Thursday, December 19, 2019

December 19

O radix Iesse!

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 63:10-19
Mass: Jdgs 13:2-7, 24-25a; Resp Ps 71; Lk 1:5-25


My mouth shall be filled with your praise, and I will sing your glory!

THE DAWN FROM ON HIGH WILL VISIT US, GUIDING OUR FEET IN THE WAY OF PEACE.
(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

We continue in our preparation to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord. And there are several faith-filled and courageous biblical figures to help us. We have before us Manoah, his barren wife who received a visit from "an angel of the Lord", and their son Samson, a boy who "grew up and the Lord blessed him; the Spirit of the Lord stirred him". Then there are Zechariah, also visited by "the angel of the Lord", and his barren wife Elizabeth, "both righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly." The angel's message to Zechariah: "Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John." John was to be "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb". John was "to prepare a people fit for the Lord." As we read and reflect on these scriptural passages, a question might be: Which figure do I identify with? How can I ask him or her to help me prepare the way of the Lord? We can also turn to dependable St Benedict for ways to prepare the way of the Lord. In today's reading on Community Rank, he teaches us: "The younger members must respect their seniors, and the seniors must love their juniors" (RB 63:10). How might we prepare the way by showing more respect and love for one another?

We pray with today's great "O" Antiphon: O Root of Jesse, who stand as a sign among the people, before whom kings shall shut their mouths, to whom the nations shall make supplication: come to deliver us, and tarry not ("O" Antiphon, December 19).

HE WHO IS TO COME WILL COME AND WILL NOT DELAY, AND NOW THERE WILL BE NO FEAR WITHIN OUR LAND, FOR HE IS OUR SAVIOR.
(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

In these days before Christmas we praise the Lord for the gratuitousness of salvation, for the gratuitousness of life, for everything he gives us for free. Everything is grace.
(Pope Francis, Twitter, December 19, 2019)

© Gertrude Feick 2019

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