Vigil of the Nativity of our Lord
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 24, 2024 at 12:00AM in Meditations
"THIS day is a preparation for one of the greatest festivals of the year, a festival of infinite mercy and goodness. On the effects of this mercy depends your eternal good: prepare then for it in the best manner you are able; join contrition with your fasting, and a most profound humiliation of spirit. Confess your manifold weakness and unworthiness: He that comes to be your physician will be pleased with the sincere acknowledgment of your infirmities.
This vigil has been kept from the time of the apostles; and in the primitive ages with such exactness, that a neglect of it was reputed criminal.
St. Augustin removed a priest from amongst his clergy, for being wanting in the observance of it, and for breaking his fast. St. Gregory of Tours gives particular instances of God's displeasure against some who had little regard to it. It cannot be questioned that there is great abuse in the disorderly conduct of those who, after assisting at the Holy Sacrifice, hasten from the altar to their entertainments, which are unbecoming at this holy time, and too often profaning it by irreverence and intemperance. Avoid all these abuses: and if necessity obliges you to take any refreshment, let it be with great moderation, without noise or conversation, that your soul may not be disturbed, but be at full liberty to entertain your Lord, and acknowledge all his mercies.
Beg of your Saviour that the mercy of this night may be extended to you, and help you so powerfully in overcoming all the corruption that is yet within you, that having in Him so plentiful a redemption, you may not be lost by any neglect of yours. Appeal to Him under all the infirmities, to which you are subject. Represent to Him all the dangers you meet in the way of salvation.
He comes to be your Saviour; beseech Him then to be a Saviour to you,
and give you all that grace, which He sees necessary for you." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Christmas Eve. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 24, 2024 at 12:00AM in Advent Sermons
"1. How did Mary and Joseph spend the first Christmas Eve? St. Joseph spent it in a fruitless attempt to find a lodging for his holy spouse. Vainly he sought for a place in the caravansery or inn, where travelers were received. Vainly he went from house to house in Bethlehem. Everywhere he was disappointed. Thus it is that God prepares His saints and chosen ones for some signal blessing. We must not be cast down by the fruitlessness of our efforts. It is a sign that some great grace is close at hand.
2. Mary meantime was patiently waiting. She was simply praying that God’s will might be done, whatever suffering it might bring to her. She was offering herself to God, to be used by Him as He should see fit. She was making acts of perfect conformity to the will of God in all things. Blessed are those who wait patiently in such a spirit. God will soon fulfill all the desires of their heart.
3. Yet Mary and Joseph, in spite of the sorrow of the one and the anxiety of the other, were both of them overflowing with heavenly consolations. How could it be otherwise, when one of them carried Christ in her chaste womb, and the other was more dear to God than any other of the sons of men, for he was Mary’s chosen spouse, and he knew that before another day was past she was to bring forth into the world the Son of God. Our happiness, like that of Joseph and Mary, does not depend upon external circumstances, but on the love that we bear to God in our hearts."
Meditations #28 for Advent . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891
Saint Andrew Christmas Novena:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen. (15 times)
Prayer to the Holy Infant for priestsJesus, Divine Infant, I bless and thank Thy most loving Heart for the institution of the priesthood. Priests are sent by Thee as Thou were sent by the Father. To them Thou entrusted the treasures of Thy doctrine, of Thy Law, of Thy Grace, and souls themselves.
Grant me the grace to love them, to listen to them, and to let myself be guided by them in Thy ways. Jesus, send good laborers into Thy harvest. May priests be the salt that purifies and preserves; may they be the light of the world; may they be the city placed on the mountain. May they all be formed after Thy own Heart. And in heaven may they be surrounded by a joyous throng of those they shepherded on earth. Amen.
Glory Be (three times).
Infant Jesus, make me love Thee more and more
The True Nature of Christmas
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 24, 2024 at 12:00AM in Books
Our Lady of Grace, Greensboro, NC
"Today, Christmas is celebrated without Christ in many quarters. Christmas is the season when God became man in the form of a child, and yet, unhappily, in how many homes, because Christ is uninvited, children, too, are no longer welcome. Christmas, like Emmanuel, means "God with us". If we celebrated Christmas without God, we have lost its meaning. If we refuse an inn to God's children as the fruit of marriage, we repeat the sad tale of Bethlehem that refused an inn to Mary and Joseph and the Child.
Christmas means Christ's Mass. But the protestant revolt has denied the true sacrifice of the Mass. It has uprooted His altar and replaced it with a pulpit. There are some who profess to be ministers of Christ and yet deny his Divinity.
The Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament has been removed from their altars and the voice of man has usurped His place. The pivot and focal point of the Protestant Church is not the altar but the pulpit. Man's presence has replaced God's presence; private interpretation has taken the place of God's authority.
Christ is sacrificed in the Mass and the Mass is Christ present with us. Take away the tabernacle of God and, since nature abhors a vacuum, the pulpit of man is ushered in to replace it. Remove the Mass, where Christ is offered and adored, and the result is that man is dehumanized whereas he should be super-naturalized. Man exalts himself instead of humbling himself and adoring God. Without God man is not even himself. He is dehumanized. He is less than man. For man, as God made him, is just a little less than the angels.
Christmas today, for the average worldling, means feasting and food, a holiday, with tinsel and tree, and an exchange of gifts. It is externalized and made pagan in its concept.
It should mean attendance at Mass - at Christ's Mass on Christmas day. It should be a day of great dignity, of rejoicing as evidenced in a temperate use of food and drink and a meeting of loved ones under the star and spirit of Bethlehem. It should mean not so much a receiving as a giving to Christ's poor in imitation of God who gave Himself to the poor in the greatest gifts - His only-begotten Son.
(...)
In thinking of Christmas we always conjure up in our mind's eye the happy days of childhood, the memory of our parents who may have passed on to God's Judgment, and of our early home - all these are most joyous recollections. Certainly Advent should not be observed as a lugubrious or melancholy manner. Penance is a joy when it is performed for God. When imposed upon us for a selfish motive it is a drudgery.
These Advent days, then, can be most joyful, our recollection of former years can be most happy if we dedicate them to God. In simple terms, we can be happiest when all things are in harmony and in their proper place. This is the definition of health. This is the understanding of peace - the "tranquility of order."
Source: Preface of Spiritual Steps to Christmas, Very Rev. Msgr. Aloysius Coogan, MA 1953
