Friday in the Octave of the
Immaculate Conception
FEAST OF JUAN DIEGO-CHRISTMAS CARD DAY
John, Chapter 14, Verse 15
“If you LOVE me, you will keep my commandments.
What are Christ’s commandments?
Man’s Need for God’s
Commandments[1]
God created Man with free
will to choose between good and evil (CCC 1732) and gives consequences for
those choices (CCC 1008). From the beginning, God gave
“commandments” to help Man choose to enter into the “sheer goodness” of union
with God and other men (CCC 1). At Eden (Gen 3:1-24), Man abused his freedom by
disobeying God’s commandment and breaking harmony with God in the Fall (CCC
400, 416, 1707, 1739). After liberating Man from slavery in Egypt, God offered
the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-17; Deut 5:6-22) to help guide Man to peace and
happiness. Man continues to be accountable to keep God’s commandments (CCC
1745; 2072).
·
Modern
Man has however increasingly rejected God and His Commandments, accepting
instead the soggy cowardice of “tolerance” where there are no rights and
wrongs.
·
Like
ancient Israel where “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges
21:25), modern culture is falling into chaos and decay: the denial of God,
·
the
viral expansion of a Culture of Death which embraces contraception (literally,
against life), abortion and euthanasia,
·
the
abuse of the sacredness of sexuality with the “hook up culture”,
o
the
bearing children out of wedlock and the abandonment of fatherhood,
o
the
pornography epidemic among men,
o
the
celebration of homosexual acts and “marriages”,
·
the
brainwashing of 24×7 personal media that distracts and drives obsessive
materialism and the narcissism of social media, etc.
Tragically,
Man cannot escape the consequences of breaking God’s Commandments in this life
or in the life to come. The coming Judgment of Jesus Christ is inescapable.
The
Commandments of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ reasserts the
importance of the Ten Commandments,
but also raises the bar. Jesus: Reasserts the Ten Commandments – Jesus
reiterates the unchanging requirement of the Commandments (Matt 5:17-20). The
Magisterium continues to provide clear teaching on the Commandments (CCC
2052-2557). The Ten Commandments (cf. Ex 20:1-17), which Jesus as a Person of
the Trinity authored, are:
- I am the LORD your God: you shall have
no other gods before me.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord
your God in vain.
- Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against
your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s
wife.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s
goods.
Christ
commands a more rigorous adherence to the Ten Commandments – Rather than abolish the
Commandments, Jesus comes to fulfill them and to reiterate that men must keep the Commandments. He commands
a new and more rigorous understanding of the Ten Commandments that surpasses
the teachings of the scribes and the Pharisees, proclaiming that anyone who is
angry with his brother is liable to the hell of fire and that looking at a
woman with lust and divorcing one’s wife is equivalent to adultery. Jesus also commands
Man to give with anonymity, pray and fast in private.
Offers
a new synthesis of the Ten Commandments – When asked about the greatest Commandment, Jesus
offers a new synthesis, saying
“You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is
like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
depend all the law and the prophets”.
1. Proclaims the rigorous New
Commandment of Love–Jesus
says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I
have loved you, that you also love one another. In other teachings, Jesus
explains that this kind of love includes forgiveness, the love of enemies and
to refrain from habitually judging others.
2. Commands the performance of the
acts of mercy –
In the parable of The Sheep and Goats, Jesus makes it clear that only those who
perform the acts of mercy are truly worthy to enter heaven: feeding the hungry,
giving water to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked,
visiting the sick and imprisoned (CCC 2447). Jesus commands men to be merciful
and offers the examples of mercy in The Parable of the Good Samaritan and His own
“washing the feet” of the Apostles.
3. Commands Men to pray – Jesus directs men to pray the
Lord’s Prayer, urges men to gather together to pray, to pray boldly and to be
persistent in prayer.
4. Insists on Repentance and
Confession – From
His earliest public ministry, Jesus commands Man to “Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand”. He instructs Man to confess sins with contrition and turn
from Sin. He gives the Apostles the power to forgive Sin (CCC 1461-1467),
reconciling Man and God (CCC 1485-1498).
