The First Lesson of Advent: "Ascend Higher!"

Allow our Lord to use you this Advent as a magnificent and tremendous channel of His love and grace for precious, immortal souls you know and don't know through all time.  He is so in love with us all.


GOD IS AT WORK IN YOU!

Making a Holy Hour every day is an absolutely priceless and eternally valuable way to grow closer to our Lord in the peace and quite while at the same time receiving instruction directly from God.  

Allow Him to teach you how to ascend higher.

God desires our salvation and sanctification, and He desires that we want this for ourselves and also for others.   

DISCOVER AND THEN KEEP REDISCOVERING THE POWER OF HOLY HOUR

If you are not making Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament, begin doing so if at all possible.  

If you can't make a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament, then make a Holy Hour wherever you are able to.  If it is not possible for you to go to the Lord, He will most certainly come to you.  

He loves you that much.

THE FIRST LESSON OF ADVENT:  "ASCEND HIGHER!"

To begin this first lesson during Advent, Jesus shows you God the Father elevating the sun as He does for us each morning.  Then Jesus shows you Father elevating the Son as he does every day during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

GOING LOWER TO GO HIGHER

Jesus presents the next part of the lesson to you.  What an eager and attentive student you are!    Educators delight in students who have a great desire to learn, and our Savior is no  different

Our Lord shows you a scene where you are approaching the altar to receive Him in the Blessed Sacrament during Holy Mass,  You kneel reverently to receive your Savior (physically if able to and if not, then in your heart) and as you do so, you see that Jesus is standing before you, right next to Father who is distributing the Blessed Sacrament.  

Jesus has come in yet another way, just for you!  Guess what our Savior does.  Just guess.

Our Lord takes you by the hands and helps you kneel because He is such a Gentleman, and also because He is so happy that you have come to receive Him with such great devotion.   

Jesus longs for our love in return.  Our Savior asks us to help Him satisfy His longing to be loved in return.  There are many ways we can do this for Jesus.  Ask Him about it the next time you make a Holy Hour.

CRAVE HIM

Jesus extends His Sacred Hands to help you kneel down.  He is so incredibly happy that you are going to be unified with Him Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Sacrament of Love.  

As Jesus helps you kneel down, you also are shown that at the same time, He is helping you up!  

Jesus has taken hold of you and is helping you ascend higher.

ASCEND HIGHER:  LIVE IN IMITATION OF CHRIST AND BLESSED MOTHER

In order to become like Jesus we must lower ourselves as He did.  We must put ourselves in the last place like He did.  We must love others heroically and courageously, like He did.  We must surrender our wills to God like He did, empty ourselves like He did, forgive everyone of everything like He did, and patiently suffer for the salvation and sanctification of every precious, immortal souls through all time just like He did. 

There is someone else we are to pattern our lives and our behavior after.  She is also very loving, and she will help us.  We are to live, love, serve, and suffer in imitation of Christ and His Most Holy Mother. 

They are so in love with us all.  We are their instruments of love, and we are to go to them to receive  all that we need to fulfill God's will. 

LET EVERY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM

Advent is a time of preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Christ, who re-presents His coming every single day during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Each day, Jesus keeps coming and coming and coming and coming to us.  

Our Triune God and Blessed Mother love every single one of us extravagantly.  Love them lavishly in return.  Share their love with others by loving everyone extravagantly.

Sometimes this is very rewarding, but when it is most sacrificial it can be extremely challenging, especially this time of year when the world cannot even see before it the Light of the World because of its self-imposed darkness.  

Jesus addresses this challenge and the suffering created by it in His lesson today.

BE A TREMENDOUS CHANNEL OF GOD'S LOVE AND GRACE

The devil loves to fool people, especially prideful and smart people, especially during this very holy time of year, to focus on buying, selling, marketing, and soliciting.  

Tragically in our time, the devil is so often our only teacher: "The Devil's Great Weapon Against Humanity." 

Satan and his minions also manipulate holy people by trying to convince them that their efforts make no difference. When holy people won't listen, he gets others to reject them and even hate them. Holy people are among his favorite targets because they are very important soldiers of Christ on the battlefield.

The eternal fate of countless immortal souls is at stake in this battle.  The enemy of our souls loves to tell us, "You can't change things.  No one is listening to you.  No one cares.  Give up on him/her/them!  They're gone. Why don't you spend your time doing something fun?  Leave this Catholic Church.  Leave the sacraments.  Go somewhere else.  See?  The people are so happy to have left the Church;  leaving the sacraments means nothing.  Their sermons are so interesting.  How dynamic the preaching!  The programs are so much better, and the people more caring. People will actually listen to you there. See how much fun they are having while the Lord abandons you in your suffering and gives you nothing. STOP SUFFERING!  It means nothing."

The devil has influenced many people into working for him in the name of God, and a great many well meaning people have been and are being fooled.

Don't be fooled. What you see through the devil's eyes is an illusion, a manipulation.  He is very clever, he studies each of us very well, and often he makes a very strong case.  But do not believe a word he says.  The devil is a liar, deceiver, and a killer. He offers us discouragement, despair, darkness, worry, anxiety, and division and presents them to us through our pride, always disguised as good things, gift wrapped so beautifully in ways that are so appealing to us. 

His number one goal is to have each one of us keep him company in hell, forever.

To achieve that goal, he manipulates us into wanting our own way (see how good our intentions are?), often at all costs, and we welcome him into our hearts through many open doors.  Pride, past hurts, self love, a lack of self mastery.  He enters into these doors and encourages people to leave the Catholic Church and the sacraments, because he knows they are the source of so many graces that sanctify and save. Of course doing something so catastrophic as to leave the sacraments is always presented to us as having done the right thing;  his list of justifiable reasons is quite lengthy and they all can sound good.  His primary targets are Catholic priests:  "Suffering, Sacrificial Prayer, and Praying for Priests." 

