ICWG Weekly Reflections

Our Lord always wants to heal us of our weaknesses and our sins. And there is no need for us to wait months or days for him to pass through our city or our town... Every day we can find the same Jesus of Nazareth who healed the leper. He is there in the nearest tabernacle, in the heart of a soul in grace, in the sacrament of Penance.

To finish off what we do often means taking care of minor details, of the little things. This demands an effort, demands sacrifice, and when we offer it up it is pleasing to God. Taking care of the details for love of God does not diminish the soul. It ennobles it.

God does not ask the majority of Christians to shed their blood in testimony of the faith they profess. But he does ask of everyone a heroic steadfastness in proclaiming the truth through his life and words in environments that may be difficult and hostile to the teachings of Christ.

If we allow our heart to become lukewarm, and share our love of God with a love of things; if we seek comfort and self-satisfaction, we will soon find that we have dislodged Christ from our heart and that we have been taken prisoner by material things which will then be nothing but a source of harm to us.

there isn’t a single soul that remains outside Christ’s love. We should not withhold our respect and consideration from a single person. We should look around us, at the people we see and speak to each day, and consider in God’s presence whether in fact this is the case, whether we do show that appreciation and have genuine veneration for others.

Jesus Christ himself waits for us each day in the Blessed Eucharist. There he is really, truly and substantially present, with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. There he is to be found with all the splendor of his glory, for Christ being raised from the dead will never die again

Of all those who contemplated the star, only these Wise Men of the East discovered its deep meaning. Only they understood what for others was only an unusual spectacle in the sky. It is possible that others too received the same special grace from God but did not correspond to it. What a great tragedy for them!

The Messiah wanted to start his redemptive task in the bosom of a simple, ordinary family. The first thing that Jesus sanctified with his presence was a home. Nothing extraordinary happened during those years in Nazareth where Jesus spent the greater part of his life.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, for our Saviour has been born in the world. Today true peace has come down to us from heaven. We have heard, my brethren, the announcement, full of sweetness and ‘worthy of all acceptance’ that ‘Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is born in Bethlehem of Judah’

We look at the baby who will be born in a few days in Bethlehem of Judaea, and we know very well that he is the key, the center, and the purpose of the whole of man’s history. On this child depends our whole existence, on earth and in heaven. And he wants us to treat him with friendship and complete confidence. He became so small in order that we should not be afraid to come close to him.

John was to carry out his task to the full, even to the extent of giving up his life in the fulfilment of his vocation. Many came to know Jesus through John the Baptist’s apostolic work. It was through an express indication of his that the first disciples followed Jesus. And many others were inwardly prepared thanks to his preaching.

The Church reminds us of this with a four week period of preparation, so that we can get ourselves ready to celebrate Christmas once more. And at the same time so that, with the first coming to the world of God made Man, we may be heedful of those other ‘advents’ of God – first when we die, and then again at the end of time. The holy season is thus a time of preparation and of hope.