“Joseph her husband” (Mt 1:19)

One of my favorites saints. For many ages totally hidden. “Discovered” and made famous by St. Therese of Avila. Recently “invited” to every Eucharistic Prayer soon after Our Lady, as a “Her Spouse”.

I have no idea how he was able to respond to all those challenges: fell in love with Our Lady, and was informed that she offered her virginity to God, found her pregnant, decided to leave her quietly, and after an Angel’s intervention took Her into his home, escaped to Egypt to protect his Family, all these years silent, protective, totally devoted to Our Lady and Jesus.

True inspiration for our life. True saint without any extraordinariness. Normal family life, full of work, daily family activities, oriented to God, close to Our Lady, in a real relationship with Jesus.

“He did as as the Angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1, 24)

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1:45)

God’s word.

Whom do I believe: God? and His promises? what He said to me in the Bible? or … All this Bible is a nice story, but not about me.

If you have thoughts like this it is high time to ask immediately Our Lady for intervention. She is not only the First and Most Powerful Believer, but also Our Mother and our Guide in our pilgrimage of faith.

When She met Archangel Gabriel and accepted Her mission, She – only on the basis of God’s word – went to visit Her relative. “Elisabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said… blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord”. (Lk 1:41-42.45).

Today the reading from the Song of the Songs reminds you, how important you are. You are His beloved, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song 2:10.14).
These are His words to you. When you are entering the church for the Mass or just for a short prayer, He is telling you this: “Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song, 14).

You are in His eyes. Always. He loves you when you are sinner, when you are tired and have no strength to pray, when you are busy with preparing Christmas, and when you are praying. Always. There is no exception. No bad mood, no busy time with God. He is Our Father, The Savior, and the Paraclete.

Only three days left to His coming. And every day, with greater passion we call:
“O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God” (Alleluia)

“…The angel Gabriel was sent from God …to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph…and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1:26).

I love the Angels. The first persons created by God. Beautiful creatures, totally spiritual, and after passing the trial, totally devoted to God and to His service.

Messengers like Gabriel, warriors like Michael, healers like Rafael. To say nothing about our Guardian Angels.

Just before your conception God asked the Angels in a very similar way, like in the vision of Isaiah: “I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me’” (Is 6:8)  answered one of the angels and become your Guardian Angel forever. And from this moment on your Guardian Angel is always with you.

Angels are present during the Mass with their prayer “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and mentioned at the end of each Preface and in the first Eucharistic prayer, Angels are also present in Angelus Domini prayer and in the Rosary so happy to serve Our Lady, Angels protect our countries, cities, parishes and individuals. We owe them so much.

Sometimes people restrict prayer to Guardian Angels only to childhood and only to children, but they are our friends forever.

Can we imagine how happy was Gabriel to announce Zachariah the good news about Elisabeth’s pregnancy, and to proclaim Our Lady to be the Mother of God? We call him the Guardian Angel of the Holy Family, but he is always there to spread the good news to every family.

Remember to speak with your Guardian Angel every day, remember to say “thank you” for his daily help, remember to ask him in a special need. He is your friend. Always. And you can count on him. Please, refresh your friendship with him during this Advent. This is the time of the Angels. They brought Good News to Zachariah and Elisabeth, to Mary, St. Josef and to shepherds. Today they also serve to protect God’s life in our hearts.

O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness. (Alleluia)

Good News for mankind comes through announcing a new life – “You will be with child and will bear a son”. It was a message to the mother of Samson (Judges 13,7) and the mother of John the Baptist (Lk 1,13). Tomorrow the Virgin Mother will receive the same message.

God is a Father who loves life. He is the Creator of life because He is Love and He lives in a communion of persons. God is never alone. He is the Holy Trinity.

He shared with us the most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator- the transmission of human life (HV 1).

The great joy for parents, the future for this world. Any couple who become parents understand Advent – the time of expectation, the time, when the joy of birth is present before birth. We enjoy this coming time, we would like to have Christmas as soon as possible, even today, so decorations are ready and gifts already bought, but we know that we should wait. The Child will come when time comes. Not earlier, not later, just on time.
To prepare ourselves better for this time, we can pray for expecting mothers, for women suffering from infertility, for civilization of life. We can give today a smile to expecting mothers, maybe a small sign of help.

“O Root of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: come to save us without delay!” (from Alleluia) 

They shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us” (Mt 1:23)

God has chosen to be called Emmanuel, to ensure us that He is so close to us.
When we pray “Our Father who are in Heaven” it doesn’t mean that we should look somewhere up, into the sky.

This biblical expression does not mean a place (“space”), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not “elsewhere”: he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.

“Our Father who art in heaven” is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them.

“Heaven” could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries. (CCC, 2794).

It wasn’t our decision to bring God from heaven to earth. It was, from the beginning HIS own, independent decision to be Emmanuel, God-with-us

What we can do, especially during this time of Advent, is to open our hearts for Him. Not because we deserve, but because we need Him so desperately. Without Him we are helpless, with Him we are in power, we belong to Him, we are God’s children, and no one can take this dignity away from us.

O Leader of the House of Israel, giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai: come to rescue us with your mighty power. (Alleluia verse)

Today’s Gospel is a very long story of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

We could feel tired of listening to so many names. We know that this is the Gospel, Good News about our salvation, but … maybe a shorter version would be enough. Where is hidden the Good News for us and our salvation in these names?

