From: Romans 15:4-9
The Example of Christ (Continuation)
[4] For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. [5] May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, [6] that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[7] Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. [8] For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, [9] and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name".
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Commentary:
4. The excellence of Scripture and its sacred character derive from the fact that God is its author. This means that there is a consistency and unity running right through Sacred Scripture, a coherence which integrates both Testaments, Old and New: the Old Testament contains--prophetically and by way of prefigurement--what happens in the New; and in the New the prophecy and prefigurement of the Old are fulfilled. Since Scripture is the word of God, it is of the highest order: "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3:16). This strength and authority of Scripture is useful not only for instruction in the faith but also for enlivening our hope and consoling us in every kind of trial, interior and exterior: the examples which we find in Scripture encourage us to be patient and also spur us on to fight. By reflecting on those examples we become convinced that if God asks sacrifice of "his own", he does so because he has a greater reward in store for them.
These truths led the Second Vatican Council to teach that in "the sacred books the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them. And such is the force and power of the word of God that it can serve the Church as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life" ("Dei Verbum", 21).
8-13. "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us" (Acts 13:46-47): this is what Paul and Barnabas said to Jews who opposed their preaching. Christ himself said that he had been sent only to seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that was the scope of the Apostles' first mission (cf. Mt 15:24; 10:5). However, God's plans never discriminated in favor of the Jews: they, once converted, were to preach the Good News to the Gentiles. After the Resurrection, Jesus sent his disciples to all nations (cf. Mt 28:18ff). Those who proclaimed the Gospel were Jews who had accepted Christ, and they addressed their preaching first to Jews and then to Gentiles.
This present passage refers to the fulfillment of God's designs through Christ. By becoming man God made good his promises to the Jews, kept faith with them. By the entry of the Gentiles into the Church his mercy towards all men is revealed, for his blessings are thereby extended to those who do not belong to Israel according to the flesh. Our Lord explained this very graphically in the parable of the two sons (Mt 21 :28- 32). He first calls the older son (the Gentiles), who refuses to obey him and afterwards repents and accepts his father's invitation and goes to work in the vineyard. The younger son (most of the Jewish people), on the other hand, seems to be ready to do his father's bidding but in fact does not. Many Jews were so hard of heart that not even the repentance and conversion of the Gentiles moved them to repent.
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
1st Reading for Sunday, 2nd Week of Advent
From: Isaiah 11:1-10
The New Descendant of David
[1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. [2] And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. [3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; [4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. [5] Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. [6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the failing together, and a little child shall lead them. [7] The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. [8] The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adders den. [9] They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
The Return of the Exiles
[10] In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.
_________________________
Commentary:
11:1-9. This passage, which is regarded as the third Immanuel oracle, has two parts to it. The first (vv.1-5) announces that the shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse (David's father) at some future date. The second (vv. 6-9) describes the good things associated with his reign, using imagery to do with messianic peace: creation will be restored to its state of original justice.
The first part is a formal announcement of the accession of a new king in the line of David--humble, because he comes from a tree that has been pruned yet has all the vitality of a tender shoot. It refers to a future king ("there shall come ...") and not the reigning monarch. The new king will be endowed with exceptional qualities that equip him to rule, thanks to the Holy Spirit who will descend upon him. The divine Spirit is an inner strength, a gift that God gives to key figures in salvation history to enable them to accomplish a difficult and dangerous mission--Moses (cf. Num 11:17), the judges (cf. 3:10; 6:34) and David (1 Sam 16:13). The new descendent of David will rule over the people not in a heavy-handed way like the kings of the time, but with a charismatic dynamism that comes from God. Six gifts of the Spirit are mentioned, in pairs--wisdom and understanding, referring to the skill and prudence that ensure that he will judge rightly; counsel and fortitude, the characteristics of an astute strategist like David; knowledge and the fear of the Lord, which have to do with the religious sphere, for the king must not forget that he is God's representative.
The second part describes very beautifully the messianic peace that will flower with this new "shoot". It paints a panorama of the harmony that reigned at the dawn of creation, only to be broken by sin. Even among wild beasts violence will disappear. No longer will man in his pride desire to be "like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5); instead he will be filled with the divine gift of the "knowledge of the Lord" (v. 9). The "child", mentioned twice (vv. 6, 8) is not directly connected with the child-king of the oracle found in 9:6 or with the Immanuel (7:14); however, in the mind of the prophet they must have had many points of contact, given the reference to the child having a leadership role (v. 6).
The image of the "shoot" from the royal line who will bring peace has been interpreted in Christian tradition as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ. St Thomas Aquinas read this passage as referring to Christ, who brought about the restoration of mankind; he points out: "First, the birth of Christ the 'restorer', is spoken of (v. 1); then, his holiness (vv. 2-9) and his dignity (v. 10) are described" ("Expositio Super lsaiam", 11). And John Paul II comments: "Alluding to the coming of a mysterious personage, which the New Testament revelation will identify with Jesus, Isaiah connects his person and mission with a particular action of the Spirit of God--the Spirit of the Lord.
These are the words of the prophet: 'There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him", the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be the fear of the Lord' (Is 11:1-3). This text is important for the whole pneumatology of the Old Testament, because it constitutes a kind of bridge between the ancient biblical concept of 'spirit', understood primarily as a 'charismatic breath of wind', and the 'Spirit' as a per- son and as a gift, a gift for the person. The Messiah of the lineage of David ('from the stump of Jesse') is precisely that person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord 'shall rest.' It is obvious that in this case one cannot yet speak of a revelation of the Paraclete. However, with this veiled reference to the figure of the future Messiah there begins, so to speak, the path towards the full revelation of the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a mystery which will finally be manifested in the New Covenant" ("Dominum Et Vivifican- tem", 15).
A Christian reading of these words finds in them a reference to the action of the Holy Spirit in souls; the "spirits" that repose in the Messiah; are stable "gifts" through which the Holy Spirit acts. There are six of these gifts, according to the Hebrew text (which the New Vulgate and the RSV follow). The Greek translation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate divide the gift of fear into two--piety and fear of the Lord. That is why catechesis and theology speak of there being seven gifts: "The seven 'gifts' of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of theLord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David (cf. Is 11:1-2). They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 1831).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
The New Descendant of David
[1] There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. [2] And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. [3] And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; [4] but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. [5] Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. [6] The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the failing together, and a little child shall lead them. [7] The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. [8] The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adders den. [9] They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
The Return of the Exiles
[10] In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwellings shall be glorious.
_________________________
Commentary:
11:1-9. This passage, which is regarded as the third Immanuel oracle, has two parts to it. The first (vv.1-5) announces that the shoot will spring from the stump of Jesse (David's father) at some future date. The second (vv. 6-9) describes the good things associated with his reign, using imagery to do with messianic peace: creation will be restored to its state of original justice.
The first part is a formal announcement of the accession of a new king in the line of David--humble, because he comes from a tree that has been pruned yet has all the vitality of a tender shoot. It refers to a future king ("there shall come ...") and not the reigning monarch. The new king will be endowed with exceptional qualities that equip him to rule, thanks to the Holy Spirit who will descend upon him. The divine Spirit is an inner strength, a gift that God gives to key figures in salvation history to enable them to accomplish a difficult and dangerous mission--Moses (cf. Num 11:17), the judges (cf. 3:10; 6:34) and David (1 Sam 16:13). The new descendent of David will rule over the people not in a heavy-handed way like the kings of the time, but with a charismatic dynamism that comes from God. Six gifts of the Spirit are mentioned, in pairs--wisdom and understanding, referring to the skill and prudence that ensure that he will judge rightly; counsel and fortitude, the characteristics of an astute strategist like David; knowledge and the fear of the Lord, which have to do with the religious sphere, for the king must not forget that he is God's representative.
The second part describes very beautifully the messianic peace that will flower with this new "shoot". It paints a panorama of the harmony that reigned at the dawn of creation, only to be broken by sin. Even among wild beasts violence will disappear. No longer will man in his pride desire to be "like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:5); instead he will be filled with the divine gift of the "knowledge of the Lord" (v. 9). The "child", mentioned twice (vv. 6, 8) is not directly connected with the child-king of the oracle found in 9:6 or with the Immanuel (7:14); however, in the mind of the prophet they must have had many points of contact, given the reference to the child having a leadership role (v. 6).
The image of the "shoot" from the royal line who will bring peace has been interpreted in Christian tradition as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ. St Thomas Aquinas read this passage as referring to Christ, who brought about the restoration of mankind; he points out: "First, the birth of Christ the 'restorer', is spoken of (v. 1); then, his holiness (vv. 2-9) and his dignity (v. 10) are described" ("Expositio Super lsaiam", 11). And John Paul II comments: "Alluding to the coming of a mysterious personage, which the New Testament revelation will identify with Jesus, Isaiah connects his person and mission with a particular action of the Spirit of God--the Spirit of the Lord.
These are the words of the prophet: 'There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him", the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be the fear of the Lord' (Is 11:1-3). This text is important for the whole pneumatology of the Old Testament, because it constitutes a kind of bridge between the ancient biblical concept of 'spirit', understood primarily as a 'charismatic breath of wind', and the 'Spirit' as a per- son and as a gift, a gift for the person. The Messiah of the lineage of David ('from the stump of Jesse') is precisely that person upon whom the Spirit of the Lord 'shall rest.' It is obvious that in this case one cannot yet speak of a revelation of the Paraclete. However, with this veiled reference to the figure of the future Messiah there begins, so to speak, the path towards the full revelation of the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinitarian mystery, a mystery which will finally be manifested in the New Covenant" ("Dominum Et Vivifican- tem", 15).
A Christian reading of these words finds in them a reference to the action of the Holy Spirit in souls; the "spirits" that repose in the Messiah; are stable "gifts" through which the Holy Spirit acts. There are six of these gifts, according to the Hebrew text (which the New Vulgate and the RSV follow). The Greek translation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate divide the gift of fear into two--piety and fear of the Lord. That is why catechesis and theology speak of there being seven gifts: "The seven 'gifts' of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of theLord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David (cf. Is 11:1-2). They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations" ("Catechism of the Catholic Church", 1831).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Just for Today, December 9
Let Thy grace, O Almighty God, assist us, that we who have undertaken the office of priesthood, may serve Thee worthily and devoutly in all purity and good conscience.
- Bk. IV, ch. xi.
____________________
Pure as the angel at his side,
A soul newborn My priest must be;
A sister, hidden and unknown,
Obtains for him this grace from Me.
- P.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
- Bk. IV, ch. xi.
____________________
Pure as the angel at his side,
A soul newborn My priest must be;
A sister, hidden and unknown,
Obtains for him this grace from Me.
- P.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
Thoughts and Counsels - December 9
The life of a true Christian should be such that he fears neither death nor any event of his life, but endures and submits to all things with a good heart.
- St. Teresa
________________________
From Mary, Help of Christians
Part VI, Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year
Compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, OFM (© 1909, Benziger Brothers)
- St. Teresa
________________________
From Mary, Help of Christians
Part VI, Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year
Compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, OFM (© 1909, Benziger Brothers)
Meditation for December 9, The Great Secret
If there are in me such marvels, if my soul, like Mary's, though to a lesser degree, serves as a living tabernacle for the Holy Trinity, how I ought to exert myself during prayer to penetrate my interior riches as deeply as possible and to keep recollected throughout the day that the treasure within may not be lost.
I must not content myself with a superficial knowledge of the splendors of my life of grace. I must study it, plumb its depths. I must realize that this is the great secret. What can be wanting to a soul who has discovered both the reality of God and His nearness?
I have lived so long under the impression that things relating to the invisible world have, so to speak, no real existence. That is false. The invisible world is more real than the visible world. I have lived for such a long time under the equally false impression that God is distant. He is quite near. When I have discovered the proximity of the invisible world, then I will have discovered everything.
Reality, proximity, God...in me! The Invisible dwelling within my soul, on terms of intimacy with me. And all this is true! Could He be nearer?
But if that is so, how ought I to conduct myself in the routine of life? As one who does not know? Or who knowing does not realize?
That would be atrocious, absurd. "Act," says a modem writer, "so that what is may be." I don't have to create this mysterious world in me; it is in me. But I must so act that it may be something for me, something which counts.
I will give to the magnificent realities I bear within me their value as realities.
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
I must not content myself with a superficial knowledge of the splendors of my life of grace. I must study it, plumb its depths. I must realize that this is the great secret. What can be wanting to a soul who has discovered both the reality of God and His nearness?
I have lived so long under the impression that things relating to the invisible world have, so to speak, no real existence. That is false. The invisible world is more real than the visible world. I have lived for such a long time under the equally false impression that God is distant. He is quite near. When I have discovered the proximity of the invisible world, then I will have discovered everything.
Reality, proximity, God...in me! The Invisible dwelling within my soul, on terms of intimacy with me. And all this is true! Could He be nearer?
But if that is so, how ought I to conduct myself in the routine of life? As one who does not know? Or who knowing does not realize?
That would be atrocious, absurd. "Act," says a modem writer, "so that what is may be." I don't have to create this mysterious world in me; it is in me. But I must so act that it may be something for me, something which counts.
I will give to the magnificent realities I bear within me their value as realities.
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
An Advent Vespers Update?
As previously noted here (see screen capture for details), one cam only wonder if a change has been made to the Advent Vespers program in a local Catholic parish at which Rabbi Susan Talve was scheduled.
Considering what is being passed off as "Advent Vespers" these days in some places, some might rightly ask, "What exactly are 'Advent Vespers'?"
'Vespers' refers to 'Evening prayer' and as a liturgical action, it should be celebrated communally in church by groups of the faithful, if possible. Some of us pray the Liturgy of the Hours, but do not have the opportunity to do so communally in a church on a regular basis. But when a special season such as Advent provides us an opportunity to do so, should we not make use of the rites and prayers afforded us by the Church?
CantiNOVA Publications has great information on Advent Vespers and from its site, we read:
Considering what is being passed off as "Advent Vespers" these days in some places, some might rightly ask, "What exactly are 'Advent Vespers'?"
'Vespers' refers to 'Evening prayer' and as a liturgical action, it should be celebrated communally in church by groups of the faithful, if possible. Some of us pray the Liturgy of the Hours, but do not have the opportunity to do so communally in a church on a regular basis. But when a special season such as Advent provides us an opportunity to do so, should we not make use of the rites and prayers afforded us by the Church?
CantiNOVA Publications has great information on Advent Vespers and from its site, we read:
These excerpts from the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours show the Church's concern that the faithful unite in liturgical prayer, even beyond Sunday Mass. The season of Advent offers an appropriate opportunity for us to celebrate the Hours, most especially Evening Prayer (Vespers).For those who wish to learn more about Advent Vespers, I would suggest the CantiNOVA site which has a wonderful outline, making it quite easy for those planning such liturgical prayers.
The Catholic Liturgy Book states, "Evening Prayer has a dual character- praise for the gifts of the day gone by and PENITENCE for the sins we have committed. It sets the approach of night within the context of Christian hope, and is marked by a strong sense of God's mercy and HOPE FOR THE COMING OF CHRIST, who is the light of the world." One can see from the capitalized phrases above that the themes of Advent and the basic themes of Evening Prayer overlap considerably....
It should be noted that it is ALWAYS desirable to stray as little as necessary from officially approved texts and translations, even with congregational involvement. Under unusual circumstances it may be necessary to substitute a paraphrased version of a psalm or canticle in the interest of having a familiar and singable setting. This should be done with caution, and should ultimately lead the congregation to a familiarity with and appreciation of approved settings. While the clergy (bishop, priest or deacon) should participate in a leadership role in Evening Prayer, the service may be celebrated fully and properly even with no clergy present.
Gospel for December 8, Solemnity: The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
From: Luke 1:26-38
The Annunciation and Incarnation of the Son of God
[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. [32] He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, [33] and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there will be no end." [34] And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no husband?" [35] And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. [36] And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For with God nothing will be impossible." [38] And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
_______________________
Commentary:
26-38. Here we contemplate our Lady who was "enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendor of an entirely unique holiness; [...] the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command, as `full of grace' (cf. Luke 1:28), and to the heavenly messenger she replies, `Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word' (Luke 1:38). Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly to God's saving will and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and with Him, serving the mystery of Redemption, by the grace of Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the Fathers (of the Church) see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 56).
The annunciation to Mary and incarnation of the Word constitute the deepest mystery of the relationship between God and men and the most important event in the history of mankind: God becomes man, and will remain so forever, such is the extent of His goodness and mercy and love for all of us. And yet on the day when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity assumed frail human nature in the pure womb of the Blessed Virgin, it all happened quietly, without fanfare of any kind.
St. Luke tells the story in a very simple way. We should treasure these words of the Gospel and use them often, for example, practising the Christian custom of saying the Angelus every day and reflecting on the five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.
27. God chose to be born of a virgin; centuries earlier He disclosed this through the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). God, "before all ages made choice of, and set in her proper place, a mother for His only-begotten Son from whom He, after being made flesh, should be born in the blessed fullness of time: and He continued His persevering regard for her in preference to all other creatures, to such a degree that for her alone He had singular regard" (Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus," 2). This privilege granted to our Lady of being a virgin and a mother at the same time is a unique gift of God. This was the work of the Holy Spirit "who at the conception and the birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother as to impart fruitfulness to her while preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity" ("St. Pius V Catechism," I, 4, 8). Paul VI reminds us of this truth of faith: "We believe that the Blessed Mary, who ever enjoys the dignity of virginity, was the Mother of the incarnate Word, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ" ("Creed of the People of God", 14).
