CHRISTMAS NOVENA
Per
St. Alphonsus Mary of Ligorio
Song: Puer Natus
1. Puer natus in Béthlehem, alleluia: Unde gudet Jerusalem, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis jubilo, Christum natum adorémus, Cum novo Cantico.
2. Assúmpsit carnem Filius, alleluia, Déi Pátris altíssimus, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
3. Per Gabriélem núntium, alleluia, Virgo concépit Filium, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
4. Tamquam spónsus of thalamus, alleluia, Procéssit Matris uterus, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
5. Hic Jácet in Praesépio, Alleluia, Qui régnat sine Termination, Alleluia, Alleluia.
In córdis...
6. Et Angelus pastóribuis, alleluia, Revélat quod sit Dóminus, alleluia, alleluia.
In chords...
7. Rulers of Saturday véniunt, alleluia, Aurum, thus, myrrham offferunt, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
8. Intrantes dómum invicem, alleluia, Nóvum salútant Principem, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
9. De Mátre nátus Virgine, alleluia, Qui lumen est de lúmine, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
10. Sine serpéntis vúlnere, alleluia, De nostro vénit ságuine, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
11. In carne nobis similis, alleluia, Peccato sed dissimilis, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
12. Ut réderet in homines, alleluia, Déo et síbi similes, alleluia, alleluia.
In córdis...
13. In hoc natáli gaudio, alleluia, Benedicamus Dómino, alleluia, alleluia.
In chords...
14. Laudétur sáncta Trinitas, alleluia, Déo dicámus gratias, alleluia, alleluia.
In chords...
Song: Adeste, Fideles
Adeste fideles, læti triumphants; Venite, venite in Béthlehem; Natum videte Regem angelorum; Venite, adoremus, Venite adoremus, Venite, adoremus, Dominum.
Ingrége relicto, humiles ad cunas Vocati pastors appróperante; Et nos ovánti gradu festinémus; Venite, adoremus, Venite adoremus, Venite, adoremus, Dominum.
Aetérni Paréntis splendórem ætérnum Velátum sub carne vidébimus; Déum infántem, pánnis involutum, Venite, adoremus, Venite adoremus, Venite, adoremus, Dóminum.
Pro nobis egénum et foéno cubántem Piis foveámus ampléxibus; Sic nos amantem quis nom redamáret?
Venite, adoremus, Venite adoremus, Venite, adoremus, Dominum.
1 the Day - December 16 - Song: Puer Natus
God gave us His Only Begotten Son as Savior
I make you a light to the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth. (Is. 49, 6)
Let us consider how the Eternal Father said to the Child Jesus at the moment of his conception these words: Son, I gave you to the world as the light and life of the people, so that you may seek your salvation, which I cherish as if it were mine. It is therefore necessary that you commit yourself completely to the benefit of men. "Fully given to men, and wholly given to their needs." It is necessary that when you are born you suffer extreme poverty, so that man can be rich; you must be sold into slavery, that man may be free; it is necessary that, as a slave, you should be flogged and crucified, to pay to my justice the penalty due men; it is necessary that you sacrifice blood and life, to deliver man from eternal death. Finally, know that you are no longer yours, but the man's. For a son was born to them, and a boy was given to them.Thus, my beloved Son, man will love me again to be mine, seeing that I give thee entirely to him, my Only-Begotten Son, and that I have no more left to give him.
So did God love--oh, infinite love, worthy only of an infinite God--so so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son. The Child Jesus was not saddened by this proposal, but, on the contrary, delighted in it and accepted it with love and joy: "as a bridegroom from his thalamus, he exulted like a giant on his way" (Ps. 18:6 ). And from the first moment of his incarnation, he gave himself completely to man and gladly embraced all the pains and ignominies he would have to suffer on earth for the love of men.
These were, according to Saint Bernard, the hills and valleys that Jesus Christ had to cross in such a hurry, according to the Song of Songs, in order to save men. Here He comes leaping over the mountains, playing over the hills.
Let us reflect here how the Father, sending us his Son to be our Redeemer and to seal peace between him and men, in a certain way obliged himself to forgive us and to love us, because of the pact he made to receive us in his grace, since the Son satisfies divine justice for us.
