Purification as Preparation to be Children of Light

The Collect from Mass today continues to underscore for us the ongoing conversion we are called to make every day of our lives:

May the splendor of Your glory dawn in our hearts, we pray, almighty God,
that all shadows of the night may be scattered
and we may be shown to be children of light
by the advent of Your Only Begotten Son.
Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

God reveals to us in His time all the things in our lives that prevent Christ from dwelling within us and reaching others through us.  There are always elements in our life that we need to turn away from, and it is a temptation against holiness to believe that the next concrete step on the path is somehow unimportant or unknowable.  Ask God to help you to know what the next step on the path of holiness is for you.  Not only will He reveal the next step to you, but He will give you the grace won by His Son on the Cross—and begun at His humble Birth in the manger—to take that next step with confidence, joy, and peace.

In the meantime, we have just celebrated this week the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which gives us a foretaste and example of how the fullness of redemption is lived out: consider the life and humility of our Blessed Mother.
Marian feasts always bring to mind for me some of my favorite choral music: Marian antiphons.  There is one in particular that highlights the example that Mary sets for each of us, as we strive every day to grow in holiness through union with her Son:

Congratulamini mihi omnes qui diligitis Dominum;
Rejoice with me, all you who love the Lord;

quia cum essem parvula, placui Altissimo;
for, in my lowliness, I pleased the Most High;

et de meis visceribus genui Deum et hominem, alleluia.
and from my womb, I bore God and man, alleluia.

Have a listen here: 

Prayer: Either the Collect or the Marian Antiphon from above (or both!)

Action: Offer a rosary for a friend and for your own continued growth in holiness.  Maybe the Luminous Mysteries!