Although many suggestions have been made as to what the name Mary means, most of the best scholars seem to agree that Mary means "lady". However, no single meaning fully conveys the richness of the name.
28. "Hail, full of grace": literally the Greek text reads "Rejoice!", obviously referring to the unique joy over the news which the angel is about to communicate.
"Full of grace": by this unusual form of greeting the archangel reveals Mary's special dignity and honor. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church "taught that this singular, solemn and unheard-of-greeting showed that all the divine graces reposed in the Mother of God and that she was adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit", which meant that she "was never subject to the curse", that is, was preserved from all sin. These words of the archangel in this text constitute one of the sources which reveal the dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception (cf. Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus"; Paul VI, "Creed of the People of God").
"The Lord is with you!": these words are not simply a greeting ("the Lord be with you") but an affirmation ("the Lord is with you"), and they are closely connected with the Incarnation. St. Augustine comments by putting these words on the archangel's lips: "He is more with you than He is with me: He is in your heart, He takes shape within you, He fills your soul, He is in your womb" ("Sermo De Nativitate Domini", 4).
Some important Greek manuscripts and early translations add at the end of the verse: "Blessed are you among women!", meaning that God will exalt Mary over all women. She is more excellent than Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Rachel, Judith, etc., for only she has the supreme honor of being chosen to be the Mother of God.
29-30. Our Lady is troubled by the presence of the archangel and by the confusion truly humble people experience when they receive praise.
30. The Annunciation is the moment when our Lady is given to know the vocation which God planned for her from eternity. When the archangel sets her mind at ease by saying, "Do not be afraid, Mary," he is helping her to overcome that initial fear which a person normally experiences when God gives him or her a special calling. The fact that Mary felt this fear does not imply the least trace of imperfection in her: hers is a perfectly natural reaction in the face of the supernatural. Imperfection would arise if one did not overcome this fear or rejected the advice of those in a position to help--as St. Gabriel helped Mary.
31-33. The archangel Gabriel tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to be the Mother of God by reminding her of the words of Isaiah which announced that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, a prophecy which will find its fulfillment in Mary (cf. Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 7:14).
He reveals that the Child will be "great": His greatness comes from His being God, a greatness He does not lose when He takes on the lowliness of human nature. He also reveals that Jesus will be the king of the Davidic dynasty sent by God in keeping with His promise of salvation; that His Kingdom will last forever, for His humanity will remain forever joined to His divinity; that "He will be called Son of the Most High", that is that He really will be the Son of the Most High and will be publicly recognized as such, that is, the Child will be the Son of God.
The archangel's announcement evokes the ancient prophecies which foretold these prerogatives. Mary, who was well-versed in Sacred Scripture, clearly realized that she was to be the Mother of God.
34-38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: "`Virgo fidelis', the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God's plan in her and for the world. `Quomodo fiet?' How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation [...]."
"The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The `quomodo fiet?' is changed, on Mary's lips, to a `fiat': Let it be done, I am ready, I accept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the `how': that there are in God's plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely[...]."
"The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one's own life to the object of one's adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises and what one believes: this is consistency[...]."
"But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one's whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be called faithfulness. Mary's `fiat' in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent `fiat' that she repeats at the foot of the Cross" ("Homily in Mexico City Cathedral", 26 January 1979).
34. Mary believed in the archangel's words absolutely; she did not doubt as Zechariah had done (cf. 1:18). Her question, "How can this be?", expresses her readiness to obey the will of God even though at first sight it implied a contradiction: on the one hand, she was convinced that God wished her to remain a virgin; on the other, here was God also announcing that she would become a mother. The archangel announces God's mysterious design, and what had seemed impossible, according to the laws of nature, is explained by a unique intervention on the part of God.
Mary's resolution to remain a virgin was certainly something very unusual, not in line with the practice of righteous people under the Old Covenant, for, as St. Augustine explains, "particularly attentive to the propagation and growth of the people of God, through whom the Prince and Savior of the world might be prophesied and be born, the saints were obliged to make use of the good of matrimony" ("De Bono Matrimonii", 9, 9). However, in the Old Testament, there were some who, in keeping with God's plan, did remain celibate--for example, Jeremiah, Elijah, Eliseus and John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin, who received a very special inspiration of the Holy Spirit to practise virginity, is a first-fruit of the New Testament, which will establish the excellence of virginity over marriage while not taking from the holiness of the married state, which it raises to the level of a sacrament (cf. "Gaudium Et Spes", 48).
35. The "shadow" is a symbol of the presence of God. When Israel was journeying through the wilderness, the glory of God filled the Tabernacle and a cloud covered the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 40:34-36). And when God gave Moses the tablets of the Law, a cloud covered Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:15-16); and also, at the transfiguration of Jesus the voice of God the Father was heard coming out of a cloud (Luke 9:35).
At the moment of the Incarnation the power of God envelops our Lady--an expression of God's omnipotence. The Spirit of God--which, according to the account in Genesis (1:2), moved over the face of the waters, bringing things to life--now comes down on Mary. And the fruit of her womb will be the work of the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary, who herself was conceived without any stain of sin (cf. Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus") becomes, after the Incarnation, a new tabernacle of God. This is the mystery we recall every day when saying the Angelus.
38. Once she learns of God's plan, our Lady yields to God's will with prompt obedience, unreservedly. She realizes the disproportion between what she is going to become--the Mother of God--and what she is--a woman. However, this is what God wants to happen and for Him nothing is impossible; therefore no one should stand in His way. So Mary, combining humility and obedience, responds perfectly to God's call: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done according to your word."
"At the enchantment of this virginal phrase, the Word became flesh" ([St] J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", first joyful mystery). From the pure body of Mary, God shaped a new body, He created a soul out of nothing, and the Son of God united Himself with this body and soul: prior to this He was only God; now He is still God but also man. Mary is now the Mother of God. This truth is a dogma of faith, first defined by the Council of Ephesus (431). At this point she also begins to be the spiritual Mother of all mankind. What Christ says when He is dying--`Behold, your son..., behold, your mother" (John 19:26-27)--simply promulgates what came about silently at Nazareth. "With her generous `fiat' (Mary) became, through the working of the Spirit, the Mother of God, but also the Mother of the living, and, by receiving into her womb the one Mediator, she became the true Ark of the Covenant and true Temple of God" (Paul VI, "Marialis Cultus", 6).
The Annunciation shows us the Blessed Virgin as perfect model of "purity" (the RSV "I have no husband" is a euphemism); of "humility" ("Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord"); of "candor" and "simplicity" ("How can this be?"); of "obedience" and "lively faith" ("Let it be done to me according to your word"). "Following her example of obedience to God, we can learn to serve delicately without being slavish. In Mary, we don't find the slightest trace of the attitude of the foolish virgins, who obey, but thoughtlessly. Our Lady listens attentively to what God wants, ponders what she doesn't fully understand and asks about what she doesn't know. Then she gives herself completely to doing the divine will: `Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word'. Isn't that marvellous? The Blessed Virgin, our teacher in all we do, shows us here that obedience to God is not servile, does not bypass our conscience. We should be inwardly moved to discover the `freedom of the children of God' (cf. Romans 8:21)" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 173).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
The Annunciation and Incarnation of the Son of God
[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. [32] He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, [33] and He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there will be no end." [34] And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no husband?" [35] And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. [36] And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For with God nothing will be impossible." [38] And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. _______________________
Commentary:
26-38. Here we contemplate our Lady who was "enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendor of an entirely unique holiness; [...] the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command, as `full of grace' (cf. Luke 1:28), and to the heavenly messenger she replies, `Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word' (Luke 1:38). Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly to God's saving will and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and with Him, serving the mystery of Redemption, by the grace of Almighty God. Rightly, therefore, the Fathers (of the Church) see Mary not merely as passively engaged by God, but as freely cooperating in the work of man's salvation through faith and obedience" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 56).
The annunciation to Mary and incarnation of the Word constitute the deepest mystery of the relationship between God and men and the most important event in the history of mankind: God becomes man, and will remain so forever, such is the extent of His goodness and mercy and love for all of us. And yet on the day when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity assumed frail human nature in the pure womb of the Blessed Virgin, it all happened quietly, without fanfare of any kind.
St. Luke tells the story in a very simple way. We should treasure these words of the Gospel and use them often, for example, practising the Christian custom of saying the Angelus every day and reflecting on the five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.
27. God chose to be born of a virgin; centuries earlier He disclosed this through the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:22-23). God, "before all ages made choice of, and set in her proper place, a mother for His only-begotten Son from whom He, after being made flesh, should be born in the blessed fullness of time: and He continued His persevering regard for her in preference to all other creatures, to such a degree that for her alone He had singular regard" (Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus," 2). This privilege granted to our Lady of being a virgin and a mother at the same time is a unique gift of God. This was the work of the Holy Spirit "who at the conception and the birth of the Son so favored the Virgin Mother as to impart fruitfulness to her while preserving inviolate her perpetual virginity" ("St. Pius V Catechism," I, 4, 8). Paul VI reminds us of this truth of faith: "We believe that the Blessed Mary, who ever enjoys the dignity of virginity, was the Mother of the incarnate Word, of our God and Savior Jesus Christ" ("Creed of the People of God", 14).