In turn, the divine Word, having accepted the mission given to him by the Father, who, sending him to redeem us, also obliged himself to love us, not for our merits, but for fulfill his Father's pious will.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed
Prayer:Dear Jesus, if it is true, as the law says, that dominion is acquired by giving, You are ours, because your Father has given you to us. That is why we can rightly exclaim: My God and my all. And since you are ours, your things are ours, as the Apostle tells us: "How can he not give us all things together with his Son?" Ours is your blood, ours your merits, ours your grace, ours your paradise. And if You are ours, who can never separate us from You? No one will be able to take God away from me, exclaimed a jubilant St. Anthony Abbot. So we want to exclaim from now on. Only through our faults can we lose You and separate from You, but Jesus, if in the past we left You and we lost, now we repent with all our soul and resolve to lose everything, even life, before I lose You,infinite and unique love of our souls.
We thank you, eternal Father, for having given us your Son, and in exchange for having given him completely to us, we give ourselves entirely to you. For the sake of that same Son, accept us and bind us with bonds of love to our Redeemer, so that we may exclaim: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?"
Our Savior, since You are all ours, take us all to You; dispose of us and our things as you please. How can we deny something to the God who has denied us nothing, neither his blood nor his life?
Mary, our Mother, protect us with your protection. We no longer want to belong, but entirely to Our Lord. Remember to make us faithful. We trust in you.
Song: Adeste
2 the Day - December 17 Puer Natus
Jesus' heart affliction in Mary's bosom
You did not want hosts and oblations, but you formed a body for me. (Heb. 10.5)
Consider the great bitterness with which the heart of the Child Jesus must have felt afflicted and oppressed in Mary's bosom, in that first moment when the Father proposed to him the series of contempt, toils and agonies that he had to suffer in his life to free the men of their miseries: "In the morning it calls to my ears... I did not turn back... I gave my body to those who hurt me" (Is. 50, 4-6). Thus spoke Jesus through the mouth of the Prophet: "In the morning, that is, from the first moment of my conception, my Father made me understand his will: that I should have a life of suffering and be finally sacrificed on the cross; I gave my body to those who hurt me". And I accepted everything for the salvation of souls, and since then I have given my body to beatings, nails, and death.
He then ponders how much Jesus Christ suffered in his life and in his passion; everything was placed before his eyes from his Mother's bosom and he embraced everything with love; but by consenting to this acceptance and overcoming the natural repugnance of the senses, what anguish and oppression the innocent Heart of Jesus did not have to suffer! He knew very well what he had to go through first; the sufferings and reproaches of birth in a cold cave, animal stable; thirty years of work as an artisan; the thought that men would treat him as ignorant, slave, seducer, and the culprit of the most infamous and painful death that was reserved for criminals.
Everything accepted our amiable Redeemer at every moment, and at every moment in which he accepted him, he suffered together with all the penalties and dejections that he would later suffer until his death. The very knowledge of his divine dignity contributed to his feeling more the injuries received from men: "I am always aware of my ignominy." His shame was continually before his eyes, especially the confusion he would feel at one day seeing himself stripped, flogged, nailed with three iron nails, thus giving up his life amid reproaches and curses from those who benefited from his death. "Done obedient unto death and death on a cross" (Phil. 2:8) and for what? To save us wretched and ungrateful sinners.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed
PRAYER : Our beloved Redeemer, how much has it cost you since you entered the world, to bring us out of the abyss into which our sins had submerged us. In order to free us from the bondage of the devil, to which we ourselves willingly sold ourselves, you accepted to be treated as the worst of slaves; and, we who knew it, so many times have we dared to embitter your most loving Heart, which loved us so much. But since You, our God, being innocent, accepted life and death so painful, we accept for your love, Jesus, all the pains that come to us from your hands.
