Welcome to our daily rosary meditation.

Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

On this, the second Sunday of Advent, the Church gives us John the Baptist as our guide to lead

us into a deeper relationship with Jesus at Christmas. Now arguably the most

important advice John gives is this. He must increase and I must decrease.

That's John's Advent plan.

Well, if Jesus is the program, if he must increase and we decrease, then we need to follow the example of Jesus.

We need to do what he did and the very first thing Jesus did was take Mary for his mother

and live in a close personal relationship with her as he grew up under her care from the manger to

cana to the cross.

And one of the last things he did was invite us to do the same. From the

cross, seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near,

Jesus said to his mother,

woman, this is your son.

Then to the disciple he said,

this is your mother. from that hour the disciple took her into his own home

now the original Greek text ends with something much more profound than John taking Mary into his physical home.

The literal translation is that John took Mary into his soul.

John invited Mary into everything of his life.

He invited her into his soul so that she would form Jesus in him.

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