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- No Weekend Edition this week
Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world –
stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death – and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem over nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.
~ Henry Van Dyke
(How
will you express that Love today?) |
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IS 9:1-6; TI 2:11-14; PS 96: 1-3, 11-13; LK 2:1-14
R. Today is born our Savior,
Christ the Lord.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name. Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
Let the
heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
They shall exult before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
USCCB Lectionary
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LK 2:1-14 (Evening Liturgy)
Reflection is from DailyScripture.net
This day the whole community of heaven joins with all believers of good will on earth in a jubilant song of praise for the good news proclaimed by the angels on Christmas eve: Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people, for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11).
The joy of Christmas is not for a day or a season. It is an eternal joy, a joy that no one can take from us because it is the joy of Jesus Christ himself made present in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us (see Romans 5:2-5). The Lord gives us a supernatural joy which no pain nor sorrow can diminish, and which neither life
nor death can take away. Do you know the joy of your salvation in Jesus Christ?
"Lord our God, with the birth of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, your glory breaks on the world. As we celebrate his first coming, give us a foretaste of the joy that you will grant us when the fulness of his glory has filled the
earth." Paperback, Kindle
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The Way of Perfection, by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Describes the excellence of this prayer called the Paternoster, and the many
ways in which we shall find consolation in it.
(Blessed be His name for ever and ever. Amen. For His sake I entreat the Eternal Father to forgive my debts and grievous sins: though no one has wronged me, and I have therefore no one to forgive, I have myself need for forgiveness every day. May He give me grace so that every day I may have some petition to lay before
Him.)
The good Jesus, then, has taught us a sublime method of prayer, and begged that, in this our life of exile, we may be like the angels, if we endeavour, with our whole might, to make our actions conform to our words -- in short, to be like the children of such a Father, and the brethren of such a Brother. His Majesty knows that if, as I say, our actions and our words are one, the Lord will unfailingly fulfil our petitions, give us His
kingdom and help us by means of supernatural gifts, such as the Prayer of Quiet, perfect contemplation and all the other favours which the Lord bestows on our trifling efforts -- and everything is trifling which we can achieve and gain by ourselves alone.
- Chapter
36
(Keep in mind that she is writing to sisters in a cloistered contemplative order.) Paperback, Kindle
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