The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Some of us are praying the novena to the Lady of Guadalupe, whose Feast Day is December 12. A novena is simply a discipline of nine days. Anyone need discipline? setting out to fulfill a little commitment of prayer? The prayer pamphlet contains the story of the apparitions at Guadalupe to Juan Diego. It is a marvelous story worth knowing even in the details. We remember that Juan Diego had an appointment with the Lady the next day, but instead he went to find the priest to bless Juan Bernadino, who was Juan Diego’s dying uncle. Going around the base of the mountain instead of over the top, where he was to have met the Lady, she met him in the middle of the road and asked where he was going, and in such a hurry. It’s at that point that she utters these most marvelous words we so need to hear – especially when we are up against it, so filled with anxiety and anger, when things seem futile, when I feel dried up and powerless. Listen!
“Let nothing discourage you
nothing depress you.
Let nothing alter your heart or
your countenance.
Also do not fear any illness or trouble,
anxiety or pain.
Am I not here who am your Mother?
Are you not under my shadow and protection?
Am I not your fountain of Life?
Are you not in the fold of my mantle,
in the crossing of my arms?
Do not be troubled or take thought of
your uncle’s illness
for he will not die of this.
He is well already
Is there anything else that you need?
Advent takes place in the time of the deepest darkness. But our answer to the darkness is not to despair, to lament, to curse. We light candles instead. I need to be enlightened. The world needs light, doesn’t it? Of course, the light is Christ.
O Christ our Savior,
shed your light upon the path I have to tread,
that I may keep it without stumbling and without faltering,
and come in the end to see you face to face in the heavenly kingdom.
Amen.
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Rorate Mass: Stunning really, wouldn’t you agree, that on a Saturday morning in the cold and dark time, forty of us got up on our own at 5:30 to be up in chapel for the Advent Mass at dawn, honoring Mary in her pregnancy?
We remember that the gospel of St. Luke tells us that Mary went “quickly” or “with all haste” to visit her elder relative, Elizabeth. The trip was between 90 and 100 miles. That’s a long journey on foot and through what’s called a “hill country.” Probably a good ten days. Tough young girl, Mary. The baby within her was about the size of the head of pin! An embryo! But an embryo that was the Son of God!
She went quickly. Am I a terrible procrastinator? She went to share good news with a family member. Is my life a sharing of good news? She went through the hill country. What’s the place of great ups and downs that I have to traverse?
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Perfect love: Abba Agathon, who was more experienced than all the solitaries of his time, was a man who loved and honored stillness and silence more than anyone else.
He once went to a festival to sell his baskets; there he found a stranger lying sick in the street, so he rented a house and stayed with him working with his own hands, spending what he earned on the man and on paying the rent of the house. He served the sick man thus for six months, until he recovered.
It is said that Abba Agathon used to say, “I should like to find a leper, give him my body and take his in exchange.” Here we have perfect love.