SPIRITUAL OPPOSITES

God and Blessed Mother always provide us with truth, hope, peace, joy, love, contentment, encouragement, mercy, and compassion.  They ask that we provide everyone we possibly can with these things, too. They ask us to journey with them along the hardest road, along the Way of the Cross.  It involves great suffering, but the Way of Sacrificial Love is the Way to Calvary, it's the Way to being unified with Jesus in the Eucharist, it is the Way to God through Christ, and it is the Way to heaven. 

Bring everyone in your family with you:  "Go for Everyone in Your Family." 

GOD'S LOVE IS ABSOLUTELY FREE AND THERE IS A NEVER-ENDING SUPPLY

Smile at people, a lot, during Advent.  It's a very powerful way of bringing Jesus to people.  Be a living representation of the Devotion to the Most Holy Face of Jesus.  

The devil works very hard to make us absolutely miserable, and if we follow him, we will be.  Every time we smile, he is defeated.  As you live a sacramental life of heroic virtue, offer your temptations up for the conversion of sinners.  This advice from Saint John Vianney turns the devil's attempts against him, and helps others as we grow in virtue.  Do not be discouraged in your failed attempts;  the Lord appreciates our efforts, welcomes us into the Confessional and makes all things work out for His greater honor and glory.  

God loves us all so lavishly.  

How familiar are you with the miraculous Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus?  Our Lord Himself called the Work of Reparation through the Devotion to His Holy Face "The most beautiful work under the sun."  How well do you know this powerful means of offering reparation to God and petitioning for the conversion of sinners while growing in personal sanctity?

Learn more, and share this information with others: The Work of Reparation Through the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

BE A PROFOUNDLY CATHOLIC ROLE MODEL

Continue being a good example.  Be an absolutely stellar example. Holy leaders are so desperately needed today.  Holy leaders and strong leaders are very important as the Lord asks that His Church be restored.  Learn more:  Profoundly Catholic Renovation and Restoration.  

Loving people of every age, even the very young, are being called to be fathers and mothers to people, to care for them, show them compassion, and educate them for God's sake.

So many people do not even feel loved, valued, and cared for on even the most basic level.  So many people are invisible, only to be seen if they can be used for personal gain (including charitable endeavors).  People are not created by God for our personal gain.  WE MUST CARE FOR EVERYONE in imitation of Christ.  The devil is leading many people to all the wrong places looking for compassion.   

We must ask ourselves every single day during our examinations of conscience:  Whose souls will I be held accountable for?

A COLOSSAL SECRET THE DEVIL DOES NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW
 
The Lord wants to use you as a tremendous channel of grace for the massive conversion of sinners through all time.  

Let Him.

He will accomplish so much through you from now until Christmas.

God can accomplish so much through you it is truly inconceivable.  

One very powerful way He will do this:  through your union with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament during Holy Communion.  Go every day and receive Him every day if you can;  so much is possible.  

To learn more:  Divine Union and Creation: What is the Lord longing to create with you? Be fruitful!  

ALLOW THE LORD TO RECONDITION YOUR HEART TO BECOME LIKE THE TINY SACRED HEART OF A CHILD

This Advent, love courageously in imitation of Christ and Blessed Mother. 

Give. GIVE! Give without selling, give instead of selling! Give without asking, give without wanting, give without soliciting, give! 

GIVE LOVE WITH GREAT COURAGE

Behave like Christ and His most Holy Mother. Drink from the chalice within the Divine Child's Sacred Heart reserved there just for you, as often as you need to while preparing for Christmas in a world that cannot even see the Light of the World in its self imposed darkness. 

Remember, you are traveling along the most difficult path and God's strength is necessary.  Accept it. 

From Father John Simoneau's homily:  Jesus pays you with Himself.  

ALLOW GOD TO LOVE OTHER PEOPLE THROUGH YOU; BE HIS LIGHT 

Lastly, don't ever, ever sell things before or after the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Lord is highly offended by marketplaces at the foot of His Cross. 

Soliciting people who come to worship at the re-presentation of Christ's Passion and Crucifixion is a crime against the dignity of the human person and contributes to the abortion mentality. 

Sweet Jesus, we are so sorry to have offended You 

in Your own House and on Calvary. 

Please forgive us, and illuminate our minds and warm our hearts. 

Make us fitting examples for others, 

especially in Your House when many people longing for love 

come looking for You.

Do not allow us to obstruct their view or get in their way. 

May we always treat others with human decency 

and with love, mercy, and compassion.

May we always treat others the way You treat us.

May we give, without asking for anything in return,

always trusting in Your Divine Providence to supply for all our needs.

Amen. + + +

 

TOGETHER WE MAKE UP THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST

God is at work in you!!  THANK YOU.  

"By My Holy Face you will work wonders." 

~ Jesus to Sr. Mary of St. Peter 

 YES, JESUS. 
Even though you get us into so much trouble (smile). 
When the Lord comes, He really shakes things up! 
Get ready; He's coming again tomorrow. 
Be there, and be unified with Him!  He is so in love with you. 

"Trust all things to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary, Help of Christians, 
and you will see what miracles are." 

~ Saint John Bosco + + +

© Joseph Karl Publishing/Michele Bondi Bottesi

 

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God is at work in you!

  Images taken at:

Ss. Cyril and Methodius Slovak Catholic Church,

Sterling Heights, Michigan, U.S.A.  Parish Website

  THE POWERFUL DEVOTION TO THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS

To learn more about the Work of Reparation through the Devotion to the Holy Face, 
which our Lord, Jesus Christ called  "the most beautiful work under the sun,"    
visit:  Work of Reparation Through the Devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus

Please share the information with others.

God is at work in you!!