Sometimes when I pray, it feels like God is all around me - so close, that when I’m done, I almost hate to say amen. Saying amen - in a way, that’s
almost like ending a call…like hanging up, you know? It feels like God just evaporates out of the room. So that made me think…wouldn’t it be great if we could leave a prayer off the hook? Just leave it off the hook forever. Then whenever we stopped to listen, God would be right there breathing.
- Laura Peyton Roberts
(A lovely thought! How would you go about leaving the phone “off the hook”? How would you
listen?)
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MI 5:1-4A; PS 13:6AB, 6C
MT 1:18-23
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary
was betrothed to Joseph,
but before they lived together,
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,
yet unwilling to expose her to shame,
decided to divorce her quietly.
Such was his intention when, behold,
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been
conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins."
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him
Emmanuel, which means "God is with us."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
The scriptures for today’s feast move us to contemplate God’s
preference for the small and insignificant. Micah describes the Messiah’s birthplace as “too small to be among the clans of Judah” (with places like the big city of Jerusalem). And the recital of the details of the Messiah’s family tree suggests that God has a penchant for the smallest of details! These passages can also move us to ponder the mystery of today’s feast: God’s penchant for the smallest of details arranged that the mother of Jesus should be a particular
woman, born in a particular place, to two particular parents, at a particular time.
All of these details lead us to marvel at the possibility that God may reverence and even delight in the smallest details of our lives. Perhaps because of our “bigger is better” prejudice, we too easily reject out of hand this possibility. We may imagine that God is aware of our littleness, but the suggestion that he might actually have an interest in
and want involvement with that littleness challenges us.
- by Fr. Richard Gabuzda Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 42
“Prayer is a right understanding of
that fulness of joy that is to come, with accordant longing and sure trust”
OUR Lord God willeth that we have true understanding, and specially in three things that belong to our prayer. The first is: by whom and how that our prayer springeth. By whom, He sheweth when He saith: I am [the] Ground; and how, by
His Goodness: for He saith first: It is my will. The second is: in what manner and how we should use our prayer; and that is that our will be turned unto the will of our Lord, enjoying: and so meaneth He when He saith: I make thee to will it. The third is that we should know the fruit and the end of our prayers: that is, that we be oned and like to our Lord in all things; and to this intent and for this end was all this lovely lesson shewed. And He will help us, and we shall make it so as He
saith Himself;—Blessed may He be!
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