SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD - 2020

INTRODUCTION

·       The readings show us the light and the darkness clashing, not in the sky we see with our eyes, but in our human heart.   

·       Darkness which prevent us to see and to adore God made a child, light that invites us to adore Him. 

·       Darkness that prevent us from discovering the presence of our incarnate God in every human being.  

·        This celebration is a good opportunity to look into our heart and discover in it our darkness and  our light, the light of God made a child. 

FIRST READING  – Is 60:1-6

« This passage is taken from the book of the Third Isaiah. It is full of optimism, joy and light. 

« The theme of light dominates the scene; the glory of God is the light that enlightens the city of Jerusalem.  

« The earth is covered with darkness, but the glory of God shines upon the earth.  

« This light is a lighthouse that leads the nations toward Jerusalem.  

« Look with joy, with overwhelming happiness all the nations come to you, the foreigners but also your children, those who were once dispersed, now return.   

« They will bring to you the wealth of the nations, caravans of camels bringing gold, incense and myrrh, and proclaiming the praises of God.   

« This invitation is addressed to each one of us  

o   Rise up, rise up from your comfort zone, from your inertia, your apathy, your being comfortable.

o   Look the light  is all around you in spite of the darkness

o   All that is human in you, your ability to love and to give yourself for love of others will come back to you, if you know how to discover in your life the light of God, his calling, his invitation to allow his silent presence inundate you. His presence can save you from all that is negative in you in which you find yourself so comfortable.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Psalm 72   

R.  Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

     This psalm is a prayer for a king.    

     The theme of justice is present in the petitions for the king, so he will be able to govern with equity. 

SECOND READING  – LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

Ø  The letter to the Ephesians, together with the letters to the Colossians, to the Philippians, and to Philemon, belongs to the group of the Captivity Letters. 

Ø  For those authors who believe that the letter was written by Paul himself, the date of the letter has to be before his death, before 67.

Ø  For those who think it was written by another person, probably a disciple of Paul, the date may be around the 70’s. 

Ø  This letter has many themes that we find also in the letter to the Colossians. 

Ø  It is a doctrinal and theological letter.  

Ø  The first part (ch.1-3) is dedicated to the Church, which has been prepared from eternity by God. There has been a progressive revelation whose culminating point is the Incarnation of the Word of God.  

Ø  In the second part, what has been said in the first about the Church is applied to the behavior of the individual Christian.

EPHESIANS 3:2-3a; 5-6

Ø  The author says that the mystery hidden in God has been revealed to him, and he announces it to us through his preaching.   . 

Ø  This mystery has been revealed to the Apostles by the Spirit. 

Ø  The mystery hidden in God and revealed now is 

o   that through the Good News, the Gospel, the gentiles are coheirs, copartners   in Christ Jesus

and members of the same body. 

GOSPEL-  Matthew 2:1-12

v In this beautiful page Matthew  describes a scene that has fascinated the believers of all times.  

v Let us not only allow the child which is in each one of us to rejoice before the “Magi” 

v Let us do more, let this child convert the tired adult that is in us. 

v Today I would like that together we meditate on our own vocation:

o    Let us begin with the Magi but at the same time let us be thinking on our own life. I hope it is going to be a beautiful experience for all. 

o   The work of these men, which sometimes are called wise men,   was to observe the celestial bodies and learn from them. It was a common belief that what was happening in the sky had to do with what was happening on the earth.     

o   In their work, they discovered a very beautiful celestial body, which we have called a star, a comet… This star has a special attraction and they are moved to follow it. Maybe they had heard the Jewish people living among them that a star would announce the birth of the king

o   They prepare everything for the journey in search of the King. They do not know how long will this journey be… they do not know the way, they did not have GPS like us… they do not know if they will reach their destination… if they will find the king they seek… but they start their journey following the star.    

o   When they arrive in Jerusalem, something they did not expect happened, the star disappeared… and now what? Maybe we were wrong; maybe we have chosen the wrong way…. 