We accept them and embrace them because they come from those hands pierced one day to free us from the hell we so often deserve. Your love, our Redeemer, in offering You to suffer so much for us, compels us to accept for You any pity and contempt. Give us to accept for You any pity and contempt. Give us, Lord, by your merits, your holy love, which makes all pain and all ignominies sweet. We love you above all things, we love you with all our heart, we love you more than ourselves. You, in your life, have given us so many and such great proofs of affection, and what proof of love do we give you, ungrateful people? So make it, O our God, that during the years that are left to us, we give you some proof of love. We would not dare, on the day of judgment,to appear before You as poor as we are now and doing nothing for Your love; but what can we do without your grace? Just beg you to help us, and even this prayer of ours is your grace. Oh, Jesus, help us through the merit of your pains and the blood you shed for me.
Most Holy Mary, recommend us to Your Son, since for our love you had him in your womb.
Remember that we are those souls for whom your Son died.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
3 the Day - December 18 Song: Puer Natus
Jesus becomes a Child to win our trust and our love
A boy was born to us, a son was given to us. (Is. 9,6)
Let us consider how after so many centuries, after so many prayers and requests, the Messiah came, was born and gave all to us, who were not worthy to see the holy patriarchs and prophets; the one desired by the Gentiles, the one desired by the eternal hills, our Saviour: "A child is born to us, a son has been given to us."
The Son of God made himself small to make us great: he gave himself to us so that we might give ourselves to him; he came to show us his love, so that we could give him ours. Let us receive him with affection, let us love him and turn to him in all our needs. Children, says St. Bernard, easily grant what is asked of them. Jesus came as a child to show us that he is willing to give us all his possessions. "In which all treasures are found" (Col. 2,3). "The Father...has given everything into his hands" (John 3:35). If we want light, He came to enlighten us; if we want strength to resist enemies, He came to strengthen us; if we want forgiveness and salvation, He came precisely to forgive and save us; if we want, in a word, the supreme gift of divine love, He has come to set us on fire; and, for this, above all,he became a boy and wanted to present himself to us poor and humble, to appear more amiable, to remove all fear and win our affection: "Thus should come whoever wanted to banish fear and seek charity", says Saint Peter Chrysologus .
Furthermore, Jesus Christ wanted to become a child, so that we would love him not only with appreciative love, but with tender love. All children know how to win for themselves affectionate affection from those around them, and who will not love their God tenderly, seeing him as a little child, cold, poor, humiliated and abandoned, crying over the straw of a manger?
Come to love God made child and poor, and who is so kind that he came down from heaven to give himself completely to us.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed.
PRAYER: O loving Jesus, so despised by us! You came down from heaven to rescue us from hell and to give yourselves completely to us, as we could so many times, turn our backs on you, O God! Men are so grateful to creatures that if someone gives them a gift, sends them a greeting, gives them any proof of affection, they don't forget and feel forced to respond. And, on the contrary, they are so ungrateful to you that you are their God, and so kind that for their love you did not refuse to give blood and life. But alas, we were even worse than others because we were more loved and more ungrateful. Ah! If the graces you gave us had been given to a heretic, to an idolater, perhaps they would have been sanctified, and we offended you. Please do not remember, Lord, the injuries we have done to you.You said that when a sinner repents, forget all the sins he has committed: "None of the sins he has committed will be remembered" (Ezek. 18:22). If in the past we didn't love each other, in the future we only want to love you.
Since you have given yourselves completely to us, we give you all our will in return; with her we love you and that we love you we want to repeat forever. We want to live repeating it and repeating it to die, to start from the moment we enter eternity to love you with a continuous love that will last forever. However, Lord, our only good and only love, we propose to put your will before all our pleasures. We do not want to stop loving those who loved us so much; we no longer want to dislike to whom we owe infinite love. Support, Jesus, our desire with your grace.
Our Queen, Mary, we recognize that all the graces received from God are due to your intercession; continue to intercede for us, obtain for us perseverance, you who are the Mother of all graces.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
4 the Day - December 19 Song: Puer Natus
The passion of Jesus Christ lasted all his life My pain is always before me. (Ps. 37.18)
Let us consider how in that first moment in which the soul of Jesus Christ was created and united with his body, in the bosom of Mary, the Eternal Father showed his Son his will that he die for the redemption of the world; and at that very moment he showed him all the pains that he must suffer to the point of death to redeem men. He then showed him all the toils, contempt, and poverty that he must have suffered in his life, both in Bethlehem and in Egypt and in Nazareth, and then all the pains and ignominies of passion: whips, thorns, nails, and the cross; all the boredoms, sorrows, agonies, and abandonments in the midst of which he would end his life on Calvary.
