Month: December 2021

Making Room

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“The time came for Mary to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Lk 2:61f.).

At your door is a poor man with a small, young woman who is about to give birth. They won’t take up much space, all they ask for is shelter. Does your mind begin to calculate? “They are strangers, the house is a mess, it’s full of visiting relatives, I’ll have to get more food, I’m tired, it’s late…” The excuses are innumerable, but have pity! Surely, there is a small space somewhere for them to enter in.

The God of the Universe became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary — a very small space — He needed only her “yes”. Say yes to Him, like Mary, allow the Word Incarnate to enter into your heart. Make room for Jesus. Take the cross you have been carrying and give it to Him. He will transform it into a manger, that will be a space for Him to lay His head. Wait then, in silence, together with Mary, and soon you will have the joy of gazing tenderly on the holy face of the Infant Jesus in the manger of your soul.

“The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she ‘wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger’ (Lk2:7).” (Pope St. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae)

Merry Christmas!

The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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During Advent the Church celebrates the longing to see God’s Face, together with the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a Triduum (three days of prayer beginning on December 15) and a Feast (on December 18th)–It is called The Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Longing to See His Face.  (a bit of the history may be found here.) The prayer may also be continued  until Christmas.


The Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On the days leading up to Christmas we are invited to contemplate, together with Mary, the Divine Child within her womb, who is Our Savior.  We too, through sanctifying grace, bear the supernatural image of God within us. Like Mary, we desire to become a peaceful sanctuary for the living God. We are called to be attentive, in prayer, to the faint stirrings of His presence in our hearts, which will fill us with a deep longing to see His Face as we pray:

Prayer for the Triduum and Feast of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Longing to See His Face

“Mary, your life with Jesus was one of the purest, most fervent, most perfect emotions of longing and most eager expectation of the Birth of the Divine Child! How great must have been that longing!  You were longing to see the Face of God and to be happy in the vision.  You were soon really to see the Face of God, the created image of divine perfection, the sight of which rejoices heaven and earth, from which all being derive life and joy; the Face whose features enraptured God from all eternity, the Face for which all ages expectantly yearned.  You were to see this Face unveiled, in all the beauty and grace as the face of your own child. 

Most just indeed it is, O Holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire which you had to see Him, who had been concealed for nine months in your chaste womb; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also your own; to come to that blissful hour of His birth, which will give glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will.  Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy your desires and ours.  Make us re-double our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by your powerful prayers for us, so that when the solemn hour has come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entrance into our hearts.  Amen.” (Prayer by Rev. Lawrence Lovasik, S.V.D.)

Virgin in Prayer Artist: Sassoferrato 1640-50
Advent

I live my Advent in the womb of Mary.
And on one night when a great star swings free
from its high mooring and walks down the sky
to be the dot above the Christus i,
I shall be born of her by blessed grace.
I wait in Mary-darkness, faith's walled place,
with hope's expectance of nativity.

I knew for long she carried me and fed me, 
guarded and loved me, though I could not see.
Bur only now, with inward jubilee,
I come upon earth's most amazing knowledge:
someone is hidden in the dark with me. 

~Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD

“She was with child…”

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“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child…” (Rev. 12) (Miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe)

She was sent by God to defeat the culture of death at that time in Mexico. Like the “Woman” in Revelation, “clothed in the sun, with moon at her feet,” on December 9, 1531, she appeared to a poor man of no importance or influence, one of Mary’s “little ones,” Juan Diego. The beautiful young woman, whose clothing indicated that she was pregnant, called him by name as a mother would, “Juanito” – “little Juan.”   She spoke to Juan:

“I want you to know for certain, my dear son, that I am the perfect and always Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God from Whom all life comes, the Lord of all things, Creator of heaven and earth.”  

Our Lady to Juan Diego

She is also our Mother — each of us is also her child. Mary says to Juan, “Am I not here, who am your Mother?” As great as was Mary’s longing and anticipation to see the face of her little Jesus, great too, is Mary’s longing to see the face of her Son Jesus reproduced in us. Through love, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s virginal womb, and this is also how Jesus is formed in us as members of His mystical body – by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary — If we stay close to Mary, He will come and dwell in us, hidden, to be born in our hearts, to suffer, die, and one day rise to eternal life with Him. Come, Lord, Jesus!

“By the presence of Mary, you made the desert bloom with flowers, – may the Blessed Virgin Mary’s love transform us into the image of Christ, her Son. Amen.”

Prayer for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe