Mary Mother of God
December 30, 2025
Hello! How is each and every one? We are a day away to the end of the year 2025
and just about to begin the New Year 2026 with Mary Mother of God and of the
Church at the forefront leading each one of us in welcoming the New Year. Who else do you and I expect to do so if not
our mother in Heaven? Remember Jesus entrusted us to her and then entrusted her
to us in the person of Saint John, the youngest of the Apostles whose feast day
we just celebrated last Saturday, December 27, with the words: “Woman, behold your son! Behold your mother!”
I am already excited with the next topic I am
inspired to share with you soon as we finish with the present one on
Superhabits. I guess I have to forget about it for now and sustain my patience
until we finish our said topic on Superhabits.
Don’t you think it just and right that you and I
thank God for this year that is ending with a Te Deum? The Te Deum Hymn of Praise is a beautiful ancient prayer of praise to God that
adores the Lord and honors Him. The Te Deum is
also part of the daily prayers of priests, called the Divine Office. It is a
wonderful prayer of adoration and thanksgiving to God.
TE DEUM
1. We praise you, O God, we acknowledge you to be the Lord.
2.
You, the Father everlasting, all the earth does worship.
3.
To you all the angels, to you the heavens, and all the powers,
4.
To you the cherubim and seraphim cry out without ceasing:
5.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts.
6.
Full are the heavens and the earth of the majesty of Your glory.
7.
You, the glorious choir of the apostles,
8.
You, the admirable company of the prophets,
9.
You, the white-robed army of martyrs do praise.
10.
You, the holy Church throughout the world do confess:
11.
The Father of incomprehensible majesty;
12.
Your adorable, true, and only Son,
13.
And the Holy Spirit the Paraclete.
14.
You, O Christ, are the King of glory.
15.
You are the everlasting Son of the Father.
16.
Having taken upon yourself to deliver man, you did not disdain the Virgin’s womb.
17.
Having overcome the sting of death, you have opened to believers the kingdom of
heaven.
18.
You sit at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.
19.
You, we believe, are the Judge to come.
[Kneel during the next line]
20. [We beseech you, therefore, to help your servants whom you have redeemed with your precious Blood.]
21. Make them to be numbered with your saints in glory everlasting.
22.
O Lord, save your people, and bless your inheritance.
23.
And govern them, and exalt them for ever.
24.
Day by day we bless you.
25.
And we praise your name forever; yes, for ever and ever.
26.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day, to keep us without sin.
27.
Have mercy on us, O Lord; have mercy on us.
28.
Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us; as we have trusted in You.
29.
In you, O Lord, have I trusted: let me not be confounded forever.
V. Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
R. And
worthy to be praised, and glorified forever.
V. Let
us bless the Father, and the Son, with the Holy Spirit.
R. Let
us praise and exalt him forever.
V. Blessed
are you, O Lord, in the firmament of heaven.
R. And
worthy of praise, and glorious, and exalted above all forever.
V. Bless
the Lord, O my soul.
R. And
forget not all his benefits.
V. O
Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And
let my cry come to you.
Priests add:
V. The
Lord be with you.
R. And
also with you.
Let us pray.
O God, of your mercies there is no number, and of your goodness the treasure is infinite; we render thanks to your most gracious majesty for the gifts you have bestowed upon us; evermore imploring your clemency, that as you grant the petitions of them that ask you, you may never forsake them, but may prepare them for the rewards to come.
O God, who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit: grant us, by the same Spirit, to relish what is right, and evermore to rejoice in his consolation.
O God, who suffers none that hope in you to be afflicted overmuch, but does listen graciously to their prayers; we render you thanks because you have received our supplications and vows; and we most humbly beseech you that we may evermore be protected from all adversities. Through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
Please allow me to share with you articles that you may want to read, reflect on and bring into your quiet moments of conversation with Jesus and His Father and mother on these days.
"Thank Him for Everything, because Everything Is
Good"
“Make it a habit to raise
your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day." A new
article on Christian life.
"Thank
Him for Everything, Because Everything Is Good"
A life lived wisely means grasping what is essential, appreciating what is worthwhile, being alert against evil, rising above what is irrelevant. If riches are desirable in life, what is richer than Wisdom, who produces all things? (Wis 8:5). Wisdom has no price, and everyone wants to possess it. It is a knowledge that cannot be reduced to scholarship. Rather it is the ability to ‘”savour” what is good, to “taste” it. The Greek term sophia found in the Wisdom books was translated in Latin by sapientia, which is related to the English term “savour.” The original meaning of sapientia was a “good palate,” a good sense of smell. The wise man “savours” what is good. In an ancient prayer we ask God, da nobis recta sapere, “grant that we may savour what is right” (Prayer Veni Sancte Spiritus, Collect for the Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit).