Although many suggestions have been made as to what the name Mary means, most of the best scholars seem to agree that Mary means "lady". However, no single meaning fully conveys the richness of the name.
28. "Hail, full of grace": literally the Greek text reads "Rejoice!", obviously referring to the unique joy over the news which the angel is about to communicate.
"Full of grace": by this unusual form of greeting the archangel reveals Mary's special dignity and honor. The Fathers and Doctors of the Church "taught that this singular, solemn and unheard-of-greeting showed that all the divine graces reposed in the Mother of God and that she was adorned with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit", which meant that she "was never subject to the curse", that is, was preserved from all sin. These words of the archangel in this text constitute one of the sources which reveal the dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception (cf. Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus"; Paul VI, "Creed of the People of God").
"The Lord is with you!": these words are not simply a greeting ("the Lord be with you") but an affirmation ("the Lord is with you"), and they are closely connected with the Incarnation. St. Augustine comments by putting these words on the archangel's lips: "He is more with you than He is with me: He is in your heart, He takes shape within you, He fills your soul, He is in your womb" ("Sermo De Nativitate Domini", 4).
Some important Greek manuscripts and early translations add at the end of the verse: "Blessed are you among women!", meaning that God will exalt Mary over all women. She is more excellent than Sarah, Hannah, Deborah, Rachel, Judith, etc., for only she has the supreme honor of being chosen to be the Mother of God.
29-30. Our Lady is troubled by the presence of the archangel and by the confusion truly humble people experience when they receive praise.
30. The Annunciation is the moment when our Lady is given to know the vocation which God planned for her from eternity. When the archangel sets her mind at ease by saying, "Do not be afraid, Mary," he is helping her to overcome that initial fear which a person normally experiences when God gives him or her a special calling. The fact that Mary felt this fear does not imply the least trace of imperfection in her: hers is a perfectly natural reaction in the face of the supernatural. Imperfection would arise if one did not overcome this fear or rejected the advice of those in a position to help--as St. Gabriel helped Mary.
31-33. The archangel Gabriel tells the Blessed Virgin Mary that she is to be the Mother of God by reminding her of the words of Isaiah which announced that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, a prophecy which will find its fulfillment in Mary (cf. Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 7:14).
He reveals that the Child will be "great": His greatness comes from His being God, a greatness He does not lose when He takes on the lowliness of human nature. He also reveals that Jesus will be the king of the Davidic dynasty sent by God in keeping with His promise of salvation; that His Kingdom will last forever, for His humanity will remain forever joined to His divinity; that "He will be called Son of the Most High", that is that He really will be the Son of the Most High and will be publicly recognized as such, that is, the Child will be the Son of God.
The archangel's announcement evokes the ancient prophecies which foretold these prerogatives. Mary, who was well-versed in Sacred Scripture, clearly realized that she was to be the Mother of God.
34-38. Commenting on this passage John Paul II said: "`Virgo fidelis', the faithful Virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God's plan in her and for the world. `Quomodo fiet?' How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the Annunciation [...]."
"The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The `quomodo fiet?' is changed, on Mary's lips, to a `fiat': Let it be done, I am ready, I accept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man perceives that he will never completely understand the `how': that there are in God's plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will never succeed in understanding it completely[...]."
"The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what one believes; to adapt one's own life to the object of one's adherence. To accept misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises and what one believes: this is consistency[...]."
"But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore, the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one's whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be called faithfulness. Mary's `fiat' in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent `fiat' that she repeats at the foot of the Cross" ("Homily in Mexico City Cathedral", 26 January 1979).
34. Mary believed in the archangel's words absolutely; she did not doubt as Zechariah had done (cf. 1:18). Her question, "How can this be?", expresses her readiness to obey the will of God even though at first sight it implied a contradiction: on the one hand, she was convinced that God wished her to remain a virgin; on the other, here was God also announcing that she would become a mother. The archangel announces God's mysterious design, and what had seemed impossible, according to the laws of nature, is explained by a unique intervention on the part of God.
Mary's resolution to remain a virgin was certainly something very unusual, not in line with the practice of righteous people under the Old Covenant, for, as St. Augustine explains, "particularly attentive to the propagation and growth of the people of God, through whom the Prince and Savior of the world might be prophesied and be born, the saints were obliged to make use of the good of matrimony" ("De Bono Matrimonii", 9, 9). However, in the Old Testament, there were some who, in keeping with God's plan, did remain celibate--for example, Jeremiah, Elijah, Eliseus and John the Baptist. The Blessed Virgin, who received a very special inspiration of the Holy Spirit to practise virginity, is a first-fruit of the New Testament, which will establish the excellence of virginity over marriage while not taking from the holiness of the married state, which it raises to the level of a sacrament (cf. "Gaudium Et Spes", 48).
35. The "shadow" is a symbol of the presence of God. When Israel was journeying through the wilderness, the glory of God filled the Tabernacle and a cloud covered the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 40:34-36). And when God gave Moses the tablets of the Law, a cloud covered Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:15-16); and also, at the transfiguration of Jesus the voice of God the Father was heard coming out of a cloud (Luke 9:35).
At the moment of the Incarnation the power of God envelops our Lady--an expression of God's omnipotence. The Spirit of God--which, according to the account in Genesis (1:2), moved over the face of the waters, bringing things to life--now comes down on Mary. And the fruit of her womb will be the work of the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary, who herself was conceived without any stain of sin (cf. Pius IX, "Ineffabilis Deus") becomes, after the Incarnation, a new tabernacle of God. This is the mystery we recall every day when saying the Angelus.
38. Once she learns of God's plan, our Lady yields to God's will with prompt obedience, unreservedly. She realizes the disproportion between what she is going to become--the Mother of God--and what she is--a woman. However, this is what God wants to happen and for Him nothing is impossible; therefore no one should stand in His way. So Mary, combining humility and obedience, responds perfectly to God's call: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done according to your word."
"At the enchantment of this virginal phrase, the Word became flesh" ([St] J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", first joyful mystery). From the pure body of Mary, God shaped a new body, He created a soul out of nothing, and the Son of God united Himself with this body and soul: prior to this He was only God; now He is still God but also man. Mary is now the Mother of God. This truth is a dogma of faith, first defined by the Council of Ephesus (431). At this point she also begins to be the spiritual Mother of all mankind. What Christ says when He is dying--`Behold, your son..., behold, your mother" (John 19:26-27)--simply promulgates what came about silently at Nazareth. "With her generous `fiat' (Mary) became, through the working of the Spirit, the Mother of God, but also the Mother of the living, and, by receiving into her womb the one Mediator, she became the true Ark of the Covenant and true Temple of God" (Paul VI, "Marialis Cultus", 6).
The Annunciation shows us the Blessed Virgin as perfect model of "purity" (the RSV "I have no husband" is a euphemism); of "humility" ("Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord"); of "candor" and "simplicity" ("How can this be?"); of "obedience" and "lively faith" ("Let it be done to me according to your word"). "Following her example of obedience to God, we can learn to serve delicately without being slavish. In Mary, we don't find the slightest trace of the attitude of the foolish virgins, who obey, but thoughtlessly. Our Lady listens attentively to what God wants, ponders what she doesn't fully understand and asks about what she doesn't know. Then she gives herself completely to doing the divine will: `Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word'. Isn't that marvellous? The Blessed Virgin, our teacher in all we do, shows us here that obedience to God is not servile, does not bypass our conscience. We should be inwardly moved to discover the `freedom of the children of God' (cf. Romans 8:21)" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 173).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Just for Today, December 8
O Lord, teach me to do Thy will, teach me to converse worthily and humbly in Thy sight; for Thou art my wisdom, who knowest me in Truth, and didst know me before the world was made, and before I was born in the world.
- Bk. III, ch. ill.
Let Thy will be mine, and let my will always follow Thine, and agree perfectly with it. Let me always will or not will the same with Thee: and let me not be able to will or not will any otherwise than as Thou willest or willest not.
- Bk. III, ch. xv.
______________________
Our Lady's unique privilege was her Immaculate Conception and divine Motherhood, and yet Our Lord tells us that whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matt. xii, 15). It is well to speak of Mary's prerogatives but that is not enough, we must make her loved. If a sermon on her only calls forth "ohs!" and "ahs!" of admiration, it ends by being wearisome, and does not draw us to love and imitate her.
- N.V.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
- Bk. III, ch. ill.
Let Thy will be mine, and let my will always follow Thine, and agree perfectly with it. Let me always will or not will the same with Thee: and let me not be able to will or not will any otherwise than as Thou willest or willest not.
