December 10
Day 9: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of faith. We believe that He will come to us, simply because He said He would. In trusting Him, we commit everything we are and have to His care and disposal, following in the footsteps of His dear Mother. In doing so, we exemplify faith in His promises.
Grace: I pray for the grace of faith during this holy Advent season, entrusting to Him my entire self. I surrender my will in exchange for His.
Reflection: "In the evening when you go to sleep, hold your beads, doze off reciting them, do like those babies who go to sleep mumbling, 'Mamma! Mamma!'" - St. Bernadette
Challenge: What a precious image: a baby falling asleep, knowing he or she is protected and cared for. Today, open your heart and mind to this image, but instead of a baby, place yourself in the arms of our Mother. How safe do you feel as you lie within Her care? Pray a few times, "Mamma! Mamma!"
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December 9
Day 8: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of faith. We believe that He will come to us, simply because He said He would. In trusting Him, we commit everything we are and have to His care and disposal, following in the footsteps of His dear Mother. In doing so, we exemplify faith in His promises.
Grace: I pray for the grace of faith during this holy Advent season, entrusting to Him my entire self. I surrender my will in exchange for His.
Reflection: "Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith 'man freely commits his entire self to God.' For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's will. 'The righteous shall live by faith.' Living faith 'work[s] through charity.' -Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1814
Challenge: This week, we are challenged to grow in Faith, allowing God to transform the areas in our life enveloped in fear. Our Mother is the perfect example for us: she freely committed her "entire self to God." How can we allow her to encourage and support us as we grow deeper in Faith over the next several days?
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December 8
Day 7: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of hope, filled with waiting and preparing for the coming of the Savior. Mary, the Mother of God, hopes in Him, placing all of herself at His disposal, awaiting His perfect arrival.
Grace: I pray for the grace of hope during this holy Advent season, anticipating with joy His will and surrendering to His timing.
Reflection: "Hail, full of grace. What do these words mean? The Evangelist Luke writes that Mary (Miriam), at these words spoken by the Angel, “was greatly troubled..., and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be” (Lk 1:29). These words express a singular election. Grace means a particular fullness of creation through which the being, who resembles God, participates in God’s own interior life. Grace means love and the gift of God himself, the completely free gift (“given gratuitously”) in which God entrusts to man his Mystery, giving him, at the same time, the capacity of being able to bear witness to the Mystery, of filling with it his human being, his life, his thoughts, his will and his heart.” -Pope St. John Paul II
Challenge Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. How is God calling you to bear witness to His Mystery, of filling with it his human being, his life, his thoughts, his will, and his heart? How is our perfect Mother the example for us of one who participated in God's own interior life?
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December 7
Day 6: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of hope, filled with waiting and preparing for the coming of the Savior. Mary, the Mother of God, hopes in Him, placing all of herself at His disposal, awaiting His perfect arrival.
Grace: I pray for the grace of hope during this holy Advent season, anticipating with joy His will and surrendering to His timing.
Reflection: "Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence." -St. Francis de Sales
Challenge: Today, how can you "run" to our dear Mother? By throwing yourself into her arms, how are you demonstrating the virtue of hope, just as she threw herself in the arms of the Father? Mother, hold us close as we place all of our trust in our dear Father's perfect will!
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December 6
Day 5: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of hope, filled with waiting and preparing for the coming of the Savior. Mary, the Mother of God, hopes in Him, placing all of herself at His disposal, awaiting His perfect arrival.
Grace: I pray for the grace of hope during this holy Advent season, anticipating with joy His will and surrendering to His timing.
Reflection: "Mary remained with her [Elizabeth] about three months and then returned to her home." - Luke 1:56
Challenge: Can you imagine how special it was for Elizabeth to have Mary stay with her for those three months? Picture their time together: how much hope do you think that He poured into their souls during such a precious time in their lives? What a joy! Who is God calling you to spend some extra time with this Advent season? Who needs you right now?
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December 5
Day 4: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of hope, filled with waiting and preparing for the coming of the Savior. Mary, the Mother of God, hopes in Him, placing all of herself at His disposal, awaiting His perfect arrival.
Grace: I pray for the grace of hope during this holy Advent season, anticipating with joy His will and surrendering to His timing.
Reflection: “Jesus Christ, after having given us all He could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, His sufferings, and His bitter death; after having given us His Adorable Body and Blood to be the Food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing He had left, which was His holy Mother.” - St. John Vianney
Challenge: What amazing love Jesus had for His Mother, and what incredible love He had for us that He would GIVE us His Mother! How can we imitate Christ's love for Mary today? What does this teach us about hope?
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December 4
Day 3: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
Theme: Advent is a time of hope, filled with waiting and preparing for the coming of the Savior. Mary, the Mother of God, hopes in Him, placing all of herself at His disposal, awaiting His perfect arrival.
Grace: I pray for the grace of hope during this holy Advent season, anticipating with joy His will and surrendering to His timing.
Reflection: "In the interim just as the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected is the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, as a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth."
Challenge: How is God calling you to shine forth during this Advent season? What hope and solace can you provide to His people as they journey over the next few weeks?
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December 3
Day 2: Daily Gracelines: ADVENTure with Mary
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Welcome to the Daily Gracelines ADVENTure with Mary
Welcome to our "ADVENTure with Mary" program, a free Women of Grace® resource.
Advent is a time of waiting, watching, and preparing for the coming of the Christ Child, whose life and death bring us eternal salvation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that in the liturgical season of Advent, the Church "makes present [the] ancient expectancy of the Messiah," so that "by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful [can] renew their ardent desire for his second coming" (#524).
My prayer for you is that this ADVENTure with Mary will aid you in your faith-filled effort to make this Advent a holy time of preparation as you ponder anew the Mystery of the Incarnation and the Woman whose "fiat" made it so.
Together, may we take this mystical journey with Mary from the moment of the Annunciation to the birth of her Child. I pray she delivers us safely into His holy and loving heart.
To truly maximize your experience over the next few weeks, the following steps will help:
Prepare yourself for your time of prayer.
Review the theme.
Ask Him for the grace to fully encounter both Him and His Mother.
Read the quote carefully, allowing the words to sit with you.
Pray the reflection provided.
Ask Him how you can virtuously live out the challenge.
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February 1
“The future is in your hearts and in your hands. God is entrusting to you the task, at once difficult and uplifting, of working with Him in the building of the civilization of love.”
-St. John Paul the Great
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