Jesus is the Reason for the Season!
Posted on 12/06/2005 9:09:43 AM PST by Salvation
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An Orthodox priest at Bari; the story of St. Nicholas' bones
Turkish Town Exchanges St. Nick for Santa (Former Myra, hometown of St. Nicholas) St. Nicholas belongs in any reclamation of Christmas
Yes, There Really is a St. Nicholas !
Don't forget: St. Nicholas' Day is tomorrow [today] (get your shoes out!)
| Tuesday, December 6, 2005 Advent Weekday |
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December 06, 2005    Optional Memorial of St. Nicholas, bishop Old Calendar: St. Nicholas, bishop and confessor
 Saint Nicholas, bishop of Myra, is undoubtedly one of the most popular saints honored in the Western world. In the United States, his memory has survived in the unique personality of Saint Claus — the jolly, rotund, white-bearded gentleman who captivates children with promises of gifts on Christmas Eve. Considered primarily as the patron saint of children, Nicholas is also invoked by sailors, merchants, bakers, travelers and pawnbrokers, and with Saint Andrew is honored as the co-patron of Russia. In spite of his widespread fame, Saint Nicholas, from the historian's point of view, is hardly more than a name. He was born in the last years of the third century in Asia Minor. His uncle, the archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him and appointed him abbot of a nearby monastery. At the death of the archbishop, Nicholas was chosen to fill the vacancy, and he served in this position until his death. About the time of the persecutions of Diocletian, he was imprisoned for preaching Christianity but was released during the reign of Emperor Constantine. Popular legends have involved Saint Nicholas in a number of charming stories, one of which relates Nicholas' charity toward the poor. A man of Patara had lost his fortune, and finding himself unable to support his three maiden daughters, was planning to turn them into the streets as prostitutes. Nicholas heard of the man's intentions and secretly threw three bags of gold through a window into the home, thus providing dowries for the daughters. The three bags of gold mentioned in this story are said to be the origin of the three gold balls that form the emblem of pawnbrokers. After Nicholas' death on December 6 in or around 345, his body was buried in the cathedral at Myra. It remained there until 1087, when seamen of Bari, an Italian coastal town, seized the relics of the saint and transferred them to their own city. Veneration for Nicholas had already spread throughout Europe as well as Asia, but this occurrence led to a renewal of devotion in the West. Countless miracles were attributed to the saint's intercession. His relics are still preserved in the church of San Nicola in Bari; an oily substance, known as Manna di S. Nicola, which is highly valued for its medicinal powers, is said to flow from them. The story of Saint Nicholas came to America in distorted fashion. The Dutch Protestants carried a popularized version of the saint's life to New Amsterdam, portraying Nicholas as nothing more than a Nordic magician and wonder-worker. Our present-day conception of Santa Claus has grown from this version. Catholics should think of Nicholas as a saint, a confessor of the faith and the bishop of Myra — not merely as a jolly man from the North Pole who brings happiness to small children. Many countries and locations honor St. Nicholas as patron: Greece, Russia, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Lorraine, and many cities in Italy, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. Taken in part from Lives of the Saints for every day of the Year, Volume III © 1959, by The Catholic Press, Inc. Patron: against imprisonment; against robberies; against robbers; apothecaries; bakers; barrel makers; boatmen; boot blacks; boys; brewers; brides; captives; children; coopers; dock workers; druggists; fishermen; grooms; judges; lawsuits lost unjustly; longshoremen; maidens; mariners; merchants; murderers; newlyweds; old maids; parish clerks; paupers; pawnbrokers; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists; pilgrims; poor people; prisoners; sailors; scholars; schoolchildren; shoe shiners; spinsters; students; thieves; travellers; unmarried girls; watermen; Greek Catholic Church in America; Greek Catholic Union; Bari, Italy; Fossalto, Italy; Duronia, Italy; Portsmouth, England; Greece; Lorraine; Russia; Sicily; Symbols: Three children in a trough or tub; three golden balls on a book; six golden balls; three golden apples; three loaves; three purses or bags of gold; anchor; ship; Trinity symbol on a cope; angel; small church; three balls; Things to Do:
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Is 40:1-11 / Mt 18:12-14 Isaiah reminds us quite pointedly today of our mortality. "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts...." How true, and how fast it happens. Before we know it, our lives are half over or more. And we can find ourselves sad or disappointed or even fearful about what comes next. There's a yearning in us for something more substantial, something more lasting. Isaiah shows us where to look. "Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." And that's where we need to plant our lives, squarely in the Lord Who is the ground of our being. Aging has its drawbacks, but it has some singular blessings as well. It can remind us of what lasts and what doesn't, of where our hearts will be satisfied and filled full, and where they won't. It can prod us to let go of what doesn't count, and to grasp at real life, not just appearances. Thank God that He's giving you the gift of time, time to grow up on the inside and to learn to value what has lasting value. Thank God, and let Him come all the way into your life. May your Advent be more than just a recollection of events long past. Let it be a rejoicing at His coming to take up residence within you, never to leave again. |
Thanks for the ping.
