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In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:78-79).
On Christmas, the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, we celebrate the awesome Mystery of the birth of, a tiny Baby an Infant, Jesus Christ our merciful Savior into this world! As we commemorate this great feast with prayers, Nativity scenes, carols, hymns, cards, trees, family, friends, gifts and food let us remember that Jesus is the reason for the Season! Let us turn to Him, our true, saving, lasting and eternal food! Let us receive Him in Holy Communion and go to Him in Adoration! Empowered by Jesus, the true Bread of Life, let us reach out to feed and minister to others young and old, the hungry, poor, sick, suffering, dying, cold, lonely and all in need during this Season of Christ's birth. Let us pray that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, may reign in our hearts, minds and world. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me!
The Eucharist is the real Nativity scene, the place where it is possible to adore the incarnate word not in an image, but in reality. We adore the God hidden under the appearance of bread and wine, at Christmas we can greet the God hidden under the appearance of a baby (Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa). Let us visit Him and return love for Love!
Your eyes at the midnight Mass will gaze upon the elevated Host and your lips will utter, My Lord and my God. A few minutes more and the little Infant will have come to you. His Immaculate Mother did not hold Him more truly in her arms that first Christmas midnight than you will have Him, heart to heart. Then all the love of that Infant Redeemer will be poured out upon you. It's a thirst of the heart of every creature that desires to be loved, and the love which can alone satisfy that craving is the Divine Love. Let your heart delight in the love your God has for you, personally, individually. No soul ever in ardent fervor desires to unite herself to our Lord in Holy Communion, as our Lord desires to unite Himself to her. So Holy Communion is a delight to your Infant Savior; because He loves you, oh, how immeasurably! He tells you in His heart to heart interview that He has become a little Infant so that you may love Him with a human love without fear.
He wants you to confide in Him, approach to Him with a conviction that His Great Majesty is annihilated that you may no longer see in Him but a little Child, with a body and soul just as you have. And the mystery of love is this: that He unites His Body to your body and your soul to His Soul, so that yours may be a member of His very own. This Christmas Holy Communion will unite you to our Lord, it is my prayer, more intimately than ever before in all your lives so that even the smallest of your actions may by this union be animated with Divine Lifeand all for the honor of the Father and the salvation of souls (St. Katherine Drexel).
Indeed, we do not merely receive something in the Eucharist. It is the encounter and unification of persons; the person, however, who comes to meet us and desires to unite Himself to us is the Son of God. Such unification can only be brought about by means of adoration. Receiving the Eucharist means adoring the One whom we receive. Precisely in this way and only in this way do we become one with Him . . . . Only in adoration can profound and true acceptance develop. And it is precisely this personal act of encounter with the Lord that develops the social mission which is contained in the Eucharist and desires to break down barriers, not only the barriers between the Lord and us but also and above all those that separate us from one another (Pope Benedict XVI, Dec. 22, 2005).
St. Gertrude's Prayer for the Holy Souls: Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home, and within my family. Amen. (Jesus promised St. Gertrude that the recitation of this prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory. Please contact us for these prayer cards).
Feast of the Presentation
The yes of Mary gave me the Holy Eucharist. This beautiful healing Sacrament is my life. Let me always be aware of Your presence in the Eucharist so that I may unite myself to the obedience of Your Mother. I ask for complete openness to do Your Holy Will Lord. Help me to say yes to all You want me to do or be. I ask that the Holy Spirit will enlighten me. Cast out all my doubts, fears and anxieties and renew my consecration today. I ask that Your Eucharistic Love will influence my every thought, word and deed. My total consecration is all that I have and all that I am. Here I am, LordI come to do Your will (By Veronica E. Hamel).
The Divine Eucharist forms the principal substance of the Christian's life; It is the inexhaustible source of consolations and supernatural comforts which soothes the sorrows and sufferings of poor mankind better than any human remedy. Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the clement and peaceful King who still lives amongst us under the Sacramental veils (Pope Pius XI).
Prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament
Jesus, my God, I bow down in lowliest adoration before You, down to the depths of my utter nothingness, and from that depth I raise my eyes in humble supplication to Your Sacred Heart, imploring Your mercy and forgiveness for my many sins. Give me grace to spend this hour of loving reparation with all the holy dispositions You desire. Come into my poor heart Yourself, dear Lord, and work out Your pleasure in it, directing my faculties, sense and powers to Your greater honor and glory. Would that I might console You for all the wrongs Your loving Heart receives from the ingratitude of men.
Mary, my dearest Mother, and you, O great St. Joseph, lend me all the love of your hearts, and the love of all the angels and saints with which to love my Jesus. Teach me to pray, to love, to repair, to adore the loving, wronged Heart of Jesus hidden in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
Jesus, King and Center of all hearts, through the advent of Thy Kingdom, grant us peace!
Frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament make Christ real to us as king and lord, master and friend, brother and spouse. Christ must have first place in the family as in all things (Bl. John Baptist Scalabrini).
St. Andrew 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 piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen. (It is piously believed that whoever recites the above prayer fifteen times a day from the feast of St. Andrew, November 30, until Christmas will obtain what is asked. Imprimatur: Michael Augustine, Archbishop of NY).
Daily Advent Prayer: O Jesus, little child, come into my heart on Christmas morn, to wash away my sins and remain there in eternally. O Mary, Mother of my Savior, prepare for Jesus a cradle in my heart. Amen.
All Saints Day November 1
The saints experienced in this world such pleasure in remaining in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, that days and nights appeared to them as moments (St. Alphonsus Liguori).
All Souls Day November 2
O Sacred Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, have mercy on the souls in purgatory! Remember the Holy Souls in daily prayer, especially this month.
St. Charles Borromeo, Patron of Seminarians, Reformer, Italy (1538-1584) Nov. 4
Lover of Jesus Eucharistic, please pray for seminarians and vocations to the priesthood!
Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Carmelite Nun, France (1880-1906) November 8
May I never leave You there [in the Holy Eucharist] alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative action (Bl. Elizabeth).
St. Martin of Tours, Soldier, Bishop, Patron of Soldiers, Italy (316-397) Nov. 11
St. Martin, who spent your life in love of the Holy Eucharist and souls, pray for soldiers!
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Religious, Patron of Immigrants, Italy (1850-1917) Nov. 13
Yes, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist are mysteries of a God who makes himself for us father, brother, victim, and food. They are proof of an infinite love (St. Frances Xavier).
St. Gertrude the Great, Benedictine & Patroness of the West Indies (1256-1302) Nov. 16
One day I was feeling depressed about something absolutely trivial. When the Eucharistic host was offered up, I turned this feeling of melancholy over to God and His eternal praise. Then the Lord drew my soul through the most holy host as if it were a doorway, and God made me rest my head intimately on His chest. He whispered, See? In this quiet place you breathe easy. Your troubles disappear. But every time you leave it, bitterness will bother you, and this will be your antidote (St. Gertrude the Great, The Herald of Divine Love).
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Wife, Mother, 3rd Order Franciscan(1207-1231) November 17
Patroness of hospitals and third order Franciscans, St. Elizabeth was devoted to the sick and poor. Empowered by Jesus, her Eucharistic love, she built a hospital and fed hundreds daily!
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, Religious, Pioneer, France (1769-1852) November 18
Although they could not communicate with her verbally, the Indians loved Mother Philippine. They named her The Woman Who Prays Always, for she spent much of her time praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament for the success of their mission (Ann Ball).
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary November 21
Tradition holds that Sts. Anne & Joachim presented Our Lady in the temple when she was 3. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy pleasing to God, your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1).
Feast of Christ the King November 26
The Lord is our king! (cf. Is 33:22). The King of kings, the Lord of Heaven and earth, dwells in a Catholic church . . . . St. John Chrysostom testifies of the early Christians, They went into the church as into the palace of a great King, where the Angels are servants, where Heaven is open, where Jesus sits upon a throne (The Holy Eucharist Our All, Fr. Lukas Etlin, O.S.B.).
