Yesterday, we celebrated the feast day of St. John the Evangelist who in his writings
often referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. There was a
beautiful relationship of filial love between St. John and Our Lord, a love
that we should all be striving for.

On yesterday’s Women of Grace Live radio, I shared some reflections from today’s Divine Intimacy meditation in which Fr. Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalen, OCD, offered a powerful reflection about love. He tells us that Our Lord revealed His Love for us by the very fact that He concealed His divinity, His majesty, His power, and His infinite wisdom to assume our human nature. The Divine Infant was completely dependent upon a creature, though He was God, the Word was made flesh for our sake, and was born of a virgin.

Fr. Gabriel then goes on to issue a challenge. He says, “Let us try to understand
this mystery in order to apply it to our poor lives.” He later continues,
“To repay His infinite love, to prove our love for Him, let us resolve to
strip ourselves generously of everything that could hinder our union with Him;
above all, let us divest ourselves of self-love, pride, vanity, all our
righteous pretensions. What a striking contrast between these vain pretenses of
our “ego” and the touching humility of the Incarnate Word!”

Let us take time during this holy season of Christmas to really ponder the
mysteries of the Incarnation. How can we divest ourselves of the things that
hinder our union with God? It is truly a call to a deep ascenticism.

Perhaps take time to meditate upon an image or statue of the Nativity scene, such as
the one depicted here which so strikingly displays the humility of that moment
of great love, God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Then allow the mystery
of that great love to reveal itself and come alive in your life in a deeper way
than ever before through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Who would not love Him who loves us so much?”