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Today in the podcast, Becoming Bethlehem, Father Peter Armenio, a priest of Opus Day,

reflects on the three adverts we encounter in life,

and as we come closer to Christmas,

explains what it means to become Bethlehem,

to get to know Jesus Christ, follow him, and bring him to others.

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, and deceitful. Well, if you noticed we had this opening prayer, my Lord and my God, it was a prayer composed by one of Jesus' apostles when he doubted

that Jesus had actually risen from the dead after his

grisly death on the cross and that's doubting Thomas and he made it abundantly clear

to his fellow apostles that unless he saw those wounds in his hands and his feet and his side

He just would not believe. He just could not get himself to believe that Jesus would make good on his prophecy that he would be beaten up, spit upon, tortured, killed,

and then rise again in glory.

So when he saw Jesus, he implicitly repented and said,

my Lord and my God. And he made an act of faith professing

that the man in front of him was not only man, but he was God as well. So we use that same prayer

...