Tuesday, November 29 : Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

God has caused us to be born after the coming of Christ: what great thanks we owe him! For now redemption has been brought into effect by Jesus Christ, how much greater are the blessings we have received! Abraham, the patriarchs and prophets, all longed to see the Savior but they did not know this happiness. They wore out heaven, so to speak, with their sighs and pleas: “O heavens!” they cried, “like dew from above, like gentle rain, let the skies drop down the Just One! … Send forth the Lamb, the Ruler of the land (Is 45:8; 16:1 Vg) … Then he will rule in our hearts and free us from the slavery in which we so wretchedly dwell. “Show us, O Lord, your kindness and grant us your salvation (Ps 85[84],8)”. Which is to say: “Make haste, most merciful God, and make your kindness rain down upon us by sending us the chief object of your promises, he who is to save us” Such were the sighs, such the burning pleas of the saints before the coming of Christ and yet, for four thousand years, they were deprived the happiness of witnessing his birth. This happiness was reserved for us; but what are we doing about it? What gain do we draw from it? Let us learn how to love this most loving Savior now that he is here and has freed us from the hands of our enemies, now that he has delivered us from eternal death at the price of his life … and has opened paradise, now that he has furnished us with so many sacraments and with such powerful help so that we can love and serve him in peace in this life and be happy for ever in the next … O my soul, how truly ungrateful you are if you do not love your God, this God who wished to be shackled so that you might be released from the chains of hell, weak to make you strong against your enemies, bowed down by suffering and sadness to wash your sins clean with his tears.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team