Prayer
Prepare your hearts well,
I beg you, to receive the baby Jesus in your souls.
Prepare yourselves in such a way as to bring
to the motherhouse and to the Institute
the greatest graces of sanctification. (Cfr. Lett. 294)
Mary teaches us well how prepare our hearts.
May She grant us her virtues to create in us a warm shelter
where we can receive God made Man, all for pure love.
Mother of Christmas and of all the ones , pilgrims in the desert
seeking a place to live with dignity and freedom.
Lady of the migrants, of the poor, of the sick,
of those who are alone and without hope,
Be the bridge between us and your Son;
May you reach us with your embrace that comforts,
consoles and strengtens.
Be our star of Bethlehem and enlighten us
so that we may always follow the path that leads to your Son
and with His Spirit, may we be His instruments wherever we go on mission
so that all may know and love Him.
As you protected the Child in His human frailty,
protect us, the Institute and all the souls entrusted to us.
Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Several times Mother Cabrini wanted to begin her spiritual exercises on the day of August 15.
Here are some of her words about the heavenly Mother:
“Mary is an animated and always serene sky, in which the rays and splendors of the Divinity continually reverberate; she is like a shining wave inflamed with charity for us. Yes, inflamed, because the splendors that descend in Her from the face of God, are not only ineffable light, but still burning fire of charity. Oh! How many wonders are encountered in Mary’s love, how many graces, how many gifts, how many goods come forth from her beneficent hands and all sealed by great love. A glance that Mary gives us, a thought that she turns to us, bring in us the effects of her heated charity. Mary, our sweet Mother, is a sea of honey, an ocean of goodness, a fire of charity, ever burning, kindling everything and transmuting in herself. She is an everlasting sun of light, of grace, of beneficence. No one is to be excluded from her beneficent warmth because her charity is universal and continuous; to all she opens the bosom of her ineffable goodness, to all she always makes herself ready, indeed she anticipates those who desire her. “
From To the Ends of the Earth – p. 164-165