For Unto Us, a Child Is Born

A priest recently said to me: "Our Lord comes as a baby at Christmas so that we might find it easier to love him". One has but to watch the enchanting effect that a tiny baby has on everyone within reach to know how true this is. A few times recently when I've had the opportunity to hold a near-newborn while in a group of people, I've noticed anew how magnetic and powerful that tiny person is. Children approach and gaze wide-eyed, young girls and ladies caress and marvel, and even grown men step near to look and smile. A baby — in all his fragile, helpless beauty — has the power to reach even the most distant and hardened of hearts. Facades come down, and an indescribable tenderness overcomes us as we behold this tiny miracle of creation.

A Christmas message sent us from an area pregnancy care center held a quote (credited to this newsletter) which I found stirringly beautiful, summing wondrously this mysterious power of each new life...

"When God wants an important thing done in this world or a wrong righted, He goes about it in a very singular way. He doesn't release thunderbolts or stir up earthquakes. God simply has a tiny baby born, perhaps of a very humble home, perhaps of a very humble mother. And God puts the idea or purpose into the mother's heart. And she puts it in the baby's mind, and then...God waits.

The great events of this world are not battles and elections and earthquakes and thunderbolts. The great events are babies, for each child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged with humanity, but is still expecting goodwill to become incarnate in each human life."

Among the great events of babies, and the accompanying divine message of hope, the Birth which the whole world now celebrates shines as the greatest of all. In the supreme act of goodwill incarnated, the Father sends His own Son in the flesh: not as an imposing warrior in armor or a commanding king seated on a thone, but as a baby. As one of us. Regardless of the chaos, brokenness, or corruption that may be raging around the world, each Christmas reminds us that the Father is not finished with humanity. He reaches down, and places Eternal Light into a darkened world. Let heaven and nature sing!

"For unto us, a child is born;
unto us, a son is given.
And the government
shall be upon his shoulders,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

-Isaiah 9:6

Just a Note...

Dear Kathryn, the new profile picture is for you! :)
Blessed Christmas, everyone!

Advent Day 14: Saint Lucy

Hear us, O God, our salvation, as we rejoice on the feast of Saint Lucy, Thy virgin and Martyr, and grant us to learn the spirit of pious devotion.

~from CatholicCulture.org

Fr. Kubicki on St. Lucy's memorial:

Swedish girls in a "St. Lucia" tradition...I'm not sure what the song is, but it's lovely!

Advent Day 13: Our Lady of Guadalupe

“Am I not here, I who am your Mother?

Are you not under my shadow and protection?

Am I not the source of your joy?

Are you not in the hollow of my mantle,

in the crossing of my arms?

Do you need anything more?
Let nothing else worry or disturb you.”

~Our Lady of Guadalupe

(celebrated today)

Our Lady of Guadalupe explained by Fr. James Kubicki, SJ

(National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer):

Advent Day 12

“The arrangement of the names of Christ, however, is manifold…
Sun, because He is the illuminator…
Vine, because we are redeemed by His blood…
Lion, because he is king…

Rock, because He is firm…
Prophet, because He has revealed what is to come.”

~Pope St. Damasus I (celebrated today)

Advent Day 11

“Peace begins with a smile.”

~Mother Teresa

We are in the Advent week of Peace...have you smiled today?

Advent Day 10: Memorial of Saint Juan Diego

"What was Juan Diego like? Why did God look upon him? The Book of Sirach, as we have heard, teaches us that God alone 'is mighty; he is glorified by the humble' (cf. Sir 3:20). Saint Paul's words, also proclaimed at this celebration, shed light on the divine way of bringing about salvation: 'God chose what is low and despised in the world ... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God' (1 Cor 1:28,29).

It is moving to read the accounts of Guadalupe, sensitively written and steeped in tenderness. In them the Virgin Mary, the handmaid 'who glorified the Lord' (Lk 1:46), reveals herself to Juan Diego as the Mother of the true God. As a sign, she gives him precious roses, and as he shows them to the Bishop, he discovers the blessed image of Our Lady imprinted on his tilma."

~Pope John Paul II at the Canonization of St. Juan Diego

Advent Day 9: The Immaculate Conception

“What a great gift to have Mary Immaculate as mother! A mother resplendent with beauty, the transparency of God's love. I am thinking of today's young people, who grow up in an environment saturated with messages that propose false models of happiness. These young men and women risk losing hope because they often seem orphans of true love, which fills life with true meaning and joy. This was a theme dear to my Venerable Predecessor John Paul II, who so often proposed Mary to the youth of our time as the ‘Mother of Fair Love’… How sad it is when youth lose the wonder, the enchantment of the most beautiful sentiments, the value of respect for the body, the manifestation of the person and his unfathomable mystery! Mary Immaculate, whom we contemplate in all her beauty and holiness, reminds us of all this.”

~ Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus Address, December 8, 2007

Second Sunday of Advent

“A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!”

