DAILY MASS READING

 

Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas

FIRST READIG

1 John 2: 18 – 21 

18 Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that it might be plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all know. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and know that no lie is of the truth.
  

PSALM RESPONSE

Psalms 96: 1 - 2, 11 – 13

1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! 2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy 13 before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.

GOSPEL

John 1: 1 – 18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. 9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. 15 (John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of whom I said, `He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'") 16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known

Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.
-- St Therese of Lisieux

Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/Devotionals/inspiration_12dec2011.htm#ixzz1f2YEKC3L

 Happy New Year 2010-2011 by ABBA-
httpwww.youtube.comwatchv=RdwMdK5sAac&feature=related

Christmas (The Nativity of the Lord): 
Mass is boring

Merry Christmas to all!  Today, because we celebrate the birthday God made man,  at the Creed, we will genuflect (for those who are able) at the words “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”  Holy Mother Church wants us not only to give adoration to God but also to help engrain in our psyche the power that these words hold.  Salvation is not communion with some Impersonal Philosophic Divine Essence.  It’s not sitting on cloud strumming harp looking at God from a distance. – boring !!!! No wonder people don’t want to go to heaven or come to Mass every week if that is what heaven is like.  But salvation is much more wonderful than anything we can ever imagine.  Salvation is an intimate and personal relationship with a personal God who loves us more than we can ever know.  How many times have you seen “A Charlie Brown Christmas” There is all this commotion about a Christmas tree and Snoopy’s commercialism, but in the end, Linus brings us back to the real meaning of Christmas by quoting Luke’s Gospel story of the Birth of Jesus.   It’s a very familiar reading and I wonder how many people, when I began the gospel story, thought I sounded like the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons, “Wa Wa Wa Wa Wa.” When we heard the beginning of the Gospel story, did we mentally switch off a little button in our head, been there, heard that I hope the football game is more exciting.  What is the major complaint about coming to Mass every week?  It’s boring.  Well, G.K. Chesterton writes, “A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit, fierce and free, therefore, they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again;” and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”  Have we taken the Christmas message for granted?  The all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful God became, through Mary’s Fiat, which is the old Latin word for “Let it be done,” through Mary’s fiat, God became a little embryo that began to grow inside of Mary.  In his encyclical on the Eucharist, Bl. Pope John Paul the Great wrote, “At the Annunciation, Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood. As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord.”  Thus, after the minister says “The Body of Christ,” we should with great faith proclaim “Amen” and receive our God into our mouths.  And just as Mary was without sin, when she conceived Jesus in her womb.  So too when we, Catholics, receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we must be in a state of grace, free from grave sin, and have fasted one hour, to prepare a place for Jesus to rest in our souls.  And yet, this wonderful gift of God made man, this wonderful gift of Emmanuel, “God with us” not only in the Incarnation but also in the Holy Eucharist is something that we celebrate every Sunday.  Let us recapture that faith of a little child on the day of their first communion, and figuratively say to the priest at every Mass, “Do it again.”  Make present the Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of the living God present among us.  This was the great desire of those martyrs who died for the privilege of attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  In his encyclical, the Day of the Lord, Pope John Paul II, not only reminded the faithful of the grave obligation to attend Mass every Sunday. But also recalled the martyrs of the ancient Roman Empire who, during the persecution of Diocletian, were banned from attending Mass. Many, however, were courageous enough to defy the imperial decree and accepted death rather than miss the Sunday Eucharist. More recently, during the Reformation in England in the 1500’s, it was illegal to attend Mass and those who did were persecuted but St. Margaret Clitherow hid priests in her home, taught her children to love their Catholic faith, and refused to stop attending Mass.  She was martyred on the 25th of March in the year of our Lord 1586.  St. Margaret’s three children saw how much their mother’s faith meant her. Her sons, Henry and William, became priests, and her daughter Anne became a nun.  Even more recently, I remember a grandmother telling me about her grandchildren who came to visit her after her parents had been stationed in some Arab country where Christianity was not accepted.  When the woman told her grandchildren, “Get ready for Church,” they responded to her “Grandma, you can’t say that word.”  Persecution of Christians still exists in today’s world.  Let us remember the great gift that God has given us this Christmas, in the person of His Son, not only in the manger but also upon this altar, and in our own mouths.  Are we willing, like St. Margaret Clitherow, to die for the privilege of attending Mass every Sunday and to accept the Son of God into our bodies as Mary did?

from:  romancatholichomilies.blogspot.com

eucharistic miracle of rani john, kerala, india  -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpNAjM_aKM4