December2 08

Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for December 2008 is: "That, faced by the growing expansion of the culture of violence and death, the Church may courageously promote the culture of life through all her apostolic and missionary activities".

His mission intention is: "That, especially in mission countries, Christians may show through gestures of brotherliness that the Child born in the grotto in Bethlehem is the luminous Hope of the world".

(December 16) Blessed Honoratus Kozminski (1825-1916)
       He was born in Biala Podlaska (Siedlce, Poland) and studied architecture at the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw. When Wenceslaus was almost sixteen, his father died. Suspected of participating in a rebellious conspiracy, the young man was imprisoned from April 1846 until the following March. In 1848 he received the Capuchin habit and a new name. Four years later he was ordained. In 1855 he helped Blessed Mary Angela Truszkowska establish the Felician Sisters. Honoratus served as guardian in a Warsaw friary already in 1860. He dedicated his energies to preaching, to giving spiritual direction and to hearing confessions. He worked tirelessly with the Secular Franciscan Order. The failed 1864 revolt against Czar Alexander III led to the suppression of all religious Orders in Poland. The Capuchins were expelled from Warsaw and forced to live in Zakroczym, where Honoratus continued his ministry and began founding twenty-six male and female religious congregations, whose members took vows but wore no religious habit and did not live in community. They operated much as today’s secular institutes do. Seventeen of these groups still exist as religious congregations. The writings of Father Honoratus are extensive: forty-two volumes of sermons, 21 volumes of letters as well as 52 printed works on ascetical theology, Marian devotion, historical writings, pastoral writings — not counting his many writings for the religious congregations he founded. In 1906, various bishops sought the reorganization of these groups under their authority; Honoratus defended their independence but was removed from their direction in 1908. He promptly urged the members of these congregations to obey the Church’s decisions regarding their future. He “always walked with God,” said a contemporary. In 1895 he was appointed Commissary General of the Capuchins in Poland. Three years before he had come to Nowe Miasto, where he died and was buried. He was beatified in 1988.
    The story is told that Francis and Brother Leo, his secretary, were once on a journey and Francis volunteered to tell Leo what perfect joy is. Francis began by saying what it was not: news that the kings of France, England, as well as all the world’s bishops and many university professors had decided to become friars, news that the friars had received the gift of tongues and miracles, or news that the friars had converted all the non-Christians in the world. No, perfect joy for them would be to arrive cold and hungry at St. Mary of the Angels, Francis’ headquarters outside Assisi, and be mistaken by the porter for thieves and beaten by the same porter and driven back into the cold and rain. Francis said that if, for the love of God, he and Leo could endure such treatment without losing their patience and charity, that would be perfect joy (cited in Regis Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius Brady, O.F.M., Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, pages 165-166).
    Honoratus worked very zealously to serve the Church, partly by establishing a great variety of religious congregations adapted to the special circumstances of Poland in those years. He could have retreated into bitterness and self-pity when the direction of those congregations was taken away from him; that was certainly a “perfect joy” experience. He urged the members of these groups to obey willingly and gladly, placing their gifts at the service of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
    When the Church removed Honoratus from the direction of his religious congregations and changed their character, he wrote: “Christ’s Vicar himself has revealed God’s will to us, and I carry out this order with greatest faith.... Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that you are being given the opportunity to show heroic obedience to the holy Church.” (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Zep 3:1-2, 9-13; Ps 34:2-3, 6-7, 17-18, 19 and 23; Matt 21:28-32

What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go

and work today in the vineyard.' 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted? The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. (Matthew 21:28-32)

A presidential election. One candidate is way ahead of the other and the result seems certain. But for some reason right to the very end the losing candidate refuses to give up. He just goes on and on, exuding enthusiasm for his cause all the while gaining ground. He does not believe things are

set in stone. The significant thing to notice is that he believes that people can change and the winning candidate does too because he urges his followers not to take anything for granted but to get to the polls and vote. Whatever actually does happen, the voters have free will. They can change and the difference that can result is momentous. This applies not only to an event such as a national election, but also to so many other things in life. A person begins badly, making so many mistakes and putting his life in disorder. He gradually comes out of the situation his wrong turns led him into and he begins achieving true results. He works well and his life turns around. How has this happened? It happened because he had the will to change. In our Gospel today (Matthew 21:28-32) our Lord contrasts what a person says he will do with what he actually does. What is all-important is not so much his words as his decision and his acting on that decision. There were two sons in our Lord’s brief story. The one said he would do his father’s will and the other said he would not. There are so many parallels to this in life. The one person grows up in a good family and receives all the help to lead a good, religious and productive life. He is drawn along in that good course and readily says, and gives the impression of saying, that he will continue to live in this fruitful way. He says he will do the right thing. But he coasts along, not really putting his mind to it. He does not really work at his moral and religious life. He remains or becomes mediocre and begins to become spiritually complacent. He becomes careless. His interest lessens. He even eventually falls away from his religious faith. He began by saying, I will, sir, but does not do it.

The other person begins poorly. Let us take a real life example. Matt Talbot (1856 — 1925) was born in the poverty of Dublin's inner city. He began drinking at twelve years of age and became a chronic alcoholic. It was the drug culture of the 19th century. Matt was an addict. After sixteen years he decided to get out of his hopeless predicament and kick his dreadful habit. A priest helped him, giving him a method of rehabilitation which included the future twelve step program of Alcoholics Anonymous founded some fifty years later. After a terrible struggle and through prayer and sacrifice he found himself again. What Alcoholics Anonymous later called the Higher Power was the God of his Catholic Faith. He placed his faith in our Lord and embarked on a tremendously serious Christian life far beyond the ordinary, remaining sober for forty years until his death. He had only a handful at his funeral but is now a candidate for canonisation. Some day he will be known as Saint Matthew Talbot. From being a hopeless case he became a man of heroic virtue, a very close follower of our Lord. He is an example of the son in our Lord’s parable who, when asked by his father to go and work in his vineyard, said no! But afterwards thought the better of it and went. He changed his mind. He had the power of freedom, even though through the self-abuse of excessive alcohol he greatly disabled himself. But he still had that freedom and by entrusting himself to the power and grace of God he changed his mind and embarked on the road which God all along wanted him to take, which was that of obedience to his will. He entered the kingdom of God which is union with Jesus, and did so with flying colours. He is a shining example of the younger son of our Lord’s parable, one whose conversion our Lord held up before the leaders for their emulation. If we do not convert from our sins and apathy, we shall be left behind by those who do. Let us learn from those who choose to change, those who convert, and take our cue from them.

At the end of every day we ought resolve to convert from the sins of that day. We ought recognize that we have (perhaps) said to our Lord that we will recognize his will and yet have not done it in this or that respect. Let those who have done the will of God be our inspiration. Let us resolve every day to recognize our sins, to repent, and to resume once again our daily effort to hear the will of God and to put it into practice.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Rather than in not having, true poverty consists in being detached, in voluntarily renouncing one's dominion over things.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Our pilgrimage to the holy city would not be possible if it were not made in the Church, the seed and the prefiguration of the heavenly Jerusalem. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain" (Ps 126:1). Who is this Lord, if not our Lord Jesus Christ? It is he who founded his Church and built it on rock, on the faith of the Apostle Peter. In the words of Saint Augustine, "It is Jesus Christ our Lord who himself builds his temple. Many indeed labour to build, yet unless the Lord intervenes to build, in vain do the builders labour" (Tract in Ps. 126:2). Dear friends, Augustine goes on to ask how we can know who these builders are, and his answer is this: "All those who preach God's word in the Church, all who are ministers of God's divine Sacraments. All of us run, all of us work, all of us build", yet it is God alone who, within us, "builds, exhorts, and inspires awe; who opens our understanding and guides our minds to faith" (ibid.). What marvels surround our work in the service of God's word! We are instruments of the Holy Spirit; God is so humble that he uses us to spread his word. We become his voice, once we have listened carefully to the word coming from his mouth. We place his word on our lips in order to bring it to the world. He accepts the offering of our prayer and through it he communicates himself to everyone we meet. Truly, as Paul tells the Ephesians, "he has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing" (1:3), for he has chosen us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, and he made us his elect, even before we came into existence, by a mysterious gift of his grace.
(Continuing)

Scripture today: Isaiah 45: 6-8.18.21 25; Psalm 85ab.10 14; Luke 7:18- 23

John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?'" At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." (Luke 7:18 23)

Awesome and lowly There are numerous celebrated events in the Old Testament that manifest the awesomeness of Yahweh God. His striking the Egyptians with plagues and disasters, his leading the children of Israel through the Red Sea and then drowning the pursuing Egyptians,

his feeding the moving population with manna and with quails, his going ahead of them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night — all of these manifestations set him apart from the gods of the peoples. He is the one and only God, and his chosen people are to have no other gods apart from Him. Upon their arrival at Sinai, Moses went up the mountain to God (Exodus 19) and spoke with him. God instructed him to tell the people not so much as to touch the mountain — and if anyone were to touch it, that person must be stoned to death. Then Moses descended from the mountain to tell the people they were to sanctify themselves for the coming theophany. Then on the third day “there were peals of thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.... Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke, for the Lord came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking and God answering him with thunder” (19:16-19). This is described as if it is historical fact. The God of earth and heaven is making himself known to his people. The people were to keep at a distance — reminiscent of Moses’ own initial meeting with God at the Burning Bush. He was told to come no nearer, for it was holy ground. Then God gave his commandments to the people. We read that “when the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled” (20:18). Or let us take another scene a few centuries later. Elijah is in confrontation with the four hundred prophets of Baal. He challenges them to get their god to consume the sacrifice. Nothing happens. Then with a brief prayer to Yahweh, fire from heaven descends and consumes Elijah’s sacrifice. Powerful indeed!

But the greatest act of divine power in the history of salvation was the Incarnation. The infinite God, the One who is not just a being, but pure Being without limit, took a human nature. A new-born babe, held in the arms of his mother, was the God of Sinai, the God who consumed by fire from heaven the sacrifice of Elijah. Humanly he was helpless and utterly dependent. How could this be? Well, man cannot understand it, but the Church in her proclamation and preaching of the doctrine of the Incarnation distinguished between Person and Nature, both in reference to the Trinity and in reference to the Incarnation. God’s nature — which is his being — is one, but he is three distinct Persons. The Second Person took to himself a human nature, while retaining (of course) his divine nature. That is to say, the Second Person of the Trinity, true God, became man while in his person being divine. But now, the point here is that in his humanity, the incarnate God became as all men are, excepting sin. Sin never could touch him, though he could be approached from external sources by temptation. Satan could approach him and try to persuade him to follow a path different from that which was divinely willed — as could his ardent disciple, Simon Peter. The glory of God become man was veiled. His humanity was necessarily limited, and his divinity was not immediately beheld. His path and his work too, inasmuch as it was the path and the work of a man, veiled to a point the infinite power of the Person who thus worked. It was only gradually that he let his glory be seen. Thus it is that when John the Baptist’s disciples told him of the work of Jesus of Nazareth, John was puzzled. It did not sound like the mighty Messiah he had expected and announced to the people. It seems that John had formed his impression on certain prophecies, but perhaps not on others. In any case, he needed confirmation. So he sent his disciples to plainly ask his holy relative if he was the One long predicted or not. Are you the Messiah, after all? Christ in answer assured John that he was, and pointed to what he was doing, suggestive of other prophecies (Luke 7:18-23).

All this is to say that, wonder of wonders, the awesome God of earth and heaven, Creator of all things seen and unseen, the Holy of holies, pure limitless Being, is now our Brother. We creatures now approach the living God through the humanity of Jesus Christ. There is now an extraordinary accessibility about God. He is so very accessible — almost, we could say, so very ordinary. He, the source of rapture in heaven, is day and night in all our churches in the Blessed Sacrament, silently awaiting our presence. He is the living God and is man, and, we might say, humbler still. He abides in our midst as the living Head of the body of which we are the members. Let us approach him, then, but with a lively faith in him, eyes wide open to who it is we are thus approaching.

(E.J.Tyler)

Thursday of the third week in Advent B

Prayers today: Lord, you are near, and all your commandments are just; long have I known that you decreed them for ever. Psalm 118: 151-152

Lord, our sins bring us unhappiness. Hear our prayer for courage and strength. May the coming of your Son bring us the joy of salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,...

Scripture today: Isaiah 54: 1-10; Psalm 30: 2 & 4, 5-6, 11-12a, & 13b; Luke 7: 24-30;

And when the messengers of John had departed, Jesus began to speak to the people about John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who go in for fine clothes and live luxuriously are to be found at court! Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you, among those born of women there is no-one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. All the people, even the tax collectors, who heard him, acknowledged God’s plan as right by accepting John’s baptism. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John. (Luke 7: 24-30)

The Kingdom Though it seems that John the Baptist had been raised in Judea and in the wilderness, and had conducted his prophetic ministry mainly in Judea, he travelled into Galilee to confront Herod Antipas at court over his public marital situation. This happened perhaps soon after our Lord’s baptism.

His words before Herod struck home devastatingly, for Herodias hated him and Herod imprisoned him (Luke 3: 20). Yet Antipas suddenly began hearing of yet another prophet and this time in his own territory of Galilee — and a prophet of greater renown than the one he now had under lock and key. In chapter 4 of Luke, Christ returns “in the power of the Spirit to Galilee” (vs. 14) and taught in their synagogues, including that of Nazareth. The events and teachings of Christ in the chapters (5, 6 and 7) following John’s arrest are situated in Galilee. However, our Lord’s fame was extending beyond Galilee to Judea, Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, from which parts people came to him (Luke 6: 17). The point is repeated in the following chapter. The word spread “throughout Judea and through all the region round about” (7: 17) that “a great prophet had arisen” and that God had visited his people (7:16). Whatever of the fame of John, there was talk of Jesus up and down the country from Galilee to Judea and beyond. Jesus was quickly surpassing his holy and famed predecessor. Word of all this reached John by means of his disciples, and he sent two of them to ask our Lord plainly what he was about. Was he the Messiah, or not? Despite the fame, what John was hearing was not what he expected. He had announced the coming of “one mightier than I,” who will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire,” and who will “purge the floor” and “burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3: 16-17). Further, he had identified Jesus as the One. It looks as if John was expecting a much more dramatic divine judgment and a putting down of evil and evildoers. He may not have adverted to other prophecies which Christ in his ministry was fulfilling.

In any case, the arrival of John’s messengers prompted our Lord to speak of John and of the Kingdom he himself was announcing. There was a difference — John had called on the people to repent, for the Messiah was imminent. But Jesus was the very Blessing that had been promised. Essentially, John was a prophet of the Old Testament, but greater than them all for he brought to the moment all they had been predicting. He spoke of the Messiah and actually identified him. But Jesus was the Messiah-King himself and was establishing God’s Kingdom. Our Lord in his words following the departure of John’s messengers, brings out the difference between what John stood for and what he himself was offering. Christ had the highest praise for John, indicating that John was one of the greatest saints. If Mary the mother of Christ is incomparable in holiness among the children of men, and if Joseph the husband of Mary must be counted the greatest of saints after her because of his ineffable intimacy with Jesus his foster-son all those years at Nazareth (and with the all-holy Mary, his wife), John the Baptist too must be reckoned very great indeed. The Angel had declared he would be “great in the sight of God” and “filled with the Holy Spirit even in his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:32). As a youth he had been strong in spirit, and the hand of the Lord had been with him. Here, though, Jesus Christ puts his seal on the fact of John’s holiness. He was “much more than a prophet.” He was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi, the messenger of God preparing the way for the Messiah. There was no greater born of woman than John — a statement not to be taken literally, of course, but one that drove home to his audience how very pleasing in the sight of God John was. He was a magnificent specimen of the Old Testament, a tribute to all which that dispensation could do for man. But it could not be compared with what was now on offer. “The least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” What Jesus now offered eclipsed all that had come in preparation for it. Just as Jesus surpassed John, so did the dispensation he was bringing surpass that which was represented by John.

Let us appreciate Jesus Christ and his revelation, together with all that he has done for us! It exceeds all that has ever been seen in the history of the world, including the best of whatever has come to pass, and the best of God’s prophets. As St Paul writes, eye has not seen nor ear heard all that God has in store for those who love him. All this is found in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom, as St Paul writes, is to be found every heavenly blessing. Let it not pass us by, then!
(E.J.Tyler)

Friday of the third week in Advent B

Prayers today: The Lord is coming from heaven in splendour to visit his people, and bring them peace and eternal life.

