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Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 12-25-12, Solemnity, Nativity of the Lord [Dawn]
USCCB.org/RNAB ^ | 12-25-12 | Revised New American Bible

Posted on 12/24/2012 3:43:51 PM PST by Salvation

December 25, 2012 [Mass at Dawn]

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)

 

Reading 1 Is 62:11-12

See, the LORD proclaims
to the ends of the earth:
say to daughter Zion,
your savior comes!
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
They shall be called the holy people,
the redeemed of the LORD,
and you shall be called "Frequented,"
a city that is not forsaken.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1, 6, 11-12.

R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.

Reading 2 Ti 3:4-7

Beloved:
When the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

Gospel Lk 2:15-20

When the angels went away from them to heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
"Let us go, then, to Bethlehem
to see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us."
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.


TOPICS: Catholic; General Discusssion; Prayer; Worship
KEYWORDS: catholic; christmas; jesuschrist; prayer
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The Deeper Meaning of Christmas

The Deeper Meaning of Christmas

Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D.

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. on December 24, 2012 · 

In the days of Caesar Augustus, an era of peace was established in the Mediterranean world after centuries of strife. But this peace was forged by the proud ambition of emperors and the edge of their armies’ swords.

Upon this stage appears a baby acclaimed as king by eastern dignitaries. Neither Caesar nor Herod will brook any rivals. So brutal hordes are sent to slay Him at birth, though He himself comes without armies. The thugs are thwarted, but only for a season. For the royal child is laid in a manger, and the wood of that manger foreshadows the wood of the cross.

Caesar and Herod were bound to misunderstand Him. They climbed their way to the top, stepping on all who stood in their way. He emptied himself and plunged to the bottom, from the glory of heaven to the squalor of a stable. Pharaohs and Caesars strained towards immortality. Yet He who was Immortal by nature embraced mortality. The great ones of the world took every opportunity to exalt themselves. In the very act of being born, He humbled himself.

You would think that He would have chosen Rome or Athens as the place of his appearance. But He selects an obscure desert town in a dusty provincial outpost. Even in this humble spot, not even a seedy inn would make room for Him. So they had recourse to a cave, welcomed only by the animals. Isaiah said it well: “an ox knows its owner, and an ass its master’s manger; but Israel does not know, my people has not understood” (Isaiah 1:2).

Everything was in fulfillment of Scripture. He was born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “house of bread.” His crib was a manger, a feeding trough. But they did not understand that He was the Bread of Life. He was wrapped, like Solomon, in swaddling clothes (Wisdom 7:4-5), but they did not recognized him as the new King and embodiment of divine wisdom.

The only people who recognize Him are shepherds, the humblest in society, and Magi, the wisest. But most Israelites, like us, were neither very humble nor very wise, so they missed it. They especially missed this–that one of the birthday gifts was incense, used in the worship of gods. He was not only king, wise man, messiah, and savior–he was God incarnate.

How could Jews have believed this? God is infinite, invulnerable, and omnipotent. What is more vulnerable, fragile, and helpless than an infant? Can the Eternal be born in time? Can the Divine Word be a child at the breast, incapable of speech? Can a mere teenage girl be the Mother of God?

It was just as hard for the pagans to believe it. For their philosophers had taught that God is spirit and the body is a prison. Salvation means liberation from the confines of the physical body. So the idea that a divine Savior would embrace human flesh just did not compute.

Love sometimes does strange things. It takes great risks and goes to extreme lengths that many would call foolish. On that first Christmas day, God’s foolishness was wiser than men, and his weakness was stronger than men. It took them all by surprise.

But this, of course, was part of God’s strategy. The element of surprise is critical in warfare. And Christmas was an act of warfare. In fact it was D-Day, the day of deliverance. The preparation had taken centuries, but now it was time for the Conqueror to land on enemy occupied territory. He came in humility, and would finish the conquest thirty years later by the greatest act of humility the world had ever seen.

“Peace on Earth, Good will towards men.” True peace can never be forged by steel, but only by love. It is the humble babe in the manger, not Caesar in his chariot, who is the real Prince of peace.


41 posted on 12/25/2012 6:39:45 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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Prepare Room for Christ in Your Hearts and Homes

Prepare Room for Christ in Your Hearts and Homes

Fr. Shenan J. Boquet

by Fr. Shenan J. Boquet on December 24, 2012 · 

Not a complaint, though in her condition she could have had many. He might have had a few as well. Each of their worlds had changed radically not even nine months before. You might not see the peace and love between them so much as a stoic determination to safely reach the City of David in time for the census. That’s if you even thought to look.

You would not know that this unborn child was the Messiah, the Son of God. He was already feared by the king, who was sending agents out looking for the one — “the king of the Jews” — whose arrival was foretold in a prophecy. You wouldn’t see that the woman was the only one who understood — to the extent that she could have gathered in those eight-plus months — that her child would change the world.