- Bk. III, ch. xv.
______________________
Our Lady's unique privilege was her Immaculate Conception and divine Motherhood, and yet Our Lord tells us that whosoever shall do the will of my Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matt. xii, 15). It is well to speak of Mary's prerogatives but that is not enough, we must make her loved. If a sermon on her only calls forth "ohs!" and "ahs!" of admiration, it ends by being wearisome, and does not draw us to love and imitate her.
- N.V.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
Thoughts and Counsels - December 8
No harp sends forth such sweet harmonies as are produced in the afflicted heart by the holy name of Mary. Let us kneel to reverence this holy, this sublime name of Mary!
- Bl. Henry Suso
________________________
From Mary, Help of Christians
Part VI, Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year
Compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, OFM (© 1909, Benziger Brothers)
- Bl. Henry Suso
________________________
From Mary, Help of Christians
Part VI, Thoughts and Counsels of the Saints for Every Day of the Year
Compiled by Fr. Bonaventure Hammer, OFM (© 1909, Benziger Brothers)
Meditation for December 8, The Immaculate Conception
Yesterday, I meditated on the fact that Mary is greater as child of God than as Mother of God. In other words, she is greater by the fullness of her state of grace than by her Divine Maternity; she is greater through the Holy Trinity's Presence within her soul than through the Word Incarnate whose Body was formed within her own.
But if no creature other than Mary can claim Divine Maternity, every soul in grace enjoys the Divine Sonship. That means that I too can possess what was greatest in Mary, for the Holy Trinity who lived in her through sanctifying grace dwells likewise in me.
This being true, how does Mary differ from me?
The difference is twofold and therein lies the privilege of the Immaculate Conception.
I came into the world without sanctifying grace; baptism had to impart this divine life to me. But Mary entered as a matter of course into human and divine life at one and the same time. Preserved as she was from original sin, she enjoyed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from the first moment of her existence.
Further, whereas in me this possession of the Holy Spirit is limited and reduced to the degree of sanctity God has destined for me, divine life in Mary was of incomparable fullness. Olier goes so far as to say that from the very first moment of her life, Mary enjoyed in her possession of grace more divine life than all the saints together ever had.
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
But if no creature other than Mary can claim Divine Maternity, every soul in grace enjoys the Divine Sonship. That means that I too can possess what was greatest in Mary, for the Holy Trinity who lived in her through sanctifying grace dwells likewise in me.
This being true, how does Mary differ from me?
The difference is twofold and therein lies the privilege of the Immaculate Conception.
I came into the world without sanctifying grace; baptism had to impart this divine life to me. But Mary entered as a matter of course into human and divine life at one and the same time. Preserved as she was from original sin, she enjoyed the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from the first moment of her existence.
Further, whereas in me this possession of the Holy Spirit is limited and reduced to the degree of sanctity God has destined for me, divine life in Mary was of incomparable fullness. Olier goes so far as to say that from the very first moment of her life, Mary enjoyed in her possession of grace more divine life than all the saints together ever had.
"Immaculate Mother, assist me that I may be filled with Divine Life to the degree God has planned for me. Let me put no obstacle to the divine invasion of God-life into my soul."_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
The Golden Compass - Deciphered...
St Louis Review film critic, Tom Kavanaugh, has provided his critique of the trilogy "His Dark Materials," by British atheist Philip Pullman...I'm not certain if this longer version is in the St Louis Review's printed version or not...It's well worth distributing to friends and family or anyone else who may have been duped into thinking "The Golden Compass" is a movie worth spending money on...
__________________
There has been a lot of controversy about the New Line release of the film version of "The Golden Compass," based on the first book in an equally controversial trilogy of books called "His Dark Materials" by avowed atheist Philip Pullman.
But much of the controversy centers on the question of whether there should be any controversy at all.
This is mainly because Pullman, along with the film’s director and New Line Cinema the studio that made the film, have cleverly — some might say devilishly — positioned this first installment (in part, by disguising the few things from the first book that directly attack Christians) as a harmless holiday film. They did so in such a way as to make any opposition to it appear repressive and foolish.
Some, however, like the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, say the film is anything but harmless, calling this positioning of the film a "stealth campaign" and "bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may feel impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present."
What’s wrong with that? Only that the other two books in the trilogy, with growing virulence as they near the last book’s conclusion, are not only an attack on the Catholic Church but Christianity and God, as well.
Pullman insidiously leads his readers to root for themes, beliefs and ideas, such as witches and paganism, in their overthrow of God, religion and heaven.
Pullman’s god, in fact, is a pathetic old fraud who has ruled by oppression and intimidation until he’s mercilessly killed by the two children protagonists of the story. In his trilogy, it was actually Satan and the fallen angels who brought consciousness and free will (and everything good about being human) to this earth, something that God and his Church, the Magisterium (what the Catholic Church calls its teaching authority) will do anything to end — because we call such free-thinking "sin" — including murder and torture.
You might think I’m exaggerating, so I’ve included some passages straight out of the three books of "His Dark Materials" — "The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass" — to give you an idea of just what your children might be reading this Christmas. Or, if the movie version of "The Golden Compass" is a hit, what they might be seeing in the Cineplex next Christmas.
First, we really are talking about God here, despite claims that the series is a fantasy that involves other worlds in parallel universes to ours. Consider this passage:
Another lie told by the Authority and its Church is that good people go to heaven when we die. In fact, some parts of us just disintegrate while a part of our consciousness is forced by God to stay throughout eternity in a frightening, eerie, lonely, colorless place, controlled by fearsome Harpies (who are only mean because God is forcing them to be so) located far underground on a planet in one of our parallel universes.
Lena Feldt gasped, "She will be the mother—she will be life—mother—she will disobey—she will—" "Name her! You are saying everything but the most important thing! Name her!" cried Mrs. Coulter.
"Eve! Mother of all! Eve, again! Mother Eve!" stammered Lena Feldt, sobbing.
Lyra fulfills the prophesy of becoming the new Eve when, after Heaven has been destroyed she and her young friend Will are sent away to an island paradise on another world to recover. There, as also predicted, a scientist from Will’s (our) world named Mary Malone has been directed in dreams to play the part of the young couple’s "temptress," telling the pre-teens the blissful joys of carnal love. They immediately, discover their own and each other’s bodies and fall passionately in love.
" … I love you, Will, I love you." The word love set his nerves ablaze. All his body thrilled with it, and he answered her in the same words, kissing her hot face over and over again, drinking in with adoration the scent of her body and her warm, honey-fragrant hair and her sweet, moist mouth that tasted of the little red fruit.
One of the things Malone tells the kids as part of her temptation is how she herself had been a Roman Catholic nun until a sexual experience caused her to see the errors of her ways, causing her give up her vows, the Church and God all in one glorious moment.
A dear old man who teaches Will how to use the Subtle Knife to cut windows into other worlds, and teaches both kids that suicide is really a pretty good option for ending your life when the time comes.
And because the Texan aeronaut was one of the few humans Iorek had ever esteemed, he accepted the man’s last gifts to him. With Deft movements of his claws, he ripped aside the dead man’s clothes, opened the body with one slash, and began to feast on the flesh and blood of his old friend.
A pair of "good" i.e. (anti-God) male angels named Baruch and Balthamos, who happen to be lovers.
A Russian priest who offers to "help" Will.
Everything from the ages of the young protagonists to the inclusion of every favorite childhood imagery — from cute cuddly animals to fluffy white bears, to flight in balloons, to secret and magical gadgets, to cowboys … even, nowadays, witches … and especially in granting license and empowerment of adolescents and pre-adolescents, especially girls, to do and be whatever they want to do and be.
Is there anything we can do? Protesting and boycotting the movie of "The Golden Compass" would only be turned against us, making us look anti-art, anti-literature, anti-free expression, repressed as well as repressive of thought and imagination, paranoid and self-pitying as the priests and monks of the Magisterium.
Instead, I suggest the open sharing of information with other parents and talking with your children about this very serious matter of using cute animals and an eye-candy movie production to lure children into believing things their parents believe are wrong. If your kids want to see the movie and you decide to let them, talk about it beforehand and afterward, explaining some of the things that you think are bad that will be in the next movies. If you decide not to allow them to see the movie, explain to them why; that the movie seems harmless but leads to very bad things that the man who wrote the books wants to make children believe about God and heaven.
To share the information about the movie, send these few passages I’ve quoted from the books (out of the hundreds of disturbing passages I’ve found) to every parent you know so they can be informed about Philip Pullman’s agenda to change the hearts and minds of our children.
###
Personally, I think the film should be boycotted, primarily by Catholics, as well as by other Christians and anyone else who can envision the poisonous effect these books could have on oinnocent children. Does it matter if the atheists and secularists turn against us? Aren't they already against us - daily? Why would anyone want to feed this beast so that it could grow even bigger? Starve it of your hard earned money and support! Let it die from hunger of money and lack of attention! Instead, would it not be better to use that money to help feed, clothe and shelter those truly in need?
