Jesus Salazar, LC
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Christ, our King.
Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Lord, here I am in your presence with an open heart and an attentive ear. Speak to me in silence that I may work according to your will.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 1:18-24
Christ came into the world in the following way: Mary, his mother, being betrothed to Joseph, and before they lived together, it happened that she, by the work of the Holy Spirit, was expecting a son. Joseph, her husband, who was a righteous man, not wishing to put her to shame, thought to leave her in secret. While he was thinking about these things, an angel of the Lord said to him in a dream, “Joseph, son of David, do not hesitate to take Mary your wife into your house, for she has conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this happened to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God-with-us. When Joseph awoke from that dream, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and received his wife.
Word of the Lord
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
We are on the last Sunday of Advent, just a few days away from celebrating the event that changed the history of mankind, the birth of a poor little child in a remote region of the earth, the Son of God made man.
What a difficult decision Joseph had to make! His fiancée pregnant with a child that was not his own. No doubt this changed the whole life, hopes and projects of Joseph, a good, hardworking, kind-hearted man. What to do now? Leave Mary in secret so that she would not be stoned to death? This seemed the best option, but God wanted to speak to him personally. Even so, Joseph could ignore that dream and think that everything was “an invention”, however, he believed that this message was from God to him.
Joseph does not speak in the Gospel, he only acts. In such a complex situation that seems so close to our days, Joseph decides to trust. Perhaps he never saw miracles, nor raised the dead, nor healed the sick, but he cared for Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary with so much love and purity, that he did not need miracles to continue believing in God's action in his life. The center of this marriage was Jesus himself, the Emmanuel. With all certainty and without error they could say, God is with us!
During these days let us allow ourselves to be touched by the mystery and love of this child who comes to us, even physically in the Eucharist. Let us prepare our hearts so that Jesus may be our center and the center of our families. Joseph may have had doubts, Mary may have been afraid, they both had difficulties, they both had to work to raise their family, but they always believed in what God promised them, and he fulfilled them with more than they expected. Let us take a moment of silence in the midst of all the noise of these days and let us listen to what God's promise is for us.
«Like St. Joseph, once we have heard the voice of God, we must wake up, get up and act. In the family we must get up and act. Faith does not take us away from the world, but rather brings us deeper into it. St. Joseph was entrusted with the gift of the Holy Family to carry it forward. Just as the gift of the Holy Family was entrusted to St. Joseph, so we have been entrusted with the gift of the family and its place in God's plan.».
(Homily of H.H. Francis, March 18, 2019, in Santa Marta).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
I will do, before this Christmas, that one thing I know God is asking of me that I have put off out of fear or pride.
Farewell
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
