Christmas Eve. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Sunday December 24, 2023 at 12:00AM in Meditations
"1. How did Mary and Joseph spend the first Christmas Eve? St. Joseph
spent it in a fruitless attempt to find a lodging for his holy spouse.
Vainly he sought for a place in the caravansery or inn, where travelers
were received. Vainly he went from house to house in Bethlehem.
Everywhere he was disappointed. Thus it is that God prepares His saints
and chosen ones for some signal blessing. We must not be cast down by
the fruitlessness of our efforts. It is a sign that some great grace is
close at hand.
2. Mary meantime was patiently waiting. She was
simply praying that God’s will might be done, whatever suffering it
might bring to her. She was offering herself to God, to be used by Him
as He should see fit. She was making acts of perfect conformity to the
will of God in all things. Blessed are those who wait patiently in such a
spirit. God will soon fulfill all the desires of their heart.
3.
Yet Mary and Joseph, in spite of the sorrow of the one and the anxiety
of the other, were both of them overflowing with heavenly consolations.
How could it be otherwise, when one of them carried Christ in her chaste
womb, and the other was more dear to God than any other of the sons of
men, for he was Mary’s chosen spouse, and he knew that before another
day was past she was to bring forth into the world the Son of God. Our
happiness, like that of Joseph and Mary, does not depend upon external
circumstances, but on the love that we bear to God in our hearts."
