December 24

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

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 66 The Porter of the Monastery

Mass in the Morning: 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Resp Ps 89; Lk 1:67-79

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

BEHOND, WHEN THE FULLNESS OF TIME HAD COME, GOD SENT HIS SON INTO THE WORLD.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

Ready or not, our blessed Season of Advent ends tonight before First Vespers (Evening Prayer I) of Christmas. Let Christmas Time begin from First Vespers. We have some time yet to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight His paths. What is one thing you will do today to help "guide our feet into the way of peace" (Lk 1:79)? My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready. 

CHRISTMAS EVE DAY

by Jeremy Driscoll 

The earth asleep a season

and birdsong few

the gliding clouds

and the immense quiet

soggy soil yet

already the noiseless

push of the green.

This afternoon the light

was clearly longer than

    yesterday

    and the day

    before.

Let us celebrate the light 

    tonight.

let us light a candle

    and a tree.

Far stars shall see

out hopeful signals

and let down mercies

    and skyly strengths

waking the earth

stirring the birds

drying the soil

and pulling the green.

MARY, MOTHER OF JESUS,

SAINT JOSEPH, FOSTER FATHER OF JESUS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: One last look at our Advent wreath 2021. Blessed be the work of our hands.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

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