All-powerful Father, guide us with your love as we await the coming of your Son. Keep us faithful that we may be helped through life and brought to salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.

Scripture today: Isaiah 56: 1-3.6-8; Psalm 67: 2-3, 5, 7-8; John 5: 33-36;

Jesus said to the Jews, You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very works that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testify that the Father has sent me. (John 5: 33-36)

Disposition In today’s Gospel our Lord speaks of testimony to his person. I remember watching an interview on television with a prominent Australian politician. He was asked if he were a Christian — the meaning of the question being, was he a Christian by conviction?

The politician correctly began by saying that, well, the critical thing is the acceptance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not accept this, and so he would have to describe himself as a fellow-traveller with Christianity. He did not enlarge on why he did not accept the apostolic testimony that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. I suspect that it was not due to any careful analysis by him of the testimony of witnesses as reported in the New Testament, but due primarily to his judgment that the whole thing it was totally unlikely, indeed preposterous. The Resurrection was antecedently improbable, and this estimate of what was likely would have been due to his experience such as it was, to the general principles which governed his life, and well, to his lack of interest. That is to say, because of his own general position on things, including God and Christ, he would have been persuaded of the total implausibility of the Resurrection, even prior to any question of evidence. This raises the question of motives and evidence of religious belief. While one man reads the Gospels and believes Christ’s testimony about himself, another reads and disbelieves, or remains agnostic. For instance, our Gospel passage today is taken from the Gospel of St John. In the first chapter of that Gospel we read that John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said to two of his disciples, “There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Thereupon those two disciples followed Jesus, stayed with him that day, and the next day came away convinced disciples. On the basis of the testimony of John, they expected Jesus to be all that John had said he was. The antecedent probability was overwhelming. Having met him for themselves, they knew it. In fact, they did not need miracles, nor any further testimony, even though the issue was momentous.

Our Lord refers to the testimony he has received, and he refers to it in order “that you may be saved.” The testimony of John helps a person be convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, and so helps towards faith in him. Then he continues, “John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very works that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testify that the Father has sent me” (John 5: 33-36). The prophets and the prophecies bear witness to him, though the precise sense in which their prophecies tell is manifested by the event, which is to say by the person and life of Jesus Christ. Our Lord says that his own works also bear witness to him, and by this we ought surely mean not only his miracles but the holiness of his life. Can any of you convict me of sin? he asked his opponents. I always do what pleases him, he said. My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work (John 4: 34). In fact, he says that this is a weightier testimony than that of John — or, any of the prophets, we might add. “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very works that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testify that the Father has sent me” (John 5: 33-36). Now, this point is very important. We contemplate Jesus in the Gospels and come to know him by his words and works recorded therein. It is our increasing knowledge of the person of Jesus which will tell most strongly on us, in terms of belief. Generally, it is the person who approaches Jesus Christ with the dispositions of the first disciples, who gains firm faith in him. Their dispositions were such that they were truly open to him, expecting that he would be the one John had said he was. The Church testifies to Jesus, and in this acts as a kind of parallel to John. She testifies to the world that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one who approaches Jesus Christ with the (perhaps unconscious) attitude that this is unlikely will have real difficulty attaining to faith.

All this is to say that we need to be good soil if we are to receive the seed of the word of God and bear fruit. But how can we be good soil? To a considerable extent, it is a question of our dispositions, and the complex of attitudes and opinions that result in what we take to be likely. On this will turn the perceived value of testimony and proof, and its effect with respect to conviction. We ought pray to God to give us the right starting points in life, to form our dispositions and attitudes so that the signs he gives us of his will and the summonses to faith that he issues will strike our hearts and bring forth fruits of faith and holiness.

(E.J.Tyler)

(December 17)   Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary
       Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, the brother of Martha and Mary, was the one of whom the Jews said, "See how much he loved him." In their sight Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. Legends abound about the life of Lazarus after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is supposed to have left a written account of what he saw in the next world before he was called back to life. Some say he followed Peter into Syria. Another story is that despite being put into a leaking boat by the Jews at Jaffa, he, his sisters and others landed safely in Cyprus. There he died peacefully after serving as bishop for 30 years. A church was built in his honour in Constantinople and some of his reputed relics were transferred there in 890. A Western legend has the oarless boat arriving in Gaul. There he was bishop of Marseilles, was martyred after making a number of converts and was buried in a cave. His relics were transferred to the new cathedral in Autun in 1146.
           Whatever of the legends, it is certain there was early devotion to the saint. Around the year 390, the pilgrim lady Etheria talks of the procession that took place on the Saturday before Palm Sunday at the tomb where Lazarus had been raised from the dead. In the West, Passion Sunday was called Dominica de Lazaro, and Augustine tells us that in Africa the Gospel of the raising of Lazarus was read at the office of Palm Sunday.          (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: Genesis 49:2, 8-10; Psalm 72:1-4ab, 7-8, 17; Matthew 1:1-17

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of

Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of KingDavid. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (Matthew 1:1-17)

What are some of the thoughts that occur to us as we read St Matthew’s account of our Lord’s ancestry beginning from Abraham? Well, to begin with, St Matthew makes it clear that Christ was a Hebrew. He is, of course, God the Son, a divine person from all eternity. In the fulness of time he became man. He was not born a Roman, or a Greek. He was not born of any one of a number of

possible races. He was born a Hebrew, a direct descendant of Abraham to whom had been given the promise that through him — Abraham — all the nations would be blessed. Christ was that blessing that had come to the nations. That is to say, Matthew’s genealogy gives us a sense of the providence of God in history. God was guiding the affairs of his chosen people to bring about the great Result. Consider this providence of God. Christ’s birth occurred in the fulness of time and was the goal of the story encapsulated in Matthew’s genealogy. But think of the unimaginable number of circumstances involved in this long period from Abraham to the birth of Jesus. What might help us to appreciate this is the thought of the circumstances that combine to bring about a meeting between two spouses, their marriage and the conception and birth of their offspring. Each of us can easily realize that due to this or that circumstance our parents may never have met, in which case we who were born of our parents would not now exist. Due to numerous transient circumstances that were in no way necessary our parents met, married, and we now have the life we enjoy. That each of us exists at all we can attribute to the mighty, discrete and gentle providence of God, and the thought of the countless circumstances involved in this should help us appreciate the immensity of the providence of God in human history. Just extrapolate from the providence of God involved in one human life to that which must have been involved Christ’s genealogy spanning at least seventeen hundred years of countless circumstances from Abraham to Jesus. From Abraham to Christ God’s Providence was bringing his Blessing to the world.

The thought of the Providence of God as present in the genealogy of Christ ought give each of us a great hope that the providence and care of God will bring us to the knowledge, the love and the service of Christ. God will help us. The genealogy of Matthew (Matthew 1:1-17) illustrates another important point. Let us notice how ordinary was so much of the story contained in that genealogy. There were some saints and there were many sinners. There were some extraordinary events but most of it was ordinary. God was reaching his goals through and within the ups and downs of ordinary life from generation to generation. There were plenty of downs, plenty of reversals, plenty of sorrows, plenty of unforeseen turns of events. Consider one such event. The great king David had for his great grandmother Ruth, originally a pagan. She happened to remain with her mother-in-law when she chose to return to Israel. Ruth was a good though ordinary pagan woman and came from Moab to Bethlehem. She was an ancestor of Christ the redeemer of the world. God was working through and in ordinary events and persons to fulfil his divine plan. Is this not so very consoling? Not only is there a providence which is present and working in our life, but though our life be very ordinary, though we be limited and flawed, though there be many ups and downs in our life, many advances and perhaps even more reversals, the power of God is greater than the ordinariness of our life. It is precisely in and through the ordinary that God will do his work in and through us. What we need to do is ensure that our ordinary life be at his disposal. We ought aim every day to place in his hands all the ordinary things we are called to do. In all the ordinary duties that make up our life it is God whom we should be serving. There was a grandeur in the story that Matthew represents in his genealogy. That grandeur can be present in our ordinary life too. Let us make of the ordinary life God calls us to live something grand.

Our ordinary life will be grand if in everything we do we are striving to love and serve God. Day by day we ought be starting again and again with the sole intention of doing the will of God as it is present in the duties before us. The greatest persons in the long story of Christ’s genealogy are two that are mentioned at the end: Mary and her husband Joseph. They lived humble and hidden lives, very ordinary lives, but given over to one thing: doing the will of God in the fulfilment of their everyday work and duties. Let us take them as our model in following Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

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If you are a man of God, you will seek to despise riches as intensely as men of the world seek to possess them.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

God's Word, the Eternal Word, who was with him from the beginning (cf. .Jn 1:1), was born of a woman, born a subject of the law, in order to redeem the subjects of the law, "to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons" (cf. Gal 4:4-5). The Son of God took flesh in the womb of a woman, a virgin. Your cathedral is a living hymn of stone and light in praise of that act, unique in the annals of human history: the eternal Word of God entering our history in the fulness of time to redeem us by his self-offering in the sacrifice of the Cross. Our earthly liturgies, entirely ordered to the celebration of this unique act within history, will never fully express its infinite meaning. Certainly, the beauty of our celebrations can never be sufficiently cultivated, fostered and refined, for nothing can be too beautiful for God, who is himself infinite Beauty. Yet our earthly liturgies will never be more than a pale reflection of the liturgy celebrated in the Jerusalem on high, the goal of our pilgrimage on earth. May our own celebrations nonetheless resemble that liturgy as closely as possible and grant us a foretaste of it!
(Continuing)

(December 18)   Blessed Anthony Grassi (1592-1671)
        Anthony’s father died when his son was only 10 years old, but the young lad inherited his father’s devotion to Our Lady of Loreto. As a schoolboy he frequented the local church of the Oratorian Fathers, joining the religious order when he was 17. Already a fine student, he soon gained a reputation in his religious community as a "walking dictionary" who quickly grasped Scripture and theology. For some time he was tormented by scruples, but they reportedly left him at the very hour he celebrated his first Mass. From that day, serenity penetrated his very being. In 1621, at age 29, Anthony was struck by lightning while praying in the church of the Holy House at Loreto. He was carried paralyzed from the church, expecting to die. When he recovered in a few days he realized that he had been cured of acute indigestion. His scorched clothes were donated to the Loreto church as an offering of thanks for his new gift of life. More important, Anthony now felt that his life belonged entirely to God. Each year thereafter he made a pilgrimage to Loreto to express his thanks. He also began hearing confessions, and came to be regarded as an outstanding confessor. Simple and direct, he listened carefully to penitents, said a few words and gave a penance and absolution, frequently drawing on his gift of reading consciences. In 1635 he was elected superior of the Fermo Oratory. He was so well regarded that he was re-elected every three years until his death. He was a quiet person and a gentle superior who did not know how to be severe. At the same time he kept the Oratorian constitutions literally, encouraging the community to do likewise. He refused social or civic commitments and instead would go out day or night to visit the sick or dying or anyone else needing his services. As he grew older, he had a God-given awareness of the future, a gift which he frequently used to warn or to console. But age brought its challenges as well. He suffered the humility of having to give up his physical faculties one by one. First was his preaching, necessitated after he lost his teeth. Then he could no longer hear confessions. Finally, after a fall, he was confined to his room. The archbishop himself came each day to give him holy Communion. One of Anthony’s final acts was to reconcile two fiercely quarrelling brothers.
    Nothing provides a better reason for reassessing a life than a brush with death. Anthony’s life already seemed to be on track when he was struck by lightning; he was a brilliant priest blessed, at last, with serenity. But his experience softened him. He became a loving counsellor and a wise mediator. The same might be said of us if we put our hearts to it. We needn’t wait to be struck by lightning. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Jeremiah 23:5-8; Psalm 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19; Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel— which means, God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her before she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)

There are two great accounts of the birth and infancy of Jesus: that of Matthew and that of Luke. Each has its own details and each its own perspective. That of Luke is the longer and it gives us more of Mary’s perspective, with Joseph, of course, playing his part. The account of the birth of Jesus

according to Matthew is the one before us today, and Joseph is the main protagonist in our passage. We ought be grateful that each evangelist took his own line and gave us these differing perspectives because it means that we are able to contemplate the birth and infancy of Christ with either Mary or Joseph, depending on the account we choose to use. So today let us think of Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus Christ and spouse of Mary his mother. The principal object of our prayerful contemplation is the person of Jesus Christ, whose birth this opening chapter of the Gospel narrates. St Matthew simply mentions in passing, as if understood by all, that before Mary and Joseph came to live together as husband and wife Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. No account is given of this miraculous conception of Christ except to state clearly that it was the work of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ had a mother but no earthly father. God himself, in miraculous fashion, effected his conception in the womb of the virgin Mary. While Luke tells us the circumstances of this, Matthew merely states the fact in passing. While Luke tells us that Mary was full of grace and that the Lord was with her, Matthew chooses to speak of the goodness of Joseph her intended spouse. He is a just man, a man of honour. The information is sparse because the focus is on the coming Child, but it is enough for us to gain an impression, and that impression will be meditated on by the Church during the millennia to come. Joseph is holy, and the Church will come to sense that his holiness, while hidden and humble, is very great indeed for he is the husband of Mary, and the foster-father of the Child.

If God had prepared for his divine Son a mother so holy and so full of grace, we may presume — and the Church has presumed — that he also prepared Joseph in an exceptional way. The brief word of Matthew that Joseph was just ought be understood as laden with significance. We see the deeply religious character of Joseph unfolding in the events of our Gospel passage (Matthew 1:18-25). Joseph was profoundly uncertain for he had no idea of the true origin of the newly conceived Child. He felt perplexed before God and resolved to act with the utmost sensitivity and discreetness. There is no thought of vindicating his own rights and honour. He is humble and charitable and the servant of God withal, doing his very best with the light he is granted. But then God intervenes sending his angel who enlightens him in a dream as to the true facts of the case. Somehow it is made utterly apparent to Joseph that what he sees and hears in his dream is no mere dream but the most real of communications from God himself. God has manifested his will and has apprised Joseph of the origin of the Child and his divine mission. Joseph understands that Mary his betrothed is the mother of the Messiah himself. The Messiah has Mary for his mother and God himself has brought about his conception in her. He will save his people from their sins. Joseph rises up and acts in obedience to the divine command. His action parallels that of Mary who responds to the Angel Gabriel with the words, I am the Lord’s servant. Be it done unto me according to your will. Joseph and Mary are united in their readiness to do God’s will. How great must have been their intimacy during their married life! It was founded on their desire to know the will of God and to put it into practice, with Jesus at the centre. Not only is the simple obedience of Joseph a model for every Christian, but his love for Mary the mother of Jesus is also a model for us. Jesus loved her and so did Joseph her spouse.

The Gospels provide us with an exemplary model in Joseph. He is the husband of Mary, the foster-father of Jesus, and he is shown in our passage today as entirely given over to doing whatever God wanted. Let us emulate him in his humble service of God and in his love for Mary. She, by Christ’s donation, is our Mother in the order of grace. Joseph gives us the lead in his love for her, and in this he but reflects the love Jesus himself had for her. But she, of course, is our model in her love for Jesus and in her love for Joseph. The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is the model for humanity for all time.
(E.J.Tyler)

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What attachment to the things of the earth! Soon they will slip from your grasp, for the rich man cannot take his riches with him to the grave.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Even now the word of God is given to us as the soul of our apostolate, the soul of our priestly life. Each morning the word awakens us. Each morning the Lord himself "opens our ear" (cf. Is 50:5) through the psalms in the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer. Throughout the day, the word of God becomes the substance of the prayer of the whole Church, as she bears witness in this way to her fidelity to Christ. In the celebrated phrase of Saint Jerome, to be taken up in the XII Assembly of the Synod of Bishops next month: "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ" (Prol. in Is.). Dear brother priests, do not be afraid to spend much time reading and meditating on the Scriptures and praying the Divine Office! Almost without your knowing it, God's word, read and pondered in the Church, acts upon you and transforms you. As the manifestation of divine Wisdom, if that word becomes your life "companion", it will be your "good counselor" and an "encouragement in cares and grief' (Wis 8:9).
(Continuing)

(December 19) Blessed Pope Urban V (1310-1370)
In 1362, the man elected pope declined the office. When the cardinals could not find another person among them for that important office, they turned to a relative stranger: the holy person we honour today. The new Pope Urban V proved a wise choice. A Benedictine monk and canon lawyer, he was deeply spiritual and brilliant. He lived simply and modestly, which did not always earn him friends among clergymen who had become used to comfort and privilege. Still, he pressed for reform and saw to the restoration of churches and monasteries. Except for a brief period he spent most of his eight years as pope living away from Rome at Avignon, seat of the papacy from 1309 until shortly after his death. He came close but was not able to achieve one of his biggest goals—reuniting the Eastern and Western churches. As pope, Urban continued to follow the Benedictine Rule. Shortly before his death in 1370 he asked to be moved from the papal palace to the nearby home of his brother so he could say goodbye to the ordinary people he had so often helped. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a; Psalm 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17; Luke 1:5-25

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly.

