9781644135945

The Light of the World
gives Him to us in the sacraments, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in His abiding presence
in the tabernacle. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” O Holy Mother the Church.
The first fruit of the Incarnation and of Holy Communion is Christian charity. Mary “conceived
of the Holy Ghost,” and at once set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Likewise in us
fraternal charity should be inseparable from Holy Communion.
Mary is like the Ark of the Covenant. She is clothed with the Spirit of God within and
without. She is inwardly occupied in divine contemplation, and outwardly in the practice of
fraternal charity. She unites in her own person the virtues of both Mary and Martha. In the case
of the Virgin, the service of her neighbor is the direct result of her complete devotion to the
service of God. She is the handmaid of the Lord because of her union with God and because
of her complete dependence on His grace and His holy will. Everything she does is regulated
by the grace of God in accordance with His will.
Prayer
Stir up Thy power, we beseech Thee, O Lord, and come, that they who trust in Thy goodness
may be more speedily freed from all adversity.
Mary, Mediatrix of all grace, pray for us that we may be delivered from our sins, our weaknesses,
and our imperfections, and may begin to live a holy life.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed
is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Ember Saturday
On this day in ancient times, the Church celebrated the vigil, which ended in the celebration
of Mass early Sunday morning. The vigil is a symbol of the Church, which brings to us the light
of Christ out of the night.
We stand in need of redemption. Today we feel like a people that has lived in darkness and in
the unfruitful wastes of the desert; we are like the lame and the blind and those who are bound
by chains. We are, in truth, bound by the chains of sin, self-love, and weakness. We feel the full
weight of our sins and bow under the yoke of Satan and struggle in the misery of our servitude.
The chains wrought by Original Sin bind all of us, the priests who celebrate Mass daily, the religious
and the pious laymen who receive Holy Communion daily. Even though we pray much
and meditate frequently, we are far from what we should be, and we are still closely bound by
our self-love and by our blindness and hesitancy in the spiritual life. No one stands in need of
redemption so much as we. “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain
the just; let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior, and let justice spring up together. I the
Lord have created Him” (Fourth lesson).
The Lord is to come now in the Mass. He is to come at Christmas to give sight to the blind
and those that live in darkness. The earth “shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with
joy and praise; the glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron. They shall see
the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God. . . . Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Second lesson). The chains of servitude fall from
the afflicted members of humanity. Grace and the forgiveness of sin are given to men, and the
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