The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. (January 1)

This feast, closely connected to the feast of Christmas, is the most important and oldest of the major feasts of Mary. It is based on the source of her privileges: her motherhood. Jesus Christ, God's Son " born of a woman," (Galatians 4,4) came to deliver us from sin and make us children of God. He is also Mary's Son, and she, his mother, helps bring his blessings to the world. She is

"truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer...not merely passively engaged by God, but freely cooperating in the work of our salvation through faith and obedience." (Lumen Gentium,53,56)

Mary was not simply a passive instrument in God's hands; rather she discovered and accepted new dimensions to her motherhood as her life unfolded. Scripture indicates signs of her new unfolding motherhood.

At the marriage feast in Cana in Galilee, where Jesus worked his first miracle, Mary is "the Mother of Jesus" who manifests

" a new kind of motherhood according to the spirit and not just according to the flesh, that is to say Mary's solicitude for human beings, her coming to them in the wide variety of their wants and needs. At Cana in Galilee there is shown only one concrete aspect of human need, apparently a small one and of little importance ("They have no wine"). But it has a symbolic value, this coming to the aid of human beings means, at the same time, bringing those needs within the radius of Christ's messianic mission and salvific power." (Pope John Paul 11, Redemptoris Mater 21)

Mary's care for humanity and its needs would not limited to her earthly life; it lasts "without interruption until the eternal fulfilment of all the elect. (Lumen Gentium, 62)

Whether in her own lifetime or from her place in heaven, Mary's solicitude for human beings looks, above all, to making known the messianic power of her Son. At Cana in Galilee she told the servers at table, "Do what he tells you." (John 2,5) In all her care for others, she points out Jesus to them.

Throughout her life, then, Mary was a follower of her Son. At the foot of the cross, her motherhood reached a new maturity when Mary experienced her Son's redeeming love for the world. Her spirit was touched and refined by the mystery of his death and resurrection.

From his cross, Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing there, said to Mary, "Woman, behold your son."(John 19,25-27)

"The words uttered by Jesus signify that the motherhood of her who bore Christ finds a 'new' continuation in the Church and through the Church, symbolized and represented by John. " (Redemptoris Mater, 24)

Before Pentecost, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus, the disciples "continued with one mind in prayer with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren."(Acts 1,14) "Thus Mary who is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother becomes- by the will of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit- present in the mystery of the Church. In the Church too she continues to be a maternal presence, as is shown by the words spoken from the cross:'Woman, behold your son.' 'Behold, your mother.' "

Readings for the feast

The principal reading for the feast, from St. Luke's gospel, describes the shepherds coming to Bethlehem where they

"found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger." (Luke 2,16-21)

Mother and son are found together. She presents her Son to them. In fact, she will always point to him. As a pilgrim of faith, she "treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart"; at the same time, she invites other pilgrims to treasure and reflect on the mystery of Jesus Christ.

Along with the Byzantine and Syrian churches, which celebrate the feast of the Mother of God (Theotokos) on December 26, the Roman church celebrates this primary feast close to the feast of the Birth of Jesus Christ. For

"only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery made clear." (Redemptoris Mater)

This article may be found at: http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/mary/trad04.html

Pope Benedict: ON THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S BIRTH.

ON THE FEAST OF CHRIST'S BIRTH

"God Has Come So Near to Each One of Us"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters,

With the Christmas novena that we are celebrating in these days, the Church invites us to live intensely and profoundly the preparation for the birth of the Savior, which is nearly upon us.

The desire that all of us have in our hearts is that, in the midst of the frenetic activity of our days, the coming feast of Christmas gives us serene and profound joy to enable us to touch the goodness of our God with our hands and to fill us with new energy.

To better understand the meaning of the birth of the Lord, I would like to briefly refer to the historical origin of this solemnity. In fact, the liturgical year of the Church did not initially develop beginning with the birth of Christ, but rather from faith in the Resurrection. Because of this the most ancient feast of Christianity is not Christmas, but Easter: The resurrection of Christ is at the base of Christian faith; it is at the base of the proclamation of the Gospel and gives birth to the Church. Therefore to be Christians means to live in the mode of Easter, connecting ourselves to the dynamic that comes from baptism, which brings death to sin to live with God (cf. Romans 6:4).

The first one to clearly affirm that Jesus was born on Dec. 25 was Hippolytus of Rome in his commentary on the Book of the prophet Daniel, written around 204. One exegete observes, moreover, that on this day was celebrated the Dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C.. The concurrence of dates would come to mean that with Jesus, appearing as light of God in the night, advent of God to this earth, the consecration of the temple is truly fulfilled.

