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Look
at that humility & poverty, so lovingly accepted
by Mary when she placed the Infant Jesus, our God and Redeemer, in
a manger in the stable
of Bethlehem !
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A
Christmas
Prayer
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O
Lord God, my Creator and my Redeemer, I long to receive You this day with
such reverence, praise, and honor, with such gratitude, worthiness and
love, with such faith, hope, and purity as that with which Your most holy
Mother, the glorious Virgin Mary, longed for and received You when she
humbly and devoutly answered the angel who announced to her the mystery
of the Incarnation: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me
according to thy word."
Likewise
as Your blessed precursor, the most excellent of saints, John the Baptist,
gladdened by Your presence, exulted in the Holy Ghost while yet enclosed
in the womb of his mother, and afterward seeing Jesus walking among men,
humbled himself and with devout love declared: "The friend of the bridegroom,
who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom's
voice,"even so I long to be inflamed with great and holy desires and to
give myself to You with all my heart.
Let all
people, races, and tongues praise You and with the greatest joy and most
ardent devotion magnify Your sweet and holy name. And let all who reverently
and devoutly celebrate this most great Sacrament and receive it in the
fullness of faith, find kindness and mercy in You and humbly pray for me,
a sinner. And when they have received the longed-for devotion and blissful
union, and, well consoled and wonderfully refreshed, have retired from
Your holy, Your celestial table, may they deign to remember my poor soul.
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