o   They seek advice from those who can help them. These advisers are not honest, not even interested in the king, they even fear the existence of a king, but they know where to find the information: the Scriptures. The king will be born in Bethlehem.   

o   The  Magi leave Herod’s palace, the star was there waiting for them. They follow it and they find the child, a child like any other child with his mother. Jesus might have been 2 years old by that time. In this scene so normal and so ordinary, they recognize in this child the king they are seeking.  

o   Let us turn to our own life. We have been called to live and to accomplish a mission. Our universal mission, the mission of all of us, is to love one another as brothers and sisters and in so doing love our Creator and Father.    

o   Like the Magi, one day we saw a “star” something that called our attention, something we usually call “vocation”: she is the woman of my life, he is the man of my life, I want to serve my brothers and sisters especially those most in need, I want to be a missionary, I want to be a priest to serve the community….  

o   Like the Magi, we begin our journey without knowing the way, the end of the road, not even what waits for us at the end of our life journey. 

o   Many, who have dreamed to be missionaries going to faraway countries, had to learn to be missionaries in rich countries; others that dreamed of a large family with many children have only one or none; the love of my life seems to have changed, I thought that the priesthood was something different more rewarding…  

o   If, like the Magi, we seek help from those who know and we persevere on the journey with hope, like them, our “star” will shine again in the horizon of our life.  

o   The joy and peace that filled the Magi will certainly fill us.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

MARÍA ANTONIA PARÍS After a long  deliberation of the directors of Antonia and of Florentina Seingler, […]they counsel  them to leave. Florentina and Maria Antonia left the convent on January 28, 1851 and thus began a new period in their lives, characterized by silence and prayer, living almost as religious sisters in Tarragona, in the house of Canon Bofarrull.  They remained there almost one year. During this time three other young women joined them.   On August 15, 1851 the five of them made the Vow of Tarragona, charismatic beginnings of the new Order:  Day of the Assumption of Mary most holy. I gather the young ladies I had admitted as companions with a great devotion and fervor , offering ourselves to God by a vow of crossing the seas and [going] to any part of the world without dividing the group, nor deviating  away from the opinion of our superior in anything. Since I had at that time no other superior than my confessor, we offered  the vow to our Lord after  Holy Communion with the intention to ratify it in the afternoon of the same day in the hands or presence  of the most Rev. Dr. Jose Caixal – my confessor and the confessor of the others as well. As we promised in the morning, we did it in the afternoon in the presence of Dr. Caixal and  after we made the vow and offered ourselves to suffer any kind of trial for love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the confessor gave us a talk so fervent  telling us such things that have been very profitable for us in so many tribulations which came to us.

SAINT ANTHONY MARY CLARET -  He receives the nomination as Archbishop of Cuba on August 11, 1849; at first he does not want to accept it. In substance he feels a deep incompatibility between being a missionary and the way to fulfill  the ministry as a bishop on his time. To be an Archbishop at that moment was considered to be an honor, and the work had a bureaucratic nature, which seemed to be in contradiction with his vocation as an Apostolic Missionary. […]He was at the beginning of his forth visitation when he received the nomination from the Queen Isabel II to be her confessor.  In this new mission, Claret will have the opportunity to accomplish greater apostolic plans: his worries for the Church at the national level and even at the universal level.  He imposes three conditions on the Queen before accepting his nomination, which she agrees with: that he will not have to deal with politics; that after fulfilling his duties in [the] palace he will have free time for his own works; that he will not have to lose his time waiting when he goes to [the] palace...

     (Both quotations taken from chapter 1 of the book Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 MUÑOZ, Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. 2010

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

STOCK, Klemens, sj. La Liturgia de la Palabra – Ciclo  A 2001.

SAGRADA BIBLIA, Versión Oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.

  

CHRISTMAS 2019

 Christmas invites us to let the mystery of God, made vulnerable, surprise us. 

Christmas invites us to be silent and to allow the Presence of our Creator and Redeemer fill us.    