But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well on in years. Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous— to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well on in years. The angel answered, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time. Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realised he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people. (Luke 1:5-25)

Our beautiful passage today is taken from the Gospel of St Luke and it is celebratory of the great personage of John the Baptist, who himself was, we might say, celebratory of the greatest of the great, Jesus Christ. The entire Gospel is a proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ and every part of it serves to glorify him, and what Luke narrates of John in our passage today (Luke

1:5-25) ought be seen within that context. So let us contemplate this announcement by the angel Gabriel, which Luke undoubtedly learnt from the Virgin Mary during the years of the Church’s infancy following Pentecost. The scene opens with our gaze on two profoundly devout Hebrew spouses, the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, also of priestly descent. Their life was given to the service of God and Luke adds, “but they had no children”. They were happy in their life for God. But there was this one great sadness that despite their constant prayer they were not blessed with offspring. In this we are given a sense of their poverty before God. They loved him and served him and they experienced their poverty in what they had most desired. Within this scene of humble service, a service marked by poverty of spirit before God, a momentous intervention occurred. Zechariah was at his priestly duty which was his by lot, and lo! An angel of the Lord appeared to him at the very altar. It must have been a tremendous apparition conveying all the impression of a heavenly being for Zechariah was gripped with fear. The angel had to reassure him not to be afraid. He had come with a message: his prayer for a child had been answered, and what a child it would be! So great was the favour to come that an angel had been sent, Gabriel no less. He was Gabriel of the Scriptures, the Gabriel whom Zechariah would have read about in the inspired writings and perhaps even prayed to. Their child would be great in the sight of the Lord, a very great prophet, another Elijah, who would prepare the people for God’s coming.

There are many thoughts that this account suggests to us, beginning with the greatness of John. Luke would show the greatness of John later in his Gospel. He would have learnt of his greatness even if he had not known of John at the time of John’s ministry. Christ had expressed the utmost praise of John. Luke tells us here that his greatness was announced from heaven prior to his very conception. This angelic announcement was a manifestation of the power and the goodness of God. But let us revert to our earlier thought. This was announced to humble and obedient servants of God who were poor in spirit. God has a predilection for the poor in spirit, the lowly, the pure in heart. Zechariah and Elizabeth were such. Yes, Zechariah failed in believing the angel’s message but he accepted his penalty and continued in obedient service of God. He and his wife were excellent instances in Scripture of how God’s power works in human weakness. From their poverty they were lifted up by God to the dignity of being the parents of John, the forerunner of the Messiah. There is a lesson here for all the little ones of this world. Do not worry about your poverty in this or that respect and your lowliness. Just serve the Lord in gladness and faithfully. Pray to him for all your needs and trust in his power and mercy. If he does not grant the answer you are seeking at the time you seek it, trust him still. Trust him unfailingly and never lose heart, continuing to serve him in obedience and humility. He will answer in the way he knows to be best, if not in this life then marvellously in the next. Answer your prayer he will. We remember the words of St Thomas More as he approached the scaffold, bearing witness to the truth of Christ and his Church. “Though I lose my head, I’ll come to no harm.” God will use our poverty. He will work in and through our humility and our ordinariness. He will bestow on our lives a true if hidden fruitfulness, just as he did for Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Let us be content in the wisdom and the power of God. The impression we are given of Zechariah and Elizabeth is that their joy in life was to serve and love the Lord. They had their limitations and Zechariah failed in faith in this important instance. But they were pleasing in the sight of the Lord. Our truest joy is to serve the Lord in our ordinary and everyday duties. So much of life is frustrating and even bitter, and we have a hint of this in the disappointment of Zechariah and Elizabeth in having no child. But God is always near. So let us trust him and serve him, placing before him all our needs, knowing that his power is at work in human weakness.
(E.J.Tyler)

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You haven't got the spirit of poverty if, when you are able to choose in such a way that your choice is not noticed, you do not select for yourself what is worst.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

"The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword", as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us (4:12). Dear seminarians, who are preparing to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders and thus to share in the threefold office of teaching, governing and sanctifying, this word is given to you as a precious treasure. By meditating on it daily, you will enter into the very life of Christ which you will be called to radiate all around you. By his word, the Lord Jesus instituted the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood; by his word, he healed the sick, cast out demons and forgave sins; by his word, he revealed to us the hidden mysteries of his Kingdom. You are called to become stewards of this word which accomplishes what it communicates. Always cultivate a thirst for the word of God! Thus you will learn to love everyone you meet along life's journey. In the Church everyone has a place, everyone! Every person can and must find a place in her.

And you, dear deacons, effective co-workers of the Bishops and priests, continue to love the word of God! You proclaim the Gospel at the heart of the Eucharistic celebration, and you expound it in the catechesis you offer to your brothers and sisters. Make the Gospel the centre of your lives, of your service to your neighbours, of your entire diakonia. Without seeking to take the place of priests, but assisting them with your friendship and your activity, may you be living witnesses to the infinite power of God's word!
(Continuing)

Scripture today: Isaiah 7:10-14; Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The

angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38)

In our Gospel passage today the Holy Spirit, speaking to us in and through the words he inspired Luke to write, presents the Child and his mother for our contemplation and praise. The scene opens with the angel Gabriel once again being sent to make a momentous announcement. He had

already announced to Zechariah the birth of the forerunner and had wielded power over him as well, striking Zechariah dumb for his hesitation to believe. “I am Gabriel,” he had said in rebuke to Zechariah, “and I stand in the presence of God.” The angel Gabriel is one of the most prominent angels in the Old and New Testaments. He is chosen by God to act as his emissary for what might be counted as the greatest of divine announcements prior to the coming of the Messiah: the announcement of the coming Incarnation. In our scene this great angelic person presents himself to Mary to declare God’s plan to her. He stands before her, courteously greeting her and offering her unfeigned praise. There is a difference between the tone of his words to Zechariah and that of his address to Mary. His greetings to Mary bespeak not only cordiality but deep respect, as to one who is above himself. She is most highly favoured. The Lord is with her, without any qualification. This heavenly being evoked some species of fear in her for Gabriel immediately exhorted her not to be afraid. She had found favour with God. The entry of the angel on this occasion reminds us of the angelic world which serves God and us but it also reminds us of the honour God intends that there be paid to Mary. She is the mother of the Redeemer and the object of honour even by the angels. Let us then honour and love her as the Queen Mother, the mother of God the Son made man. An excellent devotional practice would be to repeat in our hearts all through life the words of the angel as he addressed Mary, and to do so together with the angel: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you! (Luke 1:26-38)

But the angel also and primarily speaks of the Child. Mary is told the good news of the Gospel. The Child is to be her son. He is to be the son of the virgin Mary by the power and action of the Holy Spirit. He will have no earthly father, demonstrating in vivid fashion that God is his Father. He will be thus the Son of the Most High. He will be great without any qualification, great not only in the sight of God (as will be John) but simply great, great as God is great. Islam has the cry that God is great! The angel Gabriel said that Jesus would be great! He is the promised Messiah, the son of David and to him would be given the throne of his father David and his reign and his kingdom would never end. Such a kingdom is clearly God’s kingdom and it would be given to Jesus to lead, to establish and to bring to its final fulfilment. What a wonder this Child will be! But there is more. The angel stresses that the Child will be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin his mother, and will be the Son of the Most High. He will be the Holy One. We have here in its basic if veiled outlines the first formal announcement from heaven of the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, and Mary is the first to receive it. The angel announced it to her, and the Holy Spirit — overshadowing her to effect the conception of the holy Child — undoubtedly gave her further understanding of the words of the angel. Mary would treasure these words and ponder on them in her heart. She knew exactly who her Child was from the very beginning even though there was much that had not been revealed to her of the details of his redemptive mission. This Child is the Man of the ages, the Saviour, the centre of the world, the linchpin, we might say, of the universe. All depends on him and all the longings of humanity hang in the balance of what he will do. The angel receives Mary’s obedient acquiescence. At this reply the Child is conceived and the great work of salvation begins.

Let us remain in the room after the angel departs. There is the Virgin, the one blessed among women. Let us look ahead some nine months and there she is, holding her new-born Child. We stand in admiration and praise. Let us look ahead thirty three years, and there the Man Jesus is hanging on the Cross redeeming the world, and she is nearby sharing in his sufferings. Now she is with him in heaven, and together with him as his mother and foremost disciple she works to save us all. Let us place ourselves under her maternal care, for she is the Help of all Christians.
(E.J.Tyler)

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'Divitiae, si affluant, nolite cor apponere, though riches may increase keep your heart detached.' Strive to use them generously. And, if necessary, heroically.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

In a particular way, men and women religious and all consecrated persons draw life from the Wisdom of God expressed in his word. The profession of the evangelical counsels has configured you, dear consecrated persons, to Christ, who for our sakes became poor, obedient and chaste. Your only treasure — which, to tell the truth, will alone survive the passage of time and the curtain of death — is the word of the Lord. It is he who said: "Heaven and earth will pass away; my words will not pass away" (Mt 24:35). Your obedience is, etymologically, a "hearing", for the word obey comes from the Latin obaudire, meaning to turn one's ear to someone or something. In obeying, you turn your soul towards the one who is the Way, and the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6), and who says to you, as Saint Benedict taught his monks: "Hear, my child, the teaching of the Master, and hearken to it with all your heart" (Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict). Finally, let yourselves be purified daily by him who said: "Every branch that bears fruit my Father prunes, to make it bear more fruit" (Jn 15:2). The purity of God's word is the model for your own chastity, ensuring its spiritual fruitfulness.
(Continuing)

Prayers this week: Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Saviour. (Isaiah 45: 8)

Lord, fill our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(December 21) St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597)
The energetic life of Peter Canisius should demolish any stereotypes we may have of the life

of a saint as dull or routine. Peter lived his 76 years at a pace which must be considered heroic, even in our time of rapid change. A man blessed with many talents, Peter is an excellent example of the scriptural man who develops his talents for the sake of the Lord’s work. He was one of the most important figures in the Catholic Counter-Reformation in Germany. His was such a key role that he has often been called the “second apostle of Germany” in that his life parallels the earlier work of Boniface. Although Peter once accused himself of idleness in his youth, he could not have been idle too long, for at the age of 19 he received a master’s degree from the university at Cologne. Soon afterwards he met Peter Faber, the first disciple of Ignatius Loyola, who influenced Peter so much that he joined the recently formed Society of Jesus. At this early age Peter had already taken up a practice he continued throughout his life—a process of study, reflection, prayer and writing. After his ordination in 1546, he became widely known for his editions of the writings of St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Leo the Great. Besides this reflective literary bent, Peter had a zeal for the apostolate. He could often be found visiting the sick or prisoners, even when his assigned duties in other areas were more than enough to keep most people fully occupied. In 1547 Peter attended several sessions of the Council of Trent, whose decrees he was later assigned to implement. After a brief teaching assignment at the Jesuit college at Messina, Peter was entrusted with the mission to Germany—from that point on his life’s work. He taught in several universities and was instrumental in establishing many colleges and seminaries. He wrote a catechism that explained the Catholic faith in a way which common people could understand—a great need of that age. Renowned as a popular preacher, Peter packed churches with those eager to hear his eloquent proclamation of the gospel. He had great diplomatic ability, often serving as a reconciler between disputing factions. In his letters (filling eight volumes) one finds words of wisdom and counsel to people in all walks of life. At times he wrote unprecedented letters of criticism to leaders of the Church—yet always in the context of a loving, sympathetic concern. At 70 Peter suffered a paralytic seizure, but he continued to preach and write with the aid of a secretary until his death in his hometown (Nijmegen, Netherlands) on December 21, 1597.
Peter’s untiring efforts are an apt example for those involved in the renewal of the Church or the growth of moral consciousness in business or government. He is regarded as one of the creators of the Catholic press, and can easily be a model for the Christian author or journalist. Teachers can see in his life a passion for the transmission of truth. Whether we have much to give, as Peter Canisius did, or whether we have only a little to give, as did the poor widow in the Gospel (see Luke 21:1–4), the important thing is to give our all. It is in this way that Peter is so exemplary for Christians in an age of rapid change when we are called to be in the world but not of the world. When asked if he felt overworked, Peter replied, "If you have too much to do, with God's help you will find time to do it all." (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: 2 Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-5, 27, 29; Rom 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you. Mary

was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38)

One of the foremost religious minds of England during the nineteenth century was John Henry Newman, the acknowledged leader of the Oxford Movement. For about three years prior to the beginning of the Oxford Movement in 1833 he had a close friendship with another member of Oriel

College, Blanco White. Blanco White was a former Catholic priest from Spain who hated the Catholic Church and who prior to his admission as a Fellow of Oriel College at Oxford had attacked the Catholic Church in his writings. The story of Blanco White’s life was not only the story of his falling away from the priesthood and the Catholic Church, but more fundamentally it was a falling away from the orthodox doctrine about Christ. He came to believe that Christ was not God. Not only was there one only God but there was only one divine person, so he thought. He died in May 1841 a Unitarian, thinking that Christ was no more than a very holy prophet. He was not divine. This is what the Moslem thinks, and I presume it is as much as many Jews would accept. With the rise of secularism in what has been the Christian West religious scepticism has become common and with it the common denial of Christ’s divinity. I tend to think that the more widespread problem is indifference to this doctrine. It should make all the difference to life, but so many simply do not give it any thought. They do not care. Life is lived as if God did not exist and as if Christ were just an historical figure and little more. I also suspect that if many such people were to suddenly understand what the doctrine of Christ’s divinity really means, they would reject it as untrue. It has always been the defining doctrine of the Christian religion. In the early Church there were Gnostic sects that denied the humanity of Christ, but the usual denial has been that of his divinity. It is obvious that Jesus was a man. It requires faith, and it is a very reasonable faith, to accept that he is God. Not only does the New Testament teach this, but it was taught by Council after Council in the early centuries of the Church in response to heresies. It is the basic Christian dogma. A person cannot be counted as a Christian if he denies that Christ is God.

In our Gospel passage today (Luke 1:26-38) the angel Gabriel announces to Mary the plan of God. She is to be the mother of the Messiah, and he will be no mere prophet, no mere king or priest. Nor will he be simply the very greatest of these. He, the Holy One, will be the Son of the Most High. He will be conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary his mother is being given a clear intimation of the doctrine that the one God is in three divine persons, and that her son is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. He is not just some mixture of the human and the divine, part God and part man. No, he is truly and completely man, just as much as any one of us. Indeed, he is more fully man than any one of us because being without sin his humanity is in no way deformed, depraved or spoilt. At the same time he is a divine person. He is the same divine person who from all eternity was generated by the Father. In his divine personhood he never began in time, but existed from all eternity just as the Father and the Holy Spirit were from all eternity. Each is the same one only God. He, though, the second divine person, God from God and Light from Light, became man at a certain point in time. He took to himself a human nature, a full human nature, a human intellect, a human will, a human soul no less. As a result in his divine self he could and did think, will, speak and act humanly while of course being able at will to act divinely. One minute he was sound asleep in a terrible storm, tired out. There he was, physically exhausted. The next minute, having been roused by his disciples from sleep, he stood up and at a single word calmed the terrible storm. At will he could act as God, for he was not a human person but a divine person who took to himself a human nature. Because he is man he is truly our brother, but what a brother we have! Our brother is the Lord God our Redeemer, through whom all things were made.

