In the Footsteps of St. Louis Marie de Montfort
"Footsteps Online"
Christmas 1998 (Volume 4, Issue 1)
A Child is Born
CHRISTMAS is always a time of joy, of hope, of peace - or at least it should be, and we always associate this season in our minds with these things. It is true that, sometimes, other realities can overshadow or blur the joyful nature of this feast; but at least for all Christians the hope remains that the event we celebrate - the coming into our world of the Saviour, the Son of God himself - will bring true peace and joy to all mankind. And so we sing of "Peace on earth" even as we recognise that it is far from here as yet. We make extra efforts to live in love with our families and friends, even though we know that we are still far from perfect, and will probably still fail. We give and receive gifts as a token of our hopes for a better and more faithful living out of Christ's commandment to love. If, at other times of the year, hope takes many knocks, at Christmas we can be revived in our expectations of a better world and a more God-filled future. We need to take heed of what St. James told us in the Mass reading for the Third Sunday of Advent: "Do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon." We do not know how soon, but we can be sure that his Kingdom is being established even now, and we have a part to play in the process.
Jesus has already
come to us - not just into our world as a little baby, but into
the heart of each one of us who has been baptised. For each of
us Christians, our Baptism is very much like the birth of Jesus
into our world. Just as his birth in Bethlehem ushered in a new
era in the history of the human race, bringing a new divine
reality to human existence, so our baptism ushered in, for each
of us, a new kind of life, a sharing in God's own life. The birth
of Jesus brought a new light into the darkness of the world; our
baptism brought each of us "out of darkness into his own
wonderful light". The joy of Mary, of Joseph, of the
shepherds and the Magi, at the birth of the Saviour, can be reflected
in our own joy in the coming of Christ to us in our baptism.
IN THIS ISSUE of "FOOTSTEPS", we hear the Holy Father call us to make the birth of Jesus a living reality for today, permeating every aspect of human existence and relationships. We recall something of the importance of Baptism to St. Louis Marie de Montfort, as we take a look at why he liked to be known simply as "the priest from Montfort". Sr. Shirley helps us to reflect, as we approach Christmas, on the first means listed by St. Louis Marie for the acquisition and preservation of Divine Wisdom: "an ardent desire".
