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Tune in Heaven (FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina: under the high-priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord came unto John the son of Zacharias, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the Prophet: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill be brought low: the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Lk. 3 : 1 - 6 ).

Holy Mother the Church has thus far been teaching us to prepare for the Advent of Jesus by salutary fear, by inspired courage, by joyful peace, and now, as we stand almost at the threshold of the cave of Bethlehem, we are exhorted to prepare the way of the Lord by prayer and penance.

Those who wish to enter into the very presence of God must be holy. That is why we are urged to do penance. Only “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” All nature and life itself attest to the fact that mortification and penance are necessary. On Gaudete Sunday we learned that all joy is purchased at the price of sorrow and the crown of heaven won only by a penitential carrying of a cross.

The little seedling must be buried in the ground and die to self before it can bring forth the beauty of a rose and perfume a garden of earth. Students must assiduously apply themselves to the task at hand if they ever wish to communicate knowledge to others. Mothers must endanger their lives in order to replenish the earth with babes that make for a veritable heavenly nursery. Doctors must, by long vigils of study and work, prepare before they may be entrusted with the care of human bodies. Priests must be sanctified and grounded in learning so as to account themselves, as St. Paul tells us in the Advent Epistle, “as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God.” Only then are they to be entrusted with the care of immortal souls. In other words, in any life whatsoever, preparation is necessary and penance is the “divine” preparation. “Unless the seed falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone, but if it die it beareth much fruit.” Unless we are willing to do penance and to prepare for Christ’s coming, we cannot hope to be His disciples nor to find the journeying star that leads to His
joyous crib.

St. Luke warns us in the Advent Gospel, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” This preparation of penance is to be made, as St. John exemplified, by our actions, for actions speak louder than words.

When a distinguished visitor is announced at your door, do you not make it a point to be sure that you are prepared to meet him? Do you not take pains to see that the home is properly appointed and all is ready? Holy Mother the Church announces today: “The Lord is nigh; come, let us adore.” Christ the Lord is coming. He is nigh, even at your doorsteps. The prophets announced His coming, and yet some of the Jews were unprepared. The Church announces again His Advent, and will it be said of you that “unto His own He came and His own received Him not”? Are you preparing by penance for the arrival of the King? Is it not possible that you miss the sweet inspirations of God’s grace unless you are “attuned” to God’s message?

Picture in your mind’s eye a person seated at a radio or a television set that is not tuned in to a station transmitting beautiful philharmonic music. Such a person misses entirely the program. Picture again a Catholic not at all solicitous about the penance of Advent nor the beautiful story being told by holy Mother Church. Such a one is not “attuned” to the spirit of the liturgy nor to the sweet whispering of grace and God’s inspirations in the soul, and he may entirely miss the message of Advent and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Members of Christ’s Mystical Body, hearken to the “sweetest story ever told” by the greatest mother of them all! The story is God’s becoming man. The mother is the Catholic Church. Today she makes a last effort to enliven our faith, to increase our devotion and our preparation by penance for the coming of Jesus Christ. As a stimulus to our faith and devotion she asks us to look to the new crib of Bethlehem, to the altar, to the snow-white manger of a corporal. A golden chalice rests upon it. Perhaps, we have seen a nugget of gold when first mined from the earth. It is dark, grimy, and covered with dirt. Yet the miner who knows its value cherishes it, refines it, purifies and ennobles it, until one day it is returned to its proper state — shining, brilliant, pure gold! It is, then, perhaps, molded into a chalice or ciborium and, being consecrated to God’s service, it holds the sacred species of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Likewise, our hearts are gold, and more precious indeed since redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God. We should therefore endeavor to purify our hearts and souls during this holy season of Advent and to sanctify them by the reception of our divine Lord in Holy Communion.

PRAYER
Blessed Savior of men, the view of Calvary from afar is forbidding. The way of prayer and penance is not easy. There is only one way to Mount Calvary and that is to follow You, step by step. To look up the hill of Calvary takes great courage of heart— so give me the grace to stay close to You and accompany You each step of the journey. Bethlehem is but the first step to Calvary. Take me by the hand of grace and teach me to walk with Mary, that my life may be good and worthy of redemption.

Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953

"It was once reported to Alexander the Great that one of his soldiers had behaved cowardly in the face of an enemy. “What is your name?” the conquering Emperor asked the trembling soldier. “Alexander,” the man answered. The Emperor then said to him: “Do you know that is my name, too? Either change your name or change your behavior.”