The danger for secular man is that he will be casual and off-hand about God his creator. He will be indifferent to the person of Christ and in particular to his divinity. He will find it hard to turn to Christ in prayer because he just doesn’t care very much. This world is what matters. The soul of such a person is in danger because we were made to know, love and serve God here on earth. Now, God is Jesus, just as God is the Father and just as God is the Holy Spirit. God is Jesus. The man Jesus is God. Let us place ourselves in his presence every day and resolve to consider him as the Lord in every sense. Jesus Christ is Lord! As Thomas said to him after the resurrection: My Lord and my God!
(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.464-469 (Jesus, true God and true human person)

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

With unfailing confidence in the power of God, who has saved us "in hope" (cf. Rom 8:24) and who wishes to make of us one flock under the guidance of one shepherd, Christ Jesus, I pray for the unity of the Church. I greet once again with respect and affection the representatives of the Christian Churches and ecclesial communities who, as our brothers and sisters, have come to pray Vespers together with us in this cathedral. So great is the power of God's word that we can all be entrusted to it, remembering what Saint Paul once did, our privileged intercessor during this year. As Paul took leave of the presbyters of Ephesus at Miletus, he did not hesitate to entrust them "to God and to the word of his grace" (Acts 20:32), while warning them against every form of division. I implore the Lord to increase within us the sense of this unity of the word of God, which is the sign, pledge and guarantee of the unity of the Church: there is no love in the Church without love of the word, no Church without unity around Christ the Redeemer, no fruits of redemption without love of God and neighbour, according to the two commandments which sum up all of Sacred Scripture!
(Continuing)

Prayers today: Soon the Lord God will come, and you will call him Emmanuel, for God is with us. Isaiah 7:14; 8:10

Lord, hear the prayers of your people. May we who celebrate the birth of your Son as man rejoice in the gift of eternal life when he comes in glory, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Song of Songs 2: 8-14 or Zephaniah 3:14-18; Psalm 33: 2-3, 11-12, 20-21; Luke 1:39-45

At that time Mary rose up and went in haste to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! (Luke 1:39-45)

Holy Spirit The notable thing in this Gospel passage is the action of the Holy Spirit. It is not the only mention of the Holy Spirit in this first chapter of the Gospel of St Luke. The Angel informs Zechariah that his holy child “will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1: 15).

The same Angel Gabriel informs Mary that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy offspring to be born will be called Son of God” (1: 35). At Mary’s consent, the Holy Spirit envelops her and the Child is conceived. At that, she leaves for her kinswoman Elizabeth, and at their meeting, the Angel’s prophecy to Zechariah is instantly fulfilled. The child in the womb of Elizabeth moves with sudden vigour (leaps) — at being “filled with the Holy Spirit” — and Elizabeth herself too is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (1: 41). So at the advent of Mary, both Elizabeth and her unborn child are “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Thus moved from on high, Elizabeth cries out in a loud voice her proclamation of the surpassing excellence of the unborn Child and Mary his mother. It is, as it were, a loud announcement from heaven. It is the chapter’s first prophecy uttered under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is a proclamation by the mother of the precursor — perhaps even representing the unborn precursor — announcing the pre-eminent blessing that is the Messiah and his mother. Acknowledging and accepting the inspired prophecy, Mary utters her canticle of praise in the Magnificat. Then comes the second prophecy of the chapter uttered under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is given out by Zechariah when, released from his dumbness, he is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (1: 67) and pronounces his inspired words over the unborn John. From the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is active in the birth of the Messiah and his precursor, and in the lives of their parents. Elizabeth speaks as a prophetess and, moved by heaven, extols the Messiah and his mother. Zechariah speaks as a prophet and, moved by heaven, extols his son the Precursor. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, moving each to speak on behalf of heaven.

Let us then contemplate the Holy Spirit, for Luke is fascinated by his Person and his action. He mentions the Holy Spirit at various times in his Gospel, and at various times in his account of the infant Church in his Acts of the Apostles. As has been already shown, he gives prominence to the Holy Spirit in the very first chapter of his Gospel. He also gives the Holy Spirit prominence in the very first sentences of the Acts of the Apostles. He tells us that Christ had chosen the Apostles “through the Holy Spirit” (1: 2), and Christ told them before he ascended into heaven that they were to await the “Father’s promise.” Within a few days they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The birth of the Church occurs when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. It is clear that the Person of the Holy Spirit is most dear to Luke, and he wishes his Gospel and the Acts to be, among other things, a vivid affirmation of the third divine Person. All who had some familiarity with the Scriptures written prior to Jesus Christ were familiar with the “spirit” of God. Though a Gentile convert, Luke doubtlessly had this familiarity, for the very expression, “Holy Spirit,” immediately conjured up the action of the “spirit of God” in various of the inspired books. But of course, there was a real obscurity about God’s Spirit prior to Jesus Christ. It often seemed almost personal, but often seemed to be the grace or action of God. There was, of course, no question of the Spirit of God being formally interpreted as a distinct divine Person prior to the revelation of Jesus Christ. In this, it was not unlike the messianic prophecies. The prophecies were there, but their correct interpretation was gained only in light of the event. When the Messiah was perceived by his disciples to be such, they understood the meaning of the Scriptures — with a lot of help from our Lord himself. The case was similar with respect to the Person of the Holy Spirit. Christ revealed the third divine Person, and the Church then understood that this divine Person was the one whose action was often spoken of in the inspired books. In the coming of Jesus Christ, though, he was revealed with clarity, and from the very outset of the Gospel.

Whatever of the dim and varied reference to the Spirit of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, from the outset of the Gospel of St Luke, He is an absolutely distinct Person in his own right. The Angel refers to the Holy Spirit as a Person when speaking to Zechariah and to Mary, and Luke refers to the Holy Spirit as a Person when speaking of the prophecies of Elizabeth and Zechariah. Come Holy Spirit! This ought be our prayer! Just as he came upon Mary, upon John, upon Elizabeth and upon Zechariah, so he comes upon us at our baptism, at our confirmation, and in numerous other moments of our lives. Let us have the holy ambition to be led by him always.
(E.J.Tyler)

(December 22)   Blessed Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306)
    Jacomo, or James, was born a noble member of the Benedetti family in the northern Italian city of Todi. He became a successful lawyer and married a pious, generous lady named Vanna. His young wife took it upon herself to do penance for the worldly excesses of her husband. One day Vanna, at the insistence of Jacomo, attended a public tournament. She was sitting in the stands with the other noble ladies when the stands collapsed. Vanna was killed. Her shaken husband was even more disturbed when he realized that the penitential girdle she wore was for his sinfulness. On the spot, he vowed to radically change his life. He divided his possessions among the poor and entered the Third Order of St. Francis. Often dressed in penitential rags, he was mocked as a fool and called Jacopone, or "Crazy Jim," by his former associates. The name became dear to him. After 10 years of such humiliation, Jacopone asked to be a member of the Franciscan Order. Because of his reputation, his request was initially refused. He composed a beautiful poem on the vanities of the world, an act that eventually led to his admission into the Order in 1278. He continued to lead a life of strict penance, declining to be ordained a priest. Meanwhile he was writing popular hymns in the vernacular. Jacopone suddenly found himself a leader in a disturbing religious movement among the Franciscans. The Spirituals, as they were called, wanted a return to the strict poverty of Francis. They had on their side two cardinals of the Church and Pope Celestine V. These two cardinals, though, opposed Celestine’s successor, Boniface VIII. At the age of 68, Jacopone was excommunicated and imprisoned. Although he acknowledged his mistake, Jacopone was not absolved and released until Benedict XI became pope five years later. He had accepted his imprisonment as penance. He spent the final three years of his life more spiritual than ever, weeping "because Love is not loved." During this time he wrote the famous Latin hymn, Stabat Mater. On Christmas Eve in 1306 Jacopone felt that his end was near. He was in a convent of the Poor Clares with his friend, Blessed John of La Verna. Like Francis, Jacopone welcomed "Sister Death" with one of his favourite songs. It is said that he finished the song and died as the priest intoned the Gloria from the midnight Mass at Christmas. From the time of his death, Brother Jacopone has been venerated as a saint.
    “Crazy Jim,” his contemporaries called Jacopone. We might well echo their taunt, for what else can you say about a man who broke into song in the midst of all his troubles? We still sing Jacopone’s saddest song, the Stabat Mater, but we Christians claim another song as our own, even when the daily headlines resound with discordant notes. Jacopone’s whole life rang our song out: “Alleluia!” May he inspire us to keep singing. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: 1 Samuel 1:24-28; 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8; Luke 1:46-56

And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has

been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as he said to our fathers. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (Luke 1:46-56)

When a person prays genuinely, that person’s soul is laid bare before God. In our Gospel passage today Mary the mother of the Messiah speaks of God to her kinswoman Elizabeth and in doing so reflects her prayer, and so reveals her soul. In our text today we have a window to the soul of

Mary. Elizabeth has told her that she is blessed among women, and that the fruit of her womb is blessed. Mary replies, giving glory to God and rejoicing in God as her Saviour. She rejoices in God’s greatness and glorifies him, teaching us to rejoice in God. He is not to be feared as one who menaces man, rather we ought exult in him because he wishes to save man. Mary is profoundly imbued with the Scriptures and all that they reveal about God. God is her Saviour. He looks with love on her in all her lowliness. He is mindful of the lowliness of his servant, whom she is. She is the humble servant of the Lord. We remember her reply to the angel Gabriel when he revealed the plan of God to her and explained how it would be done. Behold the servant of the Lord, she said. Be it done to me according to your word. She is the servant of the Lord. God is the Mighty One, the one who can do anything. He has done great things for her. Holy is his name. So God, in the prayer and thought of Mary, is mighty. He is holy and he acts to save the lowly. Due to him, for the rest of human history she will be regarded as blessed, as the Blessed Virgin Mary. God is a God of mercy and his mercy is shown constantly, from generation to generation, to those who fear him. To those who do not fear him he shows himself to be mighty and irresistible. “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble”(Luke 1:46-56). Mary’s prayer of praise uttered in response to Elizabeth’s praise of her is one of Scripture’s great descriptions of the God of revelation.

Mary now is glorious in heaven by the side of her glorious Son. By the merits of her Son she shares in his glory, body and soul. She is the mother of God the Son made man, and by the gift of Christ during the last moments of his life on the Cross she is our mother also. Behold your mother, he said to John. Behold your son, he said to her. The Church regards that donation by Christ of one to the other as applying to each of us. Christ gave her to each of his disciples, and each of his disciples to her. So she is the Help of Christians, the foremost Christian who, in union with her Son, assists each of us by her intercession and example. Let us remember that we each of us, and mankind all together need constant heavenly help. At times in history, Christian civilization has faced grave threats and the mother of God has been appealed to by the Church. One such instance was the immense threat coming from a militant Islam in the sixteenth century. The Church appealed to Mary and the Islamic forces were conquered at Lepanto. The Church saw this victory as very much due to the intercession of Mary Help of Christians. When we look at the prayer of Mary in today’s Gospel text, we see that she was very aware that God is a God who can grant great victories in times of peril. “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” She may have been thinking of the great invasion of Sennacherib, and the promise of Isaiah that God would send him packing, which he did. God has been the help of the lowly in the face of overwhelming threats, and so he is now. Mary is the principal intercessor after Christ our High Priest, and she intercedes as one who shares in his priesthood as do all the Faithful. But she shares in it in supereminent fashion because of her exalted holiness. She can help us in our needs. Let us then ask her, holy Mary, mother of God, to pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Mary, ordinary woman, humble virgin, unnoticed at the time, immersed in the ordinary duties of an ordinary life, was the mother of the Redeemer, our God and brother. She is now our mother, and as Queen Mother is at the side of her divine Son on whom she depends for everything in the order of nature and of grace. Let us contemplate her often, and make her prayer, the prayer of our Gospel scene today, our own.
(E.J.Tyler)

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What holy resources poverty has! Do you remember? It was a time of financial distress for that apostolic undertaking and you had given without stint down to your last penny.

And he, a priest of God, said to you: 'I too will give you all that I have,' You knelt, and heard: 'May the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit, descend upon you and remain with you for ever'.

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Conclusion of Benedict XVI's address to the clergy and consecrated persons during vespers celebrated Friday in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Dear brothers and sisters, in Our Lady we have the finest example of fidelity to God's word. Her great fidelity found fulfilment in the Incarnation; with absolute confidence, Mary can say: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word!" (Lk 1:38). Our evening prayer is about to take up the Magnificat, the song of her whom all generations will call blessed. Mary believed in the fulfilment of the words the Lord had spoken to her (cf. Lk 1:45); she hoped against all hope in the resurrection of her Son; and so great was her love for humanity that she was given to us as our Mother (cf. Jn 19:27). Thus we see that "Mary is completely at home with the word of God; with ease she moves in and out of it. She speaks and thinks with the word of God; the word of God becomes her word, and her word issues from the word of God" (Deus Caritas Est, 41). To her, then, we can say with confidence: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, our Mother, teach us to believe, to hope, to love with you. Show us the way to his Kingdom!" (Spe Salvi, 50). Amen.
(Concluded)

(December 23)   St. John of Kanty (1390?-1473)
    John was a country lad who made good in the big city and the big university of Kraków, Poland. After brilliant studies he was ordained a priest and became a professor of theology. The inevitable opposition which saints encounter led to his being ousted by rivals and sent to be a parish priest at Olkusz. An extremely humble man, he did his best, but his best was not to the liking of his parishioners. Besides, he was afraid of the responsibilities of his position. But in the end he won his people’s hearts. After some time he returned to Kraków and taught Scripture for the remainder of his life. He was a serious man, and humble, but known to all the poor of Kraków for his kindness. His goods and his money were always at their disposal, and time and again they took advantage of him. He kept only the money and clothes absolutely needed to support himself. He slept little, and then on the floor, ate sparingly, and took no meat. He made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hoping to be martyred by the Turks. He made four pilgrimages to Rome, carrying his luggage on his back. When he was warned to look after his health, he was quick to point out that, for all their austerity, the fathers of the desert lived remarkably long lives.
    John of Kanty is a typical saint: He was kind, humble and generous, he suffered opposition and led an austere, penitential life. Most Christians in an affluent society can understand all the ingredients except the last: Anything more than mild self-discipline seems reserved for athletes and ballet dancers. Christmas is a good time at least to reject self-indulgence. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24; Psalm 25:4-5ab, 8-10 and 14; Luke 1:57-66

When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy. On the eighth

day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, No! He is to be called John. They said to her, There is no-one among your relatives who has that name. Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, His name is John. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbours were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, What then is this child going to be? For the Lord's hand was with him. (Luke 1:57-66)

In his book A Grammar of Assent John Henry Newman describes the religion of the day in the England of his time. He considered that by and large the religion of England consisted in a belief in the providence of God — meaning a belief that the hand of God was at work in the course of the world. Apart from identifying this positive feature in the religious life of the

English people of his time he was, I think, meaning to suggest that a great deal of positive dogmatic belief had drained away from the belief system of so many Englishmen. People were down to a belief in Providence. I suspect that the diminution of dogmatic belief has continued since his day, which was the nineteenth century, and that it has come to affect even the acceptance of a divine providence. Many people scarcely believe in anything. Recently I was in a large university library and the attendant (who was very helpful to me) told me that he was Polish. I assumed that he was Catholic, and probably a practising Catholic. But no. He explained to me that his religious belief had gone. Many factors combine to undermine the beliefs of people, including their belief in the providence of God. I suspect that the hardships of life play a large part. Be all that as it may, let that thought serve as an introduction to our Gospel passage today in which the hand of God is mentioned. The events portrayed showed the action of God in the life of the infant John who would become the great Baptizer, the forerunner of Christ. The providence of God was at work. Elizabeth spoke and indicated, to the surprise of the relatives, that the child would be called John. Then Zechariah, still dumb as punishment for his hesitation to believe the angel, indicated that his name would be John. His tongue was loosed and he spoke (Luke 1:57-66). God was present and active, indicating his will and also the special destiny of the child. The people sensed this and were filled with awe. What will this child turn out to be, they asked. And the Lord’s hand was with him.

