2020 Christmas Eve Reflection

The First Reading from the Mass of the Nativity of the Lord--During the Day:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!”

Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion. Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 52:7-10

I did a little digging into my archives, looking for inspiration for this year's reflection. My research showed I have not used five of the twelve readings proclaimed during the Liturgy of the Word for the various Christmas Masses which can be celebrated, as has been my wont for the past few years. Two of them were the Gospels for the Mass at Dawn (the continuation of St. Luke's nativity narrative) and During the Day (the prologue of St. John). Two of them were the other readings from the Vigil Mass. That left this one, which, after mulling it over, I have opted to use.

This will also be an exercise in lecto divina. Unlike other attempts, where I usually just take things as they come, I discovered when I was reading this passage things didn't grab my attention until the end. So this time, while it might look like a hodgepodge, I hope it will make sense at the end. (As a gentle reminder, I hope you use this for your own point of departure for contemplation and meditation. I am not a pro at this.)

The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations. What He has promised from the time of the Fall, God has now delivered. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, true God and true man, who sits at the right hand of the Father, has now come down to earth from Heaven. Emmanuel--"God is with us"--has been revealed, first to the Chosen People through their representatives, the shepherds; then to the Gentiles through their representatives, the Magi.

The LORD restor(es) Zion; He redeems Jerusalem. His birth marks the beginning of the end of the process of redemption, culminating in His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. He came not to condemn the world, but to save it, to give His life as a ransom for the many. The Lamb of God, born in a cave used as a stable, will become our Pascal sacrifice for the remission of sins, Original and personal.

The LORD comforts his people. It is Jesus who "brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, 'Your God is King!'” His message of love and assurance, needed then as now, was so radically different that it drew both rants and raves. It divided people in His time (as He said it would); it does so in ours. Why is that? Is it too good to be true? Yes and yes. It is too good and it is true. Our fallen nature still recognizes goodness and truth. We have to utilize His grace to incorporate it into our lives; we have to do our part to be saved.

Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy (and) break out together into song. Christ's work did not end when He ascended into Heaven. It started in earnest at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon His Church in the Upper Room. We, the Mystical Body of Christ, are the new sentinels. The People of God have to continue the Great Commission found at the end of St. Matthew's Gospel. We have to do the evangelizing now:  bring glad tidings, announce peace, bear good news, announce salvation, and say, "Our God is King." And we have to do it with joy, so "all the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God."

The "greatest story ever told" ends at the Second Coming. While we know the ending, we are still writing the chapters leading to it. And what is our inspiration?

Hodie Christus natus est.

It is enough.

The Promise Kept

The original (in German) was written by Johannes Olearius, with another able translation to English by Catherine Winkworth. The more familiar tune setting is "Freu dich sehr," found in the Geneva Psalter. Originally for the feast of St. John the Baptist, the herald's words, ringing in our ears for these past "four" weeks, are a fitting way to make our final preparation.

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1. Comfort, comfort ye my people,

    Speak ye peace, thus saith our God;

    Comfort those who sit in darkness,

    Mourning 'neath their sorrows' load;

    Speak ye to Jerusalem

    Of the peace that waits for them,

    Tell her that her sins I cover,

    And her warfare now is over.

2. Yea, her sins our God will pardon,

    Blotting out each dark misdeed;

    All that well deserved His anger

    He will no more see nor heed.

    She hath suffer'd many a day,

    Now her griefs have passed away,

    God will change her pining sadness

    Into ever-springing gladness.

3. For Elijah's voice is crying

    In the desert far and near,

    Bidding all men to repentance,

    Since the kingdom now is here.

    Oh that warning cry obey,

    Now prepare for God a way;

    Let the valleys rise to meet Him,

    And the hills bow down to greet Him.

4. Make ye straight what long was crooked,

    Make the rougher places plain,

    Let your hearts be true and humble,

    As befits His holy reign;

    For the glory of the Lord

    Now o'er earth is shed abroad,

    And all flesh shall see the token

    That His Word is never broken.

Ero cras.

"O" The Time Has Come

We are past the halfway point of Advent. While we have lit the rose candle to remind us to rejoice that the Christ Child is coming, He is not here yet. Meanwhile, in the Northern Hemisphere, the darkness continues to overtake us. We are a few days away from the Winter Solstice. Our yearning for light only magnifies.

It is in that yearning, especially now in the prayers of Vespers/Evening Prayer (depending on which form you use), which intensifies. As if the world groans and cries out for its savior to appear, it invokes some of the various titles which are associated with the Messiah. These are the basis for the "O" Antiphons, the seven antiphons which precede the Magnificat for the upcoming week. While sources mention their use in the 4th. Century, their use was firmly established by the 8th. Century.

