In a world where everyone wants to be propped up, admired, complemented, validated, and valued, stooping down is not a popular activity. Amazingly, we find that it is only by stooping down before God and others that we come to know our true identity and our true purpose in life.

Advent is a time to keep our hearts open and readied for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord on Christmas Day. Here are a few suggestions to prepare for the birth of the Great King who comes to us as a tiny, poor Child.

We live in a world that stands in dire need of love that can only come from the Heart of the Savior. When we accept this tremendous love from the Heart of Jesus, our hearts will be transformed and we will become beacons of that love as we love one another as Jesus taught us to love by His laying down his life for us.

With Jesus in our midst, we are reconfirmed in the truth that He proclaims through His Body the Church, the same truth He proclaimed during His life here on earth. United with Him and cooperating with the power of His grace, we continue to persevere in love and truth.

We as Catholics know that no political system, human theory or ideology is our compass on how to live well in this world, with our hearts and our eyes set on the Kingdom. While science and human studies can provide us with helpful and even important information, our true compass is always Jesus Christ and his Gospel, taught by His Body the Church.

Pope Francis’ deep devotion to Our Blessed Mother has inspired him to ask us to appeal to her for peace. In October, the Month of the Holy Rosary, and all through the year, let us take up our rosary and ask the Queen of Peace to bring peace to her children throughout the world.

The storm in which we find ourselves is one that howls from the very depths of the cosmos, from the forces of good versus evil, of creation versus anti-creation, of life versus death. So the question arises, “How do we survive the storm?” Maybe the question is better put, “How does our culture and our civilization survive the storm?”

The message of Fatima is a profoundly Eucharistic, because it encourages us to offer ourselves, our lives and our actions in union with the Sacrifice of Jesus offered on the altar at Mass.

We know that Christ by His Passion, Death and Resurrection defeated Satan, our Ancient Foe and rescued us from the darkness of sin and death. How do we tap into His Paschal Mystery. The Second Vatican Council teaches that taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice is the “source and summit of the whole Christian Life.”

Jesus provides for us the great Paschal Feast of the Lamb at Mass—the Supper of His Body and Blood. Then He asks us to go forth on mission and to invite the sheep of His flock to come to the Supper of the Lamb, to Mass.

The third pillar, Eucharistic Life, manifests to us that as missionary disciples we are strengthened and renewed in our Eucharistic Identity by participating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As we come to love Jesus more and more by receiving Him in Holy Communion, our lives are configured more and more to His.

This intimate communion with the Lord Jesus is made possible by our coming to His Eucharistic Sacrifice, receiving Him in the Eucharist, and adoring His Body and Blood. This is what gives us our Eucharistic Identity. We are His and we become more and more like Him.

Coming and participating in the celebration of Holy Mass, receiving our Lord Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion, and coming to adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the greatest preparation to become missionary disciples.

As we center our lives more and more on His Eucharistic Presence and saving action, we are empowered by Him as His Eucharistic Missionaries to bring His hope and love to people who so need to find meaning and purpose and love in their lives.

We do not serve distortion and division. Rather we serve the God Who is One, Good, True, Beautiful, and Holy. We serve the God Who is Love.

During the days that we were at the Congress, we encountered the Lord Jesus in His Sacrifice, His Presence, His Body and Blood received, and then we were given the mission to go forth and bear Him into the world, to others who are in such need of Him. We were set forth to serve!

When we come to Mass, we want to fully, consciously, and actively participate in the Sacred Liturgy. In order to be able to do so, we must recognize that at Mass, the greatest act of love is made present on the altar—the very Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I am so very grateful to all of you, our dear faithful people of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, who came out in such large numbers to express your love for Jesus and in the Blessed Sacrament and to remind us what it is that you love and desire, the beauty of our Catholic Faith, and Whom you desire, Jesus Christ truly present in our midst in the Eucharist.

There is something powerful about giving people a quiet place to spend time with God. These peaceful places of refuge from the busyness of life and noise of the world were a soothing balm for parishioners’ souls. Adoration Chapels provided a place to reestablish priorities.

When we come before the Blessed Sacrament, whether exposed in the monstrance, elevated above the altar after the Consecration at Mass, or reserved in a tabernacle, we are in the presence of the Heart that has so loved us and all people.