Sacred Scripture presents wisdom as being readily attainable: Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. He who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates (Wis 6:12-14). Even so, to acquire this “connatural” knowledge we have to seek it, to desire it, to rise early in search of it. Doing so with patience, with the insistence of the Psalmist: Oh God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my flesh faints for thee as in a dry and weary land where no water is (Ps 63:1).
This search is the work of a lifetime, and hence wisdom grows as the years go by. As the Pope has often said, echoing the Book of Sirach (cf. Sir 8:9), wisdom belongs to the aged, who are “the store of the wisdom of our people” (Pope Francis, Audience, 4 March 2015).
It is true that age can
sometimes bring disadvantages such as the hardening of certain character
defects, a reluctance to accept one’s own limitations, or difficulties in
understanding young people. But despite all this, the elderly often possess the
capacity to appreciate, to “savour” what is truly important. And this, in the
end, is what true wisdom is.
Saint Josemaría, when talking to a group of faithful of the Work, once made reference to this type of knowledge that is gained over the years. “In thirty years’ time you’ll look back and you will be astonished. And you will feel impelled to spend the rest of your life giving thanks, giving thanks…” (Notes from a family gathering, 21 January 1955, quoted in Noticias, August 1955, p. 53).
As the years go by, we will be left, above all, with reasons to be grateful. The sharp points of problems and difficulties that worried us greatly in the past become softened. We will see them with other eyes, maybe even with a bit of humour. We gain the perspective needed to see how God has been leading us, how He has made use of our efforts and even of our mistakes. Those who lived with Blessed Alvaro remember how he would often say with simplicity: “Thanks be to God.” The conviction that we only have reasons to be grateful contains an essential element of true wisdom. The wisdom that God increases in the souls of those who seek Him, and who can say, even before growing old, I understand more than the aged, for I keep thy precepts (Ps 119:100).
Everything is good
In 1937, amid the privations and worries in his hiding place in the Honduran Legation, Saint Josemaría wrote to faithful of the Work who were scattered throughout Madrid: “Take heart! Try to ensure that everyone is cheerful: everything is for the good, everything is good” (Letter, 17 May 1937, quoted in Critical-Historical edition of The Way, commentary on no. 268).
Another letter written a month later to those in Valencia has the same advice: “Take heart. Strive to recover your joy, if very naturally you have become sad. Everything is for the good” (Letter, 15 June 1937, quoted in Critical-Historical edition of The Way, commentary on no. 268).
Everything is good, everything is for the good. These words are grounded in two verses from Sacred Scripture. One is the crescendo of God’s joy in creating that comes to a climax with the final verse: all that He had made … was very good (Gen 1:31). The other is Saint Paul’s maxim, in everything God works for good with those who love him (Rom 8:28), which Saint Josemaría condensed into the aspiration omnia in bonum! Years before, at Christmas 1931, those two threads from Scripture were woven together in a note that later became a point in The Way. Everything is good; everything is for the good. Both gratitude for what is good, and the hope that God will draw good out of what seems bad.
“Make it a habit to raise your heart to God, in acts of thanksgiving, many times a day. Because He gives you this and that... Because someone has despised you… Because you don’t have what you need, or because you do have it.
“And because He made his Mother, who is also your Mother, so
beautiful. Because He created the sun and the moon and this animal or that
plant. Because He made that man eloquent and left you slow of speech…
“Thank Him for everything, because
everything is good.” (The Way, no. 268. The original note was dated 28
December 1931).
The sequence of reasons to be grateful here follows no particular order. Since everything is good, the first thing that comes to mind, and the next, and the next… are all reasons for gratitude. “Because He created the sun and the moon and this animal or that plant.” Wherever we happen to look, Saint Josemaría seems to be telling us, we will only find reasons to be grateful. We see reflected here an overflowing admiration for God’s goodness: an astonishment that recalls Saint Francis’ “Canticle of the Creatures,” where everything also becomes a reason for thanking God. “Praise to you, my Lord, for Sister Moon and for the stars … Praise to you, my Lord, for Brothers Wind and Air, and fair and stormy, all weather’s moods … Praise to you, my Lord, for those who grant pardon for love of you” (Saint Francis of Assisi, “The Canticle of the Creatures.”)
