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Week 2 | Bring God's Love Into Your Heart
A reflection from Fr. Sean Grismer

Beloved, in this Advent season, I want us to take a moment to reflect on the gift of Mary’s heart. In Scripture, multiple times it says that she takes these things and she ponders them in her heart. She ponders these things in her heart. What does that lead us to? The gift of pondering. Scripture also uses this word muse: I muse on the works of God; I muse on the law of God.

I was talking to a friend recently, and he said to me, “Have you ever thought about what amusement is? If the word muse means to ponder, what does the word amusement mean?” And we know from etymology that the letter a before a word often indicates the opposite of. So amusement is to be without pondering. It is pondering negated. When we are amusing ourselves, we are not pondering any particular thing — we are allowing ourselves to be without ponder.

What does that give to us in this Advent season? Think about how often we are trying to amuse ourselves in the Christmas season rather than muse upon the laws of God. When we begin to ponder the law of God, the love of God, we remember that the Christmas season is not just a day. We get to celebrate Christmas Day, and then there's an octave. For eight days, the Church invites us to muse — to ponder — the mystery of the birth of Christ.

It is not just a simple moment in which we celebrate, give some gifts, eat some pie, and eat some good food — and then we’re done. It is a season in which the Church brings us into the heart of Mary, where we ponder the mystery of God’s love — so much so that he desired to become like us in all things except for sin. And yet he takes our sin upon himself.

This is the whole purpose. Fulton Sheen puts it this way: we were born to live; Christ was the only one who was born to die. The whole purpose of Christ being born — from the moment of conception in the womb to his birth in Bethlehem — is the salvation of our souls, to become a ransom for our sin.

If you think about one of those movies where someone has been taken captive and the captors make a ransom call — “I need one million dollars” — and the father or mother brings that money in the hope the captive will be returned, well, because of the sin of Adam and Eve, God says: “The only way I can get my world back is by ransoming my Son.” The offense against God is so great that the only way he could ransom us from the captivity of Satan is to become like us in everything except sin.

So we have to ponder this in our heart. We have to ponder this like our Blessed Mother, because to our normal rationale it doesn’t make sense. “Why can’t God just snap his fingers and undo what’s been done?” Because God will never undo the creation he’s given — let alone the free will he’s given — so that we can love him freely.

So, beloved, I want to invite you in this Advent season to begin to ponder, to ponder and say: “Jesus, what does your Incarnation — your becoming flesh — have to do with me?”

When we begin to ask Jesus this question, all of a sudden we realize that he has given up his life for me. In fact, he didn’t just give it up — he came to give his life for my salvation.

Pondering these things in our heart means I may not get an answer right away. Even as I ask this question, the belief or the confidence or the faith may not come for days, weeks, months, or even years. But as I begin to open my heart to God and allow him to speak this to me, what happens? He begins to transform my understanding of himself — which is the whole purpose of this life.

He came to die. I came to live.​
How do I live? I ponder the works of God. The disciples once asked Jesus when they were among the crowds, “What are the works of God?” And he answered: “To believe in the One whom he has sent.”

So how do I come to a deeper faith? I ponder, like our Blessed Mother, the works of God. And the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the greatest work of God.

So may Almighty God bless you with the intimate knowledge of this gift — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

What is this Virtual Pilgrimage?

Heart to Heart's latest video and audio series for Advent & Christmas is presented as a Virtual Pilgrimage of faith to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.

Each day, beginning the first Sunday of Advent (November 30th) through Epiphany Sunday (January 4th), we will release a new video or audio reflection on the Incarnation.
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Sundays feature a video from Fr. Michael telling one of his own personal stories experiencing God made flesh, followed by an introduction of the two other speakers for that week.

Monday through Wednesday the first speaker will have a story each day on how the Incarnation has touched their lives, followed by the second weekly speaker Thursday through Saturday.

Deeply Personal Stories of Jesus

These are stories of prayer, hope, joy, sorrow and loss. Jesus finds us in all aspects of life, from Fr. Michael reflecting on the loss of his mom to Fr. Romke at an orphanage in Russia to Lauren Hackman-Brooks on a retreat in Chicago while everyone around her was celebrating for St. Patrick's Day. These are just three brief examples of the stories told during this daily virtual pilgrimage for Advent & Christmas.

Who are the pilgrimage speakers?

Videos each Sunday from Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ. Fr. Michael's Saturday homilies will resume in January.

Audio reflections Monday through Saturday from:

Fr Michael Rossmann, SJ | Dec 1-3
Ms. Lauren Hackman-Brooks | Dec 4-6
Dr. Terry Nelson-Johnson | Dec 8-10
Fr. Sean Grismer | Dec 11-13
Fr James Kubicki, SJ | Dec 15-17
Ms. Paula Kowalkowski | Dec 18-20
Ms. Erin Maiorca | Dec 22-24
Ms. ValLimar Jansen | Dec 25-27
Ms. Rachel Forton | Dec 29-31
Fr Keith Romke | Jan 1-3

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