The full article from the St Louis Review is here.
Please let us know if I have made errors in any formatting of the article - I attempted to make it a bit more readable.
__________________
There has been a lot of controversy about the New Line release of the film version of "The Golden Compass," based on the first book in an equally controversial trilogy of books called "His Dark Materials" by avowed atheist Philip Pullman.
But much of the controversy centers on the question of whether there should be any controversy at all.
This is mainly because Pullman, along with the film’s director and New Line Cinema the studio that made the film, have cleverly — some might say devilishly — positioned this first installment (in part, by disguising the few things from the first book that directly attack Christians) as a harmless holiday film. They did so in such a way as to make any opposition to it appear repressive and foolish.
Some, however, like the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue, say the film is anything but harmless, calling this positioning of the film a "stealth campaign" and "bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may feel impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present."
What’s wrong with that? Only that the other two books in the trilogy, with growing virulence as they near the last book’s conclusion, are not only an attack on the Catholic Church but Christianity and God, as well.
Pullman insidiously leads his readers to root for themes, beliefs and ideas, such as witches and paganism, in their overthrow of God, religion and heaven.
Pullman’s god, in fact, is a pathetic old fraud who has ruled by oppression and intimidation until he’s mercilessly killed by the two children protagonists of the story. In his trilogy, it was actually Satan and the fallen angels who brought consciousness and free will (and everything good about being human) to this earth, something that God and his Church, the Magisterium (what the Catholic Church calls its teaching authority) will do anything to end — because we call such free-thinking "sin" — including murder and torture.
You might think I’m exaggerating, so I’ve included some passages straight out of the three books of "His Dark Materials" — "The Golden Compass," "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass" — to give you an idea of just what your children might be reading this Christmas. Or, if the movie version of "The Golden Compass" is a hit, what they might be seeing in the Cineplex next Christmas.
First, we really are talking about God here, despite claims that the series is a fantasy that involves other worlds in parallel universes to ours. Consider this passage:
"(The angel) Balthamos said quietly, ‘The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty’ — those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves — the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are."Pullman’s god, called the Authority, is described in the third book as a doddering old angel who is relieved to be snuffed out of existence by Lyra and Will, who don’t even know who they are helping to kill when they help him out of his toppled crystal chariot:
"Oh, Will, he’s still alive! But — the poor thing ... " … Demented and powerless, the aged being could only weep and mumble in fear and pain and misery, and he shrank away from what seemed like yet another threat."The Authority is actually a fraud, one of a group of angels who battled for dominion over heaven and earth and won, kicking out better angels and literally demonizing them through falsehoods told in the Bible and by the Authority’s Church on Earth, the Magisterium. Both seem to be in the business of making humans unhappy:
"I don’t know who will join us, but I know whom we must fight. It is the Magisterium, the Church. For all its history … it’s tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can’t control them, it cuts them out.The Authority never created anything, much less the human race. The fallen angels did that by finding a world where they could start a kingdom to rival the Authority’s. They used Dust to give some of the creatures intelligence and, voila, humanity was created. Not by the evil Authority but by a friendly serpent.
" … They cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls; they cut them with knives so they shan’t feel. This is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling."
Another lie told by the Authority and its Church is that good people go to heaven when we die. In fact, some parts of us just disintegrate while a part of our consciousness is forced by God to stay throughout eternity in a frightening, eerie, lonely, colorless place, controlled by fearsome Harpies (who are only mean because God is forcing them to be so) located far underground on a planet in one of our parallel universes.
"Ghost people — so many that Lyra couldn’t guess their number. No one was moving about, or running or playing, though many of them turned to look at these new arrivals, with a fearful curiosity in their wide eyes. "Ghosts," she whispered. "This is where they all are, everyone that’s ever died."Later, when Lyra and Will found a way out of the land of the dead, so that the souls/ghosts could be "freed" into eternal extinction, some hesitated to go believing they would still one day go to heaven.
"No one spoke until a young woman came forward. She had died as a martyr centuries before. She looked around and said to the other ghosts:Lyra and her friend Will (from Earth) eventually go to this land of the dead to find the ghost of one of her playmates and end up releasing these poor tortured souls into sweet oblivion. They themselves come back from the dead, the only ones to do so in the history of any world.
"‘When we were alive, they told us that when we die we’d go to Heaven. And they said that Heaven was a place of joy and glory and we would spend eternity in the company of saints and angels praising the Almighty, in a state of bliss. That’s what they said. And that’s what led some of us to give our lives, and others to spend years in solitary prayer, while all the joy of life was going to waste around us and we never knew.
"Because the land of the dead isn’t a place of reward or a place of punishment. It’s a place of nothing. The good come here as well as the wicked, and all of us languish in this gloom forever, with no hope of freedom, or joy, or sleep, or rest, or peace."
"We shall come back," whispered Lyra fiercely. "…I swear I’ll come back…even if no one’s ever done it before, I swear I will."Lyra will actually accomplish three pretty impressive things in the three books: she will be responsible for the overthrow of Heaven, she will overcome and defeat Death, and she will be the new Eve/Mother for a new Republic of Heaven on Earth.
Lena Feldt gasped, "She will be the mother—she will be life—mother—she will disobey—she will—" "Name her! You are saying everything but the most important thing! Name her!" cried Mrs. Coulter.
"Eve! Mother of all! Eve, again! Mother Eve!" stammered Lena Feldt, sobbing.
Lyra fulfills the prophesy of becoming the new Eve when, after Heaven has been destroyed she and her young friend Will are sent away to an island paradise on another world to recover. There, as also predicted, a scientist from Will’s (our) world named Mary Malone has been directed in dreams to play the part of the young couple’s "temptress," telling the pre-teens the blissful joys of carnal love. They immediately, discover their own and each other’s bodies and fall passionately in love.
" … I love you, Will, I love you." The word love set his nerves ablaze. All his body thrilled with it, and he answered her in the same words, kissing her hot face over and over again, drinking in with adoration the scent of her body and her warm, honey-fragrant hair and her sweet, moist mouth that tasted of the little red fruit.
One of the things Malone tells the kids as part of her temptation is how she herself had been a Roman Catholic nun until a sexual experience caused her to see the errors of her ways, causing her give up her vows, the Church and God all in one glorious moment.
"There’s no one to fret, no one to condemn, no one to bless me for being a good girl, no one to punish me for being wicked. Heaven was empty. I didn’t know whether God had died, or whether there had never been a God at all. And I took the crucifix from around my neck and I threw it in the sea. That was it. All over. Gone.As opposed ro the Magisterium, Pullman’s witches, on the other hand are not wicked, ugly old crones but rather a wonderful sisterhood of free-loving, wise, compassionate heroes of the sky — beautiful, ageless and powerful.
"So that was how I stopped being a nun," she said. The Magisterium of Lyra’s world (and by implication the Christian religions of our world) are obsessed by sin to the point of perversion and will do anything to stop people from enjoying life and thinking for themselves, even if that includes murder, assassination, torture, or wholesale slaughter of innocent men, women and children.
"There was a precedent. Something like it had happened before. Do you know what the word castration means? It means removing the sexual organs from a boy so that he never develops the characteristics of a man. A castrato keeps his high treble voice all his life, which is why the Church allowed it: so useful in Church music."
"She was young — younger than Mrs. Coulter; and fair, with bright green eyes; and clad like all the witches in strips of black silk, but wearing no furs, no hood or mittens. She seemed to feel no cold at all. Around her brow was a simple chain of little red flowers. She sat on her cloud-pine branch as if it were a steed and seemed to rein it in a yard from Lyra’s wondering gaze."Led by their beautiful queen Serafina Pekkala, the witches save the day several times during the trilogy, not only for Lyra but for others as well, including the rescue of the children from the torture chambers of the Church’s General Oblation Board (the dreaded Gobblers).
"… Lyra saw in the air beside her a witch, one of those elegant black shadows from the high air, but close enough to touch; and there was a bow in the witch’s bare hands, and she exerted her bare pale arms (in the freezing air!) to pull the string and then loose an arrow into the eye slit of a mailed and lowering Tartar hood only three feet away. Up! Into midair Lyra and Roger were caught and swept, and found themselves clinging with weakening fingers to a cloud-pine branch, where a young witch was sitting tense with balanced grace."But there are other sweet, kind, gentle and heroic people who help Lyra and Will along the way, offering sage atheistic advice, and gladly join them in the kids’ mission to kill God. They include:
A dear old man who teaches Will how to use the Subtle Knife to cut windows into other worlds, and teaches both kids that suicide is really a pretty good option for ending your life when the time comes.
