December 7

“Within the sphere of humanity and in the natural world, there had to be a pure and spotless being capable of receiving the divine element, a feminine principle enlightened by grace.”

-Nicholas Berdyaev

December 6

“God the Father communicated to Mary His fruitfulness, inasmuch as a mere creature was capable of it, in order that He might give her the power to produce His Son and all the members of His Mystical Body.”

-St. Louis Grignion de Montfort

December 5

“Surrender to God is the only absolute power with which creature is endowed.”

-Gertrud von le Fort

December 4

“Mary is the attentive Virgin, who receives the word of God with faith, that faith which in her case was the gateway and path to divine motherhood, for, as St. Augustine realized, “Blessed Mary by believing conceived Him [Jesus] whom believing she brought forth.”

-Pope Paul VI

December 3

“To be a field for the word means to be earth which allows itself to be absorbed by the seed, which assimilates itself to the seed, renouncing itself so as to make the seed germinate. With her motherhood Mary transfused into it her very substance, body and soul, so that a new life might come forth…Mary makes herself completely available as the soil, she allows herself to be used and consumed so as to be transformed into him.

-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)

December 2

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path."

-Psalm 119:105

December 1

“A few moments of meditation and recollection each morning in the presence of God transforms and perfumes the whole day, like flowers cast about when night comes, whose fragrance at dawn anoints everything they have touched.”

-Elisabeth Leseur

November 30

"Rejoice always, pray constantly."

-1 Thessalonians 5:16

November 29

"If you know how to pray, then you will love prayer- and if you love to pray, then you will pray."

-St. Teresa of Calcutta

November 28

"Not all women have fruits of their own womb, but all women are called upon to be mothers: that is, self-giving, self-sacrificing in the silence of their loving heart."

-Alice Von Hildebrand, Ph.D.