But what if you did suddenly know who Mary and Joseph were, and you knew that you were witnessing the arrival of the One who would bring salvation to mankind? What if you had a place to stay and saw them turned away from other lodgings; wouldn’t you insist that they take your room? Wouldn’t you make sure that they had everything they needed and that the room was cleaned and ready? Wouldn’t you ask for help from your family on the outskirts of town, and make sure that they knew how important it was that this baby arrived safely? Wouldn’t you have the greatest gift you could gather ready when He arrived?

This is where we are today. We know that Christ is coming, and that He is looking for room in our hearts. Still, many of us postpone the cleaning, or even let the room fill up with other things, so that there really isn’t room for the Christ child. We may even be shy about reaching out to friends and family, so we don’t let them see the urgency and joyful expectation that they should see in us.

Don’t you know who this child is? We must prepare our hearts and homes, and make Him room, starting today. And we must do all we can to know that those around us know Him as well, and see Him in our love and action.

We have been talking for weeks about the need to be people of true Christian hope, united in charity and truth, so that we can respond adequately to the needs around us. We have spent some time — though surely not enough — looking at some of the key teachings of the Church as they relate to life and the way in which these teachings have been rejected not only by society, but even by some within the Church. This rejection has blinded many to the true causes of the problems that we all see around us, and has fractured our families and communities. It is up to us to respond in charity and truth.

In other words, the task before us remains urgent and must take shape in the circumstances around us. We form ourselves in the Sacraments, the truth of the Gospel, in the teachings of the Church, and we ready ourselves to be Christ for one another. We make Christ visible to those around us by our example as people of true Christian hope. We reach out in charity to our own communities and let our neighbors know that we are there for them, that they are not alone, that there is room for them.

We must also remember that contraception — the divorce between the unitive and procreative aspects of human sexuality — must be addressed if we are to expect any lasting victory in the fight for life and family. Open to life is essential. Treating life as simply a convenience and valuing only the “wanted” in society inevitably leads to abuses such as abortion and euthanasia. Indeed, Salvation Himself entered the world through the birth of a child.

With God’s grace, we strive to become the kind of people that we find in the Saints: passionate, fearless, honest and generous, and unflinchingly in love with Jesus Christ. We cannot get lost in the urgency of the chaos around us, lest we lose our hope and our focus. We engage these evils, to be sure, but we do so with hearts formed in Christ, ready to respond in real charity and His truth.

It seems like dusk in our nation and in the world, but Christ is right before us, brought to us by the Holy Family. All for the Glory of God, and the defense of life and family, as Father Marx put it in laying out HLI’s mission. For now, let’s focus on preparing Him room in our hearts and homes. Let’s offer the Christ Child the greatest gift we can offer Him, hearts that are ready to receive Him, and families that know Who it is we celebrate during this Holy Season.


42 posted on 12/25/2012 6:45:50 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

 


<< Tuesday, December 25, 2012 >> Christmas
 
Isaiah 52:7-10
Hebrews 1:1-6

View Readings
Psalm 98:1-6
John 1:1-18

 

DIS-HONORABLE MENTION

 
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bring glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, 'Your God is King!' " —Isaiah 52:7
 

The good news of Christmas is: "A Savior has been born to you" (Lk 2:11). "Your Savior comes" (Is 62:11). "When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us" (Ti 3:4-5). If Jesus had not been born, our future would be bleak, our present a desperate escape attempt, and our past an even heavier burden. If Jesus had not been born, fear, resentment and depression would reign supreme. If Jesus had not been born, we could not stand to live but would be afraid to die.

At Christmas midnight Mass, I looked at the congregation from my place behind the altar. One young girl was trapped in fornication. Two young men were in a homosexual perversion. A middle-aged man had destroyed his family through alcoholism. An elderly woman was mentally ill. A couple was talking divorce after thirty years of marriage. This was a sampling of the midnight Mass crowd. They desperately needed to be saved. Despite this, none of their fellow parishioners had told them about Jesus the Savior. They were given Christmas carols, Christmas presents, and holiday wishes, but Jesus was only given "honorable mention."

Tell a broken world about Jesus this Christmas. Accept Him as Lord and Savior. "Christ our Savior is born!"

 
Prayer: Jesus, open my lips to tell a lost and hurting world about Your saving love for them.
Promise: "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory: the glory of an only Son coming from the Father, filled with enduring love." —Jn 1:14
Praise: Alleluia! Christ our Savior is born. Praise You, Jesus! We give our lives to You. Alleluia!

43 posted on 12/25/2012 7:39:19 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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President Reagan presents Mother Teresa with the Medal of Freedom
 
Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said:
"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
 
The greatest challenge facing the western world is not violence from without, but the tragic decision to take a life within.