How many, today, could be reproached with their repudiating Christ’s principles and yet retaining the name of Christian. How many there are, today, who avow themselves followers of the Nazarene, but hardly live in accordance with the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. They refuse to forgive as their Captain Christ forgave even His enemies as
they nailed Him to a tree.

Since the days of the so-called Reformation the world has been trying to live on the patrimony of Christian culture while denying some of the foremost teachings of Christ. The world has tried the experiment of compromising norms — of being Christian without Christ. The distinctly Protestant notion that human nature is corrupt and that Christ’s merits simply cover up the evils present in men’s souls has found many a follower. The danger of such a belief is that it prompts men to look upon Christ as the scapegoat who was offered up for the sins of mankind as a satisfaction to the Eternal Father, forgetting that salvation requires man’s co-operation. Redemption means an application of Christ’s merits
to our souls. But this requires a response on our part to God’s grace.

In such a world where men wish to be known as Christian but refuse to obey the mandates of the Christian moral code there is great confusion and little contentment. This defection of the human mind and will has been in progress for so long a time that we have come to face a world that has lost faith in God, and consequently confidence in its fellow men.

The State has usurped the place of God, and man becomes a mere tool and pawn of tyrants. Humanity is asked to accept as the ideal order a State, the ruler of man’s body and soul.

Somewhere in this world there is the voice of Christ heard in His Vicar. He speaks not only to those who recognize him as the Vicar of Jesus Christ. He speaks to all the children of men who have need of his direction. The Pope places emphasis on the moral principles which alone will save the human race from destruction. He makes a plea for the rights of the individual man upon which all well-ordered society rests. He insists that the personal integrity of man must not be violated by any State. For these same rights and the dignity of man are granted not by any human power, but are infused by God.

Thus, the Vicar of Christ pleads for fidelity to the Saviour of the human race. The Pope is pleading with men for a return to Christian principles and a restoration of the natural law. Our modern world, while retaining the name of Christian, has done much to destroy the very foundations of Christian society.

We look today, then, not for a new philosophy of life nor a new economic theory. We look for no superman to lead us from a world threatened with destruction by wicked men. We look only up to God and pray that the words of His lawful representatives will be heeded, so that soon peace may reign in our land and in all the world, a peace with justice gained through fidelity to Christ. This should be our special intention on this Ember Day, for prayer can be our “widow's mite” in helping to obtain peace on earth which is the reward to men of good will.

PRAYER: O Lord, inspire rulers and peoples with grace to see the errors of the past and to resolve to live the Christian life in the future. Heal the discord of nations. Grant that Your precious blood, shed for all mankind, may prompt their hearts to forgive and to build a world where love may reign again."

Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953

Morning Offering

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, who has entrusted the whole work of your redemption, the welfare, and salvation of the world to priests as Your representatives, through the hands of your most holy Mother and for the sanctification of your priests and candidates for the priesthood, I offer you this present day wholly and entirely, with all its prayers, works, joys, sacrifices, and sorrows. Give us truly holy priests who, inflamed with the fire of Your divine love, seek nothing but Your greater glory and the salvation of our souls.

And you, Mary, good Mother of priests, protect all priests in the dangers of their holy vocation and, with the loving hand of a Mother, also lead back to the Good Shepherd those poor priests who have become unfaithful to their exalted vocation and have gone astray.
Amen

Capg

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"In the windows in many homes the Christmas star of Bethlehem will be accompanioned by the gold star of the service flag. Side by side will appear the reminders of peace and war, of life and death.

In a confused world men look for some blueprint that they might get started aright again, for some beam to set them back on their course, for some star with which to set their compass of life.

Today it is well-nigh Christmas again, the day on which was born the Prince of Peace. But, alas, the world knows no peace. It is confused beyond measure with threats of war, cold war, and class warfare.

Today the Church announces again the glad tidings of joy. In so doing, she acts not like a fool, who says, "All is well, all is well" when beneath there is a raging torrent of hatred and evil. No! The Church alone of all the institutions of our day is able to speak of peace, because she alone is the ambassador of the Prince of Peace. She bears His unchanging
credentials.

The Church has experienced her Good Friday. Like a man who has survived a dreaded disease and, having once gone down to the valley of suffering, has built up a resistance to the germ, the Church in even a more salutary way than this has suffered her defeats in persecution and crucifixion and she will divinely survive all the hatreds of the world which breed wars and global holocausts.

Hence, only a divinely inspired institution like the Church of God can talk of peace in a world at war. What assurance can men give of sustained harmony among nations? Built upon the fallible word of man, treaties melt away like snowflakes once they fall upon the anvil fire of human perversity. Only upon the infallible truths of God revealed through
His Church can we safely rest our future security. As a man’s word with a woman in holy wedlock can be respected only when welded through God's sacrament, so the bonded word of nations wedded in treaties of peace can be of lasting value only when rested upon the infallible truth of God and cemented through the Church’s dispensation.