Christmas invites us to discover His presence in each human face, especially in the children and in the most vulnerable.

Gospel of the Midnight Mass – Luke 2:1-14

This Gospel has two different scenes. Let us contemplate each one of them:  

The first scene is the birth of Jesus:  

v Luke puts the birth of Jesus in the context of the history of his time. He gives names and events, which we can find in any historical book. Luke wants to tell us that Jesus is a real human being, not a figment of our imagination.   

v There is a census, something that all of us are familiar with, because every some years we have a census taken in our country.  Census is always about counting people. How interesting it is to realize that behind the data of the census there are realities that we do not know, joys and sufferings, in the lives of those counted, as it happened with the census of Quirinius.   

v Joseph belongs to David’s family. According to the way the census were conducted, everyone had to go back to their place of origin to be counted.  Therefore, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem the city of David. He goes there with his wife who is with child, at a very late stage of her pregnancy.  

v The time to give birth came as they arrived in Bethlehem. I leave it to each one’s imagination, especially of the women who have given birth, what this moment means for a woman. Then we may look to Mary and try to discover her feelings.   

v There is no place for them at the inn. This can be understood in several different ways:  

o   There is no place because they are poor   

o   There is no place because the inn is full.   

o   There is no place because they do not want to be disturbed by a woman in labor.     

o   There is no place because the inn is full of people and this is not an adequate setting for a woman to give birth. To give  birth requires privacy,  intimacy  and   sacredness.   

o   And the innkeeper, that I am inclined to look at as a good man, offers them the cave where the animals take refuge at night. There they will be able to be by themselves. 

v Luke says very briefly  ”the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn  son.  She wrapped him in swaddling clothes.”  

o   The time came for her, the hour that every pregnant woman expects with joy, because she is going to see for the first time the face of her baby. At the same time she is overcome by anxiety, she does not know what will happen to her, especially when it is the first child, as in the case of Mary. 

o   Joseph helped Mary to give birth to her son. I like to imagine Joseph, the just man, the good man, with tears in his eyes as the mystery was enfolding in front of him. Tears of thanksgiving and emotion on seeing the face of the Son of God made the Son of man. He would have to be the father of the son of God, his God who had asked him to change the plans he had for his own life, and thus cooperate in the work of the salvation of the human race.  

o   Mary sees, kisses, and feeds for the first time her baby, who is the Son of the Eternal Father. 

o   I believe that it is impossible for us to understand the fullness of this mystery, so full of joy and suffering at the same time.  Let us contemplate in silence, admiration and unconditional love this mystery.   

Let us contemplate the second scene of this same gospel: There are some shepherds watching their flock during the night.  

v They live in the fields; they do not live in houses, not even in stables.  They take turns in keeping their flocks.    

v Shepherds were considered to be people of not good standing in society: they were poor but they were seen as liars, as thieves, people who had to do many things in order to survive.     

v To them the angel of the Lord is sent to announce the good news of the birth of the Son of God among us. An angel was also sent to Mary, to Zechariah, to Joseph.   Let us analyze the message, because it contains several of the themes so dear to Luke:    

o   Be not  afraid.  Fear is the natural reaction of the human being in the presence of the Mystery, of God or of his messengers. Jesus will repeat these same words to his apostles on Easter Sunday evening.    

o   I have good news to proclaim to you, which will be the cause of great joy.   The joy of the presence of God in our life, in our society, in our history.  God is always a cause of joy. In the Old Testament Zion was invited many times to rejoice because “your King comes to you.”  

o   Today, it is the “now” of salvation. Luke uses several titles to describe the child who has been born and who is the cause of joy: Savior, Messiah, and Lord. Jesus is all of that and more, but this is the paradox of God’s work, so different from our works and our parameters, our King comes as a poor and vulnerable baby.    

o   Poverty, although Luke does not mention the word poverty, he says that the baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lay in a manger. These are signs of poverty.  God could only be born in poverty, because riches many times are void of meaning, and of truth. Real poverty is the truth.  

o   The praise,   many more angels join the first angel and they sing “GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE… to men and women of good will.   Praise and peace, two words that we find more than once in the Gospel of Luke. After the annunciation Mary sings, in the evening of Easter Sunday Jesus greets his own saying: PEACE.   