“Because He gives you this and that.” How many gifts God gives us, and how easily we get used to them! Health is a good example here. It has been defined as “life lived in the silence of the organs”: we usually take it for granted until our body starts to call attention to itself. Maybe only then, when we no longer have it, do we truly value what we once had. Gratitude here consists partly in “being alert”: listening carefully in order to perceive the silent, discreet way in which God gives us so many things. “God’s mercy accompanies us daily. To be able to perceive His mercy it suffices to have a mind that is alert. We are excessively inclined to notice only the daily effort and fatigue… If, however, we open our hearts, we can be constantly aware of how good God is to us, of how He thinks of us precisely in little things, thus helping us to achieve important ones” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 15 April 2007).
We would belittle this thankfulness is we thought it simply meant paying back a debt of gratitude. It is much more: precisely because it consists in “savouring” the good, thanking God means “enjoying with Him” the good things He gives us, for we always enjoy things more when accompanied by people we love. Even the most prosaic things can then be a cause for enjoyment: for not taking ourselves too seriously, for discovering the joy of living “amid the little things of life, as a response to the loving invitation of God our Father: my child, treat yourselves well according to your means … do not deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment (Sir 14:11, 14). What tender paternal love echoes in these words!” (Pope Francis, Apost. Exhort. Evangelii Gaudium, 24 November 2013, no. 4).
All things are for the good
Remembering to be grateful for the good things God gives us is already a challenge. So what about less pleasant things? “Because someone has despised you”: because you have been treated coldly or with indifference, because you have been humiliated, because your efforts have not been appreciated… “Because you don’t have what you need or because you do have it.” What is surprising here is how calmly “having” and “not having” are placed on the same footing. Is it really possible to be grateful to God for the lack of health, or of work or tranquillity? To thank God because we haven’t enough time (how often this makes us suffer!); because we haven’t enough courage, or strength, or ideas; or because this or that has turned out badly… Well, yes: even then, Saint Josemaría tells us, give thanks to God.
This attitude reminds us of the difficulties that Saint Josemaría was coping with when he wrote those letters from the Honduran Legation, and the suffering which gave rise to a note that is the source of this point in The Way (Cf. Critical-Historical edition of The Way, commentary on nos. 267 and 268). The invitation to be grateful for difficulties, which is even more explicit some pages later, originates in a note from five days before. “Paradoxes of a little soul. When Jesus sends you what the world calls good luck, feel sorrow in your heart at the thought of His goodness and your wickedness. When Jesus sends you what people consider bad luck, rejoice in your heart, for He always gives you what is best. This is the beautiful moment to love the Cross” (The Way, no. 873. The original note was dated 23 December 1931).
Despite its closeness in time, this consideration is placed in a different chapter in The Way, one of two chapters about spiritual childhood. This gives us the key to understanding the spiritual climate of his readiness to thank God “for everything, because everything is good.” Gratitude is a sign of the wisdom that comes with age and closeness to God; but it only comes when there is an attitude of “hope-filled abandonment” (The Father, Pastoral Letter, 14 February 2017, no. 8. in God’s hands). Saint Josemaría discovered it through the path of spiritual childhood. “Have you seen the gratitude of little children? Imitate them, saying to Jesus when things are favourable and when they aren’t, ‘How good you are! How good!’” (The Way, no. 894. The text comes from a note dated 23 December 1931).
Thanking God for difficulties is certainly not something that comes spontaneously. In practice, it may even seem like putting on an act, or even being naïve, as if we were denying reality, and seeking consolation in a fairy-tale. Nevertheless, being grateful in these situations doesn’t mean closing our eyes to reality, but seeing more deeply. We feel reluctant to be grateful because we are aware of the loss, the setback, the damage we have suffered. Our outlook is still too earthbound, as happens with a child who thinks it’s the end of the world because his toy has got broken, because he has fallen over, or because he wants to go on playing. At the time it’s a big drama, but soon everything is fine again. “In our interior life, it does all of us good to be ... like those tiny tots who seem to be made of rubber and who even enjoy falling down because they get up again right away and are once more running around, and also because they know their parents will always be there to console them, whenever they need them.” (Friends of God, no. 146).
