December 20, 2005

559 

Dongo (Como, Italy); December 24, 1995
The Holy Night

a – “Beloved sons, live with me, in silence and in prayer, the anxious hours of the vigil.

b – Walk with my most chaste spouse, Joseph, and with your heavenly Mother on the long road which is bringing us from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Feel, you too, the fatigue of the journey, the weariness which takes hold of us, the assurance which leads us on, the prayer which accompanies each step, as a heavenly blessedness fills our hearts, now united in perfect communion with the Heart of the Heavenly Father which is about to open itself in the gift of his only-begotten Son.

c – The noise of the crowded caravan does not disturb us, nor does discouragement take hold of us before all the doors which are closed on our request to be taken in.

d – The compassionate hand of a shepherd points out to us a poor cave, which opens itself to the most sublime and divine prodigy. The only-begotten Son of the Father is about to be born to his human life. There is about to descend to the world that Merciful Love who becomes man in the Son born of me, his Virgin Mother. After long centuries of expectation and of prayerful supplication, your Savior and Redeemer at last comes to you.

e – This is the holy night.
This is the dawn which arises upon the new day of your salvation.
This is the light which shines forth in the deep darkness of all history.

f – My spouse Joseph seeks to make the frigid cave more hospitable and sets about transforming a poor manger into a crib.

g – I am absorbed in an intense prayer and enter into ecstasy with the Heavenly Father, who surrounds me with his light and his love, and fills me with his fullness of life and blessedness, while paradise, with all its angelic cohorts, prostrates itself in an act of profound adoration. When I emerge from this ecstasy, I find in my arms the divine Child, miraculously born of me, his Virgin Mother.

h – I press Him to my Heart, cover Him with tender kisses, warm Him with my motherly love, wrap Him in clean linens and place Him in the manger, which is now ready.

i – My God is completely present in this Child of mine. The mercy of the Father is made visible in the newborn Infant who utters his first plaintive cries.

j – Divine Mercy has given his Fruit to you: together let us prostrate ourselves and adore the Merciful Love who has been born for us.

k — Together let us look into his eyes, which open to bring upon the world the light of the truth and of divine wisdom.

l — Together let us wipe away his tears, which run down to bring compassion upon every suffering, to wash away every stain of sin and evil, to close every wound, to bring solace to each oppressed person, to cause the awaited dew to descend upon the frigid desert of the world.

m — Together let us clasp his hands, which open themselves to bring the caress of the Father upon human miseries, to bring help to the poor and the little, support to the weak, assurance to the discouraged, pardon to sinners, health to the sick, and to all the gift of redemption and salvation.

n — Together let us warm his feet which will follow the barren and insecure roads to search out the straying, to find the lost, to give hope to the despairing, to bring liberty to prisoners and the Good News to the poor.

o — Together let us kiss his little Heart, which has just begun to beat with love for us.
It is the very Heart of God.
It is the Heart of the only-begotten Son of the Father, who becomes man to bring back to God a humanity redeemed and saved by Him.
It is the Heart which beats to renew the heart of every creature.
It is the new heart of the world.
It is the Merciful Love which comes down from the bosom of the Father, to bring redemption, salvation and peace to all humanity.

p – Receive Him with love, with joy and with immense blessedness. And let there come forth from your heart the hymn of perennial gratitude for this Child, virginally given to you by me who, on this holy night, have become for all the Mother of Divine Mercy.”