Advent Week 4: Love, The Guest is on the Way!

"The Incarnation is now an event of the past...Christ wants to be active among us. He still pursues His work of salvation of healing. He comes to us in the Eucharist, in order to build up, in order to edify, and in order to bring to completion our salvation." (From Vincentian Spirituality: A Correspondence Course with Sister Elizabeth Charpy, D.C.)

St. Louise Marillac's spirituality is focused on the Incarnation, the grandeur of God, the respect of the poor, and the splendor of the Eucharist.

Because God was all--her beginning and her end--in her Trinitarian prayer, she had a great devotion to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus, the Incarnate Word. Louise embraced the Incarnation as the most wonderful work of God in salvation history. Louise admired the humility of God-made-flesh. Christ came "humbly as can be imagined so that we might be more free to approach Him." (SW p.700)

Louise’s reflections on the poor, all her initiatives to serve the rejected of the society, emanate from her contemplation of the mystery of Incarnation which is the heart of her spirituality. In front of the crib, she liked to unite her offering to that of the Infant God.

The child of Bethlehem shows us the path to follow, and St. Louise makes this teaching her own when she writes her retreat resolutions around 1633.

"I shall honor the serenity of the crib. I shall calmly adore the divinity in the infant Jesus and imitate, to the best of my ability, His holy humanity, especially His simplicity and charity which led Him to us as a child so as to be more accessible to His creatures." (SW p.718)

Mary was the Center of this adorable mystery of Incarnation. (SW a.14B)

With Louise, we search our depths, praying for all that is waiting to be born in us, through us, and for us.

Christmas blessings to one and all!

Written by Sister Michelle Loisel, D.C.