The point we can take from this is that just as the Lord’s hand was with John, so the Lord’s hand is with each of us. In John’s case it was in view of a great mission. He was to announce the imminence of the Messiah and indeed to indicate who he was. Our Lord would appeal to the testimony of John against his enemies, the leaders of the people. John’s mission was great. But let us remember that our Lord said that the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he. Our Lord is not meaning that the least in the Kingdom is greater in moral stature and sanctity than John but that membership in his Kingdom is of itself a greater thing than being part of that dispensation of which John too was part. John had a divine calling. So too does every disciple of Christ, everyone who has been baptized into him. Every baptized Christian not only has an exalted status and calling because he is in Christ, but a very particular providence is present and active in his life. If the hand of the Lord was with John, the same hand of the Lord is with each of us who are in Christ. The mission is different, John’s personal sanctity may well be greater, but there is no doubting the presence and action of God’s providence in the life of each and every baptized Christian. Moreover, the same question may be asked of each Christian, what will he turn out to be? That is the practical question. Will he turn out well, a good and generous disciple of Christ, adhering to and practising what has been revealed by God in Christ? Christ chose the Twelve. Undoubtedly he too asked, what will each turn out to be? Judas turned out very, very badly. The others turned out very well. We are chosen from all eternity, from before the world began, as St Paul writes. We are chosen in Christ to be holy and full of love in the sight of God. This vocation is confirmed and sealed at the instant of our baptism. What will this child turn out to be? That was the question for each of us, and the hand of the Lord is with us to complete the great work. Let us not disappoint God.

Life is a great work. We have something of immense significance to build, and that is our moral character and the perfection of love. Our daily work is central to the building. It will be the means of personal sanctification and the sanctification and good of others. The hand of the Lord will be with us as we resume and sustain our work in life every day. John brought it to a glorious conclusion bearing witness to the truth of Christ to the end. Let us follow suit.
(E.J.Tyler)

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Here is a translation of a 10-minute press conference Benedict XVI gave while en route to France.

Q: In 1980, during his first trip, John Paul II asked "France, are you faithful to your baptismal promises?" What is your message today for the French? Do you think France is losing its Christian identity because of laicism?

Benedict XVI: It seems evident to me today that laicism does not contradict the faith. I would even say that it is a fruit of the faith, since the Christian faith was a universal religion from the beginning. Therefore it did not identify itself with a state and it was present in all the states. It was always clear to the Christians that religion and faith were not political, but rather they formed part of another sphere of human life. ... Politics, the state, were not a religion but rather a secular reality with a specific mission, and the two of them should be open to each other.

In this sense, I would say today that for the French, and not only the French, but also for us, Christians of today in this secularized world, it is important to joyfully live the freedom of our faith, live the beauty of the faith, and show today's world that it is beautiful to be a believer, that it is beautiful to know God; God with a human face in Jesus Christ, show that it is possible to be a believer today, and even that society needs there to be people who know God and who, therefore, can live according to the great values that it has given us and contribute to the presence of these values that are fundamental for the building and survival of our states and societies.
(Continuing)

(December 24) Christmas at Greccio
What better way to prepare for the arrival of the Christ Child than to take a brief journey to Greccio, the spot in central Italy where St. Francis of Assisi created the first Christmas crib in the year 1223. Francis, recalling a visit he had made years before to Bethlehem, resolved to create the manger he had seen there. The ideal spot was a cave in nearby Greccio. He would find a baby (we’re not sure if it was a live infant or the carved image of a baby), hay upon which to lay him, an ox and an ass to stand beside the manger. Word went out to the people of the town. At the appointed time they arrived carrying torches and candles. One of the friars began celebrating Mass. Francis himself gave the sermon. His biographer, Thomas of Celano, recalls that Francis “stood before the manger…overcome with love and filled with a wonderful happiness…” For Francis, the simple celebration was meant to recall the hardships Jesus suffered even as an infant, a savior who chose to become poor for our sake, a truly human Jesus. Tonight, as we pray around the Christmas cribs in our homes, we welcome into our hearts that same Saviour. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: 2 Sam 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 and 29; Luke 1:67-79

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: Praise be to the Lord, the God

of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. (Luke 1:67-79)

Our Gospel passage today presents us with Zechariah’s first spoken response to what God had done in giving him and his wife Elizabeth their great child. He had been told by the angel that his child would be a great prophet of the Lord, another Elijah who would go ahead preparing a people

for the Lord’s coming. Let us consider the teaching contained in Zechariah’s prayer of praise. Firstly, let us notice the authority of this prayer. It is not an ordinary utterance Luke chooses to report. It is a prophecy. Zechariah spoke as one filled with the Holy Spirit. He prophesied. He acted in this moment as a prophet, as would, for instance, Simeon when he took the child Jesus into his arms in the Temple. So in this respect Zechariah’s words are of the same class as the other prophets of the Scriptures. We may even choose to regard him as one of the (minor) prophets and his prophecy was about what God would do in and through his child. Just as John would prophesy about Jesus, here his father Zechariah was prophesying about him. The utterance from the mouth of Zechariah has the Holy Spirit for its author, and there must have been a notable grandeur about the declaration he made. It must have been obvious that he was being inspired to speak as he did, for his prayer is quoted by Luke which implies that it had been vividly remembered. Secondly, the words Zechariah uses, the content and character of his thought, portray one who is a man of the Old Testament. He thinks of the God of Israel, of his servant David and the holy prophets, and of “our father Abraham”. Zechariah is at the end of the Old Testament, at the very threshold of the New and is pointing to the New. His prophecy over his child ought be seen as being in the line of the prophets of the Old Testament, and is first and most of all a prophecy about God. The Lord whom he praises and blesses is the God of Israel. He is the God of Abraham and of David and of the prophets and he deals continuously with his people.

We might even say that Zechariah’s prayer of praise gives an overview of the teaching of the Old Testament on God. God is the Saviour and the Redeemer of his people. He saves his people from those who hate them. He is the Rescuer of his people and in this he remembers and honours the covenant he made with the fathers and in particular with Abraham. The purpose of this salvation is to enable his people to serve him in holiness and righteousness all their days. The holiness of his people is the purpose of his redeeming activity and this eminently points to the salvation that is coming. It will serve the holiness of his people. Above and beyond all, God is a God of mercy. His saving action on behalf of his people was “to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham.” God is a God rich in mercy. Having spoken of God, Zechariah’s prophecy declares concerning the child. It is one of the few instances in the Scriptures of a prophet being foretold: the prophet being John his child, and the prediction concerning him is coming (under an inspiration of the Holy Spirit) from his father. It all adds to the enhancement of John as a prophet of the Most High. “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace”(Luke 1:67-79). That was Zechariah’s prophecy, and it describes John’s mission. He will prepare the way for the Lord. The people will come to know “salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (and not, say, through political liberation). It will all be due to the “tender mercy of our God.”

Let us ponder on Zechariah and his prophecy. In a certain sense, it is a summary of the Old Testament especially as pointing to the coming of the Messiah. John encapsulates in himself the Old Testament as preparing for the New, the New being Christ and his Kingdom. Let us pray for a profound appreciation of the person of Jesus Christ, the ultimate focus of our passage today.
(E.J.Tyler)

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How can you dare ask others to keep your secret, when that very request is a sign that you have not been able to keep it yourself?

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Continuing the 10-minute press conference Benedict XVI gave while en route to France.

Q: You love France. What unites you most especially to France, to its authors?

Benedict XVI: I would not dare say that I know France well. I know it a bit, but I love France, the great French culture, above all, of course, the great cathedrals, and also the great French art, the great theology beginning with St. Irenaeus of Lyons to the 13th century -- and I studied about the University of Paris in the 13th century-- St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas Aquinas. This theology has been decisive for the development of Western theology; and naturally the theology of the century of Vatican Council II. I have had the great honor and joy to be a friend of Fr. Lubac, one of the greatest figures of the last century, but I have also had a good working relationship with Fr. Congar, Jean Danielou and others. I have had very good personal relationships with Etienne Gilson, Henri-Irenee Maroux.

Therefore I have really had deep, personal and enriching contact with the great theological and philosophical culture of France. It has really been decisive in the development of my thought. As well the discovery of the original Gregorian Chant with Solesmes, the great monastic culture and naturally the poetry. Being such a baroque man, I very much like Paul Claudel, with his joy for living, as well as Bernanos and the great French poets of the last century. So it is a culture that has really shaped my personal, theological, philosophical and human development in a deep way.
(Continuing)

Prayers this week: A child is born for us, a son given to us; dominion is laid on his shoulder, and he shall be called Wonderful-Counsellor. (Isaiah 9: 6)

Lord God, we praise you for creating man, and still more for restoring him in Christ. Your Son shared our weakness: may we share his glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

(December 25) On this day the Church focuses especially on the newborn Child, God become human, who embodies for us all the hope and peace we seek. We need no other special saint today to lead us to Christ in the manger, although his mother Mary and Joseph, caring for his foster-Son, help round out the scene. But if we were to select a patron for today, perhaps it might be appropriate for us to imagine an anonymous shepherd, summoned to the birthplace by a wondrous and even disturbing vision in the night, a summons from an angelic choir, promising peace and goodwill. A shepherd willing to seek out something that might just be too unbelievable to chase after, and yet compelling enough to leave behind the flocks in the field and search for a mystery. On the day of the Lord’s birth, let’s let an unnamed, “un-celebrity” at the edge of the crowd model for us the way to discover Christ in our own hearts—somewhere between skepticism and wonder, between mystery and faith. And, like Mary and the shepherds, let us treasure that discovery in our hearts.
The precise dating in this passage sounds like a textbook on creationism. If we focus on the time frame, however, we miss the point. It lays out the story of a love affair: creation, the deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, the rise of Israel under David. It climaxes with the birth of Jesus. From the beginning, some scholars insist, God intended to enter the world as one of us, the beloved people. Praise God! (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: Isaiah 62:1-5;   Ps 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29;    Acts 13:16-17, 22-25;    Matthew 1:18-25

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel— which means, God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her prior to her giving birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1: 18-25)

The Redeemer    In his master philosophical work, A Grammar of Assent, Newman points out that “the Jews gathered from those books (i.e. the Scriptures), that a great personage was to be born of their stock, and to conquer the whole world and to become the instrument of extraordinary blessings to it; moreover, that he would make his appearance at a fixed date,..” (Image, p.340). “One man, born of the chosen tribe, was the destined minister of blessing to the whole world” (p.343). He recalls that “the Jew Josephus, who was one of the Roman party, says that what encouraged them in the stand they made against the Romans was an ‘ambiguous oracle, found in their sacred writings, that at that date some one of them from that country should rule the world’.” (p.344). The Messiah was widely expected to be a great ruler of the world, and “at that date.” Now, of course, the question was, what kind of ruler would he be? When our Lord worked a miracle of feeding the multitudes on one occasion, the crowds wished to proclaim him king. It was this ambiguity that the religious leaders played upon when they delivered our Lord into the hands of Pilate. We have no king but Caesar, they shouted, demanding the execution of Jesus as a political rival to Caesar. Pilate asked Jesus if he were a king — and quickly saw that he had not the slightest design on a temporal rule. On the Vigil of Christmas we think of how the nature of Christ’s mission as Messiah was revealed before his very conception — and was revealed to Joseph, his foster-father, into whose Davidic line our Lord was born. Mary, Joseph’s betrothed, had conceived her Child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph was told the name of the Child: it was to be “Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” His mission was to save, and to save from sin. Now, search the Scriptures for any precedent to this. There had been divine predictions of “a saviour” being born. An angel of the Lord appeared to the wife of Manoah and told her that she would conceive and bear a son who would begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines (Judges 13: 5). Samson was a “saviour” of his people, but there is no talk of deliverance from sin.

This, in fact, is the grand news of the Gospel, that we have been delivered from sin. Our Saviour is Jesus Christ. He did not come, in the first instance, to deliver us from temporal burdens — that will come in the fulness of time, God’s good time. What he came to do in the first instance was to save his people from their sins — and his people would be all the peoples of the earth, all those destined to receive the Blessing promised to Abraham (Genesis 12: 3). As we think of the nations of the earth, their present fortunes and their past histories, we naturally think of them as disparate and separate entities. But in fact, God has revealed that they are all one in and under him. All the nations of the earth have one common Lord and King, and the purpose of history is that all be brought into his Kingdom. This happens when they acknowledge and accept him as their Lord, and endeavour to conduct life according to this truth. Jesus is the King, but he wishes all to acknowledge this so as to be open to his saving grace, that grace which takes away their sins and implants in their hearts the grace of a share in his holiness. Today, beginning with the Vigil of Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of the One who saves his people from their sins. He is the fulfilment of the Scriptures in the highest and best sense. He brings the greatest of Blessings, the best of gifts, and it is this which we must strive to celebrate on Christmas Day. It is the joy of all joys. But as we think of the path to liberation which was begun in the early hours of the first Christmas Day, let us think of the arduous character of that path. This infant whom we celebrate, born to save his people from their sins, and to bring all into his people, was setting out on an undertaking of incalculable sorrow and difficulty. He would rule the world by being rejected. And so it is that as we rest our gaze on the infant in the manger, thinking of his cosmic mission, we think of what it would lead him to. It led to his violent rejection on the Cross. It is from there that he would reign, and from that wooden throne would pour out on the world blessings incalculable, blessings innumerable, blessings that would bear all men aloft into the bliss of heaven.

Our Gospel for the Vigil of Christmas invites us to draw near to Joseph as he braces to care for the Mother of the Redeemer and her stupendous Child. He is to be their most intimate friend and guardian. No-one after Jesus himself has loved Mary our mother more than he, because while we are her spiritual children, he is her husband. No-one after Mary herself has loved Jesus our God and Redeemer more than he, because he was his foster-father and daily intimate in family life and work. Let us go to Joseph, then! Let us ask him to pray that we have a deep and constant faith in our Redeemer, the one who has saved us from our sins. Let him be our heavenly protector.
                                                         (E.J.Tyler)

Scripture : Isaiah 9:1-6; Psalm 96: 1-3, 11-13; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And

everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests. (Luke 2:1-14)

One of the fundamental principles of all human thought, and therefore of philosophy too, is what is called the principle of contradiction. Two statements that contradict one another in some respect cannot both be true in that same respect. This fundamental principle is important in respect to truth

in religion. Apart from the anomaly of Western secularism, one of the most consistent features of human culture is that it is religious. It looks to powers that are beyond the merely physical, and it regards these powers as heavenly. Throughout history man has looked to these powers above for aid in his various needs. He regards himself as subject to these powers, and generally has the sense that if he refuses them obedience, he will be punished. Now it is so very striking how little unanimity there is among the religions of mankind as to the nature of the powers above, how contrary are their teachings one to the other, and how sharply the religions of man diverge from Judaeo-Christian revelation. There are, as the early Christian fathers recognized, seeds of revealed truth present in the religions of man. But the contrariety among religions alone suggests a great deal of religious error among the religions of man in the course of history. There always have been so many contrary claims and beliefs in respect to the divine, and of himself man seems powerless to move beyond this state of religious confusion and error. St Paul says that this widespread religious error is fundamentally due to sin. The darkness of much of religious thought over the ages is due to the moral darkness stemming from original and personal sin. It is thus urgent that the light of truth be obtained because what is at stake is not only the possession of the truth, but salvation. Man can lose his way and can lose his soul. He needs to know the truth and he needs to know the way — the way to life.

Into this broken and dimly lit world, into this world all askew from man’s own sin, into this dysfunctional human condition, God has entered as one of us. The great God on whom the universe depends moment by moment, has entered the stream of history as a member of the family of man. He has done so in order to fix the problem at its root. The root cause of man’s darkness and tangled religious thought is sin. God took his place by our side, indeed at our head, in order to attack sin at its root and share with us his divine life. Today we celebrate his entry into our midst. God became man and dwelt among us. Just consider. The tiny Babe in the arms of Mary his mother (Luke 2:1-14) is the great God through whom all things were made. There have been various denials of this in the history of the Church, and these heresies spawned further heresies. In the early fourth century the priest Arius in Alexandria denied that the man Jesus was God the Son. Jesus was at the most a kind of demi-urge or higher being, but certainly not the One only God. His heresy caused great confusion and was only laid to rest when more than one Ecumenical council condemned him. But the heresy passed over to the conquering “barbarians” and was kept alive by them for a long time. So it has been ever since, the doctrine of the Incarnation has been denied in one form or another. It is the linchpin of the Christian faith. Jesus is a man, born at a certain date in history and at a certain spot. He was born at Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary with Joseph her husband as his foster-father. This Child was God, God the Son made man. He grew up and redeemed the world by his Passion, Death and Resurrection, sending the Holy Spirit from heaven following his ascension to the right hand of his heavenly Father. This great work of our redemption in Christ began in the stable of Bethlehem. Our hearts focus on Jesus in a special way today, just as his heart, his sacred heart, focuses constantly on each of us.