Within Christianity, the feast of Christmas took on a definite form in the fourth century, when it took the place of the Roman feast of "sol invictus," the invincible sun. Thus was shown that the birth of Christ is the victory of true light over the darkness of evil and sin. Yet, the unique and intense spiritual atmosphere that surrounds Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to St. Francis of Assisi, who was profoundly in love with Jesus as man, with God-with-us. 

His first biographer, Thomas of Celano, in the "Vita Seconda," narrates that St. Francis, "above the other solemnities, celebrated with ineffable attention the birth of Baby Jesus, and he called the feast of feasts the day on which God, become a small child, nursed at a human breast" (Fonti Francescane, No. 199, p. 492).

From this particular devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation came the famous celebration of Christmas in Greccio. Most probably, St. Francis was inspired to have this celebration by his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and by the manger of St. Mary Major in Rome. What moved the Poor Man of Assisi was the desire to experience in an actual, concrete and living way the humble greatness of the event of Baby Jesus' birth, and to communicate his joy to everyone.

In the first biography, Thomas of Celano speaks of the night of Bethlehem in Greccio in a lively and moving manner, offering a decisive contribution to the spreading of this most beautiful Christmas tradition, the Nativity scene. The night of Greccio, in fact, has given back to Christianity the intensity and the beauty of the feast of Christmas, and has educated the people of God to learn its most authentic message, its particular warmth, and to love and adore the humanity of Christ. 

This particular approach to Christmas has brought a new dimension to Christian faith. Easter had focused attention on the power of God who overcomes death, inaugurates new life and teaches us to hope in the world to come. With St. Francis and his nativity, the defenseless love of God was shown, his humility and goodness, which in the incarnation of the Word is manifested to man so as to teach a new way to live and to love.

Celano narrates that, on that Christmas night, Francis was given a marvelous vision. He saw a little child lying still in a manger; the child woke up because Francis approached. And he adds: "This vision was not different than real life, since through the work of his grace acting by way of his holy servant Francis, the Child Jesus was resurrected in the hearts of many,  people who had forgotten him, and this was deeply impressed on his loving memory" (Vita prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 307).

These lines describe very well how Francis' living faith in and love for the humanity of Christ have been transmitted to the Christian feast of Christmas: the discovery that God reveals himself in the tiny fingers of the Child Jesus. Thanks to St. Francis, the Christian people have been able to perceive that at Christmas, God truly has become Emmanuel, God-with-us, from whom no barrier or distance can separate us. In this Child, God has come so near to each one of us, so close, that we can address him with confidence and maintain with him a trusting relationship of deep affection, as we do with a newborn.

In this Child, in fact, God-Love is manifested: God comes without weapons, without strength, because he does not aim to conquer, we could say, from without, but rather wants to be welcomed by man in liberty. God becomes a defenseless Child to conquer man's pride, violence and desire to possess. In Jesus, God took up this poor and defenseless condition to conquer with love and lead us to our true identity. We should not forget that the greatest title of Jesus Christ is precisely that of "Son," Son of God. Divine dignity is indicated with a term that makes reference to the humble condition of the manger in Bethlehem, though corresponding uniquely to his divinity, which is the divinity of the "Son."

His condition as a Child also shows us how we can find God and enjoy his presence. It is in the light of Christmas that we can understand the words of Jesus: "Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3).

He who has not understood the mystery of Christmas has not understood the decisive element of Christian existence. He who does not welcome Jesus with the heart of a child cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. This is what Francis wanted to remind Christianity of his age and of every age, until today. 

Let us pray to the Father so that he concedes to our hearts this simplicity that recognizes the Lord in this Child, precisely as Francis did in Greccio. Then, we too can experience what Thomas of Celano said happened to those present in the event in Greccio -- referring to the experience of the shepherds on the holy night (cf. Luke 2:20) -- "Each one returned to his house filled with an ineffable joy" (Vita prima, op. cit., n. 86, p. 479).

This is the wish that I affectionately express to all of you, to your families and loved ones. Merry Christmas to everyone!

[Translation by ZENIT]

[The Holy Father then addressed the people in several languages. In English, he said:]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In these last days before Christmas, the Church invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s Birth and to experience the joy and hope which the newborn Saviour brings into our world. Gazing on the Christ Child lying in the manger, we contemplate the love of a God who humbly asks us to welcome him into our hearts and into our world. By coming among us as a helpless Child, God conquers our hearts not by force, but by love, and thus teaches us the way to authentic freedom, peace and fulfilment. This Christmas, may the Lord grant us simplicity of heart, so that we may recognize his presence and love in the lowly Babe of Bethlehem, and, like the shepherds, return to our homes filled with ineffable joy and gladness.

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially the groups from the Philippines and the United States. In these holy days, may you and your families draw ever closer to the Lord and experience his heavenly gifts of love, joy and peace. Merry Christmas!

©Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Wishing you a holy and blessed Christmas - from the feminine branch of the Heralds of the Gospel.

You do not need to understand Portuguese to understand this Christmas message from the feminine branch of the Heralds of the Gospel.

Mary's Dream

Mary's Dream

“I had a dream, Joseph. 

I don’t understand it, but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our son. 

The people in my dream had been preparing for about six weeks. 

They had decorated the house and bought new clothes. 

They’d gone shopping many times and bought many elaborate gifts. 

It was peculiar, though, because the Presents weren’t for our son. 

They wrapped them in beautiful paper and stacked them under a tree. 

Yes, a tree, Joseph, right inside their homes! They’d decorated the tree with sparkling ornaments. 

There was a figure like an angel on the top of the tree. 

Everyone was laughing and happy. 

They gave the gifts to each other Joseph, not to our son. 

I don’t think they even knew him. They never mentioned his name.  

I had the strangest feeling that, if our Jesus had gone to this celebration, he would have been intruding. 

How sad for someone not to be wanted at his own birthday party! 

I’m glad it was only a dream. How terrible, Joseph, if it had been real!" 



(Author Unknown) 

What gift could you give to Jesus?  How about give the gift of spending some quiet time with Jesus. 

Meditate on the Nativity: Imagine that you’re Simeon.  He had been in the temple waiting and praying for the Messiah to come.  When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus into the Temple he was ready!  He took the Christ child into his arms, smiled warmly, held him close, and gave praise to God (Luke 2:28).  In prayer, see yourself in Simeon’s place.

Spend five minutes in quiet solitude and pray the words of Mary who received the Messiah into her womb by praying: “Let it be to me according to your Word” (Luke 1:38).  Then as you go about your day repeat this prayer quietly to yourself as often as you can remember.

Imagine yourself as one of the wise men who set out on the long journey across the desert for months in order to bring their gifts to the Christ child.  Imagine you are one of them and use some of your travel to talk to Jesus.  Imagine he’s sitting next to you and have a conversation with him.

How about spending a few hours to be quietly alone with Jesus?  What a wonderful gift this would be for Jesus and you.  This special time is for you and Jesus simply to enjoy being together. Talk with Jesus and listen to him.  Tell him you love him.  Thank him for his goodness.  If you find it helpful, use a journal to help you pray.

CATHOLIC LIFE article about the Heralds of the Gospel

Dear Friends of the Heralds of the Gospel Family,

                                                                             Salve Maria!

It was just to let you know, that the last issue of CATHOLIC LIFE, brings a very interesting article about the Heralds of the Gospel!

Enjoy the reading and may you all have a very Blessed Christmas!

Pray for us!

Yours in Christ Jesus,

Br. Michael

   

Still, still, still -- Música Natalina Austríac

Pope: I saw a great spiritual hunger in the UK

Benedict XVI addresses English College in Rome3 December 2012, 9:00

Article from The Tablet: http://www.thetablet.co.uk/blogs/419/18

Pope Benedict XVI today urged members of the English College in Rome to keep witnessing to the faith in Britain and deepen their own relationships with Christ.

He received representatives of the college as part of the final celebrations marking the 650th anniversary of the of the founding of an English and Welsh Hospice on the site occupied by the College.

He reflected on the long history of the college and the English Martyrs, adding: 'When I visited the United Kingdom, I saw for myself that there is a great spiritual hunger among the people. Bring them the true nourishment that comes from knowing, loving and serving Christ ... following in the footsteps of the many great saints of England and Wales, the holy men and women who bore witness to God's love, even at the cost of their lives. The College to which you belong, the neighbourhood in which you live and study, the tradition of faith and Christian witness that has formed you: all these are hallowed by the presence of many saints. Make it your aspiration to be counted among their number.'

Read the Pope's full address below:

Your Eminence,
Dear Brother Bishops, Monsignor Hudson,
Students and Staff of the Venerable English College,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you today to the Apostolic Palace, the House of Peter. I greet my Venerable brother, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, a former Rector of the College, and I thank Archbishop Vincent Nichols for his kind words, spoken on behalf of all present. I too look back with great thanksgiving in my heart to the days that I spent in your country in September 2010. Indeed, I was pleased to see some of you at Oscott College on that occasion, and I pray that the Lord will continue to call forth many saintly vocations to the priesthood and the religious life from your homeland.

Through God's grace, the Catholic community of England and Wales is blessed with a long tradition of zeal for the faith and loyalty to the Apostolic See. At much the same time as your Saxon forebears were building the Schola Saxonum, establishing a presence in Rome close to the tomb of Peter, Saint Boniface was at work evangelizing the peoples of Germany. So as a former priest and Archbishop of the See of Munich and Freising, which owes its foundation to that great English missionary, I am conscious that my spiritual ancestry is linked with yours. Earlier still, of course, my predecessor Pope Gregory the Great was moved to send Augustine of Canterbury to your shores, to plant the seeds of Christian faith on Anglo-Saxon soil. The fruits of that missionary endeavour are only too evident in the six-hundred-and-fifty-year history of faith and martyrdom that distinguishes the English Hospice of Saint Thomas à Becket and the Venerable English College that grew out of it.