"Now go. I shall die very soon, because I know where there are poisonous drugs, and I don’t intend to wait for the Specters to come in, as they will once the knife has left. Go."A talking polar bear, Iorek, a great blacksmith (as well as kind, protective friend to Lyra) is also a great fighter, ripping off the bottom of the face of the King of the Bears in a fight for supremacy over the bear clan; later Iorek eats the flesh and organs of his good human friend, Lee Scoresby, after the aeronaut’s death, as a way of honoring his lost comrade.
"You en’t really going to poison yourself?" said Lyra distressed.
"Hush," said Will. "It won’t hurt him. He’ll just go to sleep."
And because the Texan aeronaut was one of the few humans Iorek had ever esteemed, he accepted the man’s last gifts to him. With Deft movements of his claws, he ripped aside the dead man’s clothes, opened the body with one slash, and began to feast on the flesh and blood of his old friend.
A pair of "good" i.e. (anti-God) male angels named Baruch and Balthamos, who happen to be lovers.
"The next moment, the two angels were embracing, and Will, gazing into the flames, saw their mutual affection. More than affection: they loved each other with a passion."And, after the death of Baruch:
"Then Balthamos stood up, sick and weary and full of pain.All of these people friendly to the idea of killing God are so nice, even loveable, and described by Pullman in rhapsodic, even heroic, terms. On the other hand, the defenders of God and of His Church are described in ways that are reminiscent of Nazi propaganda against Jews, either being cruel, manipulative, lecherous, filthy, smelly, murderous, fanatically religious, or all of the above. For example:
"‘Baruch," he said, "oh, Baruch, my dear, I can do no more. Will and the girl are safe, and everything will be well, but this is the end for me, through truly I died when you did, Baruch, my beloved.’"
A Russian priest who offers to "help" Will.
"The priest kept leaning forward to look closely at him, and felt his hands to see whether he was cold. And stroked his knee. ‘My boy,’ he said and then closed his eyes and began to intone a prayer or a psalm. Vapors of tobacco and alcohol and sweat came powerfully from him, and he was close enough for his thick beard, wagging up and down, to brush Will’s face. Will held his breath."Another priest, Father Gomez, who is sent by the Church to murder Lyra.
"… Father Gomez found himself praising God for his mission, because it was clearer than ever that the boy and the girl were walking into mortal sin. They hadn’t looked back once since coming over the top of the ridge, but he still kept low, moving down the stream at a crouch, holding the rifle in one hand, balancing with the other."God’s regent, Metatron, who is willing risk Heaven and Earth to get a chance with Mrs. Coulter.
"‘When I was a man," he said, "I had wives in plenty, but none was as lovely as you.’And even Mrs. Coulter herself, at least before she comes to her senses and switches sides against God, embodies the malicious punishment of the Magesterium.
"That was the moment she felt most exposed and in most danger. But she trusted to her lies, and to the strange truth she’d learned about angels, perhaps especially those angels who had once been human; lacking flesh, they coveted it and longed for contact with it. And Metatron was close now, close enough to smell the perfume of her hair and to gaze at the texture of her skin, close enough to touch her with scalding hands.
… And the shadow hungrily sniffed and seemed to gulp at the scent of her flesh"
"‘We have a thousand years of experience in this Church of ours. We can draw out your suffering endlessly. Tell us about the child,’" Mrs. Coulter said, and reached down to break one of the witch’s fingers. It snapped easily."This series of books and the movies made from them are for children — pre-teens and adolescents. Pullman has denied this saying he intended the books for any thinking person of any age, but that is pure rubbish.
Everything from the ages of the young protagonists to the inclusion of every favorite childhood imagery — from cute cuddly animals to fluffy white bears, to flight in balloons, to secret and magical gadgets, to cowboys … even, nowadays, witches … and especially in granting license and empowerment of adolescents and pre-adolescents, especially girls, to do and be whatever they want to do and be.
Is there anything we can do? Protesting and boycotting the movie of "The Golden Compass" would only be turned against us, making us look anti-art, anti-literature, anti-free expression, repressed as well as repressive of thought and imagination, paranoid and self-pitying as the priests and monks of the Magisterium.
Instead, I suggest the open sharing of information with other parents and talking with your children about this very serious matter of using cute animals and an eye-candy movie production to lure children into believing things their parents believe are wrong. If your kids want to see the movie and you decide to let them, talk about it beforehand and afterward, explaining some of the things that you think are bad that will be in the next movies. If you decide not to allow them to see the movie, explain to them why; that the movie seems harmless but leads to very bad things that the man who wrote the books wants to make children believe about God and heaven.
To share the information about the movie, send these few passages I’ve quoted from the books (out of the hundreds of disturbing passages I’ve found) to every parent you know so they can be informed about Philip Pullman’s agenda to change the hearts and minds of our children.
###
Personally, I think the film should be boycotted, primarily by Catholics, as well as by other Christians and anyone else who can envision the poisonous effect these books could have on oinnocent children. Does it matter if the atheists and secularists turn against us? Aren't they already against us - daily? Why would anyone want to feed this beast so that it could grow even bigger? Starve it of your hard earned money and support! Let it die from hunger of money and lack of attention! Instead, would it not be better to use that money to help feed, clothe and shelter those truly in need?
The full article from the St Louis Review is here.
Please let us know if I have made errors in any formatting of the article - I attempted to make it a bit more readable.
CDF to Release Document on Evangelization and Catechesis
Vatican City, Dec 6, 2007 / 05:17 pm (CNA).- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), headed by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, is about to release an important document on evangelization and catechesis, Vatican sources told CNA this week.Jesus Christ is at the center of all authentic catechesis and evangelization. Simply put, that which is not Christocentric is not authentic.
According to the Vatican sources, the document, which could be made public this Advent, “can be regarded as an application of the principles of the document “Dominus Iesus” to the way evangelization is transmitted and catechesis is taught within the Catholic Church.”
Reflections, the Immaculate Conception
Here are some of the previous posts, reflections and meditations on the Immaculate Conception:
Virtue in Person, The Immaculate Conception 2007
Contemplating the Immaculate Conception, the Grace of God 2007
A Reflection on the Immaculate Conception 2006
The Immaculate Conception-The Lovliest Lady 2006
Three Reasons the Church’s Enemies Hate The Immaculate Conception 2006
Mental Prayer for December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception 2006
How are we to understand the Immaculate Conception? 2006
Straight Answers: The Immaculate Conception 2004
Virtue in Person, The Immaculate Conception 2007
Contemplating the Immaculate Conception, the Grace of God 2007
A Reflection on the Immaculate Conception 2006
The Immaculate Conception-The Lovliest Lady 2006
Three Reasons the Church’s Enemies Hate The Immaculate Conception 2006
Mental Prayer for December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception 2006
How are we to understand the Immaculate Conception? 2006
Straight Answers: The Immaculate Conception 2004
Feasts of Mary and Our Advent Observance....
...By Archbishop Raymond Burke
Two important feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary take place during the Season of Advent: the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (a holy day of obligation) on Dec. 8 and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America and Star of the New Evangelization, on Dec. 12. Closely related to both feasts is the Memorial of St. Juan Diego, the messenger of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Dec. 9, which will not be celebrated liturgically this year because it falls on the Second Sunday of Advent.Continued here.The celebration of these feast days of our Blessed Mother and of St. Juan Diego help us to enter more fully into the observance of the Season of Advent.
The Blessed Virgin Mary is our model in preparing for the celebration of Christmas by disposing our hearts to welcome our Lord more fully, both as He comes to us now in the Church and as He will come to us in glory on the Last Day. She is also our intercessor who asks our Lord to give us the special graces of Advent, by which our hearts are purified of whatever hinders both our Lord’s coming to us now and our preparation to meet Him when He will come in glory. A reflection on her feasts will help us to see how the Blessed Mother is both the model of our Advent observance and our intercessor for the strong graces of the Season of Advent in our lives...
"Words Not To Be Used in Public," courtesy of the UN
Susan Yoshihara, Executive Vice President of CFAM, tells us of the latest attempt to marginalize countries with traditional values. UNESCO has released a document telling UN member states what words they must never say.
More at CFAM here.
UNESCO Attempts to Sneak Rejected Rights into UN DocumentsI have no doubts that these people are truly demented...unless, of course, they are completely without any functioning gray matter...The UN, with abysmal yet neverending attempts at elitist rule and dominion over all of mankind, needs to go!
By Samantha Singson
(NEW YORK — C-FAM) In a recently published UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) document on guidelines to discuss HIV/AIDS in UN publications, the organization attempts to use a backdoor approach to promote controversial new rights that have been explicitly rejected by UN member states, and calls those who do not promote the agenda “derogatory” and “discriminatory.” In particular, the UNESCO document uses a failed 2003 UN resolution to usher in the highly controversial term “sexual orientation” as part of UN human rights language.
