Keep
your eyes open!...
Christmas, 2017
THE TRIB TIMES WILL RETURN IN EARLY JANUARY 2018, GOD
WILLING (James 4:15).
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL FROM OUR FIRST GRANDAUGHTER EVELINA!
BLESSINGS FOR A
JOYOUS NEW YEAR!
(Luk 2:15-20) And
it came to pass, after the angels departed from them into heaven, the
shepherds said one to another: Let us go over to Bethlehem and let us
see this word that is come to pass, which the Lord hath shewed to us.
And they came with haste: and they found Mary and Joseph, and the
infant lying in the manger. And seeing, they understood of the word
that had been spoken to them concerning this child. And all that heard
wondered: and at those things that were told them by the shepherds. But
Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they
had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER: Christmas Around the World
DYNAMIC CATHOLIC: The Twelve Days of Christmas
THE CATHOLIC THING: A Christmas Reflection by Msgr. Robert Batule
VATICAN.VA: MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS FRANCIS FOR THE
CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE 1 JANUARY 2018
POPE FRANCIS:
“The joy of the Christian comes from faith and from the encounter with
Jesus Christ, the reason for our happiness. The more we are rooted in
Christ, the more we find inner serenity, even in the midst of everyday
contradictions."“The joy of the Christian comes from faith and from the
encounter with Jesus Christ, the reason for our happiness,” the Pope
continued. “The more we are rooted in Christ, the more we find inner
serenity, even in the midst of everyday contradictions.”
ST. PETER CANISIUS ON CHRISTMAS:
In the light of all this approval from Sacred Scripture, let me ask my
listeners once more: “Has anybody the right to criticize us even if we
seem to be beside ourselves with joy to-day over the birthday of our
King?” If the princes and rulers of this world are privileged to make
merry over the sons of their flesh, what a mountain of reasons we have
for exulting over the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior!
Never was a whimpering bit of humanity so powerful that, while lying on
His bed of straw, He could command the very stars to direct whom He
wished to visit Him. Never a child so wise or so rich as this little
Infant who was full of grace and incarnate truth. Never anyone so
marvelous as to be at once so small and so great, true God and true
Man, the Uncreated Word and weak human flesh, mighty King and a lowly
slave. Never had any child so emptied himself of all that he really was
in order to become a tiny, speechless, naked, unknown babe.
Christmas Day is nothing if not a day of universal joy. Children should
rejoice because on this day God Himself became as one of them; virgins,
because a Virgin brought forth and remained unstained even after giving
birth; wives, because one of their number became the Mother of God;
sinners, because their Mediator and Savior and Healer has come to
redeem them; the just, because their Reward exceeding great has been
born into the world. In fine, all faithful Christians should rejoice
that their Creator and Lord has taken on human flesh and begun His
reign over the hearts of men, not only as God, but also as the Son of
Man among the children of men.
UNIVERSALIS: A sermon of Pope St Leo the Great
Christian, remember your dignity Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is
born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of
life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with
the promise of eternal happiness.
No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for
rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free
from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the
palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the
offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to
life.
In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s
wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to
reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the
origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.
And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in
the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see
the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world.
When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of
God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?
Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the
Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and
when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so
that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature
and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us
renounce the works of the flesh.
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own
nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in
mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget
that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into
the light of God’s kingdom.
Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy
Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become
again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of
Christ.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 20- "On bodily vigil"
9. Long sleep produces forgetfulnes, but vigil
purifies the memory.
Third Week of Advent, 2017
(Joh 1:19-23) And
this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem
priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed
and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked
him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the
prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore unto him: Who art
thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou
of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias.
CATHOLIC CATECHISM (525):
“Jesus was born in a humble stable, into a poor family. Simple
shepherds were the first witnesses to this event. In this poverty
heaven’s glory was made manifest. The church never tires of singing the
glory of this night.”