Potius hodie quam cras, as Saint Ralph Sherwin said when asked to take the missionary oath, 'rather today than tomorrow'. These words aptly convey his burning desire to keep the flame of faith alive in England, at whatever personal cost. Those who have truly encountered Christ are unable to keep silent about him. As Saint Peter himself said to the elders and scribes of Jerusalem, 'we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard' (Acts 4:20). Saint Boniface, Saint Augustine of Canterbury, Saint Francis Xavier, whose feast we keep today, and so many other missionary saints show us how a deep love for the Lord calls forth a deep desire to bring others to know him. You too, as you follow in the footsteps of the College Martyrs, are the men God has chosen to spread the message of the Gospel today, in England and Wales, in Canada, in Scandinavia. Your forebears faced a real possibility of martyrdom, and it is right and just that you venerate the glorious memory of those forty-four alumni of your College who shed their blood for Christ. You are called to imitate their love for the Lord and their zeal to make him known, potius hodie quam cras. The consequences, the fruits, you may confidently entrust into God's hands.

Your first task, then, is to come to know Christ yourselves, and the time you spend in seminary provides you with a privileged opportunity to do so. Learn to pray daily, especially in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, listening attentively to the word of God and allowing heart to speak to heart, as Blessed John Henry Newman would say. Remember the two disciples from the first chapter of Saint John's Gospel, who followed Jesus and asked to know where he was staying, and, like them, respond eagerly to his invitation to 'come and see' (1:37-39). Allow the fascination of his person to capture your imagination and warm your heart. He has chosen you to be his friends, not his servants, and he invites you to share in his priestly work of bringing about the salvation of the world. Place yourselves completely at his disposal and allow him to form you for whatever task it may be that he has in mind for you.

You have heard much talk about the new evangelization, the proclamation of Christ in those parts of the world where the Gospel has already been preached, but where to a greater or lesser degree the embers of faith have grown cold and now need to be fanned once more into a flame. Your College motto speaks of Christ's desire to bring fire to the earth, and your mission is to serve as his instruments in the work of rekindling the faith in your respective homelands. Fire in sacred Scripture frequently serves to indicate the divine presence, whether it be the burning bush from which God revealed his name to Moses, the pillar of fire that guided the people of Israel on their journey from slavery to freedom, or the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost, enabling them to go forth in the power of the Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Just as a small fire can set a whole forest ablaze (cf. Jas 3:5), so the faithful testimony of a few can release the purifying and transforming power of God's love so that it spreads like wildfire throughout a community or a nation. Like the martyrs of England and Wales, then, let your hearts burn with love for Christ, for the Church and for the Mass.

When I visited the United Kingdom, I saw for myself that there is a great spiritual hunger among the people. Bring them the true nourishment that comes from knowing, loving and serving Christ. Speak the truth of the Gospel to them with love. Offer them the living water of the Christian faith and point them towards the bread of life, so that their hunger and thirst may be satisfied. Above all, however, let the light of Christ shine through you by living lives of holiness, following in the footsteps of the many great saints of England and Wales, the holy men and women who bore witness to God's love, even at the cost of their lives. The College to which you belong, the neighbourhood in which you live and study, the tradition of faith and Christian witness that has formed you: all these are hallowed by the presence of many saints. Make it your aspiration to be counted among their number.

Please be assured of an affectionate remembrance in my prayers for yourselves and for all the alumni of the Venerable English College. I make my own the greeting so often heard on the lips of a great friend and neighbour of the College, Saint Philip Neri, Salvete, flores martyrum! Commending you, and all to whom the Lord sends you, to the loving intercession of Our Lady of Walsingham, I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you.

Pope Benedict XVI gave the above address in Rome on 3 December 2012

The Holy Rosary at St John the Evangelist Church, Bath

On Tuesdays in Advent, the Holy Rosary will be led by the Heralds of the Gospel in Our Lady’s Chapel after the 10.00am Mass.

The Heralds of the Gospel is an International Association of Pontifical Right, the first established by the Holy See in the third millennium, on the liturgical feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22nd, 2001.

The Heralds of the Gospel strive to be instruments of holiness in the Church by encouraging close unity between faith and life, and working to evangelize particularly through art and culture. Their apostolate, which differs depending upon the environments in which they work, gives pride of place to parish animation, evangelizing families, providing catechetical and cultural formation to young people, and disseminating religious Iiterature.

For more information about the work of the Heralds of the Gospel in England and Wales, please contact Michael and Rosemary Harris on 0117 9868760.