This week we are still immersed in the joy of the Christmas season and preparing to bid farewell to 2020 and begin a new year! We entrust to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God (January 1), all the pain, hardship, and suffering that 2020 brought with it, and we entrust 2021 to her, Mother of Mercy: in her hands we are safe!
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29
Sister Josefa Menéndez
She was born in Madrid on February 4, 1890. Her early years passed happily, but before long sorrow entered that deeply Christian and very united family; Josefa learned to suffer in peace and with love. The death of one of her little sisters, followed by her parents’ serious illness, reduced the family to extreme poverty.
On February 4, 1920, the day of her 30th birthday, Josefa entered the novitiate of the religious women of the Society of the Sacred Heart in Poitiers. On June 5 of that same year, the Heart of Jesus manifested itself to Josefa and associated her with its work of love: “I want to use you to make my heart’s mercy and love known ever more widely to people… help me in this work of love!” Nothing was apparent outwardly, and she continued to live in seclusion, humbly carrying out her daily tasks: cleaning, sewing, sacristy duties… As the confidante and messenger of the Heart of Jesus, she offered herself as a victim for souls, especially consecrated souls. The devil persecuted her in every way; she visited hell several times and, through the testimony of the souls who appeared to her to ask for suffrages and prayers, she also came to know Purgatory. On December 29, 1923, Jesus took Josefa to himself, and thus began the eternal, marvelous fulfillment of her extraordinary adventure.
For further reading:
• Invitation to Love
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31
Saint Catherine Labouré
The life of Saint Catherine Labouré, the Parisian nun of the Daughters of Charity whom the Church commemorates today, is illuminated by the apparitions of the Virgin Mary and the messages she entrusted to her. The Virgin urged her to have a medal struck that would dispense graces; it soon became known as the “Miraculous” Medal, and among the most beautiful miracles it brought about was the conversion of the Jew Alfonso Ratisbonne (January 20, 1842).
No one ever knew about the heavenly graces granted to Catherine: only a few months before her death did she confide her mystical experiences to her superiors. She lived in the greatest humility and in absolute silence and served the poor for forty-six years at the Enghien hospice in Paris. She died on December 31, 1876; her remains are kept in the convent on Rue du Bac, in the chapel of the apparitions.
For further reading:
• The Miraculous Medal
• A month with the Miraculous Medal
• The Miraculous Medal and Catherine Labouré
FRIDAY 1º JANUARY
Mary Most Holy, Mother of God
The solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God, opens 2021! We entrust the new year to the Virgin and marvel before her, as Pope Francis invites us to do: “Today is the day to marvel before the Mother of God: God is a little child in the arms of a woman, who feeds her Creator. […]
At the beginning of the year, we ask her for the grace of wonder before the God of surprises. We renew the wonder of our beginnings, when faith was born in us. The Mother of God helps us: the Mother who gave birth to the Lord gives birth to us for the Lord. She is a mother and renews in her children the wonder of faith, because faith is an encounter, not a religion. Life, without wonder, becomes gray and routine; so does faith. And the Church, too, needs to renew the wonder of being the dwelling place of the living God, the Bride of the Lord, the Mother who gives birth to children. […] Our Lady brings the atmosphere of home into the Church, a home inhabited by the God of newness. Let us welcome the mystery of the Mother of God with wonder, like the inhabitants of Ephesus at the time of the Council. Like them, let us acclaim her, “Holy Mother of God.” Let us allow her to look upon us, let us allow her to embrace us, let us allow her to take us by the hand” (Homily, January 1, 2019).
For further reading:
• On Your Word (January-February 2021)
SUNDAY, JANUARY 3
Most Holy Name of Jesus
The Most Holy Name of Jesus was always honored and venerated in the Church from the earliest times, but it was only in the 14th century that liturgical worship began. The great preacher and promoter of this devotion was the Franciscan Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444). In 1530, Pope Clement VII authorized the Franciscan Order to recite the Office of the Most Holy Name of Jesus; and the celebration, by then present in various places, was extended to the whole Church by Pope Innocent XIII in 1721. The date of the celebration varied among the first Sundays of January, before settling on January 2 until the 1970s, when it was suppressed. Pope John Paul II restored the optional memorial to January 3 in the Roman Liturgical Calendar.
For further reading:
• Pray, pray, pray
• Tales of a Russian Pilgrim
“Do not consult your fears, but your hopes and dreams: this phrase by Pope John XXIII is meant as a wish and an invitation to begin 2021 with confidence, guided by hopes and dreams, certain that the loving gaze of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, accompanies and protects us.
I’ll be waiting for you in the comments on the post!
Have a blessed journey and a Happy New Year!