5. Instructs men to partake in the
Eucharist – At
the Last Supper, Jesus offers the Eucharist (thanksgiving), commanding
all men to consume the Eucharist. To have “life”, men must eat (literally, “gnawing on”) the Body and Blood of Christ,
the Bread of Life.
6. Makes keeping His Commandments an
absolute requirement –
Jesus makes it clear that Man must
keep the Commandments: “If you would enter into life, keep the commandments”
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments” He urges Man to perfection,
saying “You, therefore, must be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” and insists that vigilance is an
urgent necessity. Despite the near impossibility of “entering through the
Narrow Gate”, Jesus teaches that all men can be saved saying “” With men this
is impossible, but with God all
things are possible” and the Church reaffirms that “What God commands He makes
possible by His Grace” (CCC 2082).
7. Commands men to evangelize – Christ commands men to “let your light shine” and to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Saint Juan Diego[2]
On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City. She asked him to go to the bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her. The bishop, who did not believe Juan Diego, asked for a sign to prove that the apparition was true.
On 12 December, Juan Diego returned to Tepeyac. Here, the Blessed Mother told him to climb the hill and to pick the flowers that he would find in bloom. He obeyed, and although it was wintertime, he found roses flowering. He gathered the flowers and took them to Our Lady who carefully placed them in his mantle and told him to take them to the bishop as "proof". When he opened his mantle, the flowers fell on the ground and there remained impressed, in place of the flowers, an image of the Blessed Mother, the apparition at Tepeyac. With the Bishop's permission, Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut near the chapel where the miraculous image was placed for veneration. Here he cared for the church and the first pilgrims who came to pray to the Mother of Jesus. Much deeper than the "exterior grace" of having been "chosen" as Our Lady's "messenger", Juan Diego received the grace of interior enlightenment and from that moment, he began a life dedicated to prayer and the practice of virtue and boundless love of God and neighbor.
He died in 1548 and was buried in the first chapel dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was beatified on 6 May 1990 by Pope John Paul II in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Guadalupe, Mexico City. The miraculous image, which is preserved in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, shows a woman with native features and dress. She is supported by an angel whose wings are reminiscent of one of the major gods of the traditional religion of that area. The moon is beneath her feet and her blue mantle is covered with gold stars. The black girdle about her waist signifies that she is pregnant. Thus, the image graphically depicts the fact that Christ is to be "born" again among the peoples of the New World and is a message as relevant to the "New World" today as it was during the lifetime of Juan Diego.
Things to Do[3]
·
Read Pope John Paul II's homily at the canonization of St. Juan Diego.
·
Meditate on Our Lady's beautiful words to St.
Juan Diego: "Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little
son; let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you. Let nothing alter your
heart or your countenance. Also, do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety
or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and
protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the crossing of my
arms? Is there anything else that you need?"
·
Cook some Mexican dishes for dinner and bake a
Rose Petal Pound Cake or other rose theme for dessert in honor of St. Juan
Diego.
·
From the Catholic Culture Library:
o On The Canonization Of First Native American
o Mexico Has Seen a Great Light
o Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
·
Recommended Reading: For children: The
Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePaola. For adults: The Wonder of Guadalupe by Francis Johnston.
·
For music for Juan Diego's and Our Lady of
Guadalupe's feast, see www.savae.org. The San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble have two
cds of authentic music by Mexican medieval composers. Very beautiful!
·
Visit Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas for detailed
accounts on the apparition to Juan Diego.
Christmas Card Day[4]
Way back in
1843, the first commercial Christmas card was created in England by Sir Henry
Cole, a civil servant who was responsible for the idea of sending greetings
scribbled into the now familiar cards we get around the season of good
cheer. Christmas Card Day honors its inventor on the 9th of December. The first
ever commercial Christmas card showed a family raising a toast, and in the
following year’s designs showing flowers or depicting the promise of spring
were favored. Lithograph firm Prang and Mayer started selling their whimsical
Christmas cards, often featuring children or cartoon animals, across the pond
to America in 1874. By 1880, Prang and Mayer were producing a massive five
million cards a year. With so many designs, shapes and sizes, some Christmas
cards have become collector’s items which have been known to shift at a pretty
penny at auction. One of the world’s first cards, commissioned by Cole and
produced by J. C. Horsley, saw the hammer come down at £22,250 in 2001. Another
one of Horsley’s cards sold for almost £9000 in 2005 – and if you want to see a
big collection of these coveted cards you can drop by the British Museum to see
Queen Mary’s early 1900s collection.
