Virgin and Child

Neri di Bicci
The leap of divine joy: God knows that the time has come when the mystery of salvation, hidden
from the beginning of the world, will shine into human darkness and confusion. It is as if I can
hear the Divine Persons saying, “Let us work the redemption of the whole human race; let us
respond to the groaning of all creation.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola

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Reflections on Advent
Don Bosco Provincial House, 2019

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.
And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in
prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much
as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it.
For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to
the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health
rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short
life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end
for which we are created.

Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola

This Christmas Season, is an opportunity to strip ourselves of superficialities we are attached too,
to grow closer to our Lord, to love Him and serve Him more sincerely. Our Lord entered into a
world filled with darkness, confusion, sin and death to embrace the pain and miseries of a world
filled with sin and suffering and to redeem us from us. Our Lord understands the pain, troubles
and tribulations we experience on a daily basis. Let this Season of Advent, give us the grace to
reflect on how we have conducted ourselves over the past year, how we have treated our
families, friends and colleagues at home or in the workplace.
St. Ignatius of Loyola gave us five basic steps to redeem, reconcile and grow in our relationship
with our Lord and Savior. First we must give thanks to God our Lord for the benefits we have
received. The Second, we must ask grace to know our sins and to cast them out. The Third, we
must ask account of our soul from the hour that we rose up to the present Examen, hour by hour,
or period by period. The Fourth, to ask pardon of God our Lord for the faults and the fifth, to
purpose amendment with His grace.

Our Father.

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The Crucifixion
Pompeo Batoni, 1762

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Litany for the Family
Almighty and Eternal Father, we come before you and bring our families to you for deliverance,
healing, and conversion.
The response is ​Lord Jesus deliver us.
From feelings of anger, hatred, and contempt for spouses, ​we pray​…
From an atmosphere of turmoil, distress, and anxiety within our families, we pray…
From silent treatments and cruel words in our families, we pray…
From excessive criticism of one another, we pray…
From negativity, belittling, and intimidation in our families, we pray…
From bitter dislike of extended family members, we pray…
From resentments, grudges, and hardness of heart, we pray…
From the sin of unforgiveness between family members, we pray…
From the habit of interpreting each other’s intentions in a negative light, we pray…
From the desire to dominate and control each other, we pray…
From a lack of warm and loving affirmation of one another, we pray…
From lonely cold marriages, we pray…
From every form of isolation between each other, we pray…
From excessive activity that steals away quality time together, we pray…
From all inherited disorders that afflict our families, we pray…
From every inherited curse on our families, we pray…
From alcoholism and drug abuse and all their effects, we pray…
From every form of emotional and physical abuse, we pray…
From every thought of suicide and abortion, we pray…
From every distortion of the gift of human sexuality, we pray…
From the scourge of pornography, we pray…
From the influence of bad movies, bad music, and bad fashions, we pray…
From the influence of atheism, secularism, and moral relativism, we pray…
From every sense of meaninglessness and despair, we pray…
From fear and despair for the future of our marriages, we pray…
From fear and despair for the future of our children, we pray…
From fear and despair for the future of our country, we pray…
From the loss of faith in Christ and the Church, we pray…
From the loss of hope in the healing mercy of God, we pray…
From the loss of love for God and one another, we pray…
The response now is ​Lord hear our prayer​.
For the Holy Spirit of Love to come down upon our families, we pray…
For an increase of trust and love in our marriages and families, we pray…
For an increase of mutual respect in our marriages and families, we pray…
For an increase of tenderness and compassion in our marriages & families, we pray…
For an increase of quality time together, we pray…
For an increase of intimate communication with each other, we pray…
For an increase of words of love and affirmation, we pray…
For an increase of confidence in our families and our future together, we pray…
For an increase of the sense that the Lord will get us through anything, we pray…

