Advent Meditation

This simple meditation helps to refocus us on the true meaning of Advent and Christmas. Lourdes reminds us of three simple questions Jesus gave us in one of His messages as a means to help keep our minds and hearts focused on Him.

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My Rosary meditation for Advent

12/11/25

I have been living in Our Lady of Grace Retreat House in perfect simplicity and poverty. I'm living in silence and prayer, fused with my beloved Spouse, and in an intimate union of heart with my Mother of Silence. I have only a few simple garments, and I am in no need of more. My meals are shared with my Beloved and are also very simple yet delicious. I experience in this simplicity of life perfect peace and joy, for I am continuously before the Light of God. Living in this holy silence, I hear so clearly the voice of my God and Mother speaking to me, and can enter into prayer and conversation with them. It is Advent, and in this house, there are no Christmas decorations, yet the Light of the Savior shines brightly in this humble home. At home and in the world, so much effort and money are spent on trees, lights, ornaments, countless decorations, and extravagant Christmas parties, but it is a false representation of Christmas.

The Holy Family received the King of kings, the Messiah, in a poor barn. There were absolutely no riches of the world, yet Mary and Joseph's hearts were prepared to receive the Savior, for their hearts were pure, empty of self, humble, innocent, and poor. Therefore, they received the Light of their Savior and radiated His Light in the poverty of the stable. The poor, dilapidated barn was transformed by the Light of the world into God's holy, glorious dwelling.

I realized in this humble, silent dwelling how much Satan has deceived humanity, including myself, with many distractions and frivolity. Advent has become defiled by consumerism and materialism. Yet, in the silence of this chapel, gazing at the Light of Jesus Eucharist, I ponder how Mary and Joseph prepared for the first Christmas. They entered silence as a holy couple and deep, continuous prayer. The hardships and sufferings of the weeks before the birth of Jesus were lived in total trust and abandonment to the Will of God through perfect silence and prayer. Their worldly gifts for Jesus were a manger of straw with humble linen coverings and swaddling clothes. Yet they were able to present to Jesus the greater and more perfect gifts of their hearts: purity, simplicity, poverty, perfect trust, perfect faith, and perfect love. The Heart of the Infant Jesus was delighted and shone His heavenly Light of God's love and gratitude upon them.

My greatest and most perfect preparation for Christmas is for me to allow the Holy Spirit and my Mother to make my heart poor in all the things of this world, so that I can enter and celebrate the joy of the birth of the God-Man as one heart with the Holy Family.

Jesus, on the first day of my retreat, said that His deepest desire is to have my heart totally empty so that He can fill it with everlasting treasures.

I desire for you to become poor in all the things of this world so that you can hold the riches of God's mysteries within you… Meditate this Advent on the poverty of the Holy Family, yet we were rich, in an overabundance, of the mysteries of God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We were rich in everlasting love, and therefore, amid great human difficulties and sufferings, we possessed joy; a joy the world can never know. This joy on earth, lived by the Holy Family, is the fruit of the third nail of the crucifixion, death to self. My deepest desire, My spouse, is to have your heart totally empty so that I can fill it with everlasting treasures. 12/2/25

On January 30th, 2018, Jesus taught us how to recognize our disordered attachments. He said, It is:

Anything that weakens your desire for Me,

distracts you from loving Me,

and takes your gaze from Me.

I receive these words of my Lord, in a new way, as His precious gift to me this Advent. His words are meant to protect me against the snares of the evil one and my own disordered, self-centered attachments. These words are God's guiding light for my miserable heart to keep me on the path of poverty, simplicity, and death to self. I must enter each day of Advent asking myself:

What today has weakened my desire for Christ?

What has distracted me from loving Him?

What took my gaze away from Him?

Therefore, my greatest desire for Christmas Day is to be able to present to my Jesus a heart that is more empty and open, so that, like Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas Day, I can receive from God the treasures of the Mysteries of Divine Love that He desires to bless me with.

On December 9th, we celebrated the feast of Saint Juan Diego. May we kneel before our Blessed Mother as one heart with Juan Diego in his poverty, simplicity, humility, and innocence, and open our hearts, as Juan Diego opened the tilma, and pray:

My Queen Mother, I open my heart to receive from you the graces that Jesus wants me and all His little, pure, and humble victim souls to receive this Christmas–– the fullness of the transforming graces Jesus obtained for us through His passion, death, and resurrection. Place these beautiful roses of the Mysteries of Divine Love in my heart to produce in me, and all of God's hidden victim souls, the splendor of the new and divine holiness for the glory of God. Amen