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Allocution, December 18, IV Sunday of Advent

27 December, 2022 NIDAK 245 Views 0 Comments

(Singing)

Today, December 19, IV Sunday of Advent, we hear in all the Catholic churches of the world the gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 to 24.

(Gospel)

Today’s liturgy has announced the birth of Jesus, although we will celebrate it solemnly on the night of the 24th to the 25th in what tradition calls Midnight Mass.

Pope Saint John Paul the Second, whose visit we are about to celebrate the 25th anniversary, says of Saint Joseph:

“The total sacrifice that Joseph made of his entire existence to the demands of the coming of the Messiah to his own house, finds an adequate reason in his unfathomable interior life, from which come to him very unique commands and consolations and from which arises for him the logic and strength proper to that of simple and clean souls, for great decisions, such as immediately putting at the disposal of divine designs, their freedom, their legitimate human vocation, their conjugal fidelity, accepting their own condition from the family. , its responsibility and weight and renouncing, for an incomparable virginal love, the natural conjugal love that constitutes and nourishes it. This dedication to God, which is availability of mind to dedicate oneself to things that relate to his service, is nothing other than the exercise of devotion, which constitutes one of the expressions of the virtue of religion” (it was written by Saint John Paul II in the Encyclical Redemptoris Custos).

We have heard how the conception of the Son of God became man within the virginal womb of Mary, not a product of Joseph’s intervention, because the one who is born is God from eternity and takes on human nature within the virginal womb of Mary. Saint Joseph will accompany the Virgin and the son of God made man, he will rejoice with them, he will cry with them, he will defend them from all danger and he will sweat to give them all his effort for family happiness and peace. He looked for a way to move from Nazareth to Bethlehem. He turned the cave of Bethlehem into a palace, opened the doors to shepherds and kings and facilitated the entry of all who wanted to see the child God. He defended the child from the murderer Herod like a lion; He made the poor house of Nazareth a temple of worship to God, a place of listening to the Word of God, a home of experience for charity with neighbors. He taught the child Jesus how to work with wood, who saw the honesty, kind treatment and help to those who needed Joseph’s example.

Joseph, the Virgin and the Child walked together, both for religious festivals and for visits to the sick. Joseph taught the baby Jesus to play. The grandparents will say “José is a horcón, a fair, honest, selfless, helpful man, a family man.”

This is what our children need, parents like Saint Joseph always by their children’s side, to carry them, cheer them up, congratulate them, teach them, defend them, play, be together at all times.

We pray to the Virgin and Child Jesus to give us all a father like Saint Joseph.

Saint Joseph, my favorite, come to my house and I’ll wait for you. Come and see, you know what is missing; Come and look, bring what’s missing and, if something is not for my house, take it.

Saint Joseph, teacher of the interior life, teach me to pray, to suffer, to be silent and to serve. Saint Joseph, pray for us.

(Singing)

Children are invited to the “My home at Christmas-2022” contest. Children from our communities, mission houses and families, children in primary school, can participate in drawing. You can use any painting technique on a letter sheet. In story, poetry and testimony, adolescents who attend high school in our communities participate. They can write a story, a poem, a testimony related to the topic, handwritten or printed. Children and adolescents can participate in crafts and, with their own hands, can create a work or a postcard adjusted to the theme. Boys with limitations can participate in the modality they wish. A prize will be given in each modality. The works are delivered to each church and the priest will deliver it to the family pastoral team before January 15, 2023.

A nurse says that many years ago when he was working in a hospital he met a little girl named Isabel, who suffered from a strange illness. “His only chance of recovery was through a blood transfusion from his brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies necessary to fight it. The doctor simply explained the situation to the girl’s brother and asked him if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. The brother hesitated for a single moment before sighing deeply and saying ‘yes, I will, if it saves my sister.’ While the transfusion was taking place, the brother was lying on a bed next to his sister and was smiling. We assisted him and his sister, and we saw how she regained the color in her cheeks. Then the young brother’s face turned pale and his smile disappeared. He looked at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice: ‘At what time will I start to die?’ As he was just a young man who did not know much, he had not understood the doctor well and thought that he had to give all his blood to his sister… And, even so, he was willing to give it to her. Give everything for those you love and take care of your family.

(Singing)

The French bishop and writer Francisco Fénelón called three of his servants and told them: “It is Christmas Eve and I want to give you my gifts. Here on my table you can see three gold coins and three very good books, each one choose what they prefer.” Two of the servants immediately took a gold coin. The third servant picked up a book. The bishop and writer smiled and said to the third servant: “Please open the book.” There on the back of the cover were three gold coins stuck. The bishop concluded: “seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be added to you. Since you were faithful in small things, I will give you great things.”

(Singing)

We pray together as a family. Let us invoke Christ, the joy and joy of all who await his arrival, and let us say to him: “Come, Lord, and do not delay any longer.”