In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Gospel of Luke (3: 10-18)

 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”  Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don't collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

A Meditation with Pope Benedict XVI

John proclaims the "Good News" to the crowds: "God is not remote from us, God is close to us, so close that he makes himself a child."

The New Testament is truly "Gospel", the "Good News" that brings us joy. God is not remote from us, unknown, enigmatic or perhaps dangerous. God is close to us, so close that he makes himself a child and we can informally address this God.

[...] "the true God exists and this true God is good, he loves us, he knows us, he is with us, with us even to the point that he took on flesh!". This is the great joy that Christianity proclaims. Knowing this God is truly "Good News", a word of redemption.
(Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 18 December 2005)

Guided by the words of Pope Benedict XVI, let us discover the human face of God

 Is there still a need for God? Is it still reasonable to believe in God? Is Christ merely a figure in the history of religion or is he truly the Face of God that we all need? Can we live to the full without knowing Christ?
[...] it is vital to make people understand that faith is permanently up-to-date and perfectly reasonable. [...] In the end, faith is simple and rich: we believe that God exists, that God counts; but which God? A God with a face, a human face, a God who reconciles, who overcomes hatred and gives us the power of peace that no one else can give us.

[...] The situation is different in the Western world, which is a world weary of its own culture. It is a world that has reached the time when there is no longer any evidence of the need for God, let alone Christ, and when it therefore seems that humans could build themselves on their own. In this atmosphere of a rationalism closing in on itself and that regards the model of the sciences as the only model of knowledge, everything else is subjective.
(Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 25 July 2005)

But man cannot understand himself fully if he ignores God.  
(Adress of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 1 April 2006)

Let us Pray the Magnificat

Let us end today's prayer by reciting the Magnificat (press "pray" to load the prayer of the novena) - with the following antiphon: 

"O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly.  Come, and teach us the way of prudence."

Say one Our Father, One Hail Mary, and One Glory Be. If you want to go further, you can recite a prayer from the heart, a decade, a chaplet, and more!