December 5, 2023 Reflection – Prepare yourselves with joy!!!

Prepare yourselves with joy!

December 5, 2023

Dear Family of Mary!

In our message for today, Our Lady calls us to prepare with joy for the coming of Baby Jesus through renewed prayer in our families. I had never thought of joy being a way to prepare for Jesus’ coming! But it must be!!

Here is the message:

November 25, 2009 
“Dear children!

In this time of grace
I call you all
to renew prayer in your families.

Prepare yourselves with joy for the coming of Jesus.

Little children,
may your hearts be pure and pleasing,
so that love and warmth may flow through you
into every heart that is far from His love.

Little children,
be my extended hands,
hands of love
for all those who have become lost,
who have no more faith and hope.

Thank you for having responded to my call.”

Just as fasting and penance are necessary for our spiritual lives, so too is joy! When we enter into joy, we enter into the very heart of God, for He is only Light, only Happiness, only Truth, and totally Love! The only response to these awesome realities is Joy! Joy spills out of God’s heart into our hearts when we draw close to Him and worship Him in all His Mighty Glory. Joy is the way of life in Heaven.

And so, Our Lady calls us to prepare for the coming of Her Son with Joy!! But how can we help our families to enter into prayer with joy? Many of our family members today do not talk about God and they are reticent to even pray the simplest prayers. But we can still lovingly work on their conversion, through our example, and our conversations with them and through the deep joy we carry in our hearts because of God. Our prayers with them can communicate that joy!

Even the smallest prayer can open a closed heart. The Holy Spirit can do miracles through just such prayers. He quietly enters and speaks to those hearts, confirming the prayer that was prayed. We are not alone when we pray for and with our families. God joins in!

Our Lady wants our Advent to be a time of joy in the Spirit! If our hearts are “pure and pleasing” then the love of God will flow through us to our families, and then into the world.

Oh, come Holy Spirit and help us to become pure and pleasing, to be extended hands of love for those who are lost and have no faith or hope. May we renew our prayer and pray with our families until joy rules in our hearts, our families and the world!

In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c) Mary TV 2023