Men are confused as they talk of peace and continue plans for war, but the Church is calm. God’s justice and peace must eventually reign. Hence the Church can speak of Christmas stars over Bethlehem and gold stars in our American homes at one and the same time without confusion. The Church can speak of resurrection even though it be Good Friday, for the Church is not of this world. Even while the world seems to be slipping from beneath her feet can she speak of Christ and God and peace eternal. The world shall pass away, but not so the eternal Mystical Spouse of Christ, not so all those members of that Mystical Body that share its life. To all mothers who bear in their hearts the gold
star of a son’s sacrifice the Church speaks of another Mother who brought life to the world beneath Bethlehem’s starry skies, of another Mother who gave life and saw it die in crucifixion and then rise again in glory. So shall it be with all life that suffers defeat - if incorporated with the life of Christ, it shall rise again! The stars that were blue in loyalty
and have now turned gold in undying death bear hope to mothers’ hearts when viewed in the light of the heavens and Bethlehem's star. Not confusion here, but order and peace of soul is the reward for all those who find their way to the crib and the feet of Christ.


PRAYER: Babe of Bethlehem, guard us against the confused error of the world mistaking earthly possession for heavenly reward. Guide our lives by Your star. Surrounded by temptation, circumvented by worldliness, teach us to ordain all things to our eternal end - glory to God, peace to men of good will. "

Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953

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23. We adore Thee, most worthy object of the love and affection of men and Angels! And to repair the profanations committed in Thy churches by the effusion of so much innocent blood, as also to make some atonement for the poor and indigent manner Thou art entertained there, we offer up to Thee the piety of all the blessed Saints, and the distress and want in which Thy persecuted servants were. Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the Most Holy and Most Divine Sacrament.

O Queen of heaven and earth, hope of mankind, who adores thy Divine Son incessantly! We entreat thee, that, since we have the honor to be of the number of thy children, thou would interest thyself in our behalf and make satisfaction for us, and in our name, to our Eternal Judge, by rendering to Him the duties which we ourselves are incapable of performing. Amen.

CAPG

"How shall godless men ever set this world aright? Such seek peace by means o£ war. This is never a solution. The mightier rules simply by force and not by justice. True peace must be founded upon God as the Supreme Being and mankind as His brotherly children. If, therefore, a nation be godless, we cannot hope to find peace by aligning our cause to it. First we must seek the Kingdom of God and His justice and all else shall be added thereunto.

The peace of our hearts at Advent time must be a Christlike quest, for only in Christ shall we find a true foundation for our hopes. All else is ephemeral and not lasting. The peace of Christ is won by prayer and sacrifice.

The peace of Christ is the peace of Christmas which follows the season of penitential Advent. The lesson of Gaudete Sunday, too, is that joy is purchased at the price of penance and heaven is won by the warriors who carry a cross.

The peace of Christ is not the peace of one nationality lording it over another because of a mightier army or a more powerful banking system. Alas, all such power, being founded upon very unstable bases, is bound to pass away. The peace of Christ, which is the fruit of justice, can be brought to pass only when the principles of the Master, found in the Gospels and enunciated by the Vicar of Christ, are practiced by all nations seeking our common end, namely, God’s glory and man’s eternal destiny. This end requires curtailment of selfish ends. It means a curbing of national pride when that pride oversteps its bounds by infringing upon the rights of other nations. Greed is the cancer that has eaten away at the very vitals of men and nations, and only the healing hand of the divine Physician can reach down and, getting at the cause of our troubles, cut it away. Human diplomacy and ingenuity can never restore peace unless it is based and founded upon God.

This brings us to the second much needed element in the attainment of peace, namely, prayer. Says the poet, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of”; but prayer is not the fruit of a worldly generation. Prayer is man’s inmost conversing with God. With the roar of cannon, with so much emphasis on man and so little emphasis on God, prayer becomes a forgotten instrument in the attainment of peace. For the spirit becomes secondary to the material in the life of a modern worldling until prayer, being neglected, becomes dead and buried.

Pope Pius XII promised France his understanding, sympathy, and encouragement in her struggle to recover from the war when he received the credentials of the French ambassador to the Holy See. It is comforting to read, too, the spiritual reflection of the ambassador, who said that since the expectations of earthly help had been vain France was now turning toward a more enduring source of comfort. The ambassador said that France “adheres to the peace of the Holy Father as so often invoked and defended.” The French people, said the Holy Father, would find nowhere “a more prompt co-operation, a more intimate sympathy, a more sincere encouragement than from the common Father of all the faithful.”