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: The Season of Prayer and Witness
VIDEO: Hallelujah Chorus Dazzles Christmas Shoppers Tired of Secularism
FR. BROOM: Ten Simple Ways to Prepare for Christmas- the Birthday of Jesus!
CRISIS MAGAZINE: Advent: A View from Down Under… Way Under
AID TO THE CHURCH IN NEED: This Christmas, there will be special gifts for the children of the Nineveh Plains
OFFICE OF READINGS: A pastoral
letter by St Charles Borromeo The season of Advent
Beloved, now is the
acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace
and reconciliation: the great season of Advent. This is the time
eagerly awaited by the patriarchs and prophets, the time that holy
Simeon rejoiced at last to see. This is the season that the Church has
always celebrated with special solemnity. We too should always observe
it with faith and love, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Father
for the mercy and love he has shown us in this mystery. In his infinite
love for us, though we were sinners, he sent his only Son to free us
from the tyranny of Satan, to summon us to heaven, to welcome us into
its innermost recesses, to show us truth itself, to train us in right
conduct, to plant within us the seeds of virtue, to enrich us with the
treasures of his grace, and to make us children of God and heirs of
eternal life.
Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery, she urges us to renew
the memory of the great love God has shown us. This holy season teaches
us that Christ’s coming was not only for the benefit of his
contemporaries; his power has still to be communicated to us all. We
shall share his power, if, through holy faith and the sacraments, we
willingly accept the grace Christ earned for us, and live by that grace
and in obedience to Christ.
The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the
flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his
presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in
our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.
In her concern for our salvation, our loving mother the Church uses
this holy season to teach us through hymns, canticles and other forms
of expression, of voice or ritual, used by the Holy Spirit. She shows
us how grateful we should be for so great a blessing, and how to gain
its benefit: our hearts should be as much prepared for the coming of
Christ as if he were still to come into this world. The same lesson is
given us for our imitation by the words and example of the holy men of
the Old Testament.
UNIVERSALIS: A letter of Pope St Leo the Great The mystery of our reconciliation with God
To speak of our Lord, the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as true and
perfect man is of no value to us if we do not believe that he is
descended from the line of ancestors set out in the Gospel.
Matthew’s gospel begins by setting out the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
son of David, son of Abraham, and then traces his human descent by
bringing his ancestral line down to his mother’s husband, Joseph. On
the other hand, Luke traces his parentage backward step by step to the
actual father of mankind, to show that both the first and the last Adam
share the same nature.
No doubt the Son of God in his omnipotence could have taught and
sanctified men by appearing to them in a semblance of human form as he
did to the patriarchs and prophets, when for instance he engaged in a
wrestling contest or entered into conversation with them, or when he
accepted their hospitality and even ate the food they set before him.
But these appearances were only types, signs that mysteriously foretold
the coming of one who would take a true human nature from the stock of
the patriarchs who had gone before him. No mere figure, then, fulfilled
the mystery of our reconciliation with God, ordained from all eternity.
The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon the Virgin nor had the power of
the Most High overshadowed her, so that within her spotless womb Wisdom
might build itself a house and the Word become flesh. The divine nature
and the nature of a servant were to be united in one person so that the
Creator of time might be born in time, and he through whom all things
were made might be brought forth in their midst.
For unless the new man, by being made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
had taken on himself the nature of our first parents, unless he had
stooped to be one in substance with his mother while sharing the
Father’s substance and, being alone free from sin, united our nature to
his, the whole human race would still be held captive under the
dominion of Satan. The Conqueror’s victory would have profited us
nothing if the battle had been fought outside our human condition. But
through this wonderful blending the mystery of new birth shone upon us,
so that through the same Spirit by whom Christ was conceived and
brought forth we too might be born again in a spiritual birth; and in
consequence the evangelist declares the faithful to have been born not
of blood, nor of the desire of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God.
ADVENT RESOURCES
DYNAMIC CATHOLIC: Best Advent Ever!
