Make It Bethlehem

For 34 years, we have hosted The Five Days for the Reconciliation of Ourselves, Our Families and Our Nation Back to God at Caritas of Birmingham.  It falls each year from December 8-12 each year. The blessings are felt deeply and in faith we believe the united prayers and sacrifices of those who attend and those who are united in prayer with us from across the world move Heaven.  Our Lady said:

 

September 18, 1986

“… today again I thank you for all that you have accomplished for me in these days. Especially, dear children, I thank you in the name of Jesus for the sacrifices which you offered during this past week. Dear children, you are forgetting that I desire sacrifices from you so I can help you and to drive satan away from you. Therefore, I am calling you again to offer sacrifices with a special reverence toward God…”

 

During the Five Days of Prayer, we finish together the last novena for The Reconciling of Ourselves, Our Families and Our Nation Back to God, that were started in June. The last novena is for Spiritual Healing. The words of this novena become more prophetic each year, as do the words of Abraham Lincoln that are central to the novena:

 

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

 

The novena goes on to say, regarding Christians:

 

“We blame those in darkness, but we realize now that chastisement, about which Our Lady has spoken, is because of our failure to carry the torch. It is we who have allowed darkness to prevail, many times even cooperating with it and participating in it. Chastisement will come because of our failures as Christians. Yet this is our security for the Father knows best what we need to draw us close to Him, and every good father disciplines his children. We must not be announcers of doom, rather of joy and light because for a Christian the future is one of salvation. So, we look for a bright future, full of hope, even though we may have a difficult path to follow to get there.”

 

Answer Our Lady’s call to “convert and be holy.” This is what brings peace amid turmoil, strife, and uncertainty.  Let yourself be drawn to the humble stable of Bethlehem.  Our Lady said:

 

December 25, 2014

“…I desire for each of your hearts to become a little stable of Bethlehem in which the Savior of the world was born…”

 

Look into the eyes of little Jesus.

 

December 25, 2020

“…I am carrying to you little Jesus who brings you peace, Him who is the past, present and future of your existence…’

 

Speak His Name: “Emmanuel—God with Us.”

 

March 18, 2011

“…I am with you in the name of the greatest Love, in the name of dear God, who has come close to you through my Son…”

 

Receive His peace…

 

January 2, 2019

“…my Son brought the light to this world, and He brought it to those who wanted to see it and receive it…”

 

Open the door of your heart. Make room for Him. Make it Bethlehem.