~from Today’s Gospel

Advent Day 7

God of joy and cheer,
we thank you for your servant,
the good bishop Nicholas.
In loving the poor,
he showed us your kindness;
in caring for your children,
he revealed your love.
Make us thoughtful
without need of reward
so that we, too, may be
good followers of Jesus.

Happy St. Nicholas Day! If you haven't been to StNicholasCenter.org yet, there's no better time! Both the beautiful picture and prayer are from there.

May the generous spirit of this saint inspire us today and the whole year through.

God bless!

Advent Day 6

Lord, we believe that You can make us see.

~See today’s gospel

Advent Day 5

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’

will enter the Kingdom of heaven,

but only the one who does the will of my Father...”

~Matthew 7 (today’s gospel)

Advent Day 4

"It is not the actual pysical exertion

that counts towards a man's progress,

nor the nature of the task,

but by the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken."

~St. Francis Xavier, celebrated today

Advent Day 3

(See today's first reading)

Advent Day 2

“Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”

~Psalm 122 (Today's Responsorial Psalm)

First Sunday of Advent

“Advent is, par excellence, the season of hope.”

~Celebration of Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
St Peter's Basilica, 1st December 2007

Powerful

From AdventConspiracy.org:

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and a revolutionary love.

So, what happened? What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow turned into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists.

And when it's all over, many of us are left with presents to return, looming debt that will take months to pay off, and this empty feeling of missed purpose. Is this what we really want out of Christmas?

What if Christmas became a world-changing event again?

Today begins Advent. Enter the conspiracy!

HT: Homeschooling with Joy

Prayers, Please

I leave this afternoon for an Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat over the weekend. As I am presently in the midst of some great discernment and difficult decisions, I am very much longing for an outpouring of graces. I would be deeply grateful for your prayers, that the Holy Spirit may enlighten my heart during this retreat. Each of you will be in my prayers as well. Thank you so much!

Pax Christi.

Pope Benedict on Beauty

This caught my eye immediately...a splendid article! Also very reminiscent of the theme of this book (if you haven't yet read it, this is an official recommendation to do so). :)

Vatican City, Nov 25, 2008 / 11:18 am (CNA)- Although the world is immersed in images, it can be empty of beauty, Pope Benedict said today in a message he sent to the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Literature as it explores the relationship between aesthetics and ethics.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, is hosting a public event with the theme—"The universality of beauty: a comparison between aesthetics and ethics," and to contribute to the discussion, Pope Benedict has sent the archbishop a message.

The topic chosen by the academy reminds us of the "urgent need for a renewed dialogue between aesthetics and ethics, between beauty, truth and goodness," the Pope writes.

This need to reconnect beauty with truth and goodness is not just limited to the "contemporary cultural and artistic debate," but extends to daily reality, the Holy Father argues.

Today we can see "a dramatically-evident split" between the pursuit of external beauty and the idea of a beauty that is rooted in truth and goodness. Oftentimes, society only understands the search for beauty as an "exterior form, as an appearance to be pursued at all costs," he explains.

"Indeed," the Pope writes, "searching for a beauty that is foreign to or separate from the human search for truth and goodness would become (as unfortunately happens) mere asceticism and, especially for the very young, a path leading to ephemeral values and to banal and superficial appearances, even a flight into an artificial paradise that masks inner emptiness."

Pope Benedict also calls on contemporary reasoning to rediscover the link between beauty, truth and goodness. "And if such a commitment applies to everyone," the Pope asserts, "it applies even more to believers, to the disciples of Christ, who are called by the Lord to 'give reasons' for all the beauty and truth of their faith."

When Christians create works that "render glory unto the Father," the Pope continues, they speak of the "goodness and profound truth" that they are portraying, as well as the integrity and sanctity of the artist or author. To this end, Benedict XVI encourages believers to learn how to "communicate with the language of images and symbols ... in order effectively to reach our contemporaries."

The Holy Father also mentions how at the Synod on the Bible the bishops noted that knowing how to "read and scrutinize the beauty of works of art inspired by the faith" can lead Christians to discover a "unique path that brings us close to God and His Word."

Finally, Pope Benedict cites John Paul II's Letter to Artists, "which invites us, to reflect upon ... the fruitful dialogue between Holy Scripture and various forms of art, whence countless masterpieces have emerged." His message closes by appealing to academics and artists "to arouse wonder at and desire for beauty, to form people's sensitivity and to nourish a passion for everything that is a genuine expression of human genius and a reflection of divine beauty."


How I love that final quote! My heart leaps to respond to his call "to arouse wonder at and desire for beauty". I believe that each of us are called, in our individual vocations, to contribute to this noble effort. What will you do today to manifest a reflection of divine beauty to the world?

HT: Catholic Fire

American Papist

The (Entire) Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference;

living one day at a time,

accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.

Let me take, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it;

trusting He will make all things right

if I surrender to His will.

May I be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

Amen.

HT: Homeschooling with Joy