December 20

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

Saints: Blessed Scubilion (1897-1867); Saint Fachanan of Kilfenora (?)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 64:1-6 The Election of an Abbot

Mass: Is 7:10-14; Resp Ps 24; Lk 1:26-38

The Lord's are the earth and its fullness.

O key of David and scepter of the house of Israel; who open and none can shut: who shut and none can open: come and lead to freedom the prisoner who sits in darkness and the shadow of death.

Welcome to another Monday. This is no ordinary Monday though. We are still in the blessed Advent Season first of all, now in the fourth and final week. The celebration of the Nativity of the Lord is coming soon. We must continue to prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts and minds. If things get rough today at work or at home, we join Mary in her yes, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word (Lk 1:38). At the same time, we address God with the title, O key of David. This is the key who opens and shuts, shuts and opens. We are all prisoners in one form or another. Prisoners that have things that bind us and limit our love for God, love for our neighbor, and love for ourselves. Here then is something Pope Francis said in a 2016 Angelus Address: "In this season of Advent, we are called to expand the horizons of our hearts, to be amazed by the life which presents itself each day with newness. In order to do this, we must learn to not depend on our own certainties, or our own established strategies, because the Lord comes at a time that we do not imagine. He comes to bring us into a more beautiful and grand dimension." There is still time to prepare. O key of David ... come and lead to freedom the prisoner who sits in darkness and the shadow of death. 

BLESSED SCUBILION,

SAINT FACHANAN OF KILFENORA,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: You've met Theo before. Here he is again in Park City, Utah. Theo belongs to a dear friend, since our days at McKinley Middle School in our hometown of Muncie, Indiana. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021