PRAYER Blessed Saviour, who came into the world on Christmas Day to bring peace to all mankind, behold we. Your suppliant children, implore You to give us peace - the peace which the world cannot give, the peace of justice, the peace of charity, the true eternal peace of Christ which leads to everlasting life.

Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953

"The Church asks us to accept sacrifice voluntarily and to consecrate our pains by placing them at the foot of the crucifix. This is the pattern for Advent as well as for Lent, for both are penitential seasons.

There is a question as old as man himself, spoken in as many languages as there are peoples in the world, and yet one that still is asked in quest of an answer: “Why does God send me suffering?’' Sometimes the question is presented in the form of a problem: “Why should the good suffer while the bad and the wicked seem to prosper?” The real problem might be summed up by asking how can we reconcile suffering and sin with God’s goodness; or, again, why should God the Father freely create a world and creatures that would fall away and require a Redemption in the sufferings of His only- begotten Son? We shall endeavor to seek a satisfactory answer to the problem in our meditation this
Advent day.

Our holy faith alone can answer these questions.

Unaided reason is unavailing. Search as far and as long as we will, the answer still eludes us, unless we turn to faith and revelation. We have to look to the teachings of Christ! The human mind can plumb no further the mysteries of God, but faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ enables us to rise superior to the limitations of finite reasoning and see through the mists and shadows the unerring wisdom and benevolent will of God. That is sufficient for our quest. This was the course Christ outlined for us when He walked the earth in human form. He did not attempt to extirpate evil from the kingdom of the world at large. He left that for time to come. Instead He preached to sinners the way of penance. He preached to Pharisees, though He knew they were whited sepulchers with stony hearts. He tolerated them to the very end. This is the attitude of the Church and her faithful members. Endure both the wicked and the good — "Suffer both to grow until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it in bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn."

We should remember, too, that God’s goodness is not infringed upon by the possibility of evil. When man has rightly used that which God has given him - and man always has sufficient grace to overcome evil - then God rewards him. God, therefore, fulfills all justice.

We cannot refrain from referring to a beautiful story written on the problem of evil in the world.

The novel was written by the late Owen Francis Dudley, entitled The Shadow on the Earth . The cross is the shadow on the earth. In the narrative the author depicts two characters: one is a cripple who has lost the use of his limbs through an accident in the Alpine Mountains; the other, a man who has become a confirmed atheist and who tries to convince the suffering companion that there is no God, and if there were, He certainly would not permit him to suffer.

The story is beautifully worked out to a hopeful and happy conclusion, showing the childlike faith and simplicity of the cripple, whose sufferings served only to confirm his faith, whilst the man who was more prosperous from a worldly viewpoint, grew cynical and depressed. The spirit of the cripple was ennobled and uplifted by suffering. The shadow on the earth, the cross, is his hope and his salvation! One man lost his ability of going from place to place on earth through physical handicap; the other lost his faith which would have given him ability to climb toward heaven and would have pierced the clouds and given understanding of the problem of suffering.

The cross of Christ is indeed "a yoke that is sweet and a burden that is light" It is a blessed shadow on the earth, but the shadow of the all-protecting hand of the all-wise and provident God. For just as a cloud in the heavens sometimes obscures the sun, and leaves the earth darkened and shadowed, so ofttimes a cross darkens the light of happiness in our own lives and temporarily closes out the sight of an all-wise God. Though we may temporarily fail to enjoy the shadowy clouds and raindrops and the dewdrops of earth, we realize that they give growth to the things that gladden our hearts and eventually become our food. Likewise, if it were not for the pain of mothers re-peopling the earth with hearts of children — if it were not for the pains and crosses of life, we could never enjoy the joys and felicities that make life worth living! The answer to all our sorrows and the answer to the so-called problem of evil lies in a deeper faith and a firmer trust in the goodness of God. It lies in repeating the prayer of the suffering Christ: “Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me: but yet, not My will, but Thine be done. Sacrifice, then, when purposeful, has real meaning and worth, for it leads to the peace of soul which we are seeking through Christ, our Lord.

PRAYER Dear Jesus, when my life seems to have a greater share of thorns than rose petals, teach me the lesson of Gethsemani, where You accepted the chalice through prayer to Your heavenly Father.
My will is weak, my resolution is not firm, but strengthen them and teach me the ways and means to kneel and pray even in the darkness of Gethsemani and Calvary, that I may grow to love sacrifice as my Captain, who You are.

Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953