9781644135945

The Light of the World
she undergoes that He may be mine! She must undertake a long, hard journey in the middle of
winter; she is refused a place of rest in Bethlehem, and must withdraw to a rude, cold stable to
bring forth her son. But all this she does gladly in order to bring the Savior and His redemption
to mankind. These sacrifices are the measure of her love for us, and of her longing to share with
us her good fortune.
“Lift up your gates, O ye princes; and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of Glory shall
enter in” (Offertory). He who has taken up His abode in the bosom of the Virgin, is soon to
appear on our altar, in order that He may offer Himself up as a sacrifice for us. He will be born
again daily in our hearts in Holy Communion to cleanse us yet more perfectly from our sins.
At the moment of Holy Communion I am to receive Him whom Mary loved and bore in her
bosom, whom she served, and to whom her whole life was dedicated. How I should strive to
imitate the virtues of Mary, now that the holy season of Christmas is approaching! Her heart is
filled with faith, longing, and love. She is pure, detached from all things that savor of this world;
she is living in perfect union with God.
When I receive Christ in Holy Communion, should He not become for me, as He did for
Mary, the center of all my thoughts and desires and my love? Should I not, like Mary, devote to
Him my entire life, my strength, my time, and my heart?
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us, and in the morning you shall
see His glory” (Introit). These words were first spoken by Moses when he promised the manna
to the chosen people. Christ is the true manna which descends from heaven upon Bethlehem
and upon the chosen people of the Church of God. He comes to save us. Christmas is a day
of forgiveness, and mercy, and grace. For this reason the vigil of Christmas should be a day of
penance and self-denial, a day of prayer and pious recollection.
Prayer
O God, who dost gladden us with the yearly expectation of our redemption, grant that we who
now joyfully receive Thy only-begotten Son as our Redeemer, may also without fear behold
Him coming as our Judge, our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who with Thee liveth and reigneth
world without end. Amen.
Vigil of Christmas (2)
“This day you shall know that the Lord will come and save us, and in the morning you shall
see His glory” (Introit). The motif of the liturgy of the day is expectation. Tomorrow is to be
the day of fulfillment.
Tomorrow you shall see His glory with your bodily eyes, in reality and truth. “You shall
find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger” (Lk 2:12). Near His
crib, in silent prayer and adoration, you will find His virgin mother. There, too, you will
find, silent and absorbed in prayer, the blessed Joseph. Silent night, holy night! There
you will find the child, nestling in the forbidding straw, deprived of all comforts which an
ungrateful people might have given Him. “He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not” ( Jn 1:11).
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