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Daily Readings for:December 24, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: Come quickly, we pray, Lord Jesus, and do not delay, that those who trust in your compassion may find solace and relief in your coming. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Brioche

o Butterscotch-Walnut Apples on Sticks

o Carp

o Cassata

o Cheese Filling for Pierogi

o Christmas Fruit Bread

o Christmas Stollen (4)

o Codfish

o Eggnog

o Fruit Topping for Mazurek

o Galette

o German Cinnamon Stars

o Hot Buttered Rum

o Insalata di Rinforzo

o Kapusta Czerwona z Grzyby

o Mazurek

o Pierogi

o Pockets with Cheese or Berries

o Six Christmas Dinner Menus

o Soft Molasses Cookies

o Vanocka

o Yule Log Coffee Cake

ACTIVITIES

o A Christmas Play

o Bread of Angels

o Christ-Candle

o Christmas Eve Celebrations

o Christmas Eve Midnight Mass

o Christmas Eve Supper

o Christmas Plays, Los Pastores and Las Posadas

o Christmas Song: The Shepherds' Song

o Christmas Tree Decorations

o Decorating the Tree

o Irish Christmas Candles

o Oplatek, Old Polish Custom

o Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas

o Polish Wigilia

o Santa Claus

o Slovakian Generous Supper

o The Christmas Wreath

o The Exchange of Gifts

o The feasts of Light: Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas

PRAYERS

o Advent Tower

o Advent Wreath Prayers I

o Blessing of the Christmas Crib

o Blessing of the Christmas Tree in the Home

o Christmas Eve Prayers

o Christmas Novena

o Enthroning the Christ Child

o Blessing of the Crib

o Advent Wreath Prayers II

o Christmas Baking and Bread Blessing

o Christmas Morning Prayers

o Christmas Evening Prayers

o Novena to the Infant Jesus

o Christmas Masses

o Blessing of the Christmas Tree

o Book of Blessings: Blessing of a Christmas Tree

o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Advent (2nd Plan)

o December Devotion: The Immaculate Conception

o Christmas Anticipation Prayer

o Book of Blessings: Blessing of the Christmas Tree for the Home (Shorter Rite)

o Book of Blessings: Blessing of a Christmas Tree

o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Advent (1st Plan)

o Christmas Eve Ceremony: Blessing of the Crib

LIBRARY

o Celebrating Christmas: with the Accent on Christ | Unknown

o May Christ Teach us to be a Gift for Others | Pope John Paul II

o May the Light of this Night Shine Upon the Future | Pope John Paul II

· Advent: December 24th

· Christmas Eve

Old Calendar: Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord ; Other Titles: Christmas Eve

+Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

In the General Roman Calendar, this date is the last day of Advent, Christmas Eve, and also (beginning with the vigil Mass) is the first day of Christmas time. The liturgical texts express wholehearted confidence in the imminent coming of the Redeemer. There is much joyous expectation. Most families have their own observances, customs that should be preserved from generation to generation. Today is the last day of our Christmas Novena.

Christmas Eve at Church
The entire liturgy of Christmas Eve is consecrated to the anticipation of the certain and sure arrival of the Savior: "Today you shall know that the Lord shall come and tomorrow you shall see His glory" (Invitatory of Matins for the Vigil of the Nativity). Throughout Advent we have seen how the preparation for Jesus' coming became more and more precise. Isaiah, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mother appeared throughout the season announcing and foretelling the coming of the King. We learn today that Christ according to His human nature is born at Bethlehem of the House of David of the Virgin Mary, and that according to His divine nature He is conceived of the Spirit of holiness, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Trinity.

The certitude of His coming is made clear in two images. The first is that of the closed gate of paradise. Since our first parents were cast forth from the earthly paradise the gate has been closed and a cherubim stands guard with flaming sword. The Redeemer alone is able to open this door and enter in. On Christmas Eve we stand before the gate of paradise, and it is for this reason that Psalm 23 is the theme of the vigil:

Lift up your gates, O princes,
Open wide, eternal gates,
That the King of Glory may enter in. . . .

Christmas Eve at Home
It must be so that the grown-ups may devote themselves with a quiet mind, unhindered by any commotion, to these great mysteries of the Holy Night, that in most Catholic countries the giving of gifts has been advanced to Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve is an appropriate time for the exchange of gifts, after the Christ-Child has been placed in the manger, and the special prayers before the crib — and a round of Christmas carols — are over. If the gifts are given out before the Midnight Mass, the children can concentrate more easily on the great mystery which is celebrated, when the Greatest Gift is given to all alike, even those who have received no material expression of Christmas love. And then, too, Christmas Day with its two additional Masses can be devoted more to the contemplation of the Christmas mystery and the demands of Christmas hospitality.

The opening of the eternal gates through which the King of Glory may enter is indicated by the wreath on the door of our homes at Christmastide. The Advent wreath, which accompanied the family throughout the season of preparation may be taken down. The violet ribbons are removed, and it is gloriously decorated with white and gold. It is then placed upon the door as a symbol of the welcome of Christ into our city, our home and our hearts. On Christmas Eve the whole house should be strewn with garlands and made ready for the Light of the World. The crib is set in a special place of honor, for tonight the central figure of the Nativity scene is to arrive.

Today is Day Nine of the Christmas Novena.

Reflection by Father Robert Barron

Christmas Eve – The True King

by Fr. Robert Barron

St. Luke’s telling of the Christmas story, which is read at Midnight Masses all over the Catholic world, commences by invoking the first-century’s most powerful man: “In those days Caesar Augustus published a decree ordering a census of the whole world.”

Here the emperor is doing a paradigmatically powerful thing. If you can count your people more accurately, you can tax them more efficiently and you can draft them into the military more expeditiously. So far, this story begins like all other ancient epics, by praising the strong and powerful.

But then St. Luke makes a canny move. He shifts his attention away from Augustus Caesar and toward a poor couple of no notoriety whatsoever, making their way to a dusty hamlet on the fringes of the Roman Empire. In the nothing town of Bethlehem, Mary gives birth to a child, who is wrapped up in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger where the animals eat. The baby is visited, not by courtiers, but by shepherds, who had, at that time, something of the status that street people have today.

Then an angel appears and announces that this destitute infant, to whom Caesar Augustus in Rome would pay absolutely no heed, is in fact the true Emperor: “I come to proclaim good news to you—tidings of great joy to be shared by the whole people. This day in David’s city a savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord.”

To say “Messiah” and “Lord” was to imply that a new David had arrived, a new King of the Jews. But as any careful reader of the Psalms and Prophets would know, to say King of the Jews was to imply King of the world—which is precisely why the angel said his message was for “the whole people.” This true king—simple, humble, vulnerable, and non-violent—would establish an order, a kingdom of God, which stands athwart the order of Rome.

Lest we have any doubt as to which of these kings is more powerful, Luke tells us, “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in high heaven, peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests.’” We should not be sentimental in regard to angels, for the typical reaction to one in the Bible is fear. And we are dealing here with a stratia of these fearsome creatures. That Greek word, translated usually as “host” or “multitude,” literally means army. The only reason that Caesar Augustus was able to dominate the world is that he had the biggest army. But Luke is saying that the baby king actually possesses a bigger army, though it is one that fights, not with the weapons (arma) of the world, but with those of heaven.

It is of these arms and of this man that Luke sings. His subversive Christmas tale continues posing a question: which narrative do you accept? Which king do you follow? Caesar or Jesus?