Gospel of Luke 2:15-20 – GOSPEL OF THE SUNRISE MASS

It has been said that Luke was a painter and that he painted the portrait of Mary; but some commentators say that the best paintings of Luke were painted with his words, not with brushes.    

The gospel of the Midnight Mass had two scenes. The gospel for the Sunrise Mass has also two different scenes: the shepherds, and Mary.   

v The shepherds decide to do something about the good news they have received, they go to see the truth of what has been told to them. 

v Because they go they see. What do they see? A new born baby in a manger, Joseph and Mary.  We have here another of the themes cherished by Luke, faith.   He does not mention the word, but the scene speaks more eloquently than words. They see a baby and they recognized in that vulnerable baby, as vulnerable as any other baby, the Messiah and  Lord.   

v The shepherds made known the message that had been told about the baby.   The first scene ends here.     

The second  scene is about Mary.   

v Mary kept all those things, reflecting on them in her heart. 

o   She kept them, these are her memories. The memories of everything that had to do with the baby:

§  at the annunciation, the reaction of her parents, of Joseph and  the people of Nazareth. 

§   The journey to Bethlehem, during which both Joseph and Mary could share their experience about the baby that was in Mary’s womb. The birth, the shepherds… All of these are her memories.

o   She cherishes them in her heart, meditates on them. Luke does not say that Mary understands, she cannot understand them, they go beyond our human understanding. But she cherishes them, and believes because she trusts in the God who has made the promises to her. Faith is to trust he who has called us to life and has given us his salvation.  

Mass of the Day – Gospel of John 1:1-18

Ø  The Gospel for this Mass is taken from the Prologue of John’s Gospel.  Luke has painted, described for us four different scenes related to the birth of Jesus.   

Ø  John leads us into the mystery, he removes the curtain, this is the meaning of revelation, to see what is behind the curtain. He helps us to discover the mystery hidden behind the events and the different characters. 

Ø  In the two former Masses Luke has narrated the birth of Jesus, called Messiah and Lord.   

Ø  The Church, the community of the believers and followers, led by the Spirit sent by Jesus to her, has deepened into the theological meaning of the events related to the birth of Jesus.  Let us hear what John has to say

o   In the beginning  was the Word… and the Word was God.   If we go to the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis the first words are “In the beginning…God created… and God said … God says his Word and the abyss becomes a wonderful and beautiful creation.   

o   John continues his theological reflection and says that the Word existed from the beginning, that without him nothing came to be.  The darkness did not acknowledge it. Our darkness, our own and that of our society, and  of our world  cannot understand and accept his light.    

o   John proceeds and says that the light, the Word was in the world, but the world did not acknowledge the Word. 

o   He came to his own and they did not welcome him. Sometimes we think that these words are said of the people of Bethlehem; but I believe that we need to enter into our heart, and to discover in how many ways we do not welcome him into ourselves. Only in this way we will be able to understand the dreadful mystery of the human heart that can refuse to recognize his or her Creator.  

o   To those who did accept him…   According to some commentators  verses 12 and 13 refer to the virginal birth of Jesus, and also to our baptism.  

o   And we reach now the climax of the prologue AND THE WORD BECAME FLESH  

§  The creating Word, the Word who is the Eternal Father’s Son  Became flesh. Flesh means the condition of the sinful and vulnerable human being. Without having any sin, because God cannot sin, he becomes like us, to be able to nail to the cross, as Paul says, our flesh and in so doing to give us his life, the life of the Father’s Son. He made his dwelling among us, in some translations he “put his tent among us.” This sentence makes us think of the nomads, the pilgrims who do not stay in a same place forever.  We are all pilgrims in this world. He puts his tent and lives like anyone of us.     John Paul II in the document for the preparation of the Third Millennium wrote:  he loved with a human heart, he worked with hands of a man, talked… he was and is one of us.    This gospel ends with the words that John will repeat in his 1st  Letter. He is fascinated in awe by the truth of what they had experienced living with Jesus “and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”  

