O God, who sent your Only Begotten Son into this world to free the human race from its ancient enslavement, bestow on those who devoutly await him the grace of your compassion from on high, that we may attain the prize of true freedom.

Yesterday afforded us an opportunity to ponder God’s ability, power, and desire to set us free. Freedom once again features in today’s collect, and it would serve us well to understand a bit more deeply what freedom truly us. The following paragraphs from the Catechism will be a good starting place.

1731 Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude.

1732 As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame, merit or reproach.

1733 The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. the choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."

1734 Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.

Take note from these paragraphs that freedom is a power that comes with responsibility—we must use it well. Additionally, one is only truly free when we are choosing to do good and move toward God. We are not free in sin. We are only free as saints.

The final paragraph cited above mentions ascesis—spiritual discipline. As I mentioned at the beginning of the season, Advent is in fact a penitential season, for it is a season of preparation. Christians prepare by vigilance and penance. The penances we take up, whether big or small, help us to grow in self mastery that we might be free, live for God, and serve others. Think of how easily sin hinders this—it is enslavement! It prevents us from loving and living, and turns us in on ourselves. Penance and ascesis, however, help to break these chains and shackles that we might live “in the freedom of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:21).

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another” (Gal. 5:1, 13).

Reflection Questions

• Where am I enslaved and where am I free?
• Do I ever choose enslavement? How?
• Am I responsible in my use of freedom?
• Am I seeking to grow in freedom by growing in and practicing virtue?
• What ascesis—spiritual discipline—is in my life and where can it increase?

The Cristeros Rule of Life

As Cristeros, we dedicate ourselves to a a life of true devotion to Jesus through Mary, particularly in the form of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pray for Us.

We begin our days with a Morning Offering dedicating our day:

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen.

At a high or low point during the day, we pray to the Holy Spirit, handing over our accomplishments or sufferings:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of thy love, send forth thy spirit and we shall be created, and though shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.

At some point each day, on our own or with our family or friends, we pray to our Mother Mary in the form of Guadalupe, giving all that we have and are to Jesus through Mary by reciting one of the following:

• A daily Rosary, focusing on the Fruits of the Mystery.
• The Hail Holy Queen

Every night before we go to sleep, by ourselves or with our wife, we pray a nightly examine using the ACTS formula:

• Adoration: We adore you and Christ and we bless You, because by Your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
• Contrition: Ask God for forgiveness for all the times you have sinned or fallen short that day,
• Thanksgiving: Thank God for all the gifts he has given you that day, including the grace for those moments you have acted virtuously and towards the Good.
• Supplication: We ask God for his blessings that night and the next day, either with particular requests or in general, and end with a prayer dedicating ourselves to Him through Our Lady of Guadalupe: All that we have and all that we are, we give to your hands Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Our Lady of Gudalupe, Pray For us.  The Cristeros Rule of Life