The Lord will reign for ever and will give his people the gift of peace (Ps 28: 10-11).
St. Catherine Laboure, Religious Mystic and Visionary, France (1806-1876) Nov. 28
In St. Catherine Laboure's time those who wore the Miraculous Medal were saved from the cholera plague and many other miracles occurred. In 1842 Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne, a young Jewish man, who at 24 years old had spent most of his life mocking the Church. He was converted instantly and later became a priest. Yearly countless miracles are reported, miracles of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. These resplendent graces are given, Our Mother said, to all who ask for them. In the words of Our Lady to St. Catherine Laboure, My child, you, too, will know sadness. But in time of trial come here before the altar and pour out all your troubles. Then you will receive every consolation.
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First Sunday of Advent December 3
In the womb of His Mother His rest was secret, unfelt, unseen, making all who would live in Him into Himself ... He is as silent, as secret and hidden, in the Host as He was in Advent ... He trusts himself to His creatures in the Host as He trusted himself to Our Lady (Caryll Houselander).
St. Nicholas, Bishop, Patron of Children and Russia, Myra (4th century) Dec. 6
St. Nicholas testified to Jesus Eucharistic by his love of children, the poor, sick and needy.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception December 8
That marvelous avenue of graces, which began in the Immaculate Conception, runs without a fault or break straight to the Blessed Sacrament. The one mystery answers to the other; the one illuminates the other; the one completes and consummates the other (Fr. Faber).
St. Juan Diego, Visionary of Guadalupe, Mexico (1474-1548) December 9
Our Lady told Juan Diego her request that a Church be built so that Jesus, her Eucharistic Son, could be known, received, loved and adored by her children.
Feast of Our Lady of Loreto, Italy December 10 Our Lady of Loreto, pray for us!
In 1294 the Holy House of Nazareth was brought by angels to Loreto, where it remains today. This house is where the Annunciation occurred and where Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived as a family. There is a stunning painting of the Annunciation at the Basilica, which surrounds the Holy House, depicting the Word of God in a Sacred Host pierced by a ray coming from the Holy Spirit and reaching Mary, who is kneeling in prayer at a lectern in her house at Nazareth. Many miracles are granted through Our Lady of Loreto's powerful intercession.
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Conversions and Miracles, Mexico December 12
When Our Lady appeared in 1531 the worship of false gods and human sacrifice were rampant. In the few years after a Church was built for her Son in the Blessed Sacrament, nine million people were converted! Through Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration it can happen again today.
St. John of the Cross, Priest, Church Doctor & Carmelite Reformer (Spain) Dec. 14
Great lover of Jesus Eucharistic, who wrote beautiful poetry and writings on the spiritual life.
Merry Christmas, O Come Let Us Adore Him in Eucharistic Adoration!!! December 25
Feast of the Holy Innocents December 28
This is the philosophy of life, the culture of life that becomes concrete and practical and beautiful in communion with Christ, the living God, who walks with us in the companionship of his friends, in the great family of the Church . . . . It is a yes to the challenge of really living life, of saying no to the attack of death that presents itself under the guise of life; and it is a yes to the great gift of true life that became present on the Face of Christ, who gives himself to us in baptism and subsequently in the Eucharist (Pope Benedict XVI, Jan. 8, 2005).
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph December 31
You were not nearer to the Blessed Virgin during the nine months she carried You in her womb than You are to me when You rest on my tongue at Holy Communion. You were not closer to the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph in the cave at Bethlehem or in the house at Nazareth or during the flight into Egypt, or at any moment of that divine family life than You are to me at this moment and so many others in the tabernacle (Bl. Charles de Foucauld).
We wish everyone a Blessed Christmas Season and a very Happy and Holy New Year!!!
December Intentions: Send us the names of loved ones you would like us to pray for throughout the Christmas Season and New Year, before Jesus Eucharistic our Prince of Peace!
Start Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in your parish!
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M.B.S., P.O. Box 1701, Plattsburgh, NY 12901 (518) 561-8193 www.ACFP2000.com
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