Great links - thank you.
Faith-sharing bump.
Bump for Pfeffernuesse cookies in honor of St. Nicholas!
Does anyone why his day is only an optional memorial now?
Anyone who gets in a fist-fight with a notorious heretic at a Church council deserves extra feast days....
I think it is optional in the western church. In the Orthodox and Eastern Churches there is much reverence for St. Nicholals.
They sound good; I like anything with lots of lemon in it!
Tuesday December 6, 2005 Second Week of Advent
Reading (Isaiah 40:1-11) Gospel (St. Matthew 18:12-14)
In the first reading today, the prophet Isaiah hears a voice that tells him to cry out, and when he asks, “What shall I cry out,” the answer comes: All flesh is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. Then it goes on to tell him how the grass is going to wilt and the flowers are going to fade, but that the Word of God stands forever. Now as we just simply look at our own selves day by day, we, of course, recognize that we get older. In America, we seem to have quite a problem with thinking that we are supposed to look like teenage kids even when we are seventy years old, but the reality is we get older. We start to fade; we start to wilt, if you will. Praise God, because if we could continue to make ourselves think that we were young and invincible, we would not ever want to go home. We would want to stay here instead of go to heaven, which is the dumbest thing anybody could ever want to do. But, unfortunately, because we do not know what heaven is and we know what we have here, we get caught in this idea of what life is about and we do not want anything else; or, at least, we are afraid of what might be awaiting us.
But when we think about these words, about how all of us are going to wilt and pass away, we also then couple that with the Gospel, because the words we are told through Isaiah were that the Word of God stands forever. And what does the Word of God say? That He does not desire for any of these little ones to be lost. So if we are willing to allow ourselves to be small then we can be saved.
Now, once again, we see the importance of this point of getting older and getting weaker. When we are young and we think that we are so strong, we can think that we do not really need God. “I can do this all by myself.” A pretty foolish thought, but it is probably the reality that most people deal with. But when we know that we cannot do it by ourselves then we are going to look to somebody beyond us. And so if we get to the point where we realize that we are no longer a kid and we cannot quite do the things we used to do, suddenly we realize that we are really a little one, that we are small, that we are pretty insignificant, even though we used to like to think about how important and significant we were (which we never really were, but that is what we liked to convince ourselves of). Suddenly, we realize just how small and insignificant we are.
It is when we are small and insignificant that we have the greatest significance with God, because He is the One Who said that He does not will for any of these little ones to be lost. As long as we are willing to be a little one, just a little lamb in the Lord’s flock, then we are going to be fine. But remember what He said through the prophet Ezekiel: The strong and the sleek He will destroy, because they do not need a shepherd (so they think!). They will do it their own way; they do not have to follow God. But the little ones, the weak ones, they are the ones who recognize that they need somebody to protect them, that they need somebody who is going to be strong for them, that they need a shepherd. As long as we are willing to be the little lamb, to be weak, to be vulnerable, then we have a Shepherd Who is going to protect us, to put us up on His shoulders, to walk with us, and to bring us safely home, because the Word of God stands forever and the Word of God says that He does not will for any of the little ones to be lost.
So we have the key to salvation: to be little, to not think ourselves too great, to be dependent on God, to follow Him, and to be obedient to Him. That is what it is all about. If we allow ourselves to be small then the Lord can do great things. If we think ourselves to be great then God can only use us for little things because we get in the way. So if we are willing to do it His way then the way to salvation is going to be clear, because we will follow the Shepherd, we will listen to His voice, we will do what He asks us to do, and we will therefore give Him the greatest glory and save our souls.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.
December 6, 2005
 St. Nicholas
(d. 350?)
The absence of the “hard facts” of history is not necessarily an obstacle to the popularity of saints, as the devotion to St. Nicholas shows. Both the Eastern and Western Churches honor him, and it is claimed that, after the Blessed Virgin, he is the saint most pictured by Christian artists. And yet, historically, we can pinpoint only the fact that Nicholas was the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. As with many of the saints, however, we are able to capture the relationship which Nicholas had with God through the admiration which Christians have had for him—an admiration expressed in the colorful stories which have been told and retold through the centuries. Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Rather than see them forced into prostitution, Nicholas secretly tossed a bag of gold through the poor man’s window on three separate occasions, thus enabling the daughters to be married. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saint’s feast. In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the tongue, Santa Claus—further expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop. Quote:
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