O Adonai. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Wednesday December 17, 2025 at 11:00PM in Advent Sermons
“
O Lord, and Leader of the house of Israel, Who didst appear to Moses in
a flame of fire in the bush, and didst give to him the law on Mount
Sinai, come to redeem us with Thy stretched out arm.”
1. The
Savior for Whom we look is also Our Lord (Adonai), the Leader and Chief
to whom we have sworn fealty. We speak of Him continually under the
familiar name of Our Lord, and each time we do so we reassert our
acknowledgment of the obligation to follow where He leads, and to be
subject to Him in all things. O happy followers of such a Leader! If we
tread in His footsteps, and obey His voice, He will set our feet in
green pastures, and lead us to the fountains of the water of life.
2.
The flame of fire in the burning bush was a figure of Jesus in Mary's
sacred womb. Holy indeed was the place where God was present, and whence
He promised to His people their deliverance from Egypt. So He still
speaks as if concealed in Mary’s womb, and reminds us that He has made
her holy with a holiness second only to His own; and when we draw nigh
to her we hear His voice announcing to us that He has heard our prayers
offered through her, and will come to deliver us from our enemies.
3.
What shall be our prayer to Him when He inspires us to make our request
with boldness at the throne of grace ? Come to redeem us with Thy
stretched-out arm. Come to deliver us from the effects of our past sins.
Come to deliver us from the attachment to some sin that still lurks
within us. Come to deliver us from all our countless negligences and
imperfections. Come with Thine arm stretched out to ward us from the
foe, O Lord and Lover of our souls. " Meditations # 22 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)
Glory Be (three times).
Infant Jesus, make me love Thee more and more.
St. Olympias, Widow, A.D. about 410.
by VP
Posted on Wednesday December 17, 2025 at 03:00AM in Saints
"This saint lived at Constantinople in the time of St. John Chrysostom. Her husband having been dead some time, the Emperor Theodosius proposed to her to marry Elpidius, his own near relation: to whom she answered, that God having taken away her husband, because she was not fit for the duties of the married state, she was resolved no more to engage in it. She was true to her resolution; and employed both her money and time in the relief of widows, orphans, and the sick. Her austerities were great, her habit mean, her humility edifying, her tears continual: and that nothing might be wanting to consummate her virtue, she was persecuted by the Emperor Arcadius, for espousing the cause of oppressed innocence in the person of her pastor, St. John Chrysostom. For this, being forced into banishment, she found her way by a happy death, to a better country which she had long desired.
Make use of this example as your state requires. There are difficulties in all conditions, and that of marriage cannot properly be Christian, without the self-denials of the cloister.
If humility and charity helped her to heaven, will not prodigality and
vanity shut you out from it? Take not your measures from the world, but from the gospel; and then say who has given you power so much to dispense with it. Follow the gospel, if you hope to come to the promises of the gospel. The saints all studied to husband every moment to the best advantage, knowing that life is very short, and that the night is coming on apace
when no man can work. Let no moments be spent merely to pass away time.
Diversions and corporal exercise ought to be used with moderation, only
as much as may seem requisite for bodily health and the vigour of the mind.
Every one is bound to apply himself to some serious employment. This,
and his necessary recreations, must be referred to God, sanctified by a
holy intention, and seasoned by humility, patience, prayer, and other
virtues. Thus will our lives be an uninterrupted sacrifice of divine praise and love." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