Abram, leading his son to death, did not want to distress him by telling him in advance that he would die, and that in the short time it took to reach the mountain. But the Eternal Father wanted his incarnate Son, destined as a victim of our sins to his justice, to immediately suffer, for their knowledge, all the penalties to which he would later have to undergo during his life and in his death. Hence, the sadness suffered by Jesus in the Garden, capable of taking his life, as he declared: "My soul is sad to the point of death" (Mt. 26:38), he suffered also constantly from the first moment in which He was in the bosom of his Mother. Thus, ever since, he felt keenly and suffered the combined weight of all the pains and reproaches that awaited Him.
The entire life and all the years of our Redeemer were filled with sorrows and tears: "In pain my life is consumed, and in sobs my years" (Ps. 30:11). His divine Heart did not have a moment free of sufferings; whether he watched or slept, whether he worked or rested, prayed or spoke, he always had before his eyes that bitter representation, which tormented his most holy soul more than all their sufferings tormented the holy martyrs. They suffered, but, aided by divine grace, they suffered with joy and fervor. Jesus Christ suffered, but he always suffered with a heart filled with boredom and sadness, and he accepted everything for our love.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed.
PRAYER: O sweet, O amiable, O lover Heart of Jesus, so since you were a boy were you bitter and agonized in Mary's bosom? All this you suffered, Jesus, to satisfy for the eternal pain and agony we were supposed to suffer in hell for our sins. You then suffered without any relief to save us, after we had dared to forsake God and turn our backs on him, to satisfy our miserable tastes.
We thank you, Our Lord's loving and afflicted Heart. We thank you and we have pity on You, considering that you have suffered so much for men and that they do not have pity on You. How great is the love of God and the ingratitude of men. O our Redeemer, how few men are who think of your pains and your love. O God, how few love you. And wretched for us who also lived for so many years without remembering You! You suffered so much for us to love you and not love you. Forgive us, Jesus, forgive us, we want to make amends and we want to love you. Poor us, Lord, if we resist Your grace and by our resistance we condemn ourselves.
How many mercies you have shown us, and especially your voice that now invites us to love you, would be our greatest pains in hell. Dear Jesus, have mercy on us, do not let us live more ungrateful to your love; give us light and strength to overcome everything and to fulfill your will. Hear us, we beg you, through the merits of your Passion.
We expect everything from You and from your intercession, O Mary. Dear Mother, help us, you who have obtained for us all the graces that we have received from God; continue to help us, for if you don't, we will be unfaithful, as we were in the past. You are all our hope and all the reason for our trust.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
5 the Day - December 20 Song: Puer Natus
Jesus Christ offered himself from the beginning for our salvation
He was immolated, because He wanted to. (Is. 53:7)
The divine Word, from the first moment he saw himself made man and child in Mary's bosom, offered himself to pain and death to rescue the world. He knew that all the sacrifices of lambs and bulls offered to God in antiquity had not been able to satisfy because of the faults of men, but that it was necessary for a divine person to satisfy the price of their redemption for them.
For what I said, as the Apostle says: "You did not want a wafer or oblation, but you formed a body for me.
So I said; Here I am present" (Heb 10:5). My Father, said Jesus Christ, all the victims that have been offered to you until now are not enough and will not suffice to satisfy your justice; from my blood appease you and save men: here I am present, "ecce venio", all accepted and all subject to your will.
The lower part of his will naturally felt repugnance and refused to live and die among so many pains and reproaches, but the rational part, which was completely subordinated to the Father's will, won, and accepted everything, beginning Jesus to suffer from that moment, all the anguish and pain that he would suffer in the years of his life, so did our divine Redeemer from the first moments of his entry into the world.