When we listen carefully to this genealogy, we can find four names which shouldn’t be mentioned: female names. This is odd. Jewish genealogy doesn’t cover female names. And whats more: three of these names are not Jewish: Tamar, Rahab and Ruth were pagans.

Jesus Christ invited pagan women to His family. He wants to have all people in His family. Salvation is universal.

If you think that you are nobody, nothing special, just a poor, weak sinner, remember that He came to the poor, the weak and the sinners and in times, when women didn’t count He put their names into His genealogy to remind you and to protect your presence in His family forever.

“He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way” (Ps 25)

The simple difference between believer and pagan lies in prayer. Not in prayer generally but in the way how they pray. The pagan prays to change God’s will, the believer prays to change his own heart to follow God’s will. The pagan can even “pay” for this change in God’s will by sacrifices, litanies, candles; the believer can put his life on the line to be with God.

We are listening today to His words and pray: “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior” (Ps 25). We know that He is full of compassion and kindness, “good and upright is the Lord” (Ps 25), so we choose to listen to Him and follow His will, because He knows where our Home is. And He said “I am the way, the truth and the life”.
The chief priest and the elders (Mt 21, 23) had their own idea of God, heaven and future. They prayed a lot. But instead of accepting the salvation they were trying to destroy the authority of Jesus. They tried to be smart rather then simple. Their attempt had a very miserable effect.

Our prayer for today is: “Show us, Lord, your love, and grant us your salvation”. (Alleluia)

“He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way” (Ps 25)

PS. I received yesterday so much of wonderfull evidence of your memory of my 28th anniversery of priesthood. Thank U so much.

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near”. (Phil 4, 4-5)

This is a very special Sunday. Traditionally we call this Sunday – Gaudete – Rejoice!!!

Why? Because the Lord is near.

What does it mean? He is coming to save you.

The Bible’s language is very detailed and precise: “the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf will be cleared, the lame will leap like a stag, the tongue of the mute will sing”. (Is 35, 5 – 6).

It is as if God wanted to cover all our daily life situations: when we can’t see the way out of a difficult situation, when no one is telling us how beautiful and important we are and that we are loved so much, when we have no place to go, no one is waiting for us impatiently, because they’ve missed us, and finally we will have courage to tell the others how much we love them, even if we run the risk of rejection.

Today’s Sunday reminds me of the picture I once saw. It showed heaven. God the Father was standing on the cloud and looking at the Earth. On His face there was so much feeling. And He repeated – I love them so much…

Behind Him there were two Angels. And one, looking at this situation, made a comment to another one – “He can continue like that all  day long.”

This is Advent. We are waiting until it appears in our life. So the Apostle reminds: “ You must be patient. Make your heart firm … because the coming of the Lord is at hand”. (James 5, 7,9).

During our Advent he is sending His “messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you” (Mt 11, 10).

It was John the Baptist, it was any of the saints, it was Juan Diego and Juan Pablo. And it could be you – your smile, your help, your good word and prayer, your heartfelt compassion can change this Advent into a very special time – when Gods promises are really at hand. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” (from Alleluia)

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near”. (Phil 4, 4-5)

When St. John of the Cross was a little boy, he was drwoining in a swamp. At that moment He saw a beautiful Lady who held out her hand to save him. He refused, because his hand was dirty.

It was Our Lady. She is the Immaculate Concepcion. And we have no idea how beautiful She is. And Her beauty and immaculacy let Her recognize how much sin is against God and our dignity. We are God’s children, and even when we fall, we are still His children. And She is our Mother. She is among us every day and if she sees our sin, She holds out Her hand to help us.

When we sin, we want to hide from God in our guilt and shame, but the moment we turn to go away, we fall straight into God’s arms. Because when we sin, we need His grace most, and this is where He meets us with His love to lift us up. The same with Mary: She’s there to restore beauty in us when we’re hurt by sin.

Little John didn’t want to make Her dirty, because of Her beauty.  So she sent him someone who helped him. And She also, as a Mother of Church is here to help us through the Church. Of course I am thinking about Liturgy and sacraments, with the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the first place, but also about you. What you can do to imitate Our Lady and Her great concern about other people’s relation with Christ and His Church. 

St. Paul reminds us today: “think in harmony with one another…Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.” You won’t save anybody by becoming judgemental and taking place of God to judge the others. Espaecially because God doesn’t judge, but welcomes His beloved children with mercy and lifts them up from sin.

Our Lady is so happy when she sees us praying for one another, helping each other and welcoming each other. We can help so many people when we pray for them, when we fast and  share what we have with the others.

Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion, pray for us sinners and help us be example for others how to be close to You and Your Son. Amen.

Fr. Jay

We’re beginning a New Year.

Advent is the time of waiting.

This is the time of Our Lady. She accepted Jesus first in her heart and then in her womb. Looking at Her we can see how we should change when we invite Lord Jesus into our hearts. To czas Matki Bożej.

When a new life begins in a woman, everything slowly changes in her. She walks, wakes up and lays down differently. She is aware of a new life that other may not yet see. But this new life shapes her and turns her into a Mum.

Likewise, we during the Advent invite Jesus into our hearts so that He can change them and all our ways completely, so that we are full of His presence.

I pray for this for us all in this first day of the Advent and on the third day of our novena before the celebration of the Immaculate Conception. Let she ask for the grace for us so that we are full of Jesus’presence in our lives.

With my prayer

Padre J.+