Blessed Christmas and New Year

May the Holy Family fill your Christmas and New Year with love and peace.

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“A Son is Given” by Howard Lyon – Society of the Little Flower Christmas Card

“During Christmas time, Jesus wants a wretched and poor shelter; he wants our heart, purified, poor and empty of earthly affections, filled and adorned with virtues. He wants to find there only his most holy mother, ark and temple of every virtue; the ox that always ruminates on heavenly things; the donkey of our bodies, humble and subject to reason. May he deign to rest on the hay of our desires and make of them a yielding and fragrant hay, on which he delights to take his rest.” (Saint Catherine of Ricci, 1522-1590)

The Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery, Bronx, NY

Year of Mercy – December 8, 2015 thru November 20, 2016

mercy-yearLord Jesus Christ,
you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father,
and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him.
Show us your face and we will be saved.
Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money;
the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things;
made Peter weep after his betrayal,
and assured Paradise to the repentant thief.
Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us, the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman:
“If you knew the gift of God!”

You are the visible face of the invisible Father,
of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy:
let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified.
You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness
in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error:
let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing,
so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord,
and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor,
proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed,
and restore sight to the blind.

We ask this of you, Lord Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, Mother of
Mercy; you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and
ever.

Amen.

Pope Francis’ comments to religious sisters at St. Patrick’s Vesper Service on Sept. 24, 2015

In a special way I would like to express my esteem and gratitude to the religious women of the United States. What would the Church be without you? Women of strength, fighters, with that spirit of courage which puts you in the front lines in the proclamation of the Gospel. To you, religious women, sisters and mothers of this people, I wish to say “thank you”, a big thank you… and to tell you that I love you very much.

-Pope Francis’ Address at Vespers in New York