In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and the grace to make this time of prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

Today, as we approach Christmas,

we want to consider the last of the cardinal virtues, which is that of temperance.

We cannot but think of Jesus wanting to be born in a stable when we think of the virtue

of temperance.

He who was all rich, you know, being God, being all

powerful, being able to do whatever he wanted. He wanted to come into our world and become

poor so that we can become rich in participating in his divine nature.

And so Jesus readily chooses to come into the world in a poor family,

that of Mary and Joseph, who were basically peasants,

you know, and Joseph was a manual worker.

There was no lavish wealth in their families,

even though perhaps they may have descended from King David at some point.

When Jesus was born, he was born at a stable.

Because as St. Luke says, there was no room for them in the inn.

And the key words here in the gospel are the for them.

There may have been room in many in Bethlehem, but there was no room for them, perhaps

because they didn't have money to pay for their stay, you know, their room and board.

...