-
-
Featured Article
Dec
28
VATICAN CITY, DEC 28, 2007 (VIS) - Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for January is: “That the Church may strengthen her commitment to full visible unity in order to manifest in an ever growing degree her nature as community of love, in which is reflected the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
His mission intention is: “That the Church in Africa, which is preparing to celebrate her Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, may continue to be the sign and instrument of reconciliation and justice in a continent which is still marked by war exploitation and poverty.”
BXVI-PRAYER INTENTIONS/JANUARY/… VIS 071228 (110)
From: Vatican Information Service - English [visnews_en@mlists.vatican.va]
Dec
28
St. Paola Frassinetti
Filed Under The Wisdom of the Saints | Leave a Comment
Don’t permit your misery or defeats to depress you. Rather let them be steps by which you descend the deep mine where we find the precious gem of holy humility.
– St. Paola Frassinetti
Dec
28
Matthew 2:13-18
Filed Under Today's Gospel | Leave a Comment
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt,
15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men.
17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.”
Dec
28
The concern for the beauty of God’s house and the concern for the poor of God cannot be separated. Man is in need not only of what is useful but also of what is beautiful; he needs not only his own house but also the presence of God and the signs of his presence. Wherever he is glorified, there our heart rejoices also. All of us have nowadays become somewhat puritanical: Should we not have given all these treasures to the poor?
We overlook, in so asking, that beauty given over to the Lord is the only true common property of everybody. What a difference there is between a residence and a church, between a museum and a cathedral! What a difference there is between laboring through the art museums of the Louvre, the Uffici, or the British Museum and prayerfully participating in the song of praise rising from the very stones in a living church! The beauty offered the Child of Bethlehem is dedicated to all, and we need it like daily bread.
Those who would rob a child of beauty to make something useful out of it do not support but destroy; they take away the light, without which all our calculations turn cold and trivial. Of course, if we truly join the pilgrimage of the centuries, which was anxious to lavish the most beautiful things of this world on the newborn King, then we must never forget that he still lives in a stable, in a prison, in the favelas [South American slums], and that we do not praise him should we refuse to find him there. Yet such an awareness will not enslave us under the tyranny of usefulness, where joy becomes a stranger and somber seriousness a dogma.
From: Gottes Angesich suchen, p.12
Dec
27
God has become man. He has become a child. Thus he fulfills the great and mysterious promise to be Emmanuel: God-with-us. Now he is no longer unreachable for anybody. God is Emmanuel. By becoming a child, he offers is the possibility of being on familiar terms with him. I am reminded here of a rabbinical tale recorded by Elie Wiesel. He tells of Jehel, a little boy, who comes running into the room of his grandfather, the famous Rabbi Baruch. Big tears rare rolling down his cheeks. And he cries, “My friend has totally given up on me. He is very unfair and very mean to me.” “Well, could you explain this a little more?” asks the Master. “Okay”, responds the little boy. “We were playing hide and seek. I was hiding so well that he could not find me. But then he simply gave up and went home. Isn’t that mean?” The most exciting hiding place has lost its excitement because the other stops playing. The Master caresses the boy’s face. He himself now has tears in his eyes. And he says’ “Yes, this is not nice. But look, it is the same way with God. He is in hiding, and we do not seek him. Just imagine! God is hiding, and we people do not even look for him.” In this little story a Christian is able to find the key to the ancient mystery of Christmas. God is in hiding. He waits for his creation to set out toward him, he waits for a new and willing Yes to come about, for love to arise as a new reality out of his creation. He waits for man.
From: Unpublished homily, December 24, 1980
Dec
27
John 20: 1 - 8
Filed Under Today's Gospel | Leave a Comment
1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag’dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2 So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
3 Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
4 They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first;
5 and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying,
7 and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
Dec
27
St. Thomas Aquinas
Filed Under The Wisdom of the Saints | Leave a Comment
Hold firmly that our faith is identical with the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church.
– St. Thomas Aquinas
Dec
25
The Deeper Meaning of Christmas
Filed Under Quotes & Excerpts | Leave a Comment
December 25, 2007 | by
In the days of Caesar Augustus, an era of peace was established in the Mediterranean world after centuries of strife. But this peace was forged by the proud ambition of emperors and the edge of their armies’ swords.
Upon this stage appears a baby acclaimed as king by eastern dignitaries. Neither Caesar nor Herod will brook any rivals. So brutal hordes are sent to slay Him at birth, though He himself comes without armies. The thugs are thwarted, but only for a season. For the royal child is laid in a manger, and the wood of that manger foreshadows the wood of the cross.
Caesar and Herod were bound to misunderstand Him. They climbed their way to the top, stepping on all who stood in their way. He emptied himself and plunged to the bottom, from the glory of heaven to the squalor of a stable. Pharaohs and Caesars strained towards immortality. Yet He who was Immortal by nature embraced mortality. The great ones of the world took every opportunity to exalt themselves. In the very act of being born, He humbled himself.
You would think that He would have chosen Rome or Athens as the place of his appearance. But He selects an obscure desert town in a dusty provincial outpost. Even in this humble spot, not even a seedy inn would make room for Him. So they had recourse to a cave, welcomed only by the animals. Isaiah said it well: “an ox knows its owner, and an ass its master’s manger; but Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Is 1:2). Read more
Dec
25
St. Francis of Assisi
Filed Under The Wisdom of the Saints | Leave a Comment
Let us love the Child of Bethlehem. Come souls and love a God who has become a Child, poor and so lovable, in need of our tender love, who has come down from heaven to give Himself entirely to you. If we but ask for pardon and salvation, He has come to pardon us and to save us.
– St. Francis of Assisi
Dec
25
Today’s Mass Readings
Filed Under Today's Gospel | Leave a Comment
| Midnight | |
| First Reading: Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel: |
Isaiah 9:1-6 Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14 |
| Dawn | |
| First Reading: Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel: |
Isaiah 62:11-12 Psalm 97:1, 6, 11-12 Titus 3:4-7 Luke 2:15-20 |
| During the Day | |
| First Reading: Psalm: Second Reading: Gospel: |
Isaiah 52:7-10 Psalm 98:1-6 Hebrews 1:1-6 John 1:1-18 or John 1:1-5, 9-14 |
