Daily Reflections by Cathy

May your hearts be illuminated with the love and the light of my Son.

Cathy Nolan

Published December 13, 2018

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