As has been the tradition of this 'blog since its inception, I once again present my meditations on the "O" Antiphons. While there have been no changes to these posts for a few years now, I hope they are still edifying. They seem to still be my most popular writings, and for that I am grateful.

Expect them at their usual time, when the darkness of night has overtaken the light of day.

Remind yourself, however, the Light of the World is never overcome. 

December 2020 Morning Offering Prayer Intention

Here is the intention for this month when prayer the Morning Offering:

For a life of prayer. We pray that our personal relationship with Jesus Christ be nourished by the Word of God and a life of prayer.

A reflection for this intention is found here. (NB)--As of the time of this post's publishing, there was no monthly reflection.)

Seeking The Light

Sunset comes upon us; and with it, the beginning of a new liturgical year. As the Northern Hemisphere plunges headlong into longer stretches of darkness, humanity seems to take up the battle to bring more light into the world. As I made reference in my first Christmas Eve Reflection, this annual skirmish is a reminder of our fallen nature and the need for redemption.

Plenty of people have completed decorating for Christmas already, while others are still working on it. All the external trappings are welcome, but we as Christians enter a time for interior preparation. While we  wait in darkness, we prepare for Light. While we still see lots of green (and red and other colors), purple is the primary color for the next "four" weeks.

We have entered the season of Advent. A time of waiting, of anticipation, of longing, of hope. The focus is on the two arrivals of Jesus Christ:  recalling His first appearance on earth and leading up to His second. We know not the day of the latter, but the former has been fixed for quite a while. Now the People of God begin their annual journey toward Bethlehem with prayer and reflection, fasting (for we are readying ourselves for a feast), and counting down the time when the Blessed Virgin Mary's confinement will be complete and the beginning of the end of the salvation promised to us will commence.

Prepare the Advent wreath.

Prepare the creche.

Prepare the gifts.

Prepare the tree.

Prepare the food.

But most of all, prepare your hearts.

"Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight His paths."

2020 Thanksgiving Day Card

 

May we be truly thankful for all the blessings we have received from God. May we be truly grateful for the abundance and necessities He provides. May we become as generous and loving in our giving to others as He is.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!

Another Thankgiving Proclamation

Until President Abraham Lincoln fixed the date of Thanksgiving Day in 1863, there were sporadic proclamations for a national day of thanksgiving. Below is a resolution passed by Congress calling for the people to gather together and be grateful.

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Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as a day of public humiliation and prayer; and

Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand are the welfare and the destiny of nations:

I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States with a political Constitution rounded on the will and authority of the whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest from them the rights and privileges to which they were entitled in common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and persevering efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging and essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful enterprise.

If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice, by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences; and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason, to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices propitiate.

Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnities therein recommended.

Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A. D. 1813.

JAMES MADISON.

"Ode" To St. Cecilia

This year, with the feast of St. Cecilia falling on the same day as the solemnity of Christ the King, I decided not to create an original post honoring the patron saint of musicians. Instead, I will provide a list of past posts on the subject. (It also gave me a chance to clean up some of the typesetting removed when I switched to this version of Blogger.)

While I try to make this an annual contribution, there is no post for 2019.There are occasions when something like this slips my mind. This is an example. Oh, well; life goes on.

I hope you find them worthy of your consideration now as you did then.

2005:  Musical Quotes And Thoughts

2006:  Quotes And Notes

2007:  Quotable On Notes

2008:  Canto; Ergo, Sum

2009:  Mechanical Musicianship

2010:  Make We Music

2011:  Cecilia: Virgin & Martyr

2012:  To The Musical Maiden

2013:  A Poet's Notes On Notes

2014:  A Church Musician's Musings

2015:  "Music, When Soft Voices Die"

2016:  Producing Melody; Making Harmony

2017:  Cantate Domino 

2018:  Musical Quotes Through The Ages

November 2020 Morning Offering Prayer Intention

 Here is the intention for this month when reciting the Morning Offering:

Artificial Intelligence. We pray that the progress of robotics and artificial intelligence may always serve humankind.

A reflection for this intention is found here.

October 2020 Morning Offering Prayer intention

Here is the intention for this month when reciting the Morning Offering:

The Laity’s Mission in the Church. We pray that by the virtue of baptism, the laity, especially women, may participate more in areas of responsibility in the Church.

A reflection for this intention is found here.