Message of 12-24-10
Published: Sun, 12/19/10
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
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MESSAGE OF THE DAY
I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And
that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone.
Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world
seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.
- Taylor Caldwell
Merry Christmas!
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LECTIONARY READINGS FOR THE DAY
http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/
2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29; Lk
1:67-79
R. (2) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The favors of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever";
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations."
"He shall say of me, 'You are my father,
my God, the rock, my savior.'
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm."
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MEDITATION ON THE SCRIPTURES
- from
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
In the first reading, the Lord reminds David through Nathan that He
was the one who made David a great King in the first place. The
Lord is "a father to him." So who is David to worry about the
Lord? The reading reminds us to always remember that we are
products of our parents, of the families and circumstances into
which we were born. Our parents had a very large role in making us
who and what we are today. Should we therefore succumb to our
guilty feelings and second-guess the life decisions we have made?
Since our parents taught us how to make these life decisions,
wouldn't that be like second-guessing them?
From today's Gospel reading, we can also see where parents' true
joys lie: to watch their lineage blossom and grow and move out
into the world to do great things in the Lord. Zechariah was able
to watch his son, John the Baptist, grow into a young man who could
"turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God." For
those of us who are parents, we share in Zechariah's joy when we
see our children, or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, go out
in the world and make a difference.
- by Brian Kokensparger
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SPIRITUAL READING
- Fenelon's "Maxims of the Saints"
Our acceptance with God, when our hearts are wholly given to Him,
does not depend upon our being in a particular state, but simply
upon our being in that state in which God in His providence
requires us to be. The doctrine of holiness, therefore, while it
recognizes and requires, on its appropriate occasions, the prayer
of contemplation or of contemplative silence, is not only not
inconsistent with other forms of prayer, but is not at all
inconsistent with the practice of the ordinary acts, duties, and
virtues of life. It would be a great mistake to suppose, that a
man who bears the Savior's image, is any the less on that account a
good neighbor or a good citizen; that he can think less or work
less when he is called to it; or that he is not characterized by
the various virtues, appropriate to our present situation, of
temperance, truth, forbearance, forgiveness, kindness, chastity,
justice. There is a law, involved in the very nature of holiness,
which requires it to adapt itself to every variety of situation.
- Artilce 26
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