The Youth Festival in Medjugorje
Participants singing and dancing for the Lord!
(c) Tony Zubac 2018
December 13, 2018
St. Lucy
Dear Family of Mary!
"...Apostles of my
love, along with prayer and sacrifice, may your hearts be illuminated
with the love and the light of my Son. May that light and love
illuminate all those whom you meet and bring them back to my Son. I am
with you..." (December 2, 2018)
"May your hearts be illuminated with the love and the light of my Son..."
Our Lady has said this quite often to us. She wants the love and light
of Jesus to shine through us somehow! It can sound rather mysterious.
How does the light of Jesus shine through us?
This question
has been central to the writings of Caryll Houselander. She is a
spiritual writer who lived in the first half of the 20th century. She
had a difficult childhood and she lived through World War II in London!
So she understands suffering. When she writes about Jesus, she speaks
from a deep understanding of His love for her and for all people, and a
deep understanding of His suffering for all of us. That suffering is
what saved Caryll from despair and set her feet on level ground as an
adult.
Here is an excerpt from Caryll's letters (found in the Magnificat for December 2018, P 56)
Now
he comes to be born in the narrowness of our lives, to be incarnate in
us, to give his love to the world through us, through our flesh and
blood. That is one meaning of the Incarnation.
The
reason why we are where we are this Christmas, in this house, family,
office, workroom, hospital, or camp, is because it is here in this place
that Christ wants to be born, from here that he wants his life to begin
again in the world.
The
reason why we are with these particular people is because it is
precisely to these people that Christ wants us to give his love. This
year we are his trustees for these people; he has put his love for them
into our hands, into our hearts. We did not choose this place- Christ
has chosen it. We did not choose these people- Christ has chosen them.
We are asked one thing: to have the
humility and courage to open the secret place of our heart to Christ,
conscious though we are that it is as derelict as the stable, and that
his light will reveal the mouse and the spider.
It may have been puzzling, even to Mary,
how Christ was giving his life to the whole world in the obscurity of
Bethlehem, but enough for her that this was his way. It still is, and he
himself is the way, the only way to our peace.
Because the Word of God was humble as the
bleating of a lamb, lost along the darkness, today the voices of men
and angels are a great choir singing in the light, "Lamb of God, you
take away the sin of the world, give us peace."
When we are illuminated with the light and love of Jesus, it
means He is living in us, shining in our hearts, moving us to acts of
love that He wants us to perform. Jesus comes to stay in us, not to
hide, but to shine forth to all those we meet, giving them His love and
courage and hope and comfort and support for the road they must travel.
Our job is not to manage things, but to let Jesus burst out of our
littleness with His exuberant and childlike love. He wants to love those
we will encounter. That's His plan!
Well, Caryll always makes
everyday life seem like a miracle! And she's right, because it is! The
miracle of our God who loves us, each, individually, cannot be
contained. It is an explosion of joy that must break forth!
"May that light and love illuminate all those whom you meet and bring them back to my Son."
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
© Mary TV 2018
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