19. The Preparation for His Approach. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Monday December 19, 2022 at 12:00AM in Meditations
"Who is there who does not desire to meet Jesus Christ, when He comes again, with joy and not with trembling? To insure this three things are necessary.
1. We must have friends among those who will come again with Him. Just as few die a happy death unless they have some advocates in heaven, so few indeed will meet Our Lord with joy unless they have some who will welcome them as having befriended them for Christ’s sake. Unless we have been men of supernatural charity, we shall stand defenseless on that day. Alas ! how faint and feeble my charity has been ! how little I have done to procure friends who will plead for me on that day !
2. We must also have had the thought of Jesus often present to our minds in life, if His coming is to be a joyful one to us. He must be no stranger to us. He must have been our guide, our friend, our master, our companion. We must have walked with God on earth, if we are to walk with Him in the celestial paradise. The more familiar has been our friendship with Him, the greater will be our happiness in meeting Him again.
3. We must also have carried our cross willingly after Him on earth, if we are to meet Him with a well-grounded confidence of a great reward in the kingdom which He has won for His elect. O how overflowing will be the delight of those who have lived mortified and self-denying lives for His sake ! What a trifle will all their sufferings then appear in comparison with their abounding joy when the archangel’s trumpet sounds ! "
Meditations for Advent . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891
Saint Andrew Christmas Novena:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen. (15 times)
Prayer to the Holy Infant for priestsJesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank Thy most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests are sent by Thee as Thou were sent by the Father. To them Thou entrusted the treasures of Thy doctrine, of Thy Law, of Thy Grace, and souls themselves.
Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them, and to let myself be guided by them in Thy ways. Jesus, send good laborers into Thy harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Thy own Heart. And in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they shepherded on earth. Amen.
Glory Be (three times).
Infant Jesus, make me love Thee more and more