The gratitude that Saint Josemaría talks about isn’t a “magic cloak” to cover over the unpleasant things in life; rather it means raising our eyes to look at God our Father who is smiling at us. This leads to trust, to abandoning ourselves in God, thus putting the setback in the right perspective, even though it continues hurting. To thank God when something hurts us means to accept it. “The best way to show your gratitude to God and people is to accept everything with joy” (Saint Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love, Novato (California) 2002, p. 33).
Certainly, our first reaction isn’t a cry of joy; probably just the opposite. Even so, even though our heart rebels, we need to strive to be grateful: “Lord, it’s impossible, it can’t be… but thank you.” We need to accept God’s will: “I wanted to have more time, more strength; I wanted that person to be nicer to me; I didn’t want to have this difficulty, this defect. But you know best.” We will ask God to arrange things as seems best to us, but with the serene assurance that He knows what He is doing and draws good out of what we can only see as bad.
To be grateful even for what seems bad to us (as we are told in a text that was also written in December 1931) means “to believe as children believe, to love as children love, to abandon ourselves as children abandon themselves” (Holy Rosary, “To the Reader”. This passage was part of the original text that Saint Josemaría wrote all in one go during the Novena of the Immaculate Conception in 1931).
This abandonment can be expressed in many different ways in our interior life, but it always reflects the conviction that in God’s eyes we are very small, and so are our concerns. And, in spite of this, that they are important to God, more than to anyone else in the world. This gives rise to the gratitude of knowing we are loved: thank you for being here at my side; thank you because this matters to you. Amid God’s apparent distance, we perceive His closeness. And we contemplate Him in the midst of ordinary life, because problems are part of ordinary life. Faced with adversity we realize the deepest reason for thanking God for both good and bad things: thank you, because I meet Love everywhere. The true reason for acts of thanksgiving, the source of all gratitude, is that God loves me, and that everything in my life is an opportunity to love and to know that I am loved.
Suffering because of what we don’t have, because of people’s coldness, or because of what we lack, or from the consequences of our own mistakes… are all opportunities to remember, to wake up to God’s Love. We realize that, even though we find it hard to renounce something, to accept suffering or setbacks, what does it matter if we have God’s Love? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (Rom 8:35).
Hence it becomes possible for us to “thank Him for everything, because everything is good.” The Christian “madness” of being grateful for everything stems from divine filiation. Someone who realizes that they have a Father who loves them, truly needs nothing more. A good Father, above all, is to be thanked. This is the way Jesus loves His Father. Jesus is gratitude personified, since He has received everything from his Father. And to be a Christian is to enter into this love, into this gratitude: Father, I thank thee for thou hearest me always (cf. Jn 11:41).
Don’t forget to give thanks
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Ps 103:2). In the Scriptures God frequently invites us to remember, since He knows how often we are forgetful, like children who play with their toys and fail to think about their father. God knows this, and understands it. But He draws us gently to Himself and whispers to us in a thousand ways: remember. To give thanks, then, is also a question of remembering. That is why the Holy Father often talks about “a grateful memory” (Cf. e.g. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, no. 13; Homily, 18 June 2017; Homily, 12 December 2017).
The readiness to give thanks for what annoys us, surprising though it may seem, in fact helps us to remember to thank God for pleasant things. Moreover, everyday life gives us many opportunities to “remember”: stopping for a moment to say grace before and after meals; dedicating part of our thanksgiving after Mass or of our personal prayer to giving thanks for the ordinary things in our daily life, discovering what is “extraordinary” about them: for our work, for a roof over our heads, for people who love us; giving thanks for others’ joys; seeing God’s gifts in all the people who assist us… We also experience moments when life seems especially beautiful: a striking sunset, an unexpected act of kindness, a pleasant surprise… And we discern, amid the apparent grayness of daily life, the brightness of God’s Love.
From ancient times, people have seen
in the setting of the sun each evening an image of our life. Hence, if
gratitude is part of the wisdom of someone who has lived a long life, how good
it is to end each day by giving thanks. When we pause, in God’s presence, to
consider how our day has gone, God will be “thankful” when we thank Him for so
many gifts, etiam ignotis, (Saint Josemaría, In Dialogue
with the Lord, London and New York, 2018, p. 135) including the ones
we aren’t aware of; and also when we ask for forgiveness, with a child’s trust,
for not thanking Him enough (Carlos Ayxelà, 12/26/2019).
