O Emmanuel ~ O God With Us Dec 23

O Emmanuel ~ O God with us

our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Savior: come and save us, O Lord our God.

O Oriens ~ O Day Spring Dec 21

O Oriens ~ O Day Spring

Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice; Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

He is the Rising Dawn; He is the Radiance of the Light eternal; He is the Sun of Justice.

We ask Christ to enlighten us by His coming. Who are they who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death? Pagans and unbelievers, sinners and atheist. But also in us " the Faithful" there is still much darkness much of death's shadow. Open your soul and let the divine light shine in!

Abbot Guerager OSB The Liturgical Year Advent



O Radix Jesse ~ O Root of Jesse Dec 19th

O Radix Jesse.... O Root of Jesse

You stand for an ensign of mankind; before You kings shall keep silence, and to You all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.

    Christ is of the root of Jesse, both as a descendant of David and as occupant of the royal throne. The wording of the prophetic text, however, does not pass over our Savior's external lowliness and poverty.
   The bulk of the antiphon is doted to a description of the kingdom. The small twig becomes the unifying principle about which the nations will gather like soldiers and citizens about their flag. With yearning the peoples will assemble around Him, will turn and acknowledge Him as Ruler. The Messiah's glory will be so great that even kings will stand dumbstruck in wonder and awe.

Abbot Gueranger OSB The Liturgical Year Advent pgs 180-181

O Adonai ~ O God of the Covenant~ Dec 18th

O Adonai God of the covenant and ruler of the house of Israel, You appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and on Mt Sinai gave him Your Law: Come and with an outstretched arm redeem us!

The Second person of the Blessed Trinity had an active part in creation, as noted in yesterday's "O" antiphon. Now the liturgy , seeing Christ in the perspective of divinity, finds Him active in the Old Testament. Christ was the " Covenant of God" (Adonai) of the Chosen People.

Reflection: The deliverance from Egypt has always been regarded as a leading Old Testament type for Christ's work of redemption. Pharaoh is the infernal prince into whose bondage mankind had fallen through sin; Moses is the redeemer--Christ, who redeems. Of old God appeared in the thornbush, in the fullness of time He appeared on earth clothed in human flesh--even now we are at the point of celebrating that appearance with admiration and joy.

And today He wants to enter my soul, to be its Ruler and Lawgiver. " Come, follow Me," walk in My footsteps, He pleads. Christian life means following Christ. Christ wants to be my Law. Without law there is no kingdom of God. He wants to redeem me " with an outstretched arm," but can do so only on  condition that I unite my will to His. Listen, soul, to His directions.

Abbot Gueranger OSB  The Liturgical Year Advent pg 179-180

O Sapientia ~O Wisdom Dec 17th~

~O Wisdom ~

This is the first of the O Antiphons

(This is the Magnificat Antiphon from Vespers on the 17th of Dec.)

The Church enters today on the seven days which precede the Vigil of Christmas, and which are known in the liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn; the antiphons of the psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the Day, are proper, and allude expressly to the great coming. Every day, at Vespers, is sung a solemn antiphon, consisting of a fervent prayer to the Messias, whom it addresses by one of the titles given Him in the sacred Scriptures.

In the Roman Church, there are seven of these antiphons, one for each of the greater ferias, They are commonly called the O's of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection.

Let us enter into the spirit of the Church; let us reflect on the great day which is coming; that thus we may take our share in these the last and most earnest solicitations of the Church imploring her Spouse to come, to which He at length yields.

Abbot Gueranger OSB The Liturgical Year Advent

Rejoice in the Lord always

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near."

He is on the way.......are you ready?

This Sunday has been called Gaudete Sunday, after the Latin gaudere, to rejoice. And "rejoice" is a term that suits it well.

Collect

  O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the lord's Nativity, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The second reading is taken from Philippians 4:4-7:

  Brothers and sisters; rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. Then the peace of God that surpassed all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The coming of Christ at Christmas is getting closer and the the Liturgy is expressing its joyful anticipation with its readings and antiphons. We even use the color rose instead of the violet giving us a visual sign of the expectant joy that is coming soon.

So prepare the way of the Lord. Rejoice in the anticipation of the coming of the Lord now and always.

Called by Name

Just as the Angel called the Shepherds to give witness to Christ, so too does God call you to give witness to Him.