Today let us contemplate the Christmas scene. The divine child is in the arms of his holy mother. She was conceived sinless by the future merits of the child she now holds. She remained sinless through life by the grace of the Holy Spirit, won for her and for all by her Son. He, the divine Son of the heavenly Father, is newly born a man in every respect like us except for sin. Next to him and to her is Mary’s husband, Joseph. He is now the protector of Mary and the Child, and will be so for the rest of his life in profound intimacy with them both. Let us cherish the doctrine of the Incarnation and allow it to nourish our love for Jesus Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

Scripture today: Isaiah 62:11-12; Psalm 97:1, 6, 11-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:15-20

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. (Luke 2:15-20)

Mary At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke declares that many had drawn up a narrative of the events that had been “delivered to us” by “the original eyewitnesses and ministers of the word.” Now, as far as I am aware, Luke is the only New Testament writer to tell us that “many” (polloi) had authored narratives of the Gospel events. Our present four Gospels are, then, but a few accounts among many by the time of St Luke’s writing, even apart from the many apocryphal gospels after him. He does not give us details of them — say, what exactly they covered, and what was their usual length. Nor does Luke disparage these other narratives. They may or may not have been defective, but Luke chooses not to give a judgment on them. He simply says that “inasmuch (or since)” others have written accounts, “it seemed good to me also” to do the same. But then he states that he has “followed closely all things from the beginning, both accurately and in order”. It occurs to me that Luke may be implicitly contrasting his account with several others. His narrative will involve a close attention to all — all that is available to careful inquiry. It will start at the beginning and have respect for the sources. It will tell “all” the events that should be told (not leaving out significant elements), and it will do so accurately and in an orderly manner. Perhaps other accounts were known to be inaccurate, lacking order in structure and sufficiency in facts. He will do this so that the reader (“Your Excellency, Theophilus”) “may see how reliable the instruction was that you received.” It was not meant to replace the Church’s instruction and to be read alone and by itself. It was to be a support for that instruction, and will show that it was entirely reliable. Neither of the other two synoptic Gospels takes care to begin this way — they just start their accounts. Luke, though, begins by telling his reader that what he has written can be entirely trusted. He really has done his homework and has sifted with care the facts of the case. Having said all this, he goes on to situate the events of each of the first three chapters within known historical regimes: that of Herod, that of Caesar Augustus, and that of Tiberius Caesar.

Some may say, well after all that, what a pity that Luke does not tell us at least some of his sources. Now, it is to be noticed that in his introduction (1: 1-4), Luke states that he has closely traversed his whole subject “from the beginning.” This seems to suggest that Luke has taken a special pride in getting to “the beginning” of Christ’s life and mission, including the divinely-arranged events leading to his conception and birth. While Matthew, an Apostle who knew Christ and his mother, has 48 verses on the conception and birth of the Messiah (and nothing on the birth of John the Precursor), Luke, a gentile convert who did not know Christ in the flesh, has 132 verses on the subject, well over twice as much. It is a most distinctive feature of his Gospel — Mark and John have nothing to say of the infancy, and it may be remembered that John had the special care of Christ’s mother after Calvary. What was Luke’s source for this priceless and fulsome information about the conception and birth of both the Precursor and the Messiah himself, together with information about their youth? Inasmuch as the only surviving witness of the events was Mary the mother of Jesus, she must have been the “original eyewitness” source, in some sense. We do not know whether Luke himself interviewed her — he may well have, but even if he did not, he was satisfied that the facts he set down were from a totally reliable source, and they came ultimately from her. I suspect that, from the vividness of his detail and the sureness of his portrait of Mary, he himself spoke with her. But we do not know — he may have spoken at length with John or other sources very close to Mary some time after her death and Assumption. Luke does, I believe, give us a strong hint of Mary being the actual source in our Gospel passage today (Luke 2:15-20). Interrupting his narrative of the shepherds, Luke tells us that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Not only is Mary, mother of Christ and of Christ’s faithful, the earliest witness of the Good News, but she is our model. She teaches us all to keep all these things — all of them — in our hearts, treasuring them and reflecting on their significance for our salvation.

On Christmas day we ought contemplate the birth of the Redeemer, his coming among us as our God and our Saviour, together with Mary his mother. Let us take our place beside her, and prayerfully ponder the events of Christ’s coming, just as she did, and adopting her perspective. Let us accept them as she did. When the shepherds came telling of the Angels and their message, she accepted their account in faith, pondering on it in her heart. Let us do the same with the entire Gospel, listening in faith to the witness and teaching of the Church in the spirit of Mary. Let her be our mother and our model in all that pertains to faith in the Good News of Jesus Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)

Scripture: Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98:1-6; Hebrews 1:1-6; John 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has

been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not know him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 9-14)

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists in the history of the discipline and himself a Jew, had the highest respect for Jesus of Nazareth. He rejected all talk of the Gospels being anything other than historical and factual. Mahatma Gandhi the great-souled icon of non-violent revolutions and of

the liberty of peoples also had a high regard for Jesus of Nazareth. Neither became Christians. They did not receive what the Christian calls the gift of faith. I once saw a television interview with a leading American scientist of the time and he was asked why he did not become a Christian. He said that it was because he had not received the gift of faith. The Christian religion claims to be divinely revealed, and part of that divine revelation is that faith in Jesus of Nazareth is a gift from God. Though this gift is readily given by God, it is beyond the capacity of fallen human nature to acquire this faith by itself. One reason for this is that fundamental to the Christian religion is the dogma that the man Jesus is God. The great God became man, and that man was and is Jesus. This astounding religious tenet is utterly beyond the mind of man to understand and it goes immeasurably beyond anything his eyes can see. Of himself he will not be able to work out the full reality that is behind what he sees. What is seen in Jesus of Nazareth is a man. When Jesus told the leaders of the people that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, they replied, you are not yet fifty, and you have seen Abraham? Our Lord replied, I say to you most solemnly, even before Abraham came to be, I AM. The man they beheld standing before them, so evidently human in every way, was claiming to be Yahweh God who revealed himself to Abraham, Moses and the Prophets, the One who IS and who had chosen his people and established his great covenant with them. The Creator and Bridegroom of Israel stood before them as a man. Such was the claim of Jesus. This revelation was rejected by many and has been rejected by many ever since. Christ died bearing witness to this truth that he is the redeeming Messiah and above all the Son of the living God.

On Christmas Day we place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the cave at Bethlehem. Jesus is in the arms of Mary his mother, with Joseph her husband standing by as the holy and humble protector of the holy family. That helpless child in the arms of his mother is the great God. How are we to conceive of this? It would appear to be a contradiction. God is pure, pure, personal Being. There is nothing in him that limits his being. How could we talk of the Divine Being becoming one who was limited as a man is limited? The Church has put it this way. There is one divine Being, God, and this divine Being is three divine Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of these Persons is the one divine Being. This itself, of course, we cannot understand. But then the second divine Person while retaining his divine nature as God, took to himself a human nature and so became man. So while the Father and the Holy Spirit existed in their divine nature as God, the Son now existed not only in his divine nature as God but in his human nature as man. The child in his mother’s arms was a divine Person in two distinct natures, one divine the other human. We have a human nature. Jesus as man shared our human nature, but he, divine person as he is, also possessed his own divine nature. So the mystery of the man Jesus being God is presented in terms of a divine Person taking to himself in time a human nature, while of course not in any way forgoing his divine nature. As man he is fully and perfectly human composed of rational soul and body, while being fully and perfectly God just as the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God. As man he is like us in all things but sin. He is begotten from the Father before all ages in respect to his divinity, and born of Mary his mother in respect to his humanity. This lowly child is the wonder of the universe, and even more so as he hung upon the cross at Calvary. God had come among us to save us from sin. On Christmas Day we are invited to contemplate with gratitude and praise the Incarnation (John 1:1-5, 9-14).

We have a great deal to celebrate today and it is well that Christmas Day is a day of celebration throughout the world. But the tragedy is that all too often Christ is forgotten amid the celebrations. Let us today bring Christ right back into the heart of the whole of our celebration. Let us make him the reason why we are happy and why we come together as families, as the Church and as a society. Let us also resolve to bring Christ our God and our Saviour into the heart of daily life and into the entire year ahead of us.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Discretion is... refinement of spirit. Do you not feel annoyed, uncomfortable deep down inside, when intimate and everyday details of your family life emerge from the warmth of the home to the indifference or curiosity of the public gaze?

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PARIS, SEPT. 13, 2008 — Conclusion of the 10-minute press conference Benedict XVI gave while en route to France on Friday.

Q: You are going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes. What does it mean for you? Have you been there before?

Benedict XVI: I was in Lourdes on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress, in 1981, after the assassination attempt on the Holy Father (John Paul II). And Cardinal Gantin was the delegate of the Holy Father. It is a very beautiful memory for me.

The feast of St. Bernadette is also my birthday. Because of this, I feel very close to this small saint, this young, pure, humble woman that spoke with the Virgin Mary.

It is very important for me to experience this reality, this presence of the Virgin Mary in our lifetime, to see the path of this young person who was a friend of the Virgin Mary, and on the other hand to meet the Blessed Virgin, her mother. Naturally we are not going there to see miracles. I am going to find the love of the Mother, which is the true cure for every pain and to be united to those who suffer, in the love of the Blessed Mother. This seems to me an important sign for our times.
(Concluded)

December 26, Saint Stephen, first martyr (d. 36 A.D.?)
All we know of Stephen is found in Acts of the Apostles, chapters six and seven. It is enough to tell us what kind of man he was: At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenist (Greek-speaking) Christians complained about the Hebrew-speaking Christians, saying that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.... (Acts 6:1-5) Acts says that Stephen was a man filled with grace and power, who worked great wonders among the people. Certain Jews, members of the Synagogue of Roman Freedmen, debated with Stephen but proved no match for the wisdom and spirit with which he spoke. They persuaded others to make the charge of blasphemy against him. He was seized and carried before the Sanhedrin. In his speech, Stephen recalled God’s guidance through Israel’s history, as well as Israel’s idolatry and disobedience. He then claimed that his persecutors were showing this same spirit. “You always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors” (Acts 7:51b). His speech brought anger from the crowd. “But [Stephen], filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God....’ They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him....As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit....Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:55-56, 58a, 59, 60b).
Stephen died as Jesus did: falsely accused, brought to unjust condemnation because he spoke the truth fearlessly. He died with his eyes trustfully fixed on God, and with a prayer of forgiveness on his lips. A “happy” death is one that finds us in the same spirit, whether our dying is as quiet as Joseph’s or as violent as Stephen’s: dying with courage, total trust and forgiving love. (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Ps 31:3cd-4, 6 and 8ab, 16bc and 17; Matthew 10:17-22

Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:17-22)

In our passage today our Lord is addressing the Twelve. He has given them “authority over unclean spirits” and “to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.” Then he instructs them in their mission in both the immediate and the long term. Our Lord is speaking to the Twelve, in other

words to those who are and who will be at the very forefront of sharing in his mission. Just as he met with great obstacles, obstacles that involved his very death, so too they must expect similar obstacles. To a greater or lesser extent every one of his disciples from generation to generation will share in his lot. The suffering and the opposition will vary enormously both in kind and degree, but it will be there. For this reason our Lord begins, “Be on your guard against men.” The entire activity of the Apostles (and those who follow them) will be one of service, but they must have a lively caution. Jesus Christ, the pearl of our race, one who was sinless, one with whom no other could really be compared, was rejected and condemned. How could the servant expect anything other than what was meted out to the master, at least in some sense? Fallen humanity is the same, and if men opposed Christ himself, how could his disciples who tread his path and share in his work expect a different lot? So, our Lord says, beware of men. They will in one way or another mistreat you and cause you suffering. They could even “hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues,” as it were. The parallels to this will vary, of course. The incomprehension can at times come even from one’s family. It can come from one’s workplace, one’s friends and acquaintances, from one’s superiors such as work employers and, of course, one’s political party if one is in politics. The Christian who resolves to be a generous follower of Christ, bearing witness to his person and teaching, must expect opposition.

But there is a great hope in the midst of this opposition, be it overt or subtle and hidden. It is that the Spirit of God accompanies the Christian on his way. And so our Lord assures them and us: “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:17-22). We have the word of Christ himself for it, that the Holy Spirit will continue abiding in the heart of the Christian assisting him in the work of witnessing in the midst of opposition. A mother is deeply concerned for the religious life of her rebellious teenage son or daughter. She simply does not know what to do and sees the lack of interest in her husband and other children. She seems to have no one to assist her in bearing effective witness to Christ and his Church within the family and with her wayward teenage child. But she does have help. It comes from the Holy Spirit who abides within her. Our Lord assures her that the Holy Spirit will help. Numerous other examples could be given of burdensome situations where the work of witnessing to Jesus and his teaching evokes opposition of one kind or another. A person in the workplace is in the midst of daily ridicule of religion. His discrete and respectful resistance of this makes of him a marked man. He is alone with no one to help. But no. The Holy Spirit abides within him in this very situation. He will enlighten him as to how to bear witness to Jesus and what to say. What all this means is that every member of Christ’s Faithful ought cultivate a strong devotion to the Holy Spirit, a devotion which will lead him to evoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It is true that God acts without our asking, nevertheless he wants us to pray to him for all our needs. He answers our prayers. Let us then acquire the habit of asking the Holy Spirit to help us bear effective witness to Jesus in daily life.

There are many excellent prayers to the Holy Spirit. We ought pray that he will come. “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your divine love. Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and we shall be made new.” Let us hang on to our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel, warning us that in one form or another opposition awaits the genuine Christian. At the same time, he assures us, the Holy Spirit will come to our aid in the work of witnessing to him.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Be slow to reveal the intimate details of your apostolate: don't you see that the world in its selfishness will fail to understand?

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On the occasion of the Pauline Year, Benedict XVI began (on July 2) a new cycle of catecheses dedicated to the figure and thought of St. Paul. The following is his beginning of this cycle.