After giving thanks for all the blessings God has deigned to give you and me throughout this year that is ending let us not forget to ask for pardon and forgiveness for all our misgivings, offences, disordered love for ourselves and others, for those times we were indifferent towards God and others in many little or not so little things throughout our ordinary daily life. Those times we have done our will instead of doing God’s will. Those times we thought we have the freedom to do as we wish out of comfort, convenience, license, rebelliousness, pride or envy what else? The many times we always excuse ourselves and accuse the others. Those times we think we have the right or even the duty to impose, control, expect (ICE of Fr. Orbos). Those many times we are self centered more than Christ centered and we get hurt and what a hurt it is when somebody says it so.
The perfect prayer is “Thy will be done” (The Cries of Jesus from the Cross by Fulton J. Sheen). Remember Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42)? May it never be my will be done. After asking for pardon and mercy for all the above realizations, let us ask our merciful Father to help us more and more with His grace to do His will and live our ordinary daily lives according to His will. Not without our personal correspondence and effort to reach out, stretch ourselves, extend our hands and body in sacrifice and prayer.
Bishop Alvaro, first successor and most faithful son of St. Josemaria encouraged us to pray many times during the day, “gracias, perdon, ayuda me mas.”
The following articles also come from opusdei.org:
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother
The life of our Lady teaches us, as St. Josemaría wrote, that great sanctity doesn’t require spectacular deeds. Rather it is found “in the hidden and silent sacrifice of each day…. To become God-like, to be divinized, we must begin by being very human, accepting from God our condition as ordinary men and women and sanctifying its apparent unimportance. Thus did Mary live. She who is full of grace, the object of God’s pleasure, exalted above all the angels and the saints, lived an ordinary life.”
We see reflected here one of the essential features of our
Lady’s earthly existence, and therefore of the call to lead a holy life that
her own life represents. This is one of the marvelous and simple truths that we
discover by entering the home of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Nazareth. A person
seeking to serve and please God can find the Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier
in ordinary life, in the midst of daily work and ordinary occupations. Mary’s
life teaches us with great clarity that it is possible to be fully immersed in
one’s daily occupations and, at the same time, to divinize them. It is possible
to be “contemplatives in the middle of the world,” keeping up an intimate
dialogue with God in the normal activities of our day.
To attain this goal, we need to strive to direct our daily
activity to God. And if the greatness of the ideal should ever threaten to
overwhelm us, the consideration of our Lady’s faithful response can spur us on.
Moreover, let us never forget that we have in our hands not only the treasure
of her example but also her constant help, since she reigns alongside her Son
in heaven and is always ready to come to our assistance with her maternal
affection and care. As soon as we invoke her, and even beforehand, Mary comes
to our help, although quite often her effective and loving protection passes
unnoticed to us.
Let us also remember that our Lady’s path, like her Son’s,
does not turn aside from the Cross. We should not fear the Cross, because
there, if we look towards and follow Mary, we will discover as she did the joy
that floods our soul when we forget about ourselves and entrust ourselves to
Jesus’ redeeming love. Her maternity, exercised to the fullest possible extent
alongside her Son on Calvary, is a strong yet gentle invitation to accompany her
and share in her self-giving for the salvation of the world, embracing her as
our Mother….
We discover the rich treasure of the Cross in daily effort
to understand others and show them generosity; in small, everyday opportunities
to serve others – even when it is hard – occasioned by our family life, work
environment and social dealings; and in penance and sacrifice, sought out and
loved in our ordinary occupations. We find it the joyful testimony of our
temperance, of our love for holy purity, and of solidarity with the suffering
and needs of all mankind, especially those who are weakest. We find it in
avoiding every occasion of sin; in fleeing from temptation; and in quickly
returning to God through sacramental confession. As John Paul II told us, Mary
brings us the light and help we need to return to the house of the Father, to
undertake the path of repentance for sin, which leads to the joy of knowing we
are God’s children (From chapter 4, 03/18/2014).
Meditations: 1 January, Holy Mary, Mother of God
Some reflections that can nourish
our prayer on the feast of Holy Mary, Mother of God. The topics are:
contemplating Mary; Mary’s motherhood; receiving Jesus as Mary did.
-Contemplating Mary
-Mary’s motherhood
-Receiving Jesus as Mary did
THE GOSPEL FOR TODAY’S FEAST shows us the shepherds coming
in haste to seek the Child and recognizing in him what the angels had
announced. It is filled with words of admiration and astonishment: to marvel,
to glorify, to praise, to ponder. Christmas time provokes these same feelings
in us. We too are eager to take advantage of everything that happens at the
stable to savor the Love that God wants to pour into our hearts. Today we do so
close to the Mother of God, who is also our mother.