STEUBENVILLE FUEL: Project Advent
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY'S ONLINE MINISTRIES: Praying Advent and Celebrating Christmas
ADVENT CALENDAR 2017: http://www.catholicbishops.ie/advent-calendar/
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 20- "On bodily vigil"
8. The preparing of the table exposes gluttons,
but the work of prayer exposes lovers of God. The former skip on seeing
the table, but the latter scowl.
Second Week of Advent, 2017
(Mar 1:6-8) And
John was clothed camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins:
and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying: There
cometh after me one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am
not worthy to stoop down and loose. I have baptized you with water: but
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.
FATHER RON:
"The Messiah can only be born from a chaste womb and come to life fully
only inside of a chaste heart. Christmas allows for no shortcuts".
ADVENT CALENDAR 2017: http://www.catholicbishops.ie/advent-calendar/
UNIVERSALIS: A sermon by St Bernard Let the word of the Lord come to us
We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is
between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are. At his
first coming the Lord was seen on earth and lived among men, who saw
him and hated him. At his last coming All flesh shall see the salvation
of our God, and They shall look on him whom they have pierced. In the
middle, the hidden coming, only the chosen see him, and they see him
within themselves; and so their souls are saved. The first coming was
in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and
the final coming will be in glory and majesty.
This middle coming is like a road that leads from the first coming to
the last. At the first, Christ was our redemption; at the last, he will
become manifest as our life; but in this middle way he is our rest and
our consolation.
If you think that I am inventing what I am saying about the middle
coming, listen to the Lord himself: If anyone loves me, he will keep my
words, and the Father will love him, and we shall come to him.
Elsewhere I have read: Whoever fears the Lord does good things. – but I
think that what was said about whoever loves him was more important:
that whoever loves him will keep his words. Where are these words to be
kept? In the heart certainly, as the Prophet says I have hidden your
sayings in my heart so that I do not sin against you. Keep the word of
God in that way: Blessed are those who keep it. Let it penetrate deep
into the core of your soul and then flow out again in your feelings and
the way you behave; because if you feed your soul well it will grow and
rejoice. Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up.
Remember, and your soul will grow fat and sleek.
If you keep God’s word like this, there is no doubt that it will keep
you, for the Son will come to you with the Father: the great Prophet
will come, who will renew Jerusalem, and he is the one who makes all
things new. For this is what this coming will do: just as we have been
shaped in the earthly image, so will we be shaped in the heavenly
image. Just as the old Adam was poured into the whole man and took
possession of him, so in turn will our whole humanity be taken over by
Christ, who created all things, has redeemed all things, and will
glorify all things.
EXCERPT INSIDE THE VATICAN: “The light shineth in darkness” A meditation on Christmas, excerpted from the writing of Blessed John Henry Newman
Christ is still on earth. He said expressly that He would come
again. The Holy Ghost’s coming is so really His coming, that we might
as well say that He was not here in the days of His flesh, when He was
visibly in this world, as deny that He is here now, when He is here by
His Divine Spirit. This indeed is a mystery, how God the Son and
God the Holy Ghost, two Persons, can be one, how He can be in the
Spirit and the Spirit in Him; but so it is.
Next, if He is still on earth, yet is not visible (which cannot be
denied), it is plain that He keeps Himself still in the condition which
He chose in the days of His flesh. I mean, He is a hidden Saviour, and
may be approached (unless we are careful) without due reverence and
fear. I say, wherever He is (for that is a further question), still He
is here, and again He is secret; and whatever be the tokens of His
Presence, still they must be of a nature to admit of persons doubting
where it is. And if they will argue, and be sharpwitted and subtle,
they may perplex themselves and others, as the Jews did even in the
days of His flesh, till He seems to them nowhere present on earth now...
The Church is called “His Body”: what His material Body was when He was
visible on earth, such is the Church now. It is the instrument of His
Divine power; it is that which we must approach, to gain good from Him;
it is that which by insulting we awaken His anger. Now, what is
the Church but, as it were, a body of humiliation, almost provoking
insult and profaneness, when men do not live by faith? An earthen
vessel, far more so even than His body of flesh, for that was at least
pure from all sin, and the Church is defiled in all her members. We
know that her ministers at best are but imperfect and erring, and of
like passions with their brethren.