§   

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT  - CYCLE A - 2019

v We have reached the last Sunday before Christmas, we have made the journey of preparation for the celebration of the coming of the Lord among us.  

v The readings present this reality announced in the Old Testament (First reading) fulfilled in the New Testament (Gospel) and continued in the Church (second reading) 

FIRST READING  Is 7:10-14

Ø  The prophet in the name of God says to the king that he can ask for a sign from God.  

Ø  Let us see the meaning of this petition.  

Ø  The prophets look at the political, social and economic situation, and say to those in leadership and to the people, how they are unfaithful to the Covenant, by the way they live their lives and how to change their ways.   

Ø  Israel is already divided in two kingdoms Northern and Southern.  Ahaz the king of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, is about to become a vassal of the king of Assyria in order to escape the destruction of his country.  

Ø  The prophet, not knowing how to make the king understand that what he plans to do will lead all to ruin, tells the king to ask for a sign from God to know what to do. 

Ø  The king does not want to ask for a sign, apparently moved by reverence.   

Ø  But the answer of the prophet "do not tire my God" helps us to understand that the attitude of the king was not sincere.  

Ø  What is the sign that God will give? It is a sign of life, in spite of  destruction and oppression, God always creates and nurtures  life

Ø  It is the announcement of the birth of a child, the son of a young woman. This child is probably one of the sons of the king, son of one of his wives.  

Ø  What does that sign mean? We will find the answer on verse 16, do not be afraid Ahaz, and in your desperation do not make covenant with the oppressor, because within a few month, the time for a child to be formed in his mother's womb, the danger will be no more, these powers will no longer be a danger. 

Ø  History tells us that Ahaz made the covenant with the foreign powers and it was a total ruin, but for us Christians of the 21st century, what does that mean?  

Ø  The child announced was born in the time of Ahaz, but the prophecies, since they come from God, transcend time and space, and have diverse levels of understanding, of interpretation of revelation.     

Ø  Very soon the Church understood that this prophecy was the announcement of the coming of the true descendant of David, the Messiah, who was to be born from a virgin mother, a young woman, a young girl.     

Ø  His name is Emmanuel, this was the name of the child of Ahaz, but the true Emmanuel, God-with-us is Jesus, the son of the true king, the Father God.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 24

R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
The LORD’s are the earth and its fullness;
the world and those who dwell in it.
For he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.
He shall receive a blessing from the LORD,
a reward from God his savior.
Such is the race that seeks for him,
that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.
R. Let the Lord enter; he is king of glory.

GOSPEL   Mt 1:18-24

     Today the liturgy of the church explains to us the conception and birth of Jesus, from the point of view of Joseph.   

     We are very used to think about the conception of Jesus according to what Luke narrates in his Gospel that is the experience of Mary.   

     Matthew, being a Jew, sees the part of the man, Joseph, and sees in the birth of Jesus the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which we have read in the first reading.   

     Like Luke, Matthew says that the name of the child's mother is Mary, and that she is betrothed to Joseph. 

     Before they lived together, that is before Joseph took Mary into his home, she became pregnant. Matthew as well as Luke tells us that this is by the power of the Holy Spirit.   

     Up to now this is the same story that Luke tells us, but Matthew is going to tell us the feelings and the reaction of Joseph

     He says that Joseph is a just man, this is the greatest praise that a human being may receive from God, yes Joseph is just, and his heart is in the image of God's heart.   

     Joseph does not understand, what he sees now is very different from what he knows of Mary. What has happened? A priest told me, many years ago, that Joseph, since he could not understand and was afraid in front of the mystery, decided to leave. 

