Crossing Over to the Dominican Republic. Photo by Kim Burgo/CRS

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Mary and Joseph were not unlike many of the world’s immigrants: simple, hard working, and poor. God purposefully chose them to lead his earthly Son through life. What responsibility and pride they must have felt for Jesus! Parents throughout the world share these strong feelings and hopes for their children. As the birth of Jesus approaches, let us ask ourselves: how can we support the children in our lives, in our world? And as members of a global family, how do we give hope to a world in need?

Pray: God, I pray for the health and well being of your earthly children. Help me to be an interceptor of your blessing. Amen.

Act: Send an anonymous note to a family you know, highlighting your admiration of their family unit.

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Today we celebrate Gaudete Sunday and we light the third, pink candle on the Advent wreath: a candle that symbolizes anticipation and hope. This week, we reflect on refugees and migrants, those who must leave their homes and make anew in an unfamiliar place. Transient situations in our lives can be unsettling and intimidating. Can you truly image having to leave your home, moving to a place where you may not be able to speak the language, and where the culture, food and money differ? Today, reflect on those who are strangers in a new homeland.

Pray: Holy Spirit, help me open the doors of my heart to those in need– physically, spiritually and emotionally. Amen.

Act: Contact a local non-profit that supports refugees. Ask what support you can provide this holiday season.

Today’s Readings

Reflect: In today’s Gospel, Mary and Elizabeth both discover they are with child–a surprising and joyful blessing. Although Mary and Elizabeth were unknowing in God’s plan for them, they placed their faith and trust in God’s hands. During Advent, how do we realize God’s plan for us? Do we feel called, even in the mundane moments? Let us long for the authentic moments of humanity; let us long for the sacredness of the every day.

Pray: Pray a decade of the Hail Mary in honor of Jesus’ forthcoming birth.

Act: View CRS’ Global Family Album. Please consider a donation of any size for the world’s most vulnerable people.

Village children tend to their community garden, a site of food production and HIV education in Cambodia. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Today, amidst our second week of preparation for Jesus’ birth, let us set a moment of our busyness aside. We reflect on our “to do’s” for the day. How are they life-giving to us? How are they life-giving to others? Although our lives differ drastically from our others–whether it be our neighbor or a child in the developing world–let us remember the community of life, which
we share. Let us realize that all of us can contribute something.
Today, let us truly be the Body of Christ.

Pray: Lord, guide me to express joy and gratitude throughout my day. Help me recognize your presence surrounding my “everyday-ness”. Amen.

Act: Reflect on CRS’ current news and programming. Remember the people we serve in your prayers today.

Safiatou, a West African woman, with a fair trade necklace she made. Photo courtesy of Keith Recker

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Our life journeys are personal and unique and still each one affects another. Our prayer is their prayer, our air is their air; through our faith, we share a common desire to know and serve God. As we continue through our day, let solidarity, fairness, and the promise of hope weave an intricate thread into our thought and actions.

Pray: Faithful God, through our charity, may all of us find light in the midst of darkness. Amen.

Act: Take some time to explore, “Faith Works”, sponsored by the USCCB. It features an online video collection showing people, places and programs affecting faith in our everyday lives.

Neighbors helping neighbors in Kenya. Photo by David Snyder/CRS

Today’s Readings

Reflect: In this second week of Advent, the purple candles of the wreath symbolize our waiting for Christ’s coming.  Waiting can be a challenging time, whether it be for an insignificant event, such as being in line at the grocery store, or a life-changing event such as going away to university.  While we wait this Advent, let us wait with others:  our solidarity only strengthens community.  Let our call to Christian compassion put others in the forefront of our Advent.

Pray: A prayer by Father Ed Hays, Catholic priest, poet and founder of the Forest of Peace retreat center:
Grant me a holy communion, a companionship with others,
as I journey homeward to you…Without a community, I can so easily lose the way, can be led astray by illusions of holiness, misguided by my ego’s desires…By this communion of holy ones, may I be daily challenged to greater compassion and charity as I walk the way of the pilgrim.

Act: Copy the “Two Feet of Social Action”.  Place it somewhere where you can see and reflect on it each day.

Fair trade coffee workers sorting beans in Nicaragua. Photo by Michael Sheridan/CRS

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Catholic social teaching calls us to be socially responsible citizens. As consumers, we can support the fair trade market of goods; as workers, we are entitled to decent wages and safe working conditions. Contemplate this picture of women working, reflecting on how their work affects people worldwide. Our own lives can be very busy, but in this Advent season, may our lives be busy with acts of charity, prayers of hope and works of love.

Pray: God, we thank you for the many gifts that each of us possess. May those of us that have plenty, effortlessly and lovingly share with those who have less. Amen.

Act: This holiday season, consider gifts that honor another person by supporting organizations that advocate for humanitarian or fair trade causes.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan listens to a young friend read in India. Photo by Amiran White for CRS

Today’s Readings

Reflect: In Juba, South Sudan, an extraordinary event happens each week. Under the shade of a mango tree, the “Women Group Cultivators” radio listening group sits. They listen to a weekly radio address and then discuss their thoughts. “It’s very important to meet together, because if you don’t understand a point, your neighbor can explain it, you can discuss further and you can come to the right understanding,” says group member Mary Yangi. How often do we really sit and engage with others–practicing sacred listening? When we wholeheartedly listen to others, we discover new meaning in the world. Consider making sacred listening part of an everyday practice, especially during these next few weeks of Advent.

Pray: God, help me today to listen with open ears and an empathetic heart. Amen.

Act: Listen and read along to an Ignatian online retreat blog. Today’s selection is, “God’s Compassion Missions Jesus”. Note the thoughtful photo of Sarajevo, Bosnia. (Click here to hear the entry read aloud).

Zimbabwe home-based caregivers travel to visit a person with AIDS. Photo by CRS archives

Today’s Readings

Reflect: Jesus was a friend to all–especially the sick and the poor. How often do we truly reach out to the alienated in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods–even churches? As we journey today, let us reflect on the gift of presence for others. We remember that by reaching out to others, we are reaching out to God.

Pray: God of the poor, AIDS does not discriminate but people do. Help us to respond to the cry of the suffering for medications, education, for communities of support. We ask you to bless us with compassionate hearts. Amen.

Act: Investigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in your community, then discuss with a friend.

The rolling green mountains of Afghanistan. Photo by Martin Lueders for CRS

Today’s Readings

We are one body, one body in Christ, and we do not stand alone.
- Dana Scallon, an Irish Catholic songwriter

Today we celebrate not only the birth of Jesus, but also the new birth of ourselves as perpetrators of Jesus’ work. May we find peace and Divine happiness in our hearts and minds. May we honor each other and make known our holy desires. In solidarity and remembrance with those suffering throughout the world today, we pray together:

Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure.
Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness.
Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts.
And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
- Frank Borman, Commander of the Apollo 8 space mission
(Borman, a Christian, is famous for his reading of the Book of Genesis during a TV transmission on Christmas Eve, 1968.)

Act: Listen to or read Pope Benedict’s Vatican Christmas celebration.