Nativity of Our Lord

An auto-post set back in January:

Wouldst that Thou should condescend
Born to bear all my sins upon the cross
Born that my separation from You should mend

A Baby Boy born to a carpenter and his wife
No visible sign that He is both God and man
No sign that this Child's flesh and blood are life

He was born to preach forgiveness and repentance to our race
He was born to die upon the cross, our sins' propitiation
He gave the fruit of the Tree of Life, that mystery of great grace

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

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Keep the Mass in Christmas

I think its important not just to keep a focus on Christ as the reason for the Christmas celebration, but to keep that celebration and worship of the incarnate God in its proper context, the Eucharistic celebration of the Mass/Divine Liturgy. After all, the "mas" in Christmas is a shortening of Mass. I've posted on this subject a twice before (2008, 2010), but it deserves repeating.
To keep from saying the same things again though I Googled "Keep the Mass in Christmas. The first result was a very poignant essay by a priest on the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Detroit website. It was all very well written, but I think the following passage really got to the central point:

Christmas is not first of all a day, but a doing: it is the Eucharistic worship that Christians offer in honor of the birth of their Savior. For those who have linguistic curiosity, Christmas is not the only -mas in the English language: there is also Marymas (August 15), Candlemas (February 2), Michaelmas (September 29), Martinmas (November 11), and Allhallowmas (November 1).
But if we say “Keep the Mass in Christmas,” the point is this. Christmas isn't really Christ-mas without the Mass, without the Divine Liturgy. Christmas isn't Christmas if we don't make a point of coming together on the appointed day, with all the people of God, to observe the commandment that He gave, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Christmas isn't Christmas if we don't share the Eucharistic meal of His Body and Blood with one another in the Church. How is Christmas complete without receiving your most important gift?
Christ came to earth, not simply to be born in a lowly stable in Palestine, but to be born into the humble stable of the soul of each one of us. Through the sacraments He enters into our persons so that, as the Apostle Paul says, Christ is formed in you; and with Christ in you, you have the hope of glory.
Keep the Mass in your Christmas! Of course you should get together with family and friends. Of course you should open your presents around the tree. Of course you should enjoy your eggnog and mulled wine and ham and turkey and roast beast.
But don't forget the Mass! Don't skip the Liturgy! Don't leave out Holy Communion. If you do so, you are missing the real Christmas altogether. Come to church and worship the newborn King in the way that he Himself commands, by eating His Body and drinking His Blood. Keep the “Mass” in Christmas, and you will never lose “Christ” from your Christmas either.

Without the Eucharist the Christian celebration and worship fall short. I feel sad for our Protestant brothers and sisters who do not have this most precious Gift for the nourishment and salvation of our souls.
How much more of a personal relationship can you have with God than to receive Him, the Lover of mankind, physically and spiritually into your body and soul in the Eucharist? You are what you eat after all. We unite ourselves to Christ Jesus in the Eucharist and all the faithful through him.
Song of Songs describes our Creator seeking after us like a lover and in the Flesh and Blood He offers to us in the Eucharist, the Flesh and Blood that came into the world on Christmas Day, He consummates that love for mankind.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

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Nativity prefigures the Mass/Divine Liturgy?

I saw this picture and it got my mind going about connections between the Mass/Divine Liturgy and the Nativity of Christ:


I thought about incense brought to the Christ Child and that made a connection in my mind with the fact that a manger is where you place animal feed, which made me remember that Jesus in the manger prefigures the Eucharist. I thought about it, incense and Eucharist, and then it came to me that in the Mass and the Divine Liturgy one worships with the angels in Heaven. The shepherds worshiped alongside the angels as they adored God made flesh in the manger.
I know the first Divine Liturgy was on the road to Emmaus. It couldn't be the Nativity after all because there was no Eucharist before the sacrifice on the cross. However, it seems to me that the Nativity is a prefiguring of the Mass and the Divine Liturgy.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

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Kudos for the best title in the Comment Box

I was bored at work and wrote this:

I'm celebrating Christmas in Iraq this year
I'm fortunate, for our priest will be here
Off to the chapel at midnight for Mass
A day different from the others at last
We pray for faith, hope, love and for peace
We know He will return and wars will cease
Until His justice reigns, we're here in this land
Defending Iraq and home in these blowing sands
Sixteen months or so they say
But I'm still here this Christmas day
Peace on Earth and goodwill towards men
Until His Second Coming. Amen

Keep Mass in Christmas

Every year we see pictures and car magnet with the catchphrase "Keep Christ in Christmas". What about the other part of Christmas...Mass. Even if someone reduces Christmas to Xmas. The Mass and Christ truly present in the Mass are still in the word. That's not to say I am defending the Xmas abbreviation. I find it repugnant and a blatant attempt to remove anything religious from our culture. What I am saying is that our majority Protestant culture in the United States conveniently overlooks the Catholic origins of Christmas and denies the Catholic foundation of all Western culture.

Keep Mass in Christmas...




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Noël en toi...

The title of this post translates as "Christmas in you". It was a post that I found on , a French St BlogChemins de lecture (in case you are wondering the blog's name means Paths of Lecture, maybe Learning). I know that December 25 have come and gone, but we are still well withing the 12 days of Christmas. After all, Epiphany is still a week away.
The post on the blog was just a quote:

"Le christ serait-il né mille fois à Bethléem, s'il ne naît pas en toi, c'est en vain qu'il est né" --Angelus Silésius

I have no idea who Angelus Silésius is, but the quote is very beautiful and profound. For those of you who do not read French:
"Christ could be born a thousand times in Bethlehem, if He is not born in you, it is in vain that He was born."

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas! May the celebration of Christ's incarnation be a time of joy and peace for all of you.

GK Chesterton- Christmas Poem

I found this on Wittingshire

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood on Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

--G.K. Chesterton

Christmas Song Riddle

I this on Steve Ray's Blog. I had heard a similiar joke before.
Can you figure oiut which Christmas song this is?

ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Christmas e-card

This is good stuff.
Hat tip to 81594

Fed by Christ

When I was in the seminary a fellow seminarian (He is now a priest, Fr. Ben Uhlenkott) pointed out to me that mangers were used to hold hay for the livestock. Of course, the significance as he and the Church Fathers before him pointed out was the association of Jesus with food. Just as the hay was for the animals, the Lord is for us.
In a way that has since made me think of Nativity scenes as a sort of subtle Eucharistic imagery. It still blows me away how much the Gospels hint and a times scream to us about the Eucharist.

Merry Christmas

On this day was born in David's town
A Child with no wealth nor golden crown

In that manger He lay sleeping
Immanuel, our God and King

I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! I hope that it is a day that finds you refreshed in your Christian faith.

May the Rose of Sharon blossom in your hearts.