December 15
"God wants to transform us by His grace and to sanctify us, but before He does so, He waits for our assent. When this yes is complete and total, as Mary’s was, God will accomplish His work in us.”
-Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD
For Reflection
What is God’s hope for us? Upon what is it dependent? Why do you think this is so? How do the last five GraceLines point to Mary’s complete and total “fiat?” In what one way can you give your assent more completely and more totally? What was the work God accomplished in Mary? What work do you believe He wants to accomplish in you?
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December 14
“… the spirituality of waiting is not simply our waiting for God. It is also participating in God’s waiting for us …”
-Henri J. M. Nouwen
For Reflection
Ponder this quote. What does it mean to you? In what way(s) did God wait for Mary? How do I think He has been waiting for me? (Hint: One answer is found in tomorrow’s GraceLine) What is my response?
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December 13
“The secret of waiting is that the seed has been planted, that something
has begun.”
-Henri J. M. Nouwen
For Reflection
Why do you think knowledge of the planted seed holds the “secret” to waiting? Consider this quote in light of the quote of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. What seed was planted in Mary? What seeds exemplified her period of waiting (consider what you learned through other quotes)? Identify some of the seeds that have been planted in you during this
time of spiritual waiting?
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Today we celebrate the beautiful Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It's a special day for Women of Grace® because we are entrusted to her patronage and protection.
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Someone recently wrote to us expressing concerns about the use of smart-speaker devices such as Amazon’s Echo or Google Home in a Christian home. Is it true that these devices are pre-programmed with a non-Christian worldview that can describe Buddha but not Jesus Christ?
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December 12
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
“The Word of God is present in [Mary], dwells within her, and takes hold of all the capabilities of her intelligence, her heart, her sensibility. Her entire being is mobilized by God and for God.”
-Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, O.P.
For Reflection
Reread the above GraceLine. Enter into the mystery these words express. Let them move you interiorly. Through the use of your imagination “be” with Mary as the Word of God grows within her. What thoughts, inspirations, and insights come to you? In what way does this aspect of Mary’s “waiting” prove the truth of yesterday’s GraceLine? What do you make of the last sentence, especially the word “mobilized,” in light of the time of Mary’s maternity? Our Lady of Guadalupe appears to Juan Diego pregnant with Jesus. How do you think she images this quote through her apparitions?
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December 11
“Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
-Simone Weil
For Reflection
Why do you think this is so? How is the spiritual life demonstrated in the excerpt from A Woman Wrapped in Silence.” Note the phrase from today’s quote, “waiting patiently in expectation.” How does Mary demonstrate this in the excerpt? To what extent has my current Advent been marked by “patient expectation?” In addition to the coming of the Christ Child, is there something else for which I have been waiting? What is it? How can this “advent” be a time of spiritual growth for me as I wait?
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In response to the postponement of the Beatification of Fulton J. Sheen, Bishop Daniel Jenky of the Diocese of Peoria is asking the faithful to join him in a special nine-day novena to "petition God unceasingly" that the postponed Cause may move forward to the Beatification and Canonization of Fulton Sheen.
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Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
A 49-year-old Florida woman wearing a “Hail Satan” t-shirt featuring an inverted cross was asked by airline crewmembers to either cover up the offensive shirt or get off the plane.
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December 10
“And when the hour had come that was to move
The long days onward to Bethlehem…
a moment paused,
Above a quiet place, and found, just this,
A woman wrapped in silence, and the seed
Of silence was her heart that tried to give
All that it held to give, and ever more.”
-John W. Lynch, Excerpt from A Woman Wrapped in Silence
For Reflection
These beautiful words poetically describe Our Lady as she waited for and anticipated the birth of her Son. What thoughts and insights come to you through the description “a woman wrapped in silence?” What interior attitude marked Mary’s silence? What does the poetry suggest? What about Luke 2:19, 51? Consider these lines in light of the quotes of Father Marie-Dominique Philippe and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. How can I imitate Our Lady and also become “a woman wrapped in silence?”
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