And how do we behave with Jesus Christ, since, having arrived at the use of reason, we begin to know, with the light of faith, the sacred mysteries of redemption? What thoughts, what purposes, what goods have we loved? Pleasures, pastimes, pride, revenge, sensuality, these are the goods that imprisoned the affections of our hearts. But if we have faith, let us change our lives and our loves; let us love a God who suffered so much for us. Let us remember the pains that the Heart of Jesus suffered for us as a child, and in this way we will only be able to love that Heart, which loved us so much.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed Prayer: Our Lord, do you want to know how we behave with you in our life? Since we began to have the use of reason, we began to despise your grace and your love. But better than us, you know it and, despite that, you put up with us because you love us so much. We fled from You, and You approached calling us. That same love that brought you down from heaven to seek the lost sheep, made you bear us. Jesus, now you are looking for us and we are looking for you.
We perceive that your grace assists us; assist us with the pain of our sins, which we hate more than all other evils; assist us with the desire we have to love you and give you pleasure. Yes our Lord, we want to love you and as much as we can. It is true that we fear for our frailty and weakness contracted because of our sins, but much love is the confidence that your grace instills in us, making us look forward to your merits and giving us great courage to exclaim: "I can do all things in him who comforts me "(Pl. 4,13). If we are weak, You will give us strength against our enemies; if we are sick, we hope that your blood will be our medicine; if we are sinners, we trust that you will sanctify us. We confess that in the past we cooperated with our ruin because we failed to turn to You in danger. From now on,God and our hope, we want to turn to You and from You we hope for every help and every good.
We love you above all things and we want to love nothing outside of you. Help us, out of pity, through the merit of so many sufferings that you suffered for us from the beginning. Eternal Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, accept that we love you. If we anger you, be soothed when you see the tears of the baby Jesus, who begs you for us: "Set your eyes on the face of your anointed one" (Ps. 83:10). We do not deserve graces, but this innocent Son deserves them, who offers you a life of sorrow so that you may be merciful to us.
And you, Mary, Mary, Merciful Mother, do not fail to intercede for us; You know how much we trust in You, and we know well that you do not abandon those who turn to You.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
6 the Day - December 21 Song: Puer Natus
Jesus in Mary's bosom
I am numbered among those who descend into the pit, I have become like a man without strength. (Ps. 87.5)
Consider the painful life Jesus Christ spent in his Mother's womb. He was free, because he had voluntarily made himself a prisoner of love, but love deprived him of the use of freedom and kept him in chains so tight that he could not move. O great patience of the Saviour! When thinking about the pains of Our Lord still in the womb of his Mother.
Let's see what the Son of God reduces for the love of men: he deprives himself of his freedom and chains himself to free us from the chains of hell. Much, therefore, the grace of our liberator and guarantor deserves to be acknowledged with gratitude and love, who, not out of obligation, but out of affection, offered to pay and paid our debts and our penalties, giving his life for them: "Don't you forget the benefit that what was left for your guarantor did to you, because he laid down his life for you" (Eccl. 29,20).
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed: "Don't forget the benefit of what was left to you by your guarantor". you made us. We were debtors and defendants, and You innocent. You, our God, wanted to satisfy for our sins with your penalties and your death.
And then we forget about this grace and your love and we dare to turn our backs on you, as if you were not our Lord, the Lord who loved us so much. But if we have forgotten it in the past, we do not want, our Redeemer, to forget you in the future. Your pains and your death will be our continual thought, and they will always remind us of the love you had for us.
We curse the days when, forgetting how much you suffered for us, we regretfully abused the freedom you gave us to love you and used to despise you. That freedom that you gave us, we consecrate it to you today. Deliver us, O Jesus, from the disgrace of seeing us again separated from You and made slaves of the devil. Bind our souls at your feet so that we may no longer be separated from you. Eternal Father, for the captivity that the Child Jesus suffered in Mary's womb, free us from the chains of the devil and hell.
And you, Mother of God, help us. Carry us imprisoned and bound to the Son of God. For, since Jesus is your prisoner, he will do whatever you command. Tell him to forgive us and make us holy.
