Love draws Christ and disarms the enemy. That’s a key lesson of life. Patience and charity must exist toward all people. It’s the highest reach of spirituality because, as St. Thérèse of Lisieux said, with acts of love your soul may be quickly consumed and arrive with short delays at the vision of God.

When it comes to preventing destruction and decay—to lessening chastisement— Christ tells us what our prophets now tell us also: nothing is more effective than love.

Every morning, and not just on December 25, we should wake up praying for Christ to come and teach us detachment from our egos and how to put love in our hearts. We should always pray for more love, and we should practice love all day—every day—allowing God to manifest in our world and live in our hearts, says Our Blessed Mother. We must first love. We must learn to send blessings on every person during the course of the day. We should send love to the mailman and to the people occupying the elevator. We should send love to our underlings and our bosses. We should love the annoying drivers in front of us on the way home and then show great love for our families the rest of the night, which means making sure they are not exposed to evil.

You see, most of us have spent our lives focused on our own comfort and in so doing have found ourselves restless and unfulfilled because we’re self-centered. We lack peace because we focus on ourselves. That, along with their shortcomings, causes us to become impatient with others.

And when we project such aggravation, when we feel negatively towards a person—whether it’s someone we know or someone who’s standing in front of us at the supermarket—it’s a little curse.

When we do that, when we curse, we send malice into the firmament. And with every bit of malevolence, every bit, the world tips closer to war. It also brings us closer to personal eternal reckoning, for we’re held accountable for every minor or major malediction.

On the other hand, when we transmit affection, when we radiate caring, we take a step in the direction of where?

Heaven.

Loving everyone—no matter how attractive or unattractive, no matter how strange or familiar, no matter how friendly or nettlesome, no matter their politics—makes up for past curses. Every time we dole out love we erase a past curse.

Love combines in a potent fashion with faith and humility. The more we pray, the more faith we have—because when we’re praying with regularity, we can observe the little ways God answers prayers.

The more we pray, the more faith we develop; the more faith, the more (sometimes miraculous) results.

Those who pray little, but expect much, are often disappointed—while those who pray frequently with firm faith and Joseph-like quietude, will find themselves astonished.

That’s not to say life becomes a bed of roses. On earth we all must experience both Heaven and hell. Life is a grueling test, and once we accept that fact we transcend it. We conquer it. We conquer fear. We offer up suffering, and we are then open to true joy. Because existence really is joyful when we consider the afterlife and the fact that nothing on earth is significant—nothing is too hard—in the light of eternal reward.

Although everyone must go through trials, disappointments, and “defeats” in life, God answers those who are humble because they come to Him as an infant. Among infants is The Infant.

When we’re humble, Satan’s arrows wing through thin air and find no target. They find no “self.” Only with pride do we feel the enemy’s sting. In humility is perfect surrender to God. Surrender is the truest end of conversion. Unless we’re converted and approach God as children, as faithful loving children, we don’t gain Heaven; instead, we nurture evil in the world, which leads to chastisement.

Within the lifetimes of at least some of you reading this, our special time of grace will complete itself. God’s mercy will segue into His merciful justice. However it fits with the “End Times,” it will be the denouement of our own era. Like denouements during the other episodes, especially during medieval times, it will purge our evil and resemble some prophecies in Scripture. The key word is “prepare.” The message during the reported apparitions in Slovakia might sum it all up. Our Blessed Mother said, “God’s visit is near. Search for love!”

Christ is coming, isn’t He?

At Christmas, we think particularly about that.

But really, He is always here.

[adapted from Michael H. Brown’s The Day Will Come]