Entitled “UNESCO Guidelines on Language and Content in HIV- and AIDS- Related Materials,” the organization launched the document with an aim to “provide guidance towards using uniform, correct, gender-sensitive, non-discriminatory and culturally-appropriate language that promotes universal human rights,” and to rid UN discourse of “problematic terminology.” “Risky sex,” “promiscuous” and “prostitute” are discriminatory according to UNESCO, and should be replaced with “unprotected sex,” “having multiple partners” and “commercial sex worker”....
More at CFAM here.
Female Catholic Priest Wannabes?
Holy menSandra has the proper understanding of the situation - the priesthood isn't about "power" as some self-absorbed "priestesses" believe, but it's about a man responding to God's call and the Church discerning whether that call is truly from God.
Editor:
"Love one another as I have loved you," Christ commanded as he knelt to wash the feet of his apostles at the Last Supper.
In one of the most moving ceremonies in the Catholic liturgy, each year during the Holy Thursday Mass the pastor kneels to wash the feet of 12 of his flock.
This poignant dramatization reminds the faithful that priests are called to serve — a point female Catholic priest wannabes fail to understand. The all-male priesthood/hierarchy is not about refusing to share power.
Rather, it is about holy men answering God’s call to follow in Christ’s footsteps, dedicated to lives of love, sacrifice and service.
Sandra Y. Smith
Des Peres
But there may be a bit of a problem here in this letter. And this has done nothing but exacerbate the rebellious calls from some women who claim to hear some "spirit" urging them to revolt and division. What is this problem? It is the fact that the washing of the feet during the Holy Thursday liturgy has been altered without authority. Rather than including only men - following the same practice as our Lord - some have taken upon themselves to inject political correctness into a liturgical rite distorting its meaning and significance.
Perhaps, had bishops and priests been obedient to the liturgical directives, rather than assuming for themselves authority which they did not possess, we would be much better off with respect to the faithful having a clearer understanding of the theological reasons for certain rites and ceremonies, rather than the confusion that necessarily results from so many parishes, priests, and bishops doing "his own thing."
But then, this is merely one abuse in a long list of examples which have led many to the place where they find themselves today - unable to defend the faith because they don't know or understand the faith - and others, determined to start a "new" church, following in lockstep with the evil one.
The Church has sound and legitimate reasons for establishing certain liturgical guidelines and directives, many of which are steeped in a theological richness and significance resulting in an inspiring beauty when properly understood. Depriving the faithful of this sacramental and theological heritage and beauty is deplorable and, in some cases, has prompted others to disobedience, such as "Female Catholic Priest Wannabes."
Source of the Letter to the Editor: St Louis Review
Bishop Listecki's Letter regarding "The Golden Compass"
Chiesa: Required Reading for Visitors to the Sistine Chapel: "Spe Salvi"
The Last Judgment returns powerfully to the fore. An outstanding book gives a new interpretation of Michelangelo's fresco. And Benedict XVI, with his second encyclical, throws new light on the ultimate destiny of man and the world
ROMA, December 7, 2007 – Benedict XVI wrote the encyclical "Spe Salvi," which is entirely his own work, between last winter and spring. But he decided to publish it at the end of the liturgical year, on the brink of Advent, when the readings of the Mass are opening the perspective of the Last Judgment.
An important part of the encyclical is dedicated to the Last Judgment. The self-criticism that the pope asks of modern Christianity also concerns this essential chapter of the Christian faith, which he believes has "faded" in favor of an individualistic vision of man's destiny.The idea of the Last Judgment survives more in art than it does in faith. But even the artists – the pope notes – have not always expressed the full and authentic meaning of the Judgment in their depictions. They have emphasized the "menace" more than the "splendor of hope."
The figure of Christ as judge that Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel is the most famous image of the Last Judgment in the world. In this, in effect, "Christ's gesture of condemnation not only shakes his entire muscular body, it also constitutes the fresco's animating force. It makes the entire painting tremble, even in its farthest removed corners. His right arm, raised in the act of condemnation, is the same arm that in the next act will hurl all evildoers into the depths of hell."...
Gospel for Dec 7, Memorial: St Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor
Old Calendar: St. Ambrose
From: Matthew 9:27-31
The Curing of Two Blind Men. The Dumb Devil
[27] And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." [28] When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." [29] Then he touched their eyes, saying, " According to your faith be it done to you." [30] And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it." [31] But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
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Commentary:
27-34. The evangelist shows people's different reactions to miracles. Everyone admits that God is at work in these events--everyone, that is, except the Pharisees who attribute them to the power of the devil. A pharisaical attitude so hardens a person's heart that he becomes closed to any possibility of salvation. The fact that the blind men recognize Jesus as the Messiah (they call him "Son of David": v. 27) may have exasperated the Pharisees. Despite Jesus' sublime teaching, despite his miracles, they remain entrenched in their opposition.
In the light of this episode it is easy enough to see that the paradox is true: there are blind people who in fact see God and seers who see no trace of him.
30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because his plan was to gradually manifest himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did he want the crowd to start hailing him as Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was a nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (Jn 6:14-15): "When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew, again to the hills by himself."
31. St Jerome (cf. "Comm. on Matth.", 9, 31) says that the blind men spread the news of their cure, not out of disobedience to Jesus, but because it was the only way they could find to express their gratitude.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
From: Matthew 9:27-31
The Curing of Two Blind Men. The Dumb Devil
[27] And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." [28] When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." [29] Then he touched their eyes, saying, " According to your faith be it done to you." [30] And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it." [31] But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.
_____________________
Commentary:
27-34. The evangelist shows people's different reactions to miracles. Everyone admits that God is at work in these events--everyone, that is, except the Pharisees who attribute them to the power of the devil. A pharisaical attitude so hardens a person's heart that he becomes closed to any possibility of salvation. The fact that the blind men recognize Jesus as the Messiah (they call him "Son of David": v. 27) may have exasperated the Pharisees. Despite Jesus' sublime teaching, despite his miracles, they remain entrenched in their opposition.
In the light of this episode it is easy enough to see that the paradox is true: there are blind people who in fact see God and seers who see no trace of him.
30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because his plan was to gradually manifest himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did he want the crowd to start hailing him as Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was a nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (Jn 6:14-15): "When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew, again to the hills by himself."
31. St Jerome (cf. "Comm. on Matth.", 9, 31) says that the blind men spread the news of their cure, not out of disobedience to Jesus, but because it was the only way they could find to express their gratitude.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Just for Today, December 7
By so much the more does a man draw nigh to God, by how much the farther he withdraw himself from all earthly comfort. So much the higher also he ascends into God, by how much the lower he descends into himself, and by how much the meaner he esteems himself.
But he that attributes anything of good to himself, stops the grace of God from coming into him; for the grace of the Holy Ghost ever seeks an humble heart.
If thou couldst perfectly annihilate thyself, and cast out from thee all created love, abundance of grace would flow into thee.
- Bk. III, ch. xlii.
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When Our Lord made us go up into the tree, like Zaccheus, He unfolded many mysteries before our eyes. Now let us listen to His words: Make haste and come downJ'for this day I must abide in thy house (Luke xix, 5). Where must we go when we come down? The disciples asked: Rabbi, where dwellest thou (John i, 38)? We learn from His own lips that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head (Luke ix, 58). We must therefore go down so low, that in our poverty we have not where to lay our head, for then Our Lord will be able to dwell within us.
I was given the light to see this during my retreat. Christ wishes us to receive Him into our hearts; they are empty as far as concerns creatures, but mine, alas, is not empty of self, and that is why I am bidden to go down. I will go down so low that Jesus will be able to lay His sacred Head upon my heart, and feel that He is understood and loved.
- L.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
But he that attributes anything of good to himself, stops the grace of God from coming into him; for the grace of the Holy Ghost ever seeks an humble heart.
If thou couldst perfectly annihilate thyself, and cast out from thee all created love, abundance of grace would flow into thee.
- Bk. III, ch. xlii.
________________________
When Our Lord made us go up into the tree, like Zaccheus, He unfolded many mysteries before our eyes. Now let us listen to His words: Make haste and come downJ'for this day I must abide in thy house (Luke xix, 5). Where must we go when we come down? The disciples asked: Rabbi, where dwellest thou (John i, 38)? We learn from His own lips that the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head (Luke ix, 58). We must therefore go down so low, that in our poverty we have not where to lay our head, for then Our Lord will be able to dwell within us.
I was given the light to see this during my retreat. Christ wishes us to receive Him into our hearts; they are empty as far as concerns creatures, but mine, alas, is not empty of self, and that is why I am bidden to go down. I will go down so low that Jesus will be able to lay His sacred Head upon my heart, and feel that He is understood and loved.
- L.
__________________
For a List of Abbreviations, see this post.
Adapted from Just For Today(©1943 Burns & Oates)
Nihil Obstat: Reginaldus Phillips, S.T.L.,Censor deputatus
Imprimatur: Edwardus Myers, Vic. Cap.
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