summed up in these words: “Whatever my sadness may be, when I kneel at the foot of the altar and say to Our Lord Jesus: ‘Lord, you are infinitely happy and lack nothing,’ I cannot help adding: ‘Then I too am happy and lack nothing. Your happiness is enough for me’... It must be so if we love Our Lord.” Charles de Foucauld will soon become a saint; in fact, the miracle required for his canonization has been recognized.
For further reading:
• Charles de Foucauld. A seed sown in the desert
TUESDAY 1o DECEMBER
Beginning of the novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe
The apparitions of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, near Mexico City, changed the history of Latin America forever. In 153, during a historical period in which European evangelizers struggled to communicate with the Indigenous people and preach the Gospel because they were regarded as conquerors, the Virgin Mary, appearing to a humble Indigenous man, Juan Diego, brought European and Indigenous culture together, putting an end to the rejection of the Catholic faith. The venerated image of the Morenita, with her gentle and serene face, imprinted on the cloak of the Indigenous Saint Juan Diego, presented herself as “the ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God for whom we live” and revealed the presence of the Savior to the Indigenous and mestizo population. Mary always leads us to her divine Son, who reveals himself as the foundation of the dignity of all human beings.
In this novena, we follow Pope Francis’s advice: “I invite you to study the Guadalupe event seriously; Our Lady is there, and I cannot find any other explanation.” May the sweetness of Mary’s gaze accompany us on our journey, so that we may all rediscover the joy of God’s tenderness during this difficult period.
For further reading:
• Our Lady of Guadalupe
“God uses contrary winds to lead us into port,” said Blessed Charles de Foucauld. That is exactly so. In times of adversity, let us never lose heart; when the storm rages, let us remember Jesus’ words: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
I’ll see you in the post’s comments!
Have a blessed journey!
