Advent

Read more about the article Blessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer

Blessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer

Today is one of my favorite Sundays in the Liturgical Year – Gaudete Sunday.  The priest wears the beautiful pink vestments and we light the pink Advent candle.  This is the day we focus on rejoicing that Jesus’s coming is near.  The music is always beautiful, but today so was the silence.

Growing up, there was always a separation between the Offertory Song in which people brought up the gifts of bread and wine and the collection money (for the support of the parish), and the prayers we spoke during the Preparation of the Gifts.  In recent years, the Offertory Song continues until the priest has completed all the Preparatory prayers in silence without our participation.  Blurring things together has caused us to miss so much of what is happening and has deprived us of the moments of silence we need to truly reflect.  Today though, the music stopped and then the priest was heard saying, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”  When we responded, “Blessed Be God Forever,” I was filled with the joy that this Sunday brings and I finally understood joy on a deeper level.

So many in our world seek happiness.  It is not wrong to be happy with our accomplishments, but when we only seek happiness in a secular way, it quickly becomes a pursuit of acquiring things and advancing our own goals and status.  Without God at the center, we only seek temporal happiness and forget to seek joy.  Joy is the state of rejoicing in the love of God.  When we stop to praise Him in spite of the vicissitudes of life, He reveals to our souls even greater depths of the love He has for us.  Thus we can experience joy even when we are not experiencing human happiness.

King David spent much time in silent contemplation and composed many Psalms praising God. He understood the connection between giving praise to God and receiving the gift of joy in return.  The Blessed Virgin Mary offered her beautiful canticle of praise, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices” (Lk 1:46) when she visited Elizabeth.  After months of silence Zachariah’s first words were “Blessed be The Lord.” (Lk 1:68)

This Advent we still have the opportunity for moments of silence, moments of prayer, and moments of praise.  We have time to make room in our hearts and invite Him in.  Thirty years ago I composed an Advent Prayer that I would like to share with you now.  May we all have a Blessed Christmas.

A Prayer to The Holy Family

Most Holy St. Joseph, my protector and guide, watch over me with the love and faithfulness you showed toward Jesus and Mary.  May I follow your example in humility and total submission to God’s will.  Teach me more and more each day to be obedient to the Will of God.

Holy Mary, Mother of God and my mother too, watch over me with your gentle care and teach me to walk in the way of holiness through charity, chastity (according to my state), obedience, and love for God’s Will.  Teach me to praise Him through all situations and to see His loving hands molding me as I endure difficulties.  Teach me to love as you love and trust as you trust.

My Beloved Jesus, who  humbled yourself to walk among us, may my contemplation of your great sacrifice cause me to love you more.  May your goodness and mercy teach me to forgive others.  Grant that I may always be as faithful to you as your Virgin Parents were.  And when I willfully lose my way through sin, hesitate not to run to me and bring me back to your fold.  My Shepherd of Goodness and Mercy, look not upon my sins, but upon my weakness and wretchedness.  Have compassion on me O God and teach me to be obedient to your patient instruction.

Holy Family, I desire to live as you lived at Nazareth – simply, humbly, and ever mindful of what is pleasing to God.  Teach me to serve God as you served Him and worry not about the problems of the day, but put my cares in our Loving Father’s hands so that I never lose my focus on Him and never cease praising Him.  Holy Family, intercede for me and bring me the graces I need to so that this prayer will come to pass.  Amen.

Continue ReadingBlessed Be God Forever:  An Advent Prayer
Read more about the article Be Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming

Be Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming

The Gospel for the First Sunday of Advent (Mt 24: 37-44) calls us to be alert to the coming of The Lord.  We do not know when He will return for the final Judgement, or if we will first experience our personal judgement at our own death, but we do know that Christ is coming at Christmas.  As we move forward with buying gifts for our families and friends, have we considered the birthday gift we want to offer Jesus?

We certainly can’t buy Him stuff because everything we have is really on loan to us by Him while we are here.  So what can we give Him that is truly ours to give?  The gift of our hearts is what He desires most, and while it is the simplest gift to give, it is paradoxically the hardest to give.  A heart worthy of being a gift to God takes a good deal of work on our part.  Advent is a call to do two things: turn away from being the innkeepers and turn toward being the shepherds.