Paul, as we know, was a Jew, and consequently a member of a distinct cultural minority in the Roman Empire. At the same time, he spoke Greek, the language of the wider Hellenistic culture, and was a Roman citizen. Paul's proclamation of the Risen Christ, while grounded in Judaism, was marked by a universalist vision and it was facilitated by his familiarity with three cultures. He was thus able to draw from the spiritual richness of contemporary philosophy, and Stoicism in particular, in his preaching of the Gospel. The crisis of traditional Greco-Roman religion in Paul's time had also fostered a greater concern for a personal experience of God. As we see from his sermon before the Areopagus in Athens (cf. Acts 17:22ff.), Paul was able to appeal to these currents of thought in his presentation of the Good News. Against this broad cultural background, Paul developed his teaching, which we will explore in the catecheses of this Pauline Year.
(Continuing)

St John the beloved disciple
It is God who calls; human beings answer. The vocation of John and his brother James is stated very simply in the Gospels, along with that of Peter and his brother Andrew: Jesus called them; they followed. The absoluteness of their response is indicated by the account. James and John “were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (Matthew 4:21b-22). For the three former fishermen—Peter, James and John—that faith was to be rewarded by a special friendship with Jesus. They alone were privileged to be present at the Transfiguration, the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the agony in Gethsemane. But John’s friendship was even more special. Tradition assigns to him the Fourth Gospel, although most modern Scripture scholars think it unlikely that the apostle and the evangelist are the same person. John’s own Gospel refers to him as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2), the one who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and the one to whom he gave the exquisite honour, as he stood beneath the cross, of caring for his mother. “Woman, behold your son....Behold, your mother” (John 19:26b, 27b). Because of the depth of his Gospel, John is usually thought of as the eagle of theology, soaring in high regions that other writers did not enter. But the ever-frank Gospels reveal some very human traits. Jesus gave James and John the nickname, “sons of thunder.” While it is difficult to know exactly what this meant, a clue is given in two incidents. In the first, as Matthew tells it, their mother asked that they might sit in the places of honour in Jesus’ kingdom—one on his right hand, one on his left. When Jesus asked them if they could drink the cup he would drink and be baptized with his baptism of pain, they blithely answered, “We can!” Jesus said that they would indeed share his cup, but that sitting at his right hand was not his to give. It was for those to whom it had been reserved by the Father. The other apostles were indignant at the mistaken ambition of the brothers, and Jesus took the occasion to teach them the true nature of authority: “...Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27-28). On another occasion the “sons of thunder” asked Jesus if they should not call down fire from heaven upon the inhospitable Samaritans, who would not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. But Jesus “turned and rebuked them” (see Luke 9:51-55). On the first Easter, Mary Magdalene “ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, ‘They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him’” (John 20:2). John recalls, perhaps with a smile, that he and Peter ran side by side, but then “the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first” (John 20:4b). He did not enter, but waited for Peter and let him go in first. “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8). John was with Peter when the first great miracle after the Resurrection took place—the cure of the man crippled from birth—which led to their spending the night in jail together. The mysterious experience of the Resurrection is perhaps best contained in the words of Acts: “Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, they [the questioners] were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
The evangelist wrote the great Gospel, the letters and the Book of Revelation. His Gospel is a very personal account. He sees the glorious and divine Jesus already in the incidents of his mortal life. At the Last Supper, John’s Jesus speaks as if he were already in heaven. It is the Gospel of Jesus’ glory. It is a long way from being eager to sit on a throne of power or to call down fire from heaven to becoming the man who could write: “The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 1:1-4; Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12; John 20:1a and 2-8

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came running to Simon Peter and the

other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him! So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (John 20:1a and 2-8)

Today we think of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, one of the Twelve and the author of the fourth Gospel and probably the author of the book of Revelation and the Letters that bear his name. Of course, Scriptural scholarship is always advancing and so the theories as to authorship

are always in a state of slight flux. But let us contemplate the figure of John as an example to us of Christian discipleship. Our Gospel passage today presents us with John running ahead of Simon Peter to the tomb. Mary Magdalene had reported to them that the body of Jesus had gone. Neither she nor they remembered that the Lord had told them he would rise from the dead. So they ran, their running manifesting their love for him. John outran Peter, but waited for Peter to arrive and only entered the tomb after Peter. Peter entered and saw the empty tomb with the burial cloths “lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head.” It was folded by itself, separate from the linen. Something about the arrangement of the cloths seems to have been most significant, for it was this which Peter especially noticed. John entered and he too saw. It was then that he believed. Love was driving faith, and faith driving love. John loved our Lord and this love enabled him to grasp the significance of what he saw. This love John had for Jesus was founded on Jesus’ love for him. John is described in his gospel as “the disciple Jesus loved.” This was the foundation of his life. He had come to discover the love of Christ. As St Paul would write later, Christ loved him and gave himself up for him. Our passage today (John 20:1a and 2-8) comes near the end of St John’s gospel. In the beginning of his gospel we read of his entry into his relationship with Jesus. It seems that John had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and when John pointed out Jesus to them he and Andrew left to follow Jesus. Jesus turned and asked them what they were seeking. They said, Master, where do you live? Come and see, our Lord replied. He was inviting them to be his friends and to associate with him in his life and mission.

Just as their running to the tomb was a manifestation of love for Jesus, so John is an example to us of the disciple who ardently loves Jesus and who is filled with an awareness of Jesus’ love for him. This is what is absolutely distinctive of Christianity as a religion. The Christian religion is essentially love for the person of Jesus, whom the Christian believes to be not merely man but God. He knows Jesus has risen from the dead and lives now in glory and in the life of the Church here on earth. John the beloved disciple never faulted in his adherence to Jesus. We see his following of Jesus from the moment John the Baptist pointed him out as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We see during his public ministry his zeal and love for his Master when the Samaritans would not accept him — he wanted to call down fire from heaven! We see his love at the Last Supper, with his head reclining on Jesus’ breast. He stood at the foot of the cross in the company of Mary his mother and heard the words of our Lord entrusting his mother to him and him to his mother. In today’s gospel passage he runs to the tomb, enters it and sees, then believes that Jesus has risen. In the infant Church Paul describes him as one of the three pillars of the Church, together with Peter and James. He went on to live a very long life, the only one not to shed his blood as a martyr. He wrote his gospel and probably the other parts of the New Testament that bear his name. Through these inspired writings his influence on the Church and the world will be great until the end of time. It all sprang from his discovery of Christ’s love for him. He is the “beloved disciple”, beloved of Christ. It reminds us of what must be the foundation of our lives and of the life of the world. Christ is to be our life, Christ and his love for us. On this basis and on this basis alone shall we bear much fruit, fruit that will last.

John’s arrival at the empty tomb was a new beginning. Jesus was entering into his glory and would soon be back with them in his glory. He wishes to take us to where he has gone and to where he has prepared a place for us. A place awaits us there and we must do all we can to get there, bringing others with us. As he said at the Last Supper, we know the way to where he has gone. That way is him. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let us live in him then, and never allow ourselves to be separated from him.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Say nothing! Don't forget that your ideal is like a newly-lit flame. A single breath might suffice to quench it in your heart.

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August 22, 2008, Pope Benedict continues with the second of his Wednesday talks on St Paul

Today's catechesis presents the life of Saint Paul, the great missionary whom the Church honors in a special way this year. Born a Jew in Tarsus, he received the Hebrew name "Saul" and was trained as a "tent maker" (cf. Acts 18:3). Around the age of twelve he departed for Jerusalem to begin instruction in the strict Pharisaic tradition which instilled in him a great zeal for the Mosaic Law. On the basis of this training, Paul viewed the Christian movement as a threat to orthodox Judaism. He thus fiercely "persecuted the Church of God" (1 Corinthians 19:6; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6) until a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus radically changed his life. He subsequently undertook three missionary journeys, preaching Christ in Anatolia, Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia, Achaia, and throughout the Mediterranean. After his arrest and imprisonment in Jerusalem, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to the Emperor. Though Luke makes no reference to Nero's decision, he tells us that Paul spent two years under house arrest in Rome (cf. Acts 28:30), after which -- according to tradition -- he suffered a martyr's death. Paul spared no energy and endured many trials in his "anxiety for all the Churches" (2 Corinthians 11:28). Indeed, he wrote: "I do everything for the sake of the Gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:23). May we strive to emulate him by doing the same.
(continuing)

The Holy Innocents (December 28) B-2

Prayers for today: These Innocent children were slain for Christ. They follow the spotless Lamb, and proclaim forever: Glory to you, Lord.

Father, the Holy Innocents offered you praise by the death they suffered for Christ. May our lives bear witness to the faith we profess with our lips. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, …

(December 28) the Holy Innocents
Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few. Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt. Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led Matthew to quote Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah,/sobbing and loud lamentation;/Rachel weeping for her children...” (Matthew 2:18). Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel. She is pictured as weeping at the place where the Israelites were herded together by the conquering Assyrians for their march into captivity. Twenty babies are few, in comparison to the genocide and abortion of our day. But even if there had been only one, we recognize the greatest treasure God put on the earth—a human person, destined for eternity and graced by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
"Lord, you give us life even before we understand" (Prayer Over the Gifts, Feast of the Holy Innocents). (AmericanCatholic.org)

Scripture today: 1 John 1:5-2:2; Psalm 124:2-3, 4-5, 7cd-8; Matthew 2: 13-18

When the Wise Men had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more. (Matthew 2: 13-18)

Suffering for Christ On September 19, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Cardinal John Henry Newman. Newman was a man who wrote a great deal, and a large component of his literary output is his posthumously published correspondence.

His Letters and Diaries run to more than thirty volumes, making him one of the most significant authors of published letters in the English language. This is apart from his many volumes that include treatises, sermons, novels, poetry, essays, history and autobiography. Of course, very many of his letters are not extant, but the collection as it stands gives an unparalleled presentation of Newman’s life and mind. His letters range over all kinds of issues, business, theology, philosophy, spiritual life, recreation and complaint — they manifest the broad spectrum of life’s concerns. Were we not to have had (in his beatification) the formal decision of the Church on his sanctity — that he was a man of heroic virtue, high love for Christ, and worthy of the honours of the altar — a reader of his letters and diaries might miss the fact of his uncommon holiness of life. This is because those letters and diaries are replete with the details of the ordinary life. Newman was a very human saint, a man who endured all kinds of misunderstandings and frustrations, a man who, for all his genius, had his limitations. He certainly did not regard himself as a saint. His voluminous letters depict a life of joys and sorrows with which the ordinary reader can identify, and it was within this ordinary life that Newman, a man of religious genius, pursued his path towards God. Though Newman was no ordinary person, his path was filled with all the ordinary problems — many of which were massive in their weight. Newman’s beatification did not take him out of the realm of the ordinary, rather it brought sanctity into the realm of the ordinary. Man attains goodness in and through his ordinary round. He need not go beyond it to find the wherewithal for the attainment of holiness. Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, and I have a point in beginning with the consideration of Newman’s life.

Our Gospel scene today (Matthew 2: 13-18) is of a few people who were sunk in the obscurity of a very ordinary life — in terms of the stage of their own country. There was a humble artisan, Joseph, and his wife, Mary. She was with child. They had come to Bethlehem for the census — a tiny, unnoticed family lost amid many others. They were seemingly so ordinary. They had remained in Bethlehem, it seems, for some little time after they had registered for the census, enough for the visitors from the East to track them down there. There were other ordinary families in the village and the vicinity, including many infants under two years of age. Suddenly evil arose and struck, and doubtlessly Satan was busy working on the fears of Herod the Great. Herod’s henchmen were dispatched once it was realized that the Wise Men had slipped away. Quietly they arrived, quietly they left, and a great wailing in home after home began. But the Church has canonized the infants who lost their brief lives — they had died because of hatred for Christ. Though their lives were so ordinary, so hidden, so lost in obscurity, they had served the supreme purpose of suffering for Christ. As a result, they will be celebrated till the end of the world. It illustrates the difference that Christ makes to the ordinary life, whether that ordinary life is the life of a genius, or of a mere plodder. Whoever we are, whatever be our life’s course with all its joys and sorrows, satisfactions and disappointments, Christ is the One who gives to our ordinary path its grandeur. The Holy Innocents are celebrated because they suffered for Christ. Had they not thus suffered, who would have ever heard of them? We do not know their names, but they will never be forgotten because they suffered for Christ. They suffered for him without knowing the connection with Christ, and now they are with him in heaven. If we take our stand with Christ, much that we undergo may, without our knowing the connection, result directly from this stand. The essential thing is that we make our choice for him, and strive to align our whole life with his.

After Christ, the two holiest persons were what we might call “ordinary people.” That is to say, their lives were very ordinary, as it appeared to others. I refer to the mother of Jesus Christ, and to his foster-father, both of whom feature in our Gospel today. The slain Innocents were also ordinary infants. All the difference is made when Christ enters our ordinary life, and when we give our ordinary lives to him. Let us resolve to do that, then, so that everything we do bears witness to him.
(E.J.Tyler)

Prayers this week: The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (Luke 2:16)

Father, help us to live as the holy family, untied in respect and love. Bring us to the joy and peace of your eternal home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 or Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3; Ps 128:1-5; Col 3:12-21; Luke 2:22-40 or 2:22, 39-40

When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. (Luke 2:22, 39-40)

It is surely agreed by all that one’s own family is the most important reality in one’s life. If in any particular case this is not so, then all would understand that there is something deficient there. People long to have a good family life and where this is so it provides some of the greatest joys in

life. Sadly, all too often this is not so. As the years proceed, tensions and difficulties not only remain but increase and as the children grow up and disperse, perhaps the situation is gradually accepted with regret. Perhaps it is felt that nothing much can be done to redress and remedy the problem. But how they wish it were otherwise! Family life is profoundly rooted in the nature of man and is deeply connected with his earthly happiness. Inasmuch as God is the author of nature, the fact that nature bespeaks the importance of the family shows that he wills that family life be a central contributor to human happiness. Well now, let us notice this. At the dawn of history, God created Adam and then gave to him Eve his wife. That is to say he gave man family life which would be a principal source of his happiness. But what happened? Together the man and his wife turned away from God and thus sin entered the world, and with sin death. Out of the family life which God brought into the world to give to man his happiness came untold suffering flowing from deliberate sin. Ever since then, which is to say from the dawn of human history, family life has remained the source of man’s deepest joys and at the same time the source of man’s greatest sorrows. The spark of the divine imprint has remained in the family but the terrible presence of man’s sin and its results has also remained. So the cry arises from the heart of broken man: If only family life could be made new! If only there could be regained what had come from the hand of God at the beginning! If only something of this could appear on the earth, be manifested, and then shared with mankind! The good news is that this has indeed happened.

God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son not to condemn the world for its sin but to save it and to give to it life everlasting. This gift of grace and eternal life is intended by God to make man new and his family life new. The hope of mankind for a profound renewal and for a release from the bondage of sin has been answered in the coming and in the mission of Christ. At the heart of God’s answer to sin is his gift of grace to the family. God the Son in becoming man was born into a family. That family, so humble, so lowly, so hidden, so very ordinary, so immersed in the humdrum of life common to the vast family of man, was filled with grace and free of sin. At its centre was the holy child, the holy youth, the holy young man, Jesus Christ (Luke 2:22, 39-40). He, the fount of divine life and grace, was the heart of this holy family. In him was present God himself, God the Son made man. His mother Mary was, as the Angel had addressed her, full of grace. The Lord was with her without qualification. She was preserved free of sin from the instant of her very conception, and this by the power of grace won for her by her future son. And how holy must have been her spouse, Joseph the foster-father of the Christ-child! We have in that holy family the sparkling jewel of mankind, a great pearl hidden in the field. We must do all we can to gain that pearl, bringing Jesus, Mary and Joseph into our life. Jesus is the Lord of lords and King of kings. Mary is his mother, and Joseph is his foster-father. Both are now with Jesus in heaven. The inspiration of this holy family remains with the Church and all her members till the end of time and is celebrated every year. How the heart of our Lord must have been interwoven with theirs and how his happiness must have been nourished by the life of his holy family! As he hung on the cross, Mary his mother was with him to the end. His own family was a deep support, by then in the main out of sight but certainly not out of mind.

Today is the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Out of this family came the Redeemer of the world and the gift of the Holy Spirit to mankind. It is the model family, the perfect family. There has been in history a perfect family. That family was the family of Jesus Christ — himself the son, Mary his earthly mother and Joseph her spouse and his foster father. Grace filled the life of that family. The same grace has come to each of the baptized, enabling each to aspire to a family life of holiness involving the conquest of sin. Let us then resolve to contemplate the Holy Family a great deal, to live by the grace that reigned in them, and to make our way gradually to holiness in Christ especially in our family life.
(E.J.Tyler)

Further reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 529 (Presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple), 2214-2233 (Duties of the members of the family; the family and the Kingdom)

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The fruitfulness of silence! All the energy I see you waste with those repeated indiscretions is energy taken from the effectiveness of your work.

September 3, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the third of his Wednesday talks on St Paul

In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke recounts for us the dramatic episode on the road to Damascus which transformed Paul from a fierce persecutor of the Church into a zealous evangelizer. In his own letters, Paul describes his experience not so much in terms of a conversion, but as a call to apostleship and a commission to preach the Gospel. In the first instance, this was an encounter not with concepts or ideas but with the person of Jesus himself. In fact, Paul met not only the historical Jesus of the past, but the living Christ who revealed himself as the one Saviour and Lord. Similarly, the ultimate source of our own conversion lies neither in esoteric philosophical theories nor abstract moral codes, but in Christ and his Gospel. He alone defines our identity as Christians, since in him we discover the ultimate meaning of our lives. Paul, because Christ had made him his own (cf. Phil 3:12), could not help but preach the Good News he had received (cf. 1 Cor 9:16). So it is with us. Transfixed by the greatness of our Saviour, we — like Saint Paul — cannot help but speak of him to others. May we always do so with joyful conviction!
(Continuing)

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The fifth day in the Octave of Christmas

(December 29) St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170)

A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong churchman, a martyr and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170. His career had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II. When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of Henry’s intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole way of life! Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible, Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favoured by the king, Henry cried out in a rage, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!” Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral. Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint down to our own times.
No one becomes a saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must stand firm in defence of truth and right, even at the cost of his life. We also must take a stand in the face of pressures—against dishonesty, deceit, destruction of life—at the cost of popularity, convenience, promotion and even greater goods.
In T.S. Eliot's drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his life situation, Thomas responds: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:   1 John 2:3-11;   Psalm 96:1-3, 5b-6;   Luke 2:22-35

When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took the child Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:22-35)

On one occasion during his public ministry our Lord turned to his disciples and said to them, how blessed the eyes that see what you see, for prophets and kings have longed to see what you see and never saw it! He was saying that he himself was the long awaited Object of the Old Testament and its prophecies. We may say that the elderly Simeon who features in our Gospel scene today and who, moved by the Holy Spirit went into the temple courts, was an example of those of the Old Testament our Lord referred to. Consider his holy life. Born many decades before our scene today, he grew up faithful to his calling as a child of Israel. He was profoundly united to Yahweh and he longed for the Messiah, and it had been revealed to him that this longing would be granted. He, then, is in the line of the prophets (such as Deutero-Isaiah and Daniel) pointing to the Messiah. In a real sense he is a forerunner of the Messiah in the way John the Baptist was a forerunner. That is to say, John announced the arrival of the Messiah and pointed him out. Some thirty years before, another minor prophet before him had done the same. That prophet was Simeon and his prophecy ought be situated among the Messianic prophecies. Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit into the temple courts. The Holy Spirit was upon him. He sought out the Child, approached his mother and her husband Joseph, took the Child into his arms and prophesied over him. This Child, he said, addressing God in the presence of Mary and Joseph, is “your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” He is the salvation which God has prepared for all. He will be the light of the world, Gentiles and Israel alike. He would bring God’s revelation to them and would be the glory of his people. Mary and Joseph separately had been told by the angel that the Child was the Messiah, the Saviour. Simeon was now confirming this.

