Hope in Christ’s Love, the prayer at Christmas Mass
by Tom McGuire, USCCA Board of Directors
A friend from Beijing sent me this story of a young Catholic couple in their 20s. They’re just married and face the challenge of the unexpected illness of a parent. They reflect on God, who becomes human to dwell among us because of God's love for us. In the example of God’s love, they seek to find a way to endure the pains of their future life.
The Husband asks, “How do we, as husband and wife, transform hardships and pain into love? Because of our love for one another, we support each other in the pains of life. Our choice of married life flows from God’s love and gives us the responsibility to form a small family. Our future will require supporting and providing for the livelihood of our parents and caring for our children.
As a newly married couple, we are facing more significant and more painful pressure from the unexpected illness of my mother.
This is a test of our love for each other.
God, who was born as a man because of his love for us, is an example, in Christ, of word and deed of how we are to love and endure the pains and hardships of life.”
Nativity Scene in front of the National Seminary in Beijing
Let us pray with this young couple and many others like them in China. This prayer of Christmas Mass asks for what we hope for in Christ- that our human love be shared in divine love.
O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature and still more wonderfully restored it, grant, we pray, that we may share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen
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