St Andrew Advent novena

It's that time again...

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.

To be said 15 times a day until Christmas.

True reverence - Fr Faber

What is more necessary to true worship than a deep and calm reverence? Nay, what is more sweet to hot-hearted love than to be hushed and awe-smitten in the presence of the refulgent attributes of God? Familiarity in religion would be a simple impertinence if reverence did not mingle with it. What more familiar than the relation between father and son, yet what love more reverent than filial love? Truly, while it was true reverence which made Peter tell his Master to depart from him because he was a sinful man, it was no true reverence which made the craven men of Gadara beseech Jesus to withdraw His importunate blessings from their coast. But it was reverence, perhaps a deeper reverence than Peter's, which made Magdalene strive to hold the Risen Jesus by His feet, though it was not His will to suffer it. Too often, alas! we mistake coldness for reverence, and stiffness for respect. How sweetly did Jesus reprove that spirit when St. Gertrude complained to Him of one of her nuns who, out of reverence, as she fancied, kept away from a community Communion. "What would you have Me do?" said our Blessed Lord, "these good people tie the bandage of their own unworthiness so tightly over their eyes that they cannot see the tenderness of My Paternal Heart."

All For Jesus

Hindering mortal sin - Fr Faber

And, lastly, if you wish to press on toward the prize of Christian perfection, and to become a saint, listen to this story, listen to what happens to a man who has done no more than this, hindered two mortal sins from being consummated in outward acts. St. Paphnutius had dwelt in the desert for many a long year, and by weary penances had toiled for his sanctification. At last a strange thought came into his mind, and he ventured to express it in prayer to God. He desired to know to whom on the earth he was equal in sanctity. He asked it in simplicity and true humility, and God vouchsafed to speak to him. He told him he was now equal to a certain piper in an Egyptian village that He named. At once the saint set forth to seek him. When he came to the village he asked for the piper, and was told he was piping in the tavern for the amusement of those who were drinking there. Strange ! thought St. Paphnutius. However, he sought the piper out, led him aside, and spoke to him of his spiritual state. What good works had he done ? Good works ! rejoined the piper ; I know of nothing good that I have ever done ; but once, when I was a robber, I saved from violence a virgin consecrated to God ; and once, also, I gave money to a poor woman, who, out of poverty, was offering herself to sin. And then Paphnutius understood how God had given to that piper graces equal to his own, because for his Maker's glory he had in his rough robber-days hindered two mortal sins.

All For Jesus
(Cf. Mortal sin prevention!)