Category: Prayers

“Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” —Luke 1:43 Are you ready to meet Christ in a new, deep, personal, intimate, life-changing way this Christmas season? How do you know whether you have let the Lord prepare you this Advent for the real Christmas? If you can truthfully say that you come to each day and each circumstance of life not to do your will but the Lord’s will (see Heb 10:9; Ps 40:8-9; Jn 6:38; Mt 26:39), then you are ready for Christ’s coming, Christmas, and life. If you are doing your own...

“The days will come, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt’; but rather, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north.’ ” —Jeremiah 23:7-8 The Exodus was looked upon by the people of Israel as the greatest miracle. God split the Red Sea, with a wall of water to the right and to the left, so the Israelites could safely cross through the sea on dry land and thus escape from the...

“The scepter shall never depart from Judah.” —Genesis 49:10 God works through people — lots of them. Today’s readings make this clear. The line of Jesus the Messiah is traced through the tribe of Judah (Gn 49:8ff), and the Gospel genealogy traces the lineage. Despite the sinfulness and shame of the descendants of Judah, the Divine Physician entered this family lineage to redeem the sinful and heal the sick (see Mk 2:17). The genealogy shows that God truly became man. Jesus is one of us. He lived among us (Jn 1:14). He has redeemed the human family tree. “He is...