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For an increase of humility before God and one another, we pray…
For an increase in making apologies and asking forgiveness of one another, we pray…
For forgiveness and reconciliation between all spouses and family members, we pray…
For extraordinary graces to save all marriages in trouble, we pray…
For extraordinary graces of healing for all abandoned spouses, we pray…
For extraordinary graces of comfort for widows and widowers, we pray…
For extraordinary graces of support for single mothers and fathers, we pray…
For extraordinary graces of love for all single men and women,
For the healing of family members battling illness and hurt, we pray…
For the hearts of fathers to be turned toward their wives and children, we pray…
For the hearts of mothers to be turned to their husbands and children, we pray…
For the hearts of children to know deeply the love their family has for them, we pray…
For the hearts of teenagers to grow in the awareness of their own worth, we pray…
For the hearts of college students to be healed and converted to Christ and his Church, we pray…
For the return of fallen away Catholic family members, we pray…
For an increase of chastity and purity in all the members of our society, we pray…
For an increase of faith in Christ and his Church, we pray…
For an increase of hope in the healing mercy of God, we pray…
For an increase of love for God and one another, we pray…
For an increase in the practice of the sacrament of penance, we pray…
For an increase in the practice of family prayer, especially the Rosary, we pray…
For all deceased spouses, we pray…
For all deceased children, we pray…
For grace upon grace to come down upon all marriages and families, we pray…
Almighty and Eternal Father, we thank you for hearing our prayers. We offer all of these
petitions to you, in hopes of the complete deliverance and healing of our marriages and families,
in the holy and saving name of Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

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St. Josemaría Escrivá
Founder of Opus Dei

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Christ triumphs through Humility
St. Josemaría Escrivá

[21] To remind a Christian that his life is meaningless unless he obeys God's will does not mean
separating him from other men. On the contrary, the commandment God gives us is to love
others as he has loved us, which in most cases means living alongside the rest of men and being
their equals, giving ourselves to the service of our Lord in the world so as to make everyone
know the love of God, telling them that the divine paths of the world have been opened up.
God has not just said that he loves us. He has proved it with facts. Let's not forget that Jesus
Christ became man in order to teach us to live as children of God. Do you remember the
introduction to the Acts of the Apostles, where St Luke says: "I have spoken of all the most
significant things Jesus did and taught"? He came to teach us, but he taught us by doing things.
In teaching us, he was the model, being our teacher and setting us an example with his conduct.
Now, in front of the infant Jesus, we can continue our personal examination of conscience. Are
we ready to try to make our life a model and an example to our brothers, the rest of men, our
equals? Are we ready to be other Christs? It's not enough to say that we are. I am asking you now
— as I ask myself: Can it be said also of you, you who have been called to be another Christ, that
you have come to do and to teach, to do things as a son of God would? Are you attentive to the
Father's will, so as to be able to encourage everyone else to share the good, noble, divine and
human values of the redemption? Are you living the life of Christ, in your everyday life in the
middle of the world?
Doing God's work is not just a pretty phrase. It is an invitation to spend ourselves for Love's
sake. We have to die to ourselves and be born again to a new life. Jesus Christ obeyed in this
way, even unto death on a cross; that is why God exalted him. If we obey God's will, the cross
will mean our own resurrection and exaltation. Christ's life will be fulfilled step by step in our
own lives. It will be said of us that we have tried to be good children of God, who went about
doing good in spite of our weakness and personal shortcomings, no matter how many.
And when death comes as it undoubtedly will, we will greet it with joy, as I have seen so many
people greet it in the ordinary circumstances of their life. With joy: for if we have imitated Christ
in doing good — in obeying and carrying the cross in spite of our personal deficiencies — we
will rise like Christ: "for he has truly risen."
Jesus, who became a child, overcame death. Just think of it. Through his annihilation, through
his simplicity and obedience, by divinizing the everyday, common life of men, the Son of God
conquered.
That is the triumph of Jesus Christ. He has raised us to his level, the level of children of God, by
coming down to our level, the level of the children of men.