To be Called by One's Very Own Name
    In Isaiah 43:1, it is significant that God does not call us generically but specifically. The Lord calls us by name; indeed, by our very own name. To be thus called is to be known eternally and to be chosen to exist in time. It is to be created as a unique individual. It is to be loved intimately, personally and faithfully by God. To be called by our own name is to be espoused to the Lord. It is to be drawn into a covenant with God. It is ultimately to be invited to become one with God in participant transformation, while at the same time attaining the pinnacle of self-identity.
   God's call creates each of us into a unique person with a particular way to reach full maturity in Christ. We receive a singular identity as well as the potential to attain maximum development of our personhood. We receive the power to experience, to know and to love the Lord. Integral to the Lord's calling us by name then is the mystery of our being and becoming in God. The Lord has implanted within us a thrust toward the fullness of being: eternal life in God. Our being has a dynamic propensity toward ever greater becoming. To be is to become God by participation. To be fully human is to become divinized.

Called by God, A Theology of Vocation and Lifelong Commitment  pg 51 ~ Frances Kelly Nemeck and Marie Theresa Coombs.

Following the way of Mary

Imaging the story:

  It is March 25, with in a few years of the year we call 1, and a 14-year old named Mary or Myriam in Hebrew goes out to graze a small flock of goats on a rocky hillside in Galilee. A typical Jewish girl of her time, she wears a straight sun-bleached dress, is deeply tanned, and has dark brown hair woven into a braid that swings across her back as she runs happily up the hill. She is thinking about Joseph, a local woodworker to whom she is engaged.
 Mary is as ordinary as her name and expectations. Marriage and motherhood lie ahead, and the hard life of the very poor. After the ceremony she will wear a long veil and move to a shabby one-room house just like her parents', made of stone with an earthen floor and high-placed air vents admitting a bit of light. Like her ancestors for may centuries, Mary will cook over an open fire, sit on the ground to eat, and sleep on a thin mat. Her mother and grandmother have trained her well in women's ways of nurturing a family, tending to the sick and dying with home-grown herbal medicines, and helping in childbirth.
  Picture Mary in you imagination as she finds a patch of dusty land with just enough grass to feed her small flock for the day. Already thirsty, she takes a small drink of water from her wineskin when something alarming happens, something too amazing to be real, and she is shaken to her core. An angel has appeared right in front of her. Imagine your self in her place. What would you be feeling and thinking?
  Mary is afraid, but the angel is beautiful, and he speaks to her in a soothing, tender voice. Quickly, she calms herself. The message is curious, inappropriate, as though it were meant for someone else, and she struggles with herself before she speaks. What is it like for you to be there with Mary, listing to her conversation with Gabriel? If you could speak to Mary, what would you say? What would she reply? Continue your conversation with her if you wish. What did you learn from your conversation with Mary?

The Way of Mary, Following Her footsteps Toward God ~ Mary Ford-Grabowsky, pg 51,52

God is Present in Our Waiting

     The grace of the season of Advent is a reawakening of our hope in the salvation that has already come, that comes now, and will come in the fullness of the "Day of the Lord." Nevertheless, it is true that insistence on this grace somewhat hides the primordial role of God.  Would we do anything but wait if God were not the Master of the Game? ..... God, then, calls us to him to reestablish our confidence now and always, that we may not be discouraged by delays, tribulations, and troubles of every kind, for he is present in our world.

 Days of the Lord, The liturgical year, vol 1 Advent, Christmas, Epiphany. pg56

Humility and Charity Above All Other Virtues

For humility caused the Son of God to be born of the Virgin, in whom was found humility, not eager embraces or beauty of flesh or earthly riches or gold ornaments or earthly honors.  But the Son of God lay in a manger, because His Mother was a poor maiden.  Humility always groans, weeps and destroys all offenses, for this is its work.  So let anyone who wishes to conquer the Devil arm himself with humility, since Lucifer frevertly flees it and hides in its presence like a snake in a hole; for wherever it finds him, it quickly snaps him like a fragile thread.

And charity took the Only-Begotten of God, who was in the bosom of the Father in Heaven, and placed Him in the wormb of a mother on earth, for it does not spurn sinners or publicans but seeks to save all.  Therefore it often brings forth a fountain of tears from the eyes of the faithful, thus softening hardness of heart.  In this, humility and charity are brighter than the other virtues, since humility and charity are like a soul and body that possess stronger powers than the other powers of soul and bodily members.  How?  Humility is like the soul and charity like the body, and they cannot be separated from each other but work together, just as soul and body cannot be disjoined but work together as long as a person lives in the body.  And as the various members of the body are subject, according to their powers, to the soul and to the body, so also the other virtues cooperate, according to their justice, with humility and charity.  And therefore, O human, for the glory of God and for your salvation, pursue humility and charity; armed with them, you shall not fear the Devil's snares but shall have everlasting life.

Therefore whoever has knowledge in the Holy Spirit and wings of faith, let this one not ignore My admonition, but taste it, embrace it and receive it in his soul.

from Creation and Christ, The Wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen

Note:  On October 7, 2012, Pope Benedict opened the Synod on the New Evangelization by naming St. Hildegard of Bingen as a new doctor of the Church along with St. John of God.