But Simeon’s prophecy was more explicit still. He reveals the main outlines of the Child’s redeeming course. “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:22-35). The Child will suffer. It is interesting to compare the prophecy of Simeon with that of John thirty years later. John pointed out Jesus as the Messiah and announced that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit and as the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. The image of the Lamb may suggest the paschal Lamb but its connection with suffering and ultimately the cross is at the least not explicit. If John had a paschal lamb in mind it may merely have included the thought of a great deliverance, for the paschal Lamb commemorated a great past deliverance. Who knows! But there is little explicit evidence that John had been granted a sense of the overwhelming suffering, rejection and humiliation that would mark the Messiah’s path. Indeed, when our Lord was into his ministry, he received a message from John asking if indeed he was the Messiah. It looks as if John expected a very different path for the Messiah to be taking. But years before this Simeon had predicted the path of suffering and rejection. He told Mary and Joseph that the Child “will be spoken against.” He will be a sign of contradiction. So great will be the suffering and hostility that — prophesying now of Mary herself — “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” That is to say, when the time comes, the sight of her Son’s rejection and suffering will be for her a living death in her spirit. Simeon’s prophecy added to the words of the angel and the inspired words of Elizabeth. Simeon blessed both Mary and Joseph, and undoubtedly his prayer for them fortified their spirit amid the joy and the foreboding which, because of his solemn words, came upon them.

Let us place ourselves in the scene and look forward to the Child’s public ministry, his call of his disciples, the appointment of the Apostles with Peter at their head, his teaching, his witness unto death, his passion and death and resurrection, his ascension and the launch of the Church his body. Let us take our stand with him and hear his call, if anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, let him take up his cross daily and follow after me. The path predicted by Simeon is the path of every one of Christ’s disciples, to a great or lesser extent. Let us then resolve to follow him.
                                                                             (E.J.Tyler)

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If you were more discreet, you would not be troubled by the bad after-taste left by so many of your conversations.

(The Way, no.646)

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September 10, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the fourth of his Wednesday talks on St Paul

We turn to Saint Paul’s view of what it means to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Though he did not belong to the group of the Twelve, called by Jesus during his ministry, Paul nevertheless claims the title for himself because he was chosen and transformed by the grace of God, and shared the three principal characteristics of the true apostle. The first is to have seen the Lord (1 Cor 9:1) and to have been called by him. One becomes an apostle by divine vocation, not by personal choice. The second characteristic also underlines the divine initiative: an apostle is someone who is sent and therefore acts and speaks as a delegate of Christ, placed totally at his service. The third characteristic is dedication to the work of proclaiming the Gospel and founding Christian communities. Saint Paul can point to his many trials and sufferings that speak clearly of his courageous dedication to the mission (cf. 2 Cor 11:23-28). In this context he sees an identification between the life of the apostle and the Gospel that he preaches; the apostle himself is despised when the Gospel is rejected. Saint Paul was steadfast in his many difficulties and persecutions, sustained above all by the unfailing love of Christ (cf. Rom 8:35-39). May the example of his apostolic zeal inspire and encourage us today!
(Continuing)

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Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

(December 30) St. Egwin (d. 717)
You say you’re not familiar with today’s saint? Chances are you aren’t—unless you’re especially informed about Benedictine bishops who established monasteries in medieval England. Born of royal blood in the 7th century, Egwin entered a monastery and was enthusiastically received by royalty, clergy and the people as the bishop of Worcester, England. As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and the widowed and a fair judge. Who could argue with that? His popularity didn’t hold up among members of the clergy, however. They saw him as overly strict, while he felt he was simply trying to correct abuses and impose appropriate disciplines. Bitter resentments arose, and Egwin made his way to Rome to present his case to Pope Constantine. The case against Egwin was examined and annulled. Upon his return to England, he founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses of medieval England. It was dedicated to Mary, who had reportedly made it known to Egwin just where a church should be built in her honour. He died at the abbey on December 30, in the year 717. Following his burial many miracles were attributed to him: The blind could see, the deaf could hear, the sick were healed. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today: 1 John 2:12-17; Psalm 96:7-10; Luke 2:36-40

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. (Luke 2:36-40)

Luke’s account of the infancy of Jesus situates him in the midst of some very holy persons whose moral perception, powerfully assisted by the action of the Holy Spirit, enables them to understand the identity and greatness of the Child Jesus. The Child has been brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph. The elderly Simeon, filled with the Holy Spirit, has come to the couple and taken the Child into his arms and prophesied over him and over his mother. Now there appears a new personage, elderly as was Simeon. Simeon had spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit and so at that moment had acted as a prophet. But Anna is explicitly referred to by Luke as a prophetess, implying that she had at various times spoken under the influence of the Holy Spirit and was characteristically led by the Spirit of God. She is led by the Spirit to come upon them at this point, the point at which Simeon had just finished speaking of the Child in his arms, and she too recognized in the Child the One who had been promised. She recognized in him the Redeemer, and she gave thanks to God for his arrival, and spoke of him to those who looked forward to the redemption of Israel. Those who heard her testimony were also looking forward to God’s saving action. It implies that there were in fact many holy persons in Israel and the providence of God connected some of them to Christ during the days following his birth. Today we think of Anna. All her long life she had loved and served God. Presumably in her mid-teens she had married and after seven years was left a widow. She was now in her mid-eighties, a very advanced age for the times, and, given over to God, was living constantly in the Temple. Perhaps the parents of Mary had known her well (and Simeon too), and had introduced their holy child to her. Simeon and Anna, Zachary and Elizabeth, each of whom had prophesied of the Child, all exemplify the holiness of the Old Testament at its best.

Yes indeed, we have in Anna a wonderful exemplification of the Old Testament, the dispensation prior to and preparing for that which would come in Christ. In Anna we have a truly holy person, possessed of and led by the Spirit of God. As a beautiful embodiment of the Old Testament, she was led by the Spirit of God to the Child Jesus and exulted in his presence. Her bearing witness to him before others who longed for the redemption of Israel illustrates the purpose of the Old Testament. It points to Jesus and Jesus is its fulfilment. Another would do the same. I refer to John the Baptist. While Simeon and Anna bore witness to Jesus, John had done so even before his birth. At Mary’s arrival, Luke tells us that John leapt within the womb of Elizabeth his mother, and she herself in the Spirit then spoke of Mary and her Child. Thirty years later, the same John, the last and greatest of the prophets, spoke of Jesus. We could say that he, his own parents and Simeon and Ann, all of whom spoke of Jesus, together made up a magnificent embodiment of the Old Testament and as such pointed to Jesus. But let us who have been baptized into Christ remember a further point. Our Lord said that no one born of woman had been greater than John the Baptist but that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. That is to say, great as was what God had done in the Old Testament prior to the coming of Jesus, much greater still was what he would do in Jesus. Great as were the gifts bestowed on the children of Israel, greater still are those bestowed on those who are in Christ. The Child in whom Anna exulted and about whom she spoke to those awaiting God’s salvation was the bearer of tremendous blessings for those to come. We are the beneficiaries of those blessings. The great blessing is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, our Lord told his disciples. We are blessed because we have the greatest of blessings, the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ. In him, as St Paul writes, is found every heavenly blessing. This is what Anna bore witness to in our Gospel scene today. (Luke 2:36-40)

As we think of Anna coming upon the Child Jesus and rejoicing in the wonder of him, let us share in that rejoicing. Let us ask God for a deep sense of the grandeur and unique treasure that is the person of Jesus. He came to give us life, life in abundance, as he said on one occasion. That life is none other than himself. Union with him gives a share in that life. It is God’s life, eternal life, and it is just what the world is hungering for. Christ is the answer to the need of man, and our Gospel scene today reminds us of this.
(E.J.Tyler)

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Don't seek to be 'understood'. That lack of understanding is providential: so that your sacrifice may pass unnoticed.

(The Way, no.647)

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September 24, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the fifth of his Wednesday talks on St Paul

We turn again to the life of Saint Paul and consider his relationship with the Twelve Apostles. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul speaks of his visits to Jerusalem where he consulted Peter, James and John, reputed to be the "pillars" of the Church. Paul's mission to the Gentiles needed to be confirmed and guaranteed by those who had been disciples of Jesus during his earthly life, and they offered to him and to Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Paul passed on the living tradition that he had received: the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, his death and resurrection, and his appearances to Peter and to the Twelve. Paul emphasizes that Jesus died "for our sins", he offered himself to the Father in order to deliver us from sin and death. And now that Jesus has risen from the dead, he is living in his Church and in the Eucharist, where we continue to encounter him. Just as Paul's teaching is rooted in his experience on the road to Damascus, and in his knowledge of Christ acquired through the Church, so too our faith is grounded, not on myths or pious legends, but on the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth, and on our encounter with the risen Lord, present in the life of his Church.
(Continuing)

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Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

(December 31)   St. Sylvester I (d. 335)
    When you think of this pope, you think of the Edict of Milan, the emergence of the Church from the catacombs, the building of the great basilicas, Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and others, the Council of Nicaea and other critical events. But for the most part, these events were planned or brought about by Emperor Constantine. A great store of legends has grown up around the man who was pope at this most important time, but very little can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy lasted from 314 until his death in 335. Reading between the lines of history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering figure of the Emperor Constantine. The bishops in general remained loyal to the Holy See and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester for undertaking important ecclesiastical projects at the urging of Constantine.
    It takes deep humility and courage in the face of criticism for a leader to stand aside and let events take their course, when asserting one’s authority would only lead to useless tension and strife. Sylvester teaches a valuable lesson for Church leaders, politicians, parents and others in authority.
    To emphasize the continuity of Holy Orders, the recent Roman breviary in its biographies of popes ends with important statistics. On the feast of Saint Sylvester it recounts: "He presided at seven December ordinations at which he created 42 priests, 25 deacons and 65 bishops for various sees." The Holy Father is indeed the heart of the Church's sacramental system, an essential element of its unity. (AmericanCatholic.org)

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Scripture today:   1 John 2: 18-21;    Psalm 96:1-2, 11-13;    John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' From the fulness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. (John 1:1-18)

In a way altogether distinct from the other three Gospels, St John begins his account of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ with a grand prologue. He situates the person of Jesus within the Trinity at the beginning. The “beginning” is wherever the reader cares to take as the beginning. Perhaps John had in mind the “beginning” as in the Book of Genesis. In the Book of Genesis both at the point of creation and prior to it, there was God. God was already there. The creation of the world is explained but there is no attempt to account for the presence of the Creator. He the Creator was simply there. That is all that can be said: at whatever point the reader of the inspired text wishes to begin, God was there. So, God was, God is, and God ever will be. St Paul writes in one of his Letters that before the world began, God chose us in Christ to be full of love in his sight. Again, God is simply a given. He was and ever is. A similar perspective is adopted at the beginning of John’s Gospel and yet now there is an altogether new revelation expanding the old. Another was with God in the beginning. He was with God in the beginning. He was the Word of God. He was with God, and at the same time he was God. As is well known, in English translation there is not preserved the subtlety of the Greek sentence that makes these solemn assertions. In Greek, “theos” means God, and John writes that the Word was with “ton Theon” — the accusative of “ho Theos” — which contains the definite article. We might translate it as “the” God, meaning “the one only God”. So the Word was with the one only God. At the same time the Word was “Theos” (without the article), indicating that the Word was God — divine. So there is the one only God but a distinction of persons. The Word was God but not the Person of “ho Theos”, the Father. Christ is identified as the Word of God, as with God from all eternity, and as himself God. As the Gospel will reveal, God is one being, but three persons: the Father, his Son the Word, and the Spirit of them both.

The grand scene unfolds (John 1:1-18). It is through his divine Word — the divine Expression or Image of God — that God creates everything. Through his Word everything came to be and in him was life, and that life was the light of men. An amazing thing was about to occur. The Word of God in whom was life and light was coming into the world. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. St John is stating this as sober fact, a fact that was seen, observed, heard and touched. We saw his glory, he writes, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. No other event in the story of the world can compare with it. The Creator of the universe became man and dwelt among men. He lived in a certain place, spoke a certain language, lived a certain life in a certain way. God walked the earth as a real man. He came among us for a definite purpose. It was to save the entire world from sin by taking on himself the sin of the world and expiating for it himself. He did this for you and for me, for every single man and woman who has ever lived and who will live. As St Paul writes, Christ loved me and gave himself up for me. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But, mystery of mysteries, he came among his own and many of his own would not accept him. He bore witness to his person and his mission and many did not accept him and this witness and rejection involved his sacrificial death. He willingly and obediently embraced this rejection as being the divine plan, but to those who did accept him in faith he gave the power to be God’s children, sharing the divine life. He, Jesus Christ, is the gift of God to the world. In him is to be found every heavenly blessing, the fulness of the Godhead, all grace and all truth. Salvation is found in him and in him alone. He is the only way to the Father. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Church points and directs the world to him as the Saviour of the world. As Peter said before the Sanhedrin in the Acts of the Apostles, there is no other name by which men may be saved. If anyone reaches heaven, whatever be his religion or belief, it has only been through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The prologue of St John’s Gospel presents us with the mystery of the one and only God who is Father and Son, and as the rest of the Gospel will show, the Holy Spirit also. The Word became flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are made adopted children of God. It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit too that we are able to believe in the name of Jesus. May I recommend an excellent prayer and gesture we could daily repeat. It is the sign of the cross: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
(E.J.Tyler)

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If you keep a check on your tongue, you will work more effectively in your apostolic undertakings — so many people let their 'strength' slip through their mouths! — and you will avoid many dangers of vainglory.

(The Way, no.648)

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October 1, 2008, Benedict XVI continues with the sixth of his Wednesday talks on St Paul

We now consider two events which illustrate Paul’s relationship to the Twelve, which combined respect for their authority with frankness in the service of the Gospel. At the Council of Jerusalem Paul defended before the Twelve his conviction that the grace of Christ had freed the Gentiles from the obligations of the Mosaic Law. Significantly, the Church’s decision in this matter of faith was accompanied by a gesture of concrete concern for the needs of the poor (cf. Gal 2:10). By endorsing Paul’s collections among the Gentiles, the Council thus set its teaching on Christian freedom within the context of the Church’s communion in charity. Later, in Antioch, when Peter, to avoid scandalizing Jewish Christians, abstained from eating with the Gentiles, Paul rebuked him for compromising the freedom brought by Christ (cf. Gal 2:11-14). Yet, writing to the Romans years later, Paul himself insisted that our freedom in Christ must not become a source of scandal for others (cf. Rom 14:21). Paul’s example shows us that, led by the Spirit and within the communion of the Church, Christians are called to live in a freedom which finds its highest expression in service to others.
(Continuing)

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Liturgical Season	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
Third week in Advent B/I			16	17 also Wed 3rd Wk Advent	18 also Thur 3rd Wk Advent	19 also Fri 3rd Wk Advent	20
Fourth week in Advent / Christmastide	Dec 21 also 4th Sun Advent	22	23	24	25 Christmas Day	26 St Stephen	27 St John
Christmastide	Holy Family also Holy Innocents	29	30	31