Advent begins this weekend. May these thoughts help prepare you for Christmas!
Live+Jesus
“I wish that we should be much taken up, this Advent, with thanking our Lord for His admirable Incarnation and coming into this world. Let us not be ungrateful for this. Behold, it is the Lord who comes to extend over us the greatness of His mercies. Let us give Him our love; let us adore Him and thank Him with all our soul, and He will be satisfied.”
(Exhortation 1, 1629)St Jane de Chantal
Advent Day 2 and 3
“Let us endeavor to do our actions with the purity of intention which our Lord had when He became incarnate and made Himself mortal and capable of suffering. He had no other motive than the glory of His Eternal Father and our salvation; these then, are the only motives that we ought to have in cutting off all self interest, all vain pursuits; we must be without desires save for the glory of God and the salvation of our neighbor.”
Exhortation 2, St. Jane de Chantal
Advent Day 4
“As much as we shall humble ourselves by true humility of heart, so much will the Almighty humble Himself in us to fill our hearts with the abundance of His Holy Spirit, Who will prepare us to receive the Lord in His holy birth.”
St. Jane , Exhortation 4, 1631
Advent Day 5&6
” We must offer Him pure souls, clean, to this Divine Child, who is born to us, the Author of all purity and holiness. This is the most agreeable present we could make Him, a clean, contrite and humbled heart; He wishes only for our heart. Is it not more than reasonable that we should give Him what He asks, because He comes to give us His life? Let us open to Him our hearts and let us give them wholly to Him for His dwelling.”
St. Jane de Chantal, Exhortation V, 1629
Advent – Day 7
“I entreat you to let our chief care be to purify our souls, in order to make them capable of receiving the fruits of this holy nativity. Empty your hearts of every other desire but that of receiving in them this Divine Infant, Who, when He finds them thus disposed, will assuredly be born there, and we shall dwell with Him eternally.”
St. Jane de Chantal, Exhortation v 1629