We are temples of the Holy Ghost, and the Trinity lives in our souls as in its sanctuary. Our Christian vocation is noble, calling us to adore God in spirit and truth, to aim well above transitory things, and to refuse to be satisfied by the momentary pleasures that the world promises to those who submit to its yoke.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
We are temples of the Holy Ghost, and the Trinity lives in our souls as in its sanctuary. Our Christian vocation is noble, calling us to adore God in spirit and truth, to aim well above transitory things, and to refuse to be satisfied by the momentary pleasures that the world promises to those who submit to its yoke.
Our hope is in eternity, our inalienable happiness. The world parades its attractions, but we know that all they are nothing and we are able distinguish, behind the fire of the passions, the inanity of such things. The world is rich in promises and - in the same manner as a seasoned politician - keeps none of them. It leaves behind, victims of their naivety, those who believed it. Or perhaps they become its accomplices, because a man whose hopes have been crushed often becomes cruel and enjoys dragging others into a loss similar to his own, out of a desire for revenge.
The call to baptized souls that resounded from the Cross still resonates in our souls. The "sitio" of the dying Christ cannot leave us indifferent. And the Christian who walks away from it, in order to drink from the bitter cup of this world, will be punished.
Soon a cloud of sadness falls upon him. As the drunkard who immerses himself in his vice to forget, the Christian, wounded by the frenzy of the world, seeks in ruinous pleasures a consolation for his disappointments.
Dyed with the royal purple of the Blood of Christ, the soul that unrestrainedly seeks the pleasures of this world, takes with it - as macabre partners for its journey - not only a mortal sadness, but also the excruciating memory of its rejection of Calvary. The Christian soul that takes pleasure in the call of this world cannot stifle the remorse that brings back to its memory the happy days when it remained faithful to the terrible demands of God offering his Only-Begotten Son as propitiatory Victim.
On the other hand, the soul that follows the hard path of fidelity keeps in its heart the joy of a righteous soul fixed upon God by its trials, as the nails fixed Christ to the cross. For the Christian soul, these trials, far from bringing it down or astonishing or scandalizing it, are friends ardently wished for, because behind the hardness of their blows, the soul can discern the presence of Christ Who wants to assimilate it to Himself, making it worthy to share in His sorrow for love of His Father.
Joy is the prerogative of the Christian soul. Its source is the pierced heart of Christ. This joy will keep our hearts well above the seductive disorders of a vulgar world, whose acknowledged goal is our degradation and which makes itself the instrument of Satan for the perdition of souls.
Christian joy consists in keeping our souls under the mild yoke of our Savior, giving us strength and balance for our conquest of Heaven and sheltering us from diabolical attacks.
It has a price, however. And this price makes us back away from it. We prefer coarse and immediate pleasures to the chalice of the Cross - a disastrous error that destroys and blinds our souls. Christian joy, daughter of the Cross, is a powerful weapon that obliges the Devil to back off and then to retreat! Christian joy has the brilliance of crystal and its pure, clear beauty prevents the Devil from injecting his hidden venom into our souls, because he can only infect those sad souls obligingly turned in upon themselves.
Lift up your souls! The fire that burns in our souls is more luminous and more certain than error, and the foul air that we breathe by no means prevents us from living joyously - quite the contrary. Victory belongs to the joyous souls that radiate, in everyday life, the Divine Presence impressed in the depth of their being.
Wishing you a good and holy Advent, in the joy and hope of the coming of the Child-God!
Fr. Yves le Roux