The innkeepers had no room for Jesus and thus missed out on the precious gift of welcoming Him.  Their hearts were completely closed to Him, and this happens to us when we choose not to forgive. After starting with a good Confession, we must make room in our hearts for Him to dwell and this means dispelling the resentments, grudges, and stones of unforgiveness that are taking up room there.  The real challenge is to see that these things do not keep our enemies trapped and bound by our wrath – they keep us trapped.  Forgiveness does not mean that others “get away with” their wrongs, it means that we let God do God’s job and free up our time to build His Kingdom.  Forgiveness releases us, gives us peace, and prepares our hearts to receive numerous graces including the indwelling of Jesus who longs to be one with us. 

One of our most heroic saints, St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, demonstrates the power of forgiveness.  While he is being stoned to death, he prays for those who participate in the stoning, including Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes St. Paul.  Had it not been for Stephen’s prayers, there would have been no Paul and a great deal of the New Testament would have been absent.  Forgiveness goes well beyond healing our own souls; it brings graces that the entire world desperately needs.

Advent invites us to renew our commitment to the Gospel message, and to do the good that St. Paul exhorts us to do (Heb 13:16). Volunteering in a soup kitchen, putting up Christmas lights for an elderly neighbor, buying gifts for needy children, offering our musical or vocal talents in retirement homes, sending care packages to soldiers, or joining the Christmas choir at church are some ways we can reach out and bring Christ to the lonely and the poor. These gifts offered with love fill up our hearts so much more than they drain our wallets.  Our own loneliness is overcome by immersing ourselves in reaching out to others. Our sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15) given to Him in the sacred music of Advent and Christmas fills us with His peace.  It is in the act of bringing Jesus to others that our souls recognize Him in them. This is how we transform ourselves into shepherds.  And like the shepherds who longed to see Him, He will reveal Himself to us and fill us with Christmas joy.

Continue ReadingBe Ready, For The Son Of Man Is Coming
Read more about the article I Am the Light of the World

I Am the Light of the World

That’s what Jesus told us and He meant it on every level.  The Gospel of John begins “What has come into being in Him was life, life that was the light of men;” (Jn 1:4) John is so sublime that we cannot merely read the words, but pause and ask, “What does John mean?”

Many recent scientific discoveries help us ponder this mystery.  The Shroud of Turin has been reverenced for centuries as the burial cloth of Jesus.  Over the years scientists have tried to disprove that it is the face of Christ on the cloth, but the more the cloth is studied, the more information we learn that points to its authenticity.  Those who have studied the Shroud have come to the conclusion that the image could only have been made with an extremely powerful laser, like a burst of intense light coming through the fabric.  This technology did not exist before modern times. 

“I Am the light of the world.”  Creation itself came into being through Him when “God said, ‘Let there be light’” (Gn 1:3).  Even astronomers are coalescing around the Big Bang Theory to explain how the universe was formed; from a single point came light and energy. In the medical research field, scientists have now video recorded a burst of light at the moment of conception. This light is necessary for life to begin.

When Jesus says that He is the light of the world, He reminds us of what happened in Bethlehem.  When it was time for Mary to give birth, She felt an intensifying presence of joy.  At the moment of Jesus’s birth, Mary went into an ecstasy of Joy so profound and intense that only the Immaculata Herself could have survived it.  In a flash of radiant light Messiah was born.  John refers to this light when he says the “light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it” (Jn 1:5) This is the cause of our rejoicing at Christmas.

Each week of Advent the light increases as we light another candle: the candle of hope, the candle of peace, the candle of joy, and today, the fourth candle representing love.  It is at the end of this week that we will meet Love Himself.  We are invited to prepare a manger in our hearts for Him to dwell and so receive the Light of the world.

References:

https://www.newgeology.us/presentation24.html

https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/scientists-say-life-begins-at-conception-with-a-flash-of-light/

Continue ReadingI Am the Light of the World

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