44 posted on 12/25/2012 7:47:36 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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Archdiocese of Washington

Many are shocked to walk into daily Mass on December 26 and instead of hearing more of the “Baby Jesus” we are confronted with Martyrdom, “The Feast of Stephen” is ancient on the Church’s calendar. More ancient than the Christmas cycle and hence it was not removed to another time.

Bu the martyrdom does not stop there. We are in the midst of the Christmas Octave, an Octave filled with blood as we shall see.

What is an Octave? But first, there may be some of you who wonder what is meant by and “Octave.” An Octave is a period of eight days wherein a feast of the Church is celebrated for that whole period as though it were all the same day. In the modern liturgical calendar we only observe two octaves explicitly: Christmas and Easter.

During the week following Christmas many of the prayers speak of each day as though it were still Christmas. For example some of the prayers and antiphons say, “Today is born our savior, Christ the Lord.” A purist might say, but it is NOT today that he is born, it was back on Saturday the 25th that he was born. But, in certain sense this IS still Christmas day. Christmas Day is one long day of eight days from Saturday the 25th to Saturday January 1st.

It is the same with Easter where for one whole week we announce: “This is the day the Lord has made…”

Why eight days? Some say it is a reference to the eighth day on which Christ rose. I know, you thought it was the third day. But it was also the eighth day! For God made the world in seven days, resting on the seventh (Sabbath or Saturday). But Christ rose on the 8th day (Sunday). So resurrection morning is both the third day AND the eighth day! Others say the practice of the octave goes to Jewish times where some of the feasts (e.g. Dedication and Tabernacles (Booths)) were celebrated over 8 days.

In the old calendar there were more Octaves such as: Epiphany, Pentecost, All Saints, Immaculate Conception, Ascension Sacred Heart and others). Not all of these were privileged Octaves in which no other feasts could be celebrated. Easter and Pentecost were really the only two that blocked out all other feasts entirely. Others, like the Christmas Octave, allowed the celebration of other feasts but still referred to the feast of the octave as well.

So here we are in the Christmas Octave and, in a strong sense it is thus still Christmas Day. TODAY is born our savior Christ the Lord. This feast is so important that we stretch its observance a completed week and into the eighth day.

Bloody Octave – But one of the striking things about the Christmas octave is its bloodiness. It is one of the bloodiest weeks of the Church’s years. Thus, on December 26th, when we have hardly digested our Christmas dinner, we celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen, the Martyr who was stoned to death. On December 28th we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, the young and infant boys who were murdered by Herod seeking to kill Christ. On December 29th we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas Becket who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Even St. (King) Wenceslaus of whom we happily sing “on the Feast of Stephen” was brutally killed by his brother.

Why all this blood, why this martyrdom? It is almost as though the red poinsettias that we put out in festive Christmas spirit look back to us in testimony. For it is clear that Jesus came to this world, ultimately to die. His crib (likely of wood) in which he was laid, arms and feet bound by swaddling clothes, points inevitably to the wood of his cross where, once again, his arms and legs were bound by nails and, after dying, he was wrapped tightly in a linen shroud.

The blood of the Christmas octave also reminds us that many of us too will share in Christ’s lot. This world hated Christ and had “no room for him.” Neither does this world have room for true Christians and the blood of martyrs stretches down through the centuries in testimony to the world’s hatred for authentic disciples of Christ and the truth they propose.

From this bloody octave the words of Christ ring out: If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you (Jn 15:19). The martyrs of the Christmas Octave say, Amen.

And even St. John the Apostle, whose feast also occurs in the Octave (Dec 27), also says Amen. For, though he did not suffer martyrdom he proclaimed his Amen also from his prison cell on Patmos: I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (Rev 1:9).

Victory – But all these martyrs and sufferers (St. Stephen, St. John, the Holy Innocents, St. Thomas Becket, and St Wenceslaus) proclaim too the victory that is theirs with Jesus Christ who also said, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33). And again, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown. (Rev 2:10) Yes, Lord, the Spirit and the Bride say, Amen.

Did I wish you a merry Christmas?


45 posted on 12/26/2012 10:22:19 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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Marriage = One Man and One Woman
Til' Death Do Us Part

Daily Marriage Tip for December 25, 2012:

(Christmas) Christmas day can be busy, even hectic, as you prepare food for guests or travel to relatives. Share the work. If you feel ready to snap, take a 5 minute “sanity break.” It’s called prayer. Remember Jesus’ words to Martha. (Luke 11:41-42)


46 posted on 12/27/2012 6:26:49 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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http://resources.sainteds.com/showmedia.asp?media=../sermons/homily/2012-12-25-Homily%20Fr%20Gary.mp3&ExtraInfo=0&BaseDir=../sermons/homily


47 posted on 12/31/2012 7:57:44 PM PST by Salvation (("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26))
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