“Hail, Holy Mother, who gave birth
to the King, who rules heaven and earth forever” (Solemnity of Our Lady, Mother
of God, Entrance Antiphon).
The
salvation of the world has begun. The King of the universe has chosen Mary to
be his mother. It is a mystery that doesn’t easily fit in our heads, nor in our
poor plans. God wanted to count on the ‘yes’ of a young woman. Our Lady didn’t
ask herself why she had been chosen. It was enough for her to know that God
wants it, that it is his will. As Saint Josemaría expressed in his prayer: “Our
Lady and Mother, the Lord wanted you yourself to look after God and care for
him with your own hands. Teach me, teach us all, how to treat your Son!”
(Saint Josemaría, The Forge, 84).
Mary spreads this attitude of admiration around her, in the cribs of yesterday and today. Everything she sees leads her to give thanks. She never stops to look at herself, at the problems, the difficulties. She enjoys the visit of the shepherds, the affection of her husband, the starry night that has been a spectator to this great mystery. And everyone around her shares in this atmosphere of joy. Mary is the best example of what God does in men and women who let themselves be loved.
“O GOD, WHO THROUGH THE FRUITFUL VIRGINITY of Blessed Mary bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation, grant, we pray that we may experience the intercession of her, through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life” (Solemnity of Our Lady, Mother of God, Collect).
This is the Collect from today’s Mass. We can ask ourselves: What does it mean to me that Mary is the Mother of God? How do I experience this personally? Pope Francis said: “The Mother of the Redeemer goes before us and continually strengthens us in faith, in our vocation and in our mission. By her example of humility and openness to God’s will, she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to all, without reservation. In this way our mission will be fruitful, because it is modeled on the motherhood of Mary” (Pope Francis, Homily, 1 January 2014).
Our relationship with God is modeled on Mary’s life of prayer. And she is very ready to help us, “for the Blessed Trinity, in choosing Mary as the Mother of Christ, a Man like us, has brought each one of us under the shelter of her maternal cloak. She is the Mother of God and our Mother” (Saint Josemaría, Friends of God, 275).
Filled with astonishment, we can ask ourselves how we have merited a holiness like that of the Mother of God: “How are we to love him with all our heart and soul, when our heart can only catch a glimpse of him from afar, when there are so many setbacks in the world that would hide his face from us? He is no longer distant. He is no longer unknown. He is no longer beyond the reach of our heart. He has become a Child for us, and in so doing he has dispelled all doubt … For us, God has become a gift. He has given himself. Christmas has become the feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself” (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 24 December 2006). If we accept this gift, if we allow our Lord to give us the gift of his life, we too will be a gift for others. We will become a gift to God and to those around us.
THE ANGELS SING joyfully of this wonder. They too are amazed that a woman has given birth to the Son of God. They can’t get over their surprise and intone the first carol in history: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased (Lk 2:14). Singing this song of joy, they are overcome with wonder when looking at Mary, the Child and God the Father. Our souls grow quiet and we discover in the stable what pleases God, what captures his Heart. We have come running, but we have time now to catch our breath. The singing of the angels is like a lullaby to put Jesus to sleep and to welcome us.
Experience has often taught us that we are not able to do God’s will always and in everything. However, with our Lady’s help we can keep his Word and ponder it in our hearts. This is within our reach. Thus we can be sure that everything God has said to us will be fulfilled. His Word will be incarnated in our lives, his Blood will flow in our veins. As Saint Bernard assures us: “The very Person of the Son receives from Mary the substance of human flesh, so that no one will be hidden from his warmth” (Saint Bernard, Homily on the Octave of the Assumption, 2).
On this cold night, we want to warm ourselves inside the
stable. We would like to prevent the darkness and dampness from entering our
soul. We want to receive Jesus with the same purity, humility and devotion as
our Mother did; to welcome his Word with the same grace and the same joy so as
to spread it, like her, all over the world.
Wow!!! What a wonderful way to end the
year and begin a New Year! So much spiritual food for continuous sustenance to
help you and me love God with deeds of exerting the effort that will make our
personal lives more meaningful each time.
Let us ask Our Lord to keep us sustained spiritually and physically
throughout the year ahead.
See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and
laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us
together again.”
Affectionately,
Guadalupinky
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