Tuesday, Fourth Week of Advent
Theme: The Holy Family
Symbol: The Manger
Prayer of Ven. Bruno Lanteri
Almighty and Eternal God, I (name), although most unworthy, but encouraged by your compassion and infinite mercy, and by the desire of serving you, offer before the Most Holy Virgin Mary and all the Court of Heaven, to your Divine Majesty, this day, and all my thoughts, words and actions in it. I humbly beg of your infinite goodness and mercy, by the Blood of Jesus Christ, that you choose to accept this offering in the odor of sweetness, and that as you have given me the grace to desire and to make this offering, so also you grant me the grace to fulfill it. Amen.
O Virgin immaculately conceived, put into my heart those things of your Son most pleasing to him. Amen.
Scripture: Luke 2:12-14
“And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Reflection: Soon we shall behold the infant king lying not on an ivory bed but on a manger filled with hay, with beasts as his companions. Kings usually put on the choicest clothes, but this king is wrapped in swaddling clothes. This king and the circumstances of his birth are not very appealing from a worldly perspective. God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. Let us then go out of our way to follow him, so that we will be able to rise above the discomforts surrounding his birth—and the ones we experience in our own lives celebrating with him— and pay him homage. He was rejected by some of his people at the inn, and he rested with beasts. Is there room within you for the poor and lowly in this busy season?