     He wanted to leave because he did not want to expose Mary to shame, and to spare all the consequences that this situation could bring to her, even death.   

     That is why he decides to divorce her in secret, in this way the blame would fall on him.   

     And as always, when we do not know, when we reach the point of being in complete darkness, then God intervenes, and gives us the answer to all our questions:  

ü  Joseph do not fear to receive Mary, the child she carries is from God.   

ü  He is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.   

ü  It is God himself who comes to live among us, to be one like us, to be Emmanuel = God-is-with us   

ü  God says that to Joseph in a dream, because God speaks to us in the way each one can understands.  

ü  When Joseph woke up, he took Mary into his home as the angel had told him in a dream.     

ü  His reaction is the same as the one of the young girl from Nazareth. He receives her into his home; Mary says to the angel "I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your words."  

     Thus, these two members of the human race welcome the son of God among us. They dedicate their lives to him; they will be father and mother for this child. They will accompany him in his human journey to become an adult member of the human race. 

     They participate in the mystery of the redemption accomplished by Jesus, son of God, known in his town as the son of the carpenter, and of Mary.   

     This makes me always   realize that when we see someone, his or her attitudes, his or her life, truly we do not know what is going on in that person. The Lord Jesus has told us not to judge, because certainly we will be mistaken. We think that we know but, in reality, we do not know, each person is a mystery. 

     Those of Nazareth never knew the great mystery that was unfolding in front of their eyes, they only saw a young girl who had conceived not being married, and that Joseph the fiancé of Mary, was the father of this child.  

SECOND READING:  Rm 1:1-7

§  The letter to the Romans is the masterpiece of Paul’s theology. 

§  Paul says that the grace of the apostolate, of his mission, comes from Jesus, the Son of God, risen full of power and holiness.    

§  This mission of being an apostle is given to lead the unbelievers to the obedience of faith. 

§  In addition, Paul says that we are among those unbelievers, and this is certainly true since we are descendants from pagan peoples, because we are not Jews.     

§  In addition, we have been called to belong to Christ; this is the grace we have received at Baptism when we were submerged in the life of Christ to become a new creature.   

§  This is our call to holiness   

§  Paul ends saying: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

SAINT ANTHONY MARY CLARET – Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters

When he was 12 years old, he received another peculiar grace which he explains in “Review of his Life,”  as follows:

            “1820, 12 years old, God called me, I offered myself to his most holy will.”

Short, clear and to the point.  He is aware that the call is a gift and requires an answer which he gives promptly.  This was an event that marked his availability, as a starting point, for whatever God might want.   Many years will have to pass by until he will   discover how  God wants   him to fulfill his vocation, which he had felt, for the first time  when he was  5 and 12 years old.  It will be a long journey and, sometimes difficult to discern, but the experience of these two events will be as a backdrop curtain for future   situations; in them he has discovered the need to work for the salvation of mankind   and the fatherhood  of God, situations which will help him to remain attentive to God’s Will, to which he answers with a full availability. (Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, p. 19.)

MARÍA ANTONIA PARIS – Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters

We can date her conversion during a Mission preached by the Franciscan Priests of Scornalbou, at the Cathedral of Tarragona, when she was 14 years old.  They recommended very much the life of faith and of a personal relationship with the Lord, love for  the sacraments, Marian devotion,   works of mercy,  reading  books that could help in  formation, avoiding  harmful shows,  and to have a spiritual director.  Mª. Antonia will maintain during all her life this Christian simplicity and solidity.

In the notes she wrote some time later, she remembers those years and says: 

“God taught me the most refined perfection as soon as I discovered him… All my longings were the Holy Cross and to live and to die crucified with Christ.”

Her conversion meant a deep encounter with Jesus Christ. From almost the beginning her spirituality was Christ centered, with a strong attraction  towards the humanity of Christ and his saving suffering.

During these years she has a great eagerness for the acts of penance and corporal mortifications, to the point of becoming sick. (Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, p.32.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Hortensia rmi and TUTZO, Regina rmi. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit.