O Infant Savior, many times in life we have prepared for guests about to enter our beloved household. Some guests were important, but not nearly as important as the heavenly Visitor, for Whom we now prepare our hearts.
The Prophets of old longed for Thy coming into their world. We long for Thy return to our modern world. If Advent means the coming of Christ, there is nothing we need so badly today as an Advent-another coming of Thyself and Thy principles into our pagan times. Only then will we breathe in a Christian atmosphere, in which joy replaces sorrow, peace replaces war and disturbance, in which love casts out darkness.
O Mary, my Mother, be my model during this holy season. Christ was alive within thee during the first Advent. We want Him to be more alive within us than ever during this Advent. May we not merely possess our precious Catholic Faith-rather, may It take complete possession of us, so that wherever we go, whatever we do or say, it will be the Christ Child that inspires us.
We resolve to make our Christmas a holy day with Christ instead of a holiday without Him. We resolve to observe Christmas as the Birthday of Christ, not merely as a day to give and receive merchandise; to help at least one poor family in honor of the Holy Family of Bethlehem. We promise to remember that the real symbols of Christmas are the star, the stable and the crib, not Santa and his reindeer.
Finally, we promise every day to give glory to God in the highest, and to work and pray for peace on earth among men of good will. Amen.
TO JESUS LIVING IN MARY
O Jesus living in Mary, come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy holiness, in the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues, in the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries.
Subdue every hostile power in Thy Spirit,
For the glory of the Father. Amen.
PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF HIS HOLY BIRTH
Hail and blessed be the hour and the moment in which the Son of God was born of the Most Pure Blessed Virgin Mary, at midnight in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and to grant my petitions, through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
(Second verse of hymn)
O come Thou Rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of Hell thy people save, and give them victory o’er the grave.
Chorus
Rejoice! Rejoice! O Israel! To thee shall come Emmanuel.
Veni, O Jesse Virgula! Ex hostis tuos ungula,
De specu tuos tartari, educ, et antro barathri.
