A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke1:39-45
Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
Saint Who?
Saints Who Exemplify Devotion
to the Christ Child
Saint Julie Billiart
Foundress († 1816) Feast: April 8
Marie-Rose Julie Billiart was born in 1751 to a family of French shopkeepers. An energetic and devout girl, she fell seriously ill in her twenties after witnessing the attempted murder of her father. The trauma affected her nerves, and the poor medical treatment she received left her bedridden for two decades. Julie turned her sickroom into a place of prayer, and many came seeking her intercession and counsel. Despite increasing infirmity, she and a pious French noblewoman (who had narrowly escaped the guillotine) founded the Sisters of Notre Dame. Then Julie was miraculously healed.
She was deeply devoted to the Child Jesus, whose image hung in her room. And when her community faced devastating opposition from a bishop, it was to the Infant Jesus that she turned. On the fifth day of her novena she remarked, “I have no shadow of anxiety left, I am in perfect peace. The Child Jesus has taken us under his protection; he will deliver us.” She remained at peace, even though she had to relocate herself and her sisters in the dead of winter. During her final illness she wrote, “Here is the holy crib of our dear Jesus; I will place everything in it, everything, everything. I believe that before very long we shall see things we should never have dreamed of.”
Infant Jesus, may we, like Saint Julie, place everything in your holy crib and so find perfect peace.
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©Image : Christ on the Lake of Galilee, Jacopo Tintoretto (circle, 1518-1594), NGA, Washington D.C., USA. Photo Courtesy NGA Washington.