Advent with Madeleine-Sophie and JPIC – First Sunday

During this Advent season, we bring to a close the celebration of the centenary of the canonisation of Saint Madeleine Sophie. With her, let us now enter into this season of grace, which was so closely linked to her spiritual journey. She marvelled at God’s incredible initiative in choosing, in Jesus, to become flesh so as to share human existence and reveal the superabundance of his love. Contemplating this is the inspiration behind our commitment to continue participating in the birth of Jesus in this world, through our commitment to justice, peace, and care for our common home.

Advent is a delightful season for holy people, because they dedicate it entirely to contemplating the Word made flesh, humbled and emptied. (Conference, 1832)

This mystery of a newborn God should bring joy and love to everyone’s hearts. Let us enter into the spirit of the mystery that is about to unfold before our eyes. We should take care of this little child, who will soon be born in a manger. (…) Let us contemplate the Great, the Almighty, who becomes a tiny, helpless infant; the Unchanging, the Eternal, who humbles and empties himself ; the Rich One, who becomes poor, a God who becomes chained and bound to a weak creature (Conference, 1847)

The hour has already come: salvation is now at hand. Romans 13: 11-12

In the midst of your activities, let your hearts be turned towards Jesus, in Mary’s womb. Prepare yourselves for his coming into your hearts; that is why he came to earth. He came to be born, to grow in your souls. (Conference, 1855)

God is merciful love, and his plan of love, which unfolds and is fulfilled in history, is above all his descent and coming among us to free us from slavery, fear, sin and the power of death. Addressing their human condition with a merciful gaze and a heart full of love, he turned to his creatures and thus took care of their poverty. Precisely in order to share the limitations and fragility of our human nature, he himself became poor and was born in the flesh like us. We came to know him in the smallness of a child laid in a manger and in the extreme humiliation ofthe cross, where he shared our radical poverty, which is death. (Dilexi Te, 16)

Contemplate Jesus ‘’coming to life’ in human soil, being formed in the intimacy of Mary’s body, growing at the same rate as any child. This is an immense expression of love that opens up before us, that plunges us into the depths of God who chose to become one of us; and which also takes us into the joys and pains of giving birth to the Kingdom.

• How do we understand Jesus ‘being born’ ?
• To what are we invited ?
• How can we experience the joys and pains of giving birth to the Kingdom today ?

Hymn: Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord, Maranatha (Harpa Dei)

Marie-Paule Préat
RSCJ