Prophecy

Just wanted to share a bit. Perhaps it is more common than I thought, but did anyone else notice how the readings from Sunday prophesied the Magi coming to Christ? I guess I just never came across these passages, except the last couple years when I've been Catholic but had not gotten to take them in.

Reading I
Is 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.

Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
(cf. 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.

Reading II
Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Gospel
Mt 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

they departed for their country by another way.

January 22

I did not know this prior to today, but January 22nd is a special day set aside by the Church to perform penance for violations against human dignity caused by abortion in our world today. I think it's a good if, as a small New Year's resolution, we all promise to perform some special act of penance (abstinence from meat, the rosary, get up early, fast, etc.) Just wanted to share, but maybe everyone else already knew about this!


In all the dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life. The Mass "For Peace and Justice" (no. 22 of the "Masses for Various Needs") should be celebrated with violet vestments as an appropriate liturgical observance for this day.

General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373

Latin Prayers and their Translations

This site include a great number of Latin prayers and their English translations. I'm happy to see some of these that we don't use often in our daily lives. Take a look and hopefully they will enrich your life as well. Thanks to Soutenus for sharing these!

Indulgences

A lot of discussion has gone into what an indulgence really is. Of course, it is NOT buying a chicken bone said to be that of St. Peter (which may or may not have been a serious abuse in the Catholic Church in the middle ages.) Instead, it is the remittance of temporal punishment for sin, and it comes in two forms - plenary and partial. Take a look at this from EWTN. It might be the best discussion of such I have ever seen. It also is definitely not easy, because who can honestly say their heart is completely removed from all attachment or desire for sin?

Spirit of Ecumencism

In the spirit of ecumenicism, as we draw advent to a close, read this great story about a Protestant minister and member of Congress willing to stand up for moral values. It strengthens my feeling that all Christians need more than ever to unify under Christ.

Continuing the Absurd

Recently, my wife was taking photographs for a journal of a child who lives down the street from us. She was still pregnant at the time, and the girl asked her how many children she would like to have. Jokingly, she said "oh, about seven or eight". Her mother jumped into the conversation to say "Don't you care about the world's population?"

This attitude has been developing for some time in our world. The fight against the unborn is following the same trend, as contraception and abortion are not being seen as a way to control climate change and make the world "a better place". We have probably all heard of the monstrous abuses conducted in China in the name of population control, but as Catholic online reports, it seems to be spreading. It's time for us as Catholics to stand up to this kind of nonsense.

Sometimes Catholics will say that they don't need to hear about abortion because it isn't applicable to their lives, so it should be kept out of homilies. They ignore the fact that all of us, even if we aren't having abortions personally, have a responsibility to use our money, time, writing,prayer, and other resources to fight against abortion, contraception, and population control.

Grey Areas

Fr. Andrew spoke in his homily this morning about grey areas and the Church. Sometimes when we think about what constitutes a sin or how to live our lives, or what is a mortal sin, we see grey areas. We wonder "how far can I go with this without it being sin?" Fr. Andrew correctly pointed out in his homily this morning that God - through his Word, but even more so through the Church has been specific as to what is right and wrong - so if we are talking about sexual issues (contraception, homosexuality, sex before marriage, etc.), life issues (abortion, euthanasia, etc.), or even the 10 commandments, the Church clearly defines right and wrong. Grey areas are things that we manufacture, many times in order to avoid responsibility for doing right when it seems burdensome or the cross seems too heavy.

I thought it was a very good homily. Now if only we could figure out one spelling for grey (gray) in English...

News of the Bizarre

Catholic Online reports that Barbara Boxer (obviously as nutty if not more so than Nancy Pelosi, but at least not Catholic) has compared abortion to Viagra. Well, Barbara, I will gladly give up my insurance discount for Viagra if you will give up insurance paying for abortion. I promise.

Happy Advent!

I hope everyone's Advent is going well! I had a few (well, technically two) thoughts and reflections today during our monthly Parish Catechesis.

Advent, is a time of waiting for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ - not only in the sense of commemoration of His physical birth on Earth in Bethlehem, but also symbolically of his Second Coming. Thus, it is a time of anxiety, of restlessness, of awaiting hope to come.

I feel that the Advent Wreath does a very good job of personifying this in the candles we light each week. Slowly the darkness peels away, until the crescendo builds to Christmas Day, when our Lord and Savior was born.







My second thought was regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, we were read the Nativity Story, and told to attempt to personify ourselves as something present (I chose the perspective of the straw in the barn - but that's irrelevant). Our priest was remarking how all mothers could identify with Mary as a mother. This got me thinking about the anxiety our Blessed Mother must have felt throughout her pregnancy! I began to reflect on my own anxiety when preparing for my first baby - all of the shopping, decorating, and doctor appointments. However, I did not have to even consider, or try to understand, that I would be giving birth to the Savior of the World! How brave Mary was, and how much strength she must have embodied. Can you imagine if you were told that the child in your womb was destined to be the President of the United States? Now consider the task and responsibility of Mary the Mother of God!

Oh Blessed Mother Mary, pray for us.

Hebrews Chapter 3

Sorry I'm so slow about this, but here go my notes on Hebrews Chapter 3:

vs 1 - We need to see the word "confession" here as something somewhat deeper as Catholics...it incorporates all that we believe. Christ is the high priest of it all. "Confession" here reminds me of "profession" such as we do of the Creed at every mass.

vs 7-11 - these verses are extremely important (quoted from the Psalms) to Catholics. Every priest, deacon, and religious sister and brother in the world says these words every single day in the invitatory of the Liturgy of the Hours. That is how important they are to us. We can never lose faith and harden our hearts. We have a responsibility to the world to show forth the true light of Faith even in the face of adversity and in the world we live in where our Faith is ridiculed and persecuted.

vs 12+ - The author reflects here on the Psalm and its meaning to us as Christians. As we "share in Christ" through the Eucharist, his precious body and blood is given to us every mass and make us one with him - we become his Body through that Eucharist. With the graces we receive from that sacrament, how much more must we as Catholics not all into the hardening of hearts and unbelief we see in the story of the Jewish people following Moses.

A Victory for Catholics!

Well, I don't want to exaggerate the extent of how we were involved, but all three major TV news sources (CNN, FOX, and MSNBC) reported that the Catholic Church was a heavy hand in negotiating with the House of Representatives including speaker Nancy Pelosi on the Health Care bill. It ended up that thanks to their efforts (again according to the news, we had a major impact) and to Democrats who were moral enough to stand up against abortion funding in the health care bill, we passed an amendment to limit funding to very specific cases (rape, incest, life of mother). Although I still can't support a bill that allows any abortions at all, at least the Church was active enough to bring this issue to the forefront and win a minor victory. Continue to pray for a total end to abortion and give thanks to the Lord for his mercy endures forever.