Help us, our Mother, for the grace and honor that Jesus Christ made you to dwell in your womb for nine months.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
7 the Day - December 22 Song: Puer Natus
Pain that caused Jesus Christ the ingratitude of men
He came to his own and his own did not receive him. (Jn 1,11)
One Christmas St. Francis walked through the forest and along the paths, moaning and sighing, and when asked the cause of his sadness, he replied: "How can you not cry seeing that love is not loved? I see God intoxicated with love for men and men so ungrateful to that God." If this ingratitude of men towards Saint Francis was so afflicted, let us consider how much more it will afflict the Heart of Jesus. As soon as he was conceived in Mary's womb he saw the cruel correspondence he would receive from men. He had come from heaven to kindle the fire of divine love, and that desire had made him descend to earth and suffer an abyss of pains and ignominies: "I came to bring fire to earth, and what do I want but for it to be kindled?" (Lk.12.49). And then he saw the abyss of sins that men would commit despite having witnessed so many proofs of their love.That was, said St. Bernardino de Sena, what made him suffer infinite pain.
Even among us, when someone sees himself treated ungratefully by another is an unbearable pain, because ingratitude often afflicts the soul more than other pain to the body. What pain, then, would it cause Jesus, who was our God, to see that, out of our ingratitude, his benefits and his love would be paid with disgust and injury? "They gave me evil for good and hate for the love I had for them." (Ps. 108.5). And even today Jesus Christ laments: "I was a stranger to my brothers" (Ps. 68, 9), for he sees that he is neither loved nor known to many, as if he had done them no good nor had he suffered anything for their love .
O my God, what case do we, even Christians, of the love of Jesus Christ?
He appeared one day to Blessed Henrique Suso as a pilgrim begging from door to door, always being thrown out with insults. How many are like those of whom Job spoke: "They said to God, Depart from us, and judged the Almighty, as if he could do nothing; and he filled their houses with goods" (Job,22,17) . Do we, although in the past we have united with these ungrateful ones, do we want to continue our ingratitude in the future? No, because that lovely Child who came from heaven to suffer and die for us so that we would love him doesn't deserve it.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed: Lord Jesus, who came down from heaven so that we might love you, taking a life full of work and death on a cross, as we were able to say to you so many times: "Retreat from us", we do not want you, O our God, if you were not infinite goodness, nor had you given your life to forgive us, we would not dare ask your pardon; but we know that you yourself want to give us peace: "Turn to me, says the Lord, God of hosts, and I will turn to you" (Zc 1,3). You, Jesus, who are the offended, intercede for us. We do not, therefore, want to offend you once more, distrustful of your mercy.
We repent with all our soul for having despised you, my highest Good. Deign to receive us in your grace for the blood shed for You. "Father, I am not worthy to be called your son" (Lk.15,21). No, our Redeemer and Father, we are not worthy to be your children, because we so often renounce the Canticle: Adeste, Loyal, your love; but You make us worthy with your merits.
May only the thought of the patience with which you have supported our sins for so many years and the graces you have bestowed upon us, after all the injuries we have done to you, make us live burning in the flames of your love. Come, then, Lord, and we will drive you out no more, come and dwell in our poor hearts. We love you and we want to love you forever, and you burn us ever more, with the remembrance of the love you had for us.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
8 the Day - December 23 Song: Puer Natus
God's love for men at the birth of Jesus
For the grace of God our Savior has appeared to all men, teaching us that, forsaking ungodliness...let us live godly in the present age, looking forward to the blessed hope and glorious coming of the great God and Savior our Lord Jesus Christ. (Tit. 2, 12-14)
Let us consider that the saving grace of God that was manifested to all men was the most profound love of Jesus Christ to men. This love, although it was on the part of Canticle: Adeste, Fideles God always identical, was not always equally manifest.
Before, many prophecies had been promised and hidden under the veil of many figures. But, at the birth of the Redeemer, he allowed himself to be seen clearly, the eternal Word appearing to men as a child lying on the hay, moaning and shivering with cold, already beginning to satisfy us for the pains we deserved and letting us know the affection that he had us, sacrificing his life for us: "In this we know the love of God, because he gave his life for us". So the saving grace of God was made manifest, and it was made manifest to all men. But why didn't all of them know him and even today there are so many who, if they could, don't know him? Because "light came into the world and men loved darkness more than light" (Jn 3:19). They did not know him nor do they know him because they do not want to know him and they love the darkness of sin more than the light of grace.Let us not belong to the number of these unfortunates. If until now we have closed our eyes to the light, thinking little about the love of Jesus Christ, let us try, until the end of our life, to always keep before our eyes the sufferings and death of our Redeemer, in order to love those who loved us so much: " Looking forward to the blessed hope and glorious coming of the great God and Savior our Jesus Christ" (Tit. 2.13).