Yet of them He has said, speaking not to the Apostles merely but to all
the 70 disciples (to whom Christian ministers are in office surely
equal), “He that heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth you,
despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me.”...
In every age, then, Christ is both in the world, and yet not publicly so more than in the days of His flesh...
St. Paul, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, shows both how easy
and how fearful it is to profane the Lord’s Supper, while he states how
great the excess of the Corinthians had been, yet also that it was a
want of “discerning the Lord’s Body.” When He was born into the world,
the world knew it not. He was laid in a rude manger, among
the cattle, but “all the Angels of God worshipped Him.” Now too He is
present upon a table, homely perhaps in make, and dishonoured in its
circumstances; and faith adores, but the world passes by. Let us then
pray Him ever to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that we may
belong to the Heavenly Host, not to this world. As the carnal-minded
would not perceive Him even in Heaven, so the spiritual heart may
approach Him, possess Him, see Him, even upon earth.
LIVINGINTHEDIVINEWILL.COM: On St. Joseph
Did St. Joseph live in the Divine Will?
Was St. Joseph purified in the womb?
Was St. Joseph the first creature conceived in sin to Live in the Divine Will?
What is the difference between St. Joseph's acts in the Kingdom of the Divine Will and Luisa's acts in the Divine Will itself?
Did St. Joseph possess the kingdom of the Divine Will? Jesus says he did not; Luisa says he did.
ADVENT RESOURCES
DYNAMIC CATHOLIC: Best Advent Ever!
STEUBENVILLE FUEL: Project Advent
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY'S ONLINE MINISTRIES: Praying Advent and Celebrating Christmas
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 20- "On bodily vigil"
7. The God-loving monk, when the trumpet sounds
for prayer, says 'Good, good!' The lazy one says: 'Woe, alas!'
First Week of Advent, 2017
(Mar 13:33-37) Take
ye heed, watch and pray. For ye know not when the time is. Even as a
man who, going into a far country, left his house and gave authority to
his servants over every work and commanded the porter to watch. Watch
ye therefore (for you know not when the lord of the house cometh, at
even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning): Lest
coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say
to all: Watch.
POPE FRANCIS:
“Jesus exhorts us to pay attention and to watch, to be ready to welcome
him at the moment of his return. The person who pays attention is the
one who, in the noise of the world, does not let him or herself be
overwhelmed by distraction or superficiality, but lives in a full and
conscious way, with a concern directed above all to others.”
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER: The Joy (and Dread) of Advent
CATHOLIC CULTURE: Advent: Focusing on the Essential with Expectant Delight
EXCERPT: Father Rutler's Weekly Column
The explanation for your sense of expectation is that you
have an imagination. Unlike animals guided by instinct, we can imagine
past and future. Advent is the time of expectation. Since Christ is not
limited by time, he can be born again in our lives at every Christmas.
Expectation requires thinking about the four most important matters of
existence: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. These are the primary
mysteries that arrest the attention of minds awake, more compelling
than holiday shopping and attempts at partying before Christmas begins.
To look at death at the start of Advent is what we do on a small scale
when we look at the end of anything, whether it be the end of the day
or the end of some project we have been working on, or even the end of
a movie or a song. The question is: Does the end of life have a
purpose? C.S. Lewis answered that in a typically lucid way: “It may be
hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder
for a bird to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at
present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary,
decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
Along with the sense of expectation is the intuition that what is
expected is more vital than what we now have. On the day after
Christmas in 1941, Winston Churchill stood before the joint houses of
Congress and spoke of “. . . my life, which is already long, and has
not been entirely uneventful.” Then a full twenty-four years later, his
dying words were: “I’m bored with it all.” That was really wonderful
because, though skeptical about the Gospel, he knew that things as they
are, are not enough. He was a bit like Benjamin Franklin who, while far
from an orthodox Christian, playfully wrote his own epitaph as a
printer, comparing himself to a worn old book: “For it will, as he
believ’d, appear once more, In a new and more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended, By the Author.”
