Loving Mother, Pray for Us
3rd Sunday of Advent
“Lord, come and save us.”Ps. 146
In this season of Advent, the best gift we can have is that of Mary, the Virgin, Mother of God and our Mother, because with her maternal love that she has for each one of us, she helps us prepare for the birth of Christ in us, and for his second coming, as she is doing with her various manifestations for all humanity.
She prepared the first Christmas, the birth of Christ, our Redeemer and Savior. She prepared him both in her heart and life, as well as materially, despite the vicissitudes and adversities they had to face, as human beings in the imperfection of this world. She had to submit to the mandates of the invading Roman Empire, which meant that Christ could not be born peacefully in his little town of Nazareth; then the persecution of Herod who wanted to kill the new king of the Jews, etc.
These stories of how the coming of the Son of God was, leave us great lessons. It is not that God wants, much less causes, the adversities that we have to go through in this world, but he teaches us to accept them with faith and hope, to live them as children of God, and that is how we will go through the storms and tempests that we can suffer in this world and we will reach the glory of the resurrection as we see the Holy Family arrive, after so many trials in this world.
Mary lived true freedom, the one that everyone lives in the Kingdom of God, those who are already in the truth, those who love God and give him first place in their lives, as Mary did. She could have chosen disobedience, as a human being with free will, like Adam and Eve, but she chose obedience and made her life a Yes to God, from the beginning to the end:
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done in me according to your word.”
This week we have just celebrated our parish Patroness, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, patroness of many countries in the world, including the United States, and we are also going to celebrate the advocation of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Empress of the Americas. She is our Mother from heaven, who continues to accompany us on our pilgrimage through this earth that she also passed through, with our same human frailty. That is why she understands us, she cares for us and loves us with maternal love.
When the Virgin manifested herself to Saint Juan Diego, she asked him to go to the Bishop with a task, thus manifesting her love for the Church, despite its clumsiness and sins, since it continues to be the People of God, the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit. And she came to the entire newly discovered continent, which was barely reached by the announcement of the Gospel with the missionaries of Europe. At that time there were still no borders. Mary came for everyone, as the pioneer of evangelization, which thanks to her and her manifestation caused millions of conversions of the natives of this so-called new world.
May Mary continue to assist us with her maternal love so that we too may more fully receive Christ and follow all the examples we can learn in the Holy Family of Nazareth.
Readings for the Week
Monday: Zec 2:14-17 or Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Jdt 13:18bcde, 19; Lk 1:26-38 or Lk 1:39-47
Tuesday: Zep 3:1-2, 9-13; Ps 34:2-3, 6-7, 17-19, 23; Mt 21:28-32
Wednesday: Is 45: 6b-8, 18, 21b-25; Ps 85:9ab, 10-14; Lk 7:18b-23
Thursday: Is 54:1-10; Ps 30:2, 4-6,11-12a, 13b; Lk 7:24-30
Friday: Is 56:1-3a, 6-8; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 7-8; Jn 5:33-36
Saturday: Gn 49:2, 8-10; Ps 72:1-4ab, 7-8, 17; Mt 1:1-17
Sunday: Is 7:10-14; Ps 24:1-6; Rom 1:1-7; Mt 1:18-24
Saints & Special Observances
Sunday: 3rd Sunday of Advent
Monday: Our Lady of Guadalupe
Tuesday: St. Lucy
Wednesday: St. John of the Cross
Friday: Las Posadas begins