This week marks the end of Advent’s long wait as we prepare to celebrate Christmas! In this final stretch of the journey, let us be guided by the words of Pope Francis: “Let us look at the Child and allow ourselves to be enveloped by his tenderness. We will have no more excuses for not allowing ourselves to be loved by Him: whatever goes wrong in life, whatever does not work in the Church, whatever is wrong in the world will no longer be an excuse. It will take second place, because in the face of Jesus’ mad love, a love full of gentleness and closeness, there are no excuses. The question at Christmas is: ‘Do I allow myself to be loved by God? Do I surrender myself to his love, which comes to save me?’”
It is a time of joy: Jesus is born for me, he is born in my life, he is born in my heart, and he asks only that I let myself be loved!
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22
Beginning of the novena to Saint Catherine Labouré
Catherine Labouré, a Sister of the Daughters of Charity in Paris, was the recipient of heavenly visions, including a series of at least five apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin, who entrusted messages to her. The best known took place on November 27, when Our Lady asked her to have the Miraculous Medal struck.
Starting today, you can pray the novena to Saint Catherine, whom the Church commemorates on December 31, and, with her, discover the great power of the Miraculous Medal.
For further reflection:
• The Miraculous Medal
• A Month with the Miraculous Medal
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25
The Nativity of the Lord
“Do not be afraid: for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: today, in the city of David, a Savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:10-12).
Let us make these words of the angel to the shepherds resound in our hearts on this day of light and great celebration, this invitation not to be afraid, because “great joy” is being announced to us: The Savior has been born for us! And he asks only that we allow ourselves to be loved. Christmas means allowing ourselves to be loved by God, allowing this Child to touch our hearts. This will make us new. Let us therefore try to set aside some time for adoration, to allow ourselves to be caressed, embraced, and nourished by the fascinating and overwhelming mystery of a God who becomes man, who becomes a child in Jesus, certain that at Christmas anyone can glimpse a little bit of heaven within themselves and in others. Because we are loved, we are no longer alone. Because we are loved, we cannot help but love. Because we are loved, we are “gently compelled” to love, to discover the face of God in the face of every human being. Love is our daily examination, and Christmas must be lived and renewed every day, as Saint Teresa of Calcutta reminds us:
It is Christmas every time
that you smile at a brother
and reach out your hand to him.
It is Christmas every time
that you remain silent
to listen to the other person.
It is Christmas every time
that you do not accept those principles
who relegate the oppressed
on the margins of society.
It is Christmas every time
that you hope with those who despair
in physical and spiritual poverty.
It is Christmas every time
that you humbly acknowledge
your limitations and weakness.
It is Christmas every time
that you allow the Lord
to be reborn in order to give it to others.
For further reflection:
• Let Us Adore the Blessed Sacrament. Prayers for Advent and Christmas - Vol. 4
• Prayers to the Christ Child
• The wonder of Christmas
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26
Beginning of the novena to Saint Angela of Foligno
Saint Angela is a great mystic, unfortunately little known. By praying the novena, you can meditate on her words and enter that vortex of light that illuminated her completely. The novena retraces the fundamental stages of Angela’s life. She was born in Foligno in 1248: she came from a wealthy family, as did her husband. Favored with material possessions and talents, she led a completely worldly life, without caring for her soul. At the age of thirty, she drew closer to the faith, but did not have the courage to confess all her sins. Thus, she ended up making sacrilegious confessions and receiving sacrilegious Communion, which caused her great remorse. Only by praying to Saint Francis did she obtain the grace of a good and complete confession, which, beginning in 1285, marked her rebirth.
Now she rejects vanity and seeks poverty even in the way she dresses or eats. It is too radical a change for her family, which hinders her new path. Within just two years, she loses her husband, children, and mother: Angela suffers greatly, but, deprived of everything, she finds everything in God and in the poor. She has extraordinary mystical experiences, intimately united with Jesus Crucified and immersed in the Trinity. This wealthy woman, yet far from God, found a spiritual wisdom that also enriches her many “children.” When she dies, on January 4, 1309, she is considered a saint and called the “teacher of theologians.” But Saint Angela’s greatest teaching is her conversion: the Lord comes to seek each of us even amid sin or when we are completely distant from him. He wants to make every sinner a saint!
For further reflection:
• Novena to Saint Angela of Foligno
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27
Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
The feast of the Holy Family is a celebration that speaks to the heart of every family. So today, let us welcome Pope Francis’s invitation: «Mary, Joseph, Jesus: the Holy Family of Nazareth, which represents a collective response to the will of the Father: the three members of this family help one another discover God’s plan. They prayed, worked, and communicated. And I ask myself: in your family, do you know how to communicate, or are you like those young people at the table, each with a cell phone, while they are chatting? At that table, there seems to be a silence as if they were at Mass… But they do not communicate with one another. We must resume dialogue in the family: fathers, parents, children, grandparents, and siblings must communicate with one another… This is a task to undertake today, precisely on the day of the Holy Family. May the Holy Family be a model for our families, so that parents and children may support one another in following the Gospel, the foundation of the holiness of the family» (Angelus, December 29, 2019).
For further reflection:
• The Holy Family of Jesus
• The holy spouses Mary and Joseph
• The Rosary to the Holy Family of Nazareth
May the light of Christmas fill our hearts and make us capable of rediscovering, every day, our “great joy”: knowing that we are loved by God, a God who became a child to share everything with us, to give himself to us. Let us allow God to love us!
I’ll be waiting for you in the comments on the post!
Merry Christmas and have a blessed journey!