In this way we will be able to trust, based on the divine promises, to reach that paradise that Jesus Christ conquered for us with his blood. In this first manifestation Jesus Christ comes as a child, poor and despised, born in a stable, covered with poor cloth and reclining in straw, but in the second apparition he will come on a throne of majesty: "And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty" (Mt. 24:30). Happy at that time whoever has not hated or despised him.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed: Oh, Holy Child, now we contemplate you on the straw, poor, afflicted and abandoned; but we know that you will come one day to judge us on a shining throne, surrounded by angels.
Forgive us before you judge us.
Then you will be a strict judge, but now you are our Redeemer and our merciful Father. We were ungrateful, not knowing you for not wanting to know you, and instead of thinking of loving you, considering the love you had for us, we only thought of satisfying our appetite, despising your grace and your love. Into Your hands we place our souls, which we so often strive to lose, so that You may save them. "Into your hands I commend my spirit: you will deliver me. Lord, God of truth" (Ps. 30:6). In You I place my hopes, for I have seen that, to rescue me from hell, You gave blood and life. Thou shalt deliver me, Lord, God of Truth.
You did not make me die when I was in sin, and you waited for me so patiently so that, entering me, I would regret having offended you, I would begin to love you, and so you could forgive me and save me. Yes, my Jesus, I want to please you; I regret all the harm and heartbreak I have caused you. Save me by your mercy and be my salvation to love you always in this life and for all eternity.
My dear Mother, recommend me to your Son, make him see that I am your servant and that I have put my hope in You, for he hears you and denies you nothing.
Song: Adeste, Fideles
9 the Day - December 24 Song: Puer Natus
Journey from São José and Maria Santissima to Belém
Joseph also went up to register for the census with Mary, his wife, who was about to give birth. (Lc.10.5)
God had decreed that his Son should not even be born in Joseph's house, but in a cave, in a stable, in the poorest and most painful way that a child could be born; for that, he already arranged for Caesar Augustus to publish an edict in which he ordered everyone to register in their hometown. José, upon hearing of this order, certainly hesitated about leaving or taking the Blessed Virgin with him, who was about to give birth, since he did not have the wealth to provide her with a convenient journey, nor did he want, on the other hand, to leave her alone and without support.Song: Adeste, Fideles
However, Mary knew that, as the prophet Micah had announced, the Savior must be born in Bethlehem; therefore, taking the cloth and clothes that She had prepared for her Son, She departed with Joseph, poorly, in the winter time, about to give birth, to submit to the will of God.
Join us to them, and through the pains and pains of our journey through this life, let us praise God, let us be grateful to him, asking him only to always be with us, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us ask Joseph and Mary that, on the merits of the pains suffered on their journey, accompany us on the journey that we are taking for eternity.
The Rosary and the Litany of Our Lady are prayed
Prayer : My beloved Redeemer, accompanied on earth only by Joseph and Mary, as I go to Bethlehem, allow me to accompany you too, You came down from heaven to be my companion on earth, and I have so often abandoned you by offending you ungratefully. When I think that, so many times, to follow my cursed inclinations, I separated from You, renouncing your friendship, I would like to die of pain. You came to forgive me; so then forgive me at once, for with all my soul I repent of having turned my back on you so many times and forsaken you. I propose and hope, with Your grace, not to leave You any longer nor to separate myself from You any longer. Unite me, close me with the gentle bonds of your holy love, my Redeemer and my God.
Blessed Mary, I come to accompany you on your journey; do not fail to assist me in what I am doing for eternity. I watched myself always, and especially when I find myself at the end of my life, close to the moment it depends on being with you always to love Jesus in paradise, or being always far from you, to hate Jesus in hell. My Queen, save me through your intercession, and may it be my salvation to love you and Jesus forever, in time and in eternity. You are my hope; in you I trust.
Song: Adeste, Fideles