Spiritual vision

by Katie Yoder Joseph Julián and Monique González still remember the moment they decided to write a book shedding new light on Our Lady of Guadalupe: May 10, 2016, the month of Mary and the date of Mexico’s Mother’s Day. “After years of initial research, we were sitting in a coffee shop and looked at each other and made a formal commitment to see the book’s writing through to the end, no matter what that meant,” the husband-and-wife team told Our Sunday Visitor. Today, that book presents a new interpretation of Our Lady of Guadalupe by delving into the past ahead of her feast day on Dec. 12. “ Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy: How God Prepared the Americas for Conversion Before the Lady Appeared ,” published on Nov. 21, explores how Our Lady’s encounters with Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill in Mexico in 1531 marked the culmination of thousands of years of evangelical preparation of the people of Mesoamerica.

by Father Joshua J. Whitfield  “Anyone who lacks spiritual eyes, and whose soul has not become open and watchful, will not understand the reason we are so often festive.” These are the words of Jesuit Father Alfred Delp, which he preached in Munich just before Christmas 1942. I have always found them remarkable. He preached in dark times, in a place gone dark due to war and hatred and evil and death; in just over two years after speaking these words, the Nazis arrested him, tortured him, and executed him on the feast of Candlemas — a few months shy of the end of the war, a liberation he may have sensed but did not live to see. Which is why I find the words he preached in 1942 profound. It’s also the lesson . Preaching in Munich in the middle of the Second World War, Father Delp was able to draw on the liturgical tradition of the Church to remind his people that they have the capacity to see things with “spiritual eyes,” that what they saw with the naked eye was not all there was to see. In a world bombed to rubble and torn apart, Father Delp dared to ask people to open themselves — mystically, no doubt, in such a troubled world — to a world of eternal festivity, of redemption and peace, of the birth of a better king. But this was no escapism or utopianism. Rather, it was a liturgical and mystical act of resistance and hope.

“Trusting in God’s Grace” by Cathy Donovan in Family Faith on the Go The hardest prayer I have ever uttered was, “God, you know best; your will be done.” I immediately felt a sense of fear at having given over my control of the situation and asking God to take over. And then I felt a sense of acceptance knowing that God’s response would be better than anything I could manage. We have been surrounded with challenges lately: a tough economy, natural disasters of biblical proportions, political unrest and violence in many countries. Watching the news can be downright depressing! Maybe you feel a bit like Job right now, facing personal life challenges that rattle your soul and shake your faith. During Advent we are in the a liturgical season of hope. It is hope in our God, who loves us so much he sent his Son to join us in our humanity, in our challenges and triumphs, in our joys and in our sorrow. This is the season of “Emmanuel” — God with us. God does not promise to fish us out of our struggles. Rather, God promises to be with us in them. God stands ready, with arms open wide, to embrace us when we need it most. We need only trust and fall into God’s embrace. This content comes to you from Our Sunday Visitor courtesy of your parish or diocese.