Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent
17 Do
not let your heart envy sinners, but only those who always fear the LORD; 18
For you will surely have a future, and your hope will not be cut off.
Those whom one admires or associates with exercise
enormous influence. Do not join the wicked, who are a doomed group.[1]
Nor desire to be with them for the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Let your
hope be in Christ.
Leaders understand the importance of their minds to
the future of their organizations. Consider some of the timeless principles
offered in Proverbs 23 about our minds and a godly vision for tomorrow:
1. Your thoughts determine your character.
2. Be careful of your thoughts; they
may break into words at any time.
3. Don’t waste your thoughts on those
who don’t hunger for them.
4. The first person you lead is you,
and the first organ you master is your mind.
5. Don’t let your mind drift away from God’s truth
and into vain envy.
6. Stay confident that your vision
will come to pass.
7. Discipline your thoughts to remain
steadfast in what you know is right.
Spiritual Crib[3]
A special devotion that can be performed during Advent to
prepare for the coming of the Infant Savior. It can be adapted for adults
and/or children and applied as is appropriate to your state in life.
·
13th day, December 23rd: THE
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY—Chastity Pray much today for the virtue of holy
purity. Guard your eyes, ears, tongue, and. heart. Pray fervently: O Mary,
conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Every Christmas although the same
in many ways is always new for each Christmas expresses a hope learned from a
lifetime of praising God. For every Christmas if we open our eyes to truth we
will see the handiwork of God; the rock of our salvation. Perhaps in these
final days of anticipation it would do us well to reflect on the virtues of
Mary Christ’s very own mother and in these final days in some way reflect them
in our own lives.
Temperance the power of the soul
THE Church teaches us that the
Christian must all submit in
expiation of our sins. Our divine Redeemer Himself impressed upon us this great
truth when He said: "Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise
perish." (Luke xiii. 3.)
The object of penance is, in the
first place, to lead us to refrain ourselves, in so far as reason and faith
demand, from the inordinate desire of sensual pleasure, to which our fallen
nature is inclined. So strong is this inclination, that we are ever in danger
of falling into the slough of vice. How many Christians, alas, by following
their unbridled imagination, lose both soul and body together!
Wherefore, Holy Church imposes upon
us the obligation of fasting, putting us in mind of the advantages which accrue
from this salutary penance to which we practice. Fasting, in effect,
"represses vices, raises our thoughts heavenward, makes easy the practice
of virtue, and is a constant source of merit." (Preface for Lent.)
As Mary was not tainted with
original sin, she did not experience in herself this disorderly proneness to
the pleasures of sense, the baneful consequence of the sin of our first
parents. Being full of grace, she maintained always the just balance of the
powers of her soul. She performed all her actions with ease and delight, not
having to use violence with herself, in order to preserve that even poise of
the faculties, which reason arid the law of God demand. Nevertheless, Mary
subjected herself willingly to the law of penance and mortification, denying
herself those. Her life was one long series of privations and self-denials. Her
fasting and abstinence was continual. She only allowed herself what was
necessary to maintain life. She mortified all her senses, so that it was hard
to say in what particular kind of mortification she excelled, in modesty of
the eyes, in lowliness of demeanor, in the sparingness of her words or in the
dignity of her gestures. It was natural, then, that her Heavenly Bridegroom
should find in her all His delight. And as the fruit of this temperance, Mary
acquired an extraordinary facility in conversing familiarly with her
Well-Beloved, a heavenly joy which was depicted on her countenance, a virginal
beauty which radiated from her whole presence, a something so indescribably
sweet and majestic, that it gave to her an aspect rather divine than human:
"How beautiful art thou my love, how beautiful art thou! Thine eyes are as
doves' eyes, besides what is hid within!" (Cant. iv, 1.)
Advent Calendar
Reflect: "To be fully a disciple of Jesus means not only accepting and believing his message, but also taking up and participating in the mission of encountering and inviting others to join our pilgrim journey to his heavenly kingdom." —His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington
Pray: Add this "O Antiphon" to your daily or meal-time prayer today: "O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God!" (Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, Revised Edition, 77)
Act: Pope Francis said of evangelization: "It is not the mission of only a few, but it is mine, yours and our mission." Carry the lessons learned about evangelization into the Christmas season and beyond.
·
Decide which Mass you will attend tomorrow.
When we celebrate Christmas, we are
commemorating the three nativities of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason
for the three Masses celebrated. The first is the eternal begetting of God the
Son from all eternity within the mystery of the Blessed Trinity by the Father,
“You are My Son. Today I have begotten You.”
·
This
first nativity was before the seven days of Creation, when everything was
darkness. This is why the first Mass is
at midnight to recall the darkness that prevailed during that first eternal
birth of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
o
The
first nativity reminds us of the Spirit of poverty, the Spirit that tells us
that all the things God created is His, to be used for His glory and not for
man’s enjoyment. Even man was to use himself for the glory of God. This
represents the six days of creation. If Adam, being the head of creation, had
observed the spirit of poverty and used all of creation for the glory of God,
then he would have entered into the Sabbath, God’s rest… i.e. eternal
happiness. But Adam messed up everything. And the consequence: the whole of
mankind could not enter God’s rest.
·
The
second nativity, or birth, of the Second Person of the Trinity is commemorated
on Christmas day when He became man, born of the Virgin Mary, in Bethlehem. For
the world, the darkness was beginning to be dispelled. This is why the second Mass is celebrated at dawn
when the dawn is beginning to dispel the darkness.
o
The
second nativity reminds us of the Spirit of chastity. That Spirit reminds us to
give up all physical comforts, pleasure and conveniences. And Christ in the
manger is a clear example of this. It is a continuous reminder that true
happiness can only be found in God and that we are on earth to seek God. All
the rest will come with that find. True rest can only be found in God.
·
The
third nativity of Christ is when He is born in our souls, through His
in-dwelling, when man, through grace, becomes enlightened. Thus, the third Mass is celebrated during the day when
the sun is bright. For man is truly enlightened when he has Christ in his
soul.
o
The
third nativity reminds us of the Spirit of obedience. It is only when we can
say, “Not my will but Your will be done,” can Christ be born in our souls. The
apostolic commission at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel reiterates this,
reminding us of the role of the Church and the men of the Church: “… teach all
My commands and how to observe them.”
Christmas reminds us of one lesson. Christ
was born to die. For us the message is clear. We are born to die to oneself.
And to die to oneself means reaching a point in our lives when we no longer do
our own will but the will of the Father in heaven. This is to lose one’s life
in order to find it. If we have learned the lessons of the first nativity, if
we have learned the lesson of the second nativity, our reward is the third
nativity, when Christ is born in our souls…. indeed, our eternal Christmas.
This is truly a Merry Christmas.
—
Excerpted from Fr. Odon de Castro, Bo.
San Isidro, Magalang, Pampanga, Philippines
Daily
Devotions
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