Matthew,
Chapter 25, verse 24-25:
24 Then
the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew
you were a demanding person, harvesting where you did not plant and gathering
where you did not scatter; 25so out of fear I went off and buried your
talent in the ground. Here it is back.’
Christ is always trying to draw
us away from fear to having a relationship of love and peace with the Trinity.
For if we live our faith in fear we will be like the person who buried his only
talent. We must if filled with the love of Christ go forth bravely to build
Christ Kingdom in our own spheres of influence and in our way of being.
The church recognizes that fear slowly
creeps into our lives and makes changes in the liturgy to renew us and avoid
sinfulness. One of the corrections that the church made in the liturgy change
of 1969 was the obligation for Catholic’s to fast on Ember Days.
Today, Friday and Saturdays are Ember Days
according to the old calendar. Ember Days were observe in the old calendar to
fast and pray for God’s guidance and grace for the new season and to pray for
Priest’s.
We are a priestly people and as such we should also
during these days reflect and pray asking our Lord on how he wants us to use
our time, talent and treasure.
Ask our Lord how he wants you to spend your time
during this season assisting our priests today.
Today also marks the beginning of the O
Antiphons, the seven jewels of our liturgy in preparation of Christ.
The
"Octave" Before Christmas and/or the Golden Nights
With each new Sunday heightening
our sense of anticipation and with every Advent custom doing the same, it is
little wonder that the eight days before Christmas became a semi-official
octave of impatient expectation. This is expressed liturgically in the Divine
Office's special magnificat antiphons for this period. Beginning on the evening
of December 17 during Vespers, a "Greater" or "O"
antiphon (so named for its opening vocative) is said which explicitly
invokes the Son of God under various titles and begs Him to come. The Gregorian
chant for these antiphons is exquisite, as are the antiphons themselves, which
call attention to the Word's different manifestations to man in the Old
Testament and to several of His divine attributes. The antiphons are also
noteworthy for their "code." The titles for Christ from each antiphon
form an acrostic which, when read backwards, spells, "ERO
CRAS" -- "I will be [there] tomorrow!" It is as if
Christ were answering our prayers through the prayers themselves. Finally, the
Greater antiphons are the inspiration of the beautiful medieval hymn, Veni,
Veni Emmanuel. Each stanza of this famous song is a poetic rendering of
an antiphon, which is why the hymn is traditionally sung only during the eight
days prior to Christmas.
In many places, however, the octave
of preparation was extended over nine days, making a Novena. By special
permission, the "Golden Mass" of Ember Wednesday was sometimes
offered in the pre-dawn hours for nine consecutive days prior to Christmas.
Central Europe observed the "Golden Nights," a festive season
honoring the Blessed Virgin, the expectant Mother of God; in fact, December 18
was once the Feast of the Expectancy in Spain. In the Alps,
schoolchildren observed the custom of Josephstragen --
"carrying St. Joseph." Each night, a group of boys would carry a
statue of St. Joseph to another boy's home. The night after the visit, the boy
who had been visited would join the procession, making the number of carriers
grow progressively larger. On Christmas Eve all the boys, accompanied by
schoolgirls dressed in white, would process the statue through the town to the
church, where it would be placed near the manger. In Latin America, on the
other hand, a Novena to the Holy Child (La Novena del Niño)
was held in which prayers would be said and lively carols sung in front of the
church's empty manger.[1]
O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the
Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and
sweetly, Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
Ninth most popular Christmas movie.
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