*********************************************

Leader: Let us remember

All: That we are in the Holy Presence of God.

(Short Pause)

Reading De La Salle's Meditations (86.1)

Today Jesus Christ is born poor in a stable. The Most Blessed Virgin brings him into the world in a place where she finds no comfort nor any human help, and where there is no other bed to put this newborn Child except a manger. Behold the palace and the bed for presenting Jesus our Savior on his entry into the world! This is how he is lodged in the middle of the night in a very rigorous season, and despite his pressing needs, nobody goes to any trouble to help him.

The poverty which Jesus practices so eminently at his birth should commit us to have great love for this virtue, for it is to make us love it that he is born in this condition. Let us not be surprised, then, when we lack something, even necessities, since at his birth Jesus was lacking everything. This is how we must be born in the spiritual life, dispossessed and deprived of everything. And as the Son of God willed that the humanity he took upon himself was in this condition, he also wants us to share this disposition, so that he may take entire possession of our hearts.

(Short Pause)

Response: Revelation 21

from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bride all dressed for her husband.

renew the whole of creation.

humanity. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God.

renew the whole of creation.

death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past is gone.

renew the whole of creation.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

renew the whole of creation.

Incarnation is open to us; Christ is alive in his body - the Church. Christ comes alive in us as we become free enough to give him our heart. Every time we act in such a way as to reveal God, every time we abandon ourselves into God's hands, we participate in Incarnation. Each time we celebrate the liturgy, the Sacraments of the Church, we live the mystery of the Incarnation.

Living through the commemoration of Jesus' life, we are born into the mystery of his life in us. How do you give birth to Christ? How do you act as midwife to his birth in others? Do you nurture him as the child within you, care for him as the child in others? Do you allow him to discipline you, to help you to grow? How do you assist or abet his growth in your family, your friends, your enemies? Have you spent lonely days in the desert with him, struggling to resist temptation? Are you an angel feeding him in your neighbor? Are you at home when the Spirit breathes a word in you? Who will you follow? Are you free to plunge into the Incarnation?

(Short Pause)

Response: Matthew 5

Left: Happy are the humble-minded;

All: The reign of God is theirs.

Right: Happy are those who know what sorrow means;

All: They will be given courage and comfort.

Left: Happy are those who are gentle;

All: The whole earth will belong to them.

Right: Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for goodness;

All: They will have all they ask for.

Left: Happy are those who are merciful;

All: They will be treated mercifully.

Right: Happy are those who are truthful and sincere;

All: They will see God.

Left: Happy are those who are persecuted for being good;

All: The reign of God is theirs.

Leader: Saint John Baptist de La Salle

All: Pray for us.

Leader: Live Jesus in our hearts.

All: Forever.

If you become a friend of the poor, you become a friend of Jesus. If you enter a close relationship with those who are poor, you enter into an intimate relationship with Jesus, and you will be led into the heart of the Beatitudes. (Jean Vanier)