Weekly Meditation
Please join us and the spiritual community throughout the world as we ponder the same words and share in the same prayers each week.
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December 2009
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Weekly Meditation December 28, 2009
Posted: 12/28/2009
In the midst of these Christmas time days in our liturgical year, yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family. Christmas, among other things, calls our attention to the essential reality and value of family life. We also cherish the joys of family gatherings during Christmas time. Our society is built on the basic unit of the family. God chose family as the means of sending our Savior, Jesus, the Word made flesh. What a priceless gift for those of us who are part of a good Christian family with mother and father who love their children and help them learn how to live and love reaching maturity with the art and virtue of living and loving in our Catholic community and our society.
January 1 we celebrate the Solemnity of the Divine Motherhood of Mary. We know it, of course, as New Year's Day in our civic life. We remember that total gift of herself: "I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word." May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph always inspire us to promote and be part of solid Catholic family living.
Father in heaven, creator of all, you ordered the earth to bring forth life and crowned its goodness by creating the family of man. In history's moment when all was ready you sent your Son to dwell in time, obedient to the laws of life in our world. Teach us the sanctity of human love, show us the value of family life, and help us to live in peace with all men that we may share in your life for ever.
Alternative Prayer--Holy Family Sunday -
Weekly Meditation December 21, 2009
Posted: 12/21/2009
Here we are in the fourth week of Advent and only days away from this year's celebration
of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, the Christ Child, our Savior. These days keep most of us
"on the go." But Advent and Christmas times also move us to personal reflections and memories, to intimate family joys and gratitude -- a time of "gift giving" and "gift receiving." We all enjoy receiving gifts but at a mature and deeper level we cherish the experience of giving gifts. We all need to receive love but we also very much need to have and show love for others.
God so loves us as to give us his best gift, his only Son, born of the Virgin Mary. Mary and Joseph raised that Son who has shown us by his life and teachings how to give love to God the Father and to others.
"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you."
May this Christmas celebration bring us closer to Christ to whom we have committed our lives and love.
Lord, our God, with the birth of your Son, your glory breaks on the world. Through the night hours of the darkened earth, we your people watch for the coming of your promised Son. As we wait, give us a foretaste of the joy that you will grant us when the fullness of his glory has filled the earth, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.
Opening Prayer Mass at Midnight
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND LOADS OF BLESSINGS -
Weekly Meditation December 14, 2009
Posted: 12/14/2009
We are half way through Advent and getting closer to our celebration of our Savior's birth. Yesterday's scripture readings for the Third Sunday of Advent called us to "rejoice." Joy is the tone and something of the "charge" of this third week of Advent.
The joy we speak of does not depend on external circumstances but on the nearness of God. How joyful we are in the presence of those who love us. What security, joy and peace we experience when we know someone we can rely on is near or we are again back in their presence. Children know and show this reality. We who are children of God have this same blessing and Advent is a time to be more aware and take advantage of this reality in our lives also.
Grab some more time this week for prayer and for prayerful reading of the Infancy Narratives in St. Matthew chapters 1-2 and St. Luke chapters 1-2. Ponder those sentiments and your use of time in general in the context of St. Paul's charge in yesterday's second reading to the Philippians:
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 requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. -
Weekly Meditation December 7, 2009
Posted: 12/7/2009
Advent is our gifted, unique time of expectation, hope, waiting for the coming, longing for the presence of our Savior. The pace and excitement of life mounts as we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus, our Savior born of Mary in Bethlehem 2000 years ago.
Pope Benedict XVI gave a beautiful homily at First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. He is insightful and inspiring in the frequent reflections and homilies he gives so generously. May I offer for your reflection a few lines from that homily:
Dear brothers and sisters, let us live the present intensely, when we already have the gifts of the Lord, let us live it projected to the future, a future full of hope. The Christian Advent thus becomes an occasion to reawaken in ourselves the true meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of Christ, the Messiah awaited for long centuries and born in the poverty of Bethlehem.
Coming among us, he has brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his love and of his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the events of daily life, in the whole of creation...May she (Mary), faithful disciple of her Son, obtain for us the grace to live this liturgical time vigilant and diligent in waiting.
Amen.
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