FROM THE MAILBAG: Padre Pio's Christmases is available in print or Kindle format at Amazon
St. Padre Pio anticipated Christmas every day throughout the year,
starting from the day after Christmas that had just passed. He loved
the Infant Jesus so much that in his childlike joy he could barely wait
to celebrate Midnight Mass, when he would hold the Babe in his arms
(the doll you see on the cover of Padre Pio's Christmases) and process
through the very small antique church of San Giovanni Rotondo. The
church was packed with villagers as he walked to the altar and lovingly
laid the Babe in the crib.
The crib was just as much a deep part of his love of Christmas, and
he'll tell you why in this book. But there are many other events
concerning Padre Pio’s Christmases
. . . . . .the frustrating time he spent in the army during the First
World War--it's almost comedic, except that he was desperately trying
to celebrate his Christmas Masses
. . .the Christmastimes he would sit awhile with his spiritual
daughters, explaining to them the immense love of our Lord in being
born in such humble surroundings
. . .the miracle of a sick child many miles away during his Midnight Mass, with the help of Baby Jesus
. . .the spiritual daughter who caught sight of Padre Pio carrying the
living Baby Jesus as he came down the staircase in the Sacristy just
before Midnight Mass
It's good to remember St. Padre Pio especially at Christmastime,
because meanwhile, in that other world beyond San Giovanni Rotondo --
the secular world, the world celebrating the “holiday” -- people are
scattering about in zig-zag confusion, pressing through the noisy,
crowded, glittering stores, doing their last minute Christmas shopping
to the accompaniment of blaring, often jazzy Christmas music. Maybe the
shoppers are going to a party later, or maybe they'll fall asleep that
night on the sofa in their homes, too exhausted to appreciate the
glowing Christmas tree or contemplate the Nativity scene beneath its
branches -- or what had actually taken place in history that night
centuries and centuries ago and changed the world. Yet in their good
hearts there is the desire and intention to please, to show their love
of others via the gifts as they rush and hurry in the stores at these
last minutes. . .
But aren't they missing the real moment?
ICBC: Archbishop Eamon Martin launches online Advent Calendar 2017
The online Advent Calendar will offer the opening of a virtual door
each day during the season of Advent. Behind each door there will be
content aimed at assisting people to pray and to reflect on how best we
can put Christ to the centre of our Christmas preparations during this
special liturgical season. This year’s Advent calendar will provide a
special focus on family as part of ongoing preparations for the hosting
of the World Meeting of Families 2018 in Dublin next August. There will
be family prayers and suggestions for acts of kindness or charity that
family members will be encouraged to take on during the month of
December.
Launching the 2017 online calendar, Archbishop Eamon said, “The season
of Advent marks the beginning of the Catholic year and the time of
spiritual preparation for the Lord’s coming at Christmas. It is a time
of waiting, conversion and hope. Advent also prepares us for the second
coming of Christ at the end of time. As Christians, we must always be
prepared for the coming of the Lord – ‘You must stand ready because the
Son of Man is coming at an hour you do no not expect’ [Mt 24:37-44].
Preparation does not happen at once but over time and so each day of
Advent amounts to a period of time which allows us to journey and
reflect on the joy of the Gospel. Our online calendar is a helpful
resource in this journey.”
ADVENT RESOURCES
DYNAMIC CATHOLIC: Best Advent Ever!
STEUBENVILLE FUEL: Project Advent
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY'S ONLINE MINISTRIES: Praying Advent and Celebrating Christmas
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 20- "On bodily vigil"
6. A vigilant monk is a fisher of thoughts, and
in the serenity of the night he can easily observe and catch them.
Links 
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