Today,
seasonal cards are posted all over the world and can be found in hundreds of
thousands of designs. The most popular messages you’ll find inside a
Christmas card are ‘seasons greetings’ and ‘merry Christmas, and a happy new
year’ – but many also stick to religious roots by featuring a short biblical
verse or a religious blessing.
How to Celebrate Christmas Card Day
·
If you’ve got time, it’s always nice to make
handmade cards to send out. Get hold of some glitter and a dab of glue and
see what you can come up with. The recipients are sure to appreciate it – or if
you have children, get them involved in making cards for friends and family!
With the advent of e-mail, it’s easier than ever to send Christmas wishes to friend
and family across the world – e-cards appeared in the 90s and are frequently
used in place of physical cards, so you’ve got no excuse nowadays not to send
those season’s greetings. But since nothing beats the real thing, perhaps now
is the right time to send out those Christmas cards so they all get to your
family and friends before the last post on 23rd December! And if you don’t
celebrate Christmas, you could always send out some cheery cards to celebrate
the coming of the new year!
Jesse Tree[5]
Jesse
Tree Scriptures (The Symbols Are Only Suggestions)
December 1 Creation: Gen. 1:1-31; 2:1-4 Symbols: sun,
moon, stars, animals, earth
December 2 Adam and Eve: Gen. 2:7-9, 18-24 Symbols:
tree, man, woman
December 3 Fall of Man: Gen. 3:1-7 and 23-24 Symbols:
tree, serpent, apple with bite
December 4 Noah: Gen. 6:5-8, 13-22; 7:17, 23, 24; 8:1, 6-22 Symbols:
ark, animals, dove, rainbow
December 5 Abraham: Gen. 12:1-3 Symbols: torch, sword,
mountain
December 6 Isaac: Gen. 22:1-14 Symbols: bundle of wood,
altar, ram in bush
December 7 Jacob: Gen. 25:1-34; 28:10-15 Symbols:
kettle, ladder
December 8 Joseph: Gen. 37:23-28; 45:3-15 Symbols:
bucket, well, silver coins, tunic
December 9 Moses: Ex. 2:1-10 Symbols:
baby in basket, river and rushes
Catechism
of the Catholic Church
PART THREE: LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE-MAN'S VOCATION LIFE IN THE
SPIRIT
CHAPTER THREE-GOD'S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE
Article 2-GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION
II. Grace
1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is
favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to
become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of
eternal life.
1997 Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces
us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates
in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he
can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He
receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the
Church.
1998 This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends
entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give
himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect and will, as that of every
other creature.
1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes
to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of
sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in
Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation;
the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who
through Christ reconciled us to himself.
2000 Sanctifying grace is an habitual gift, a stable and
supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live
with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live
and act in keeping with God's call, is distinguished from actual graces which
refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the
course of the work of sanctification.
2001 The preparation of man for the reception of grace is
already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our
collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through
charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who
completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might
will it:"
Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God
who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we
may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it
goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be
glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so
that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.
2002 God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God
has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the
power to know him and love him. the soul only enters freely into the communion
of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has
placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. the
promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:
If at the end of your very good works . . ., you rested on
the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end
of our works, which are indeed "very good" since you have given them
to us, we shall also rest in you on the sabbath of eternal life.
2003 Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who
justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit
grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the
salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There
are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are
furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by
St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift,"
"benefit." Whatever their character - sometimes it is
extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues - charisms are oriented
toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church.
They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.
2004 Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces
of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian
life and of the ministries within the Church:
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to
us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in
our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his
exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he
who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes
our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on
our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and
saved. However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know
them by their fruits" - reflection on God's blessings in our life and
in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us
and spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.
A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the
reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical
judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: 'If I
am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, may it please God to keep
me there.'"
Fitness Friday-Water[6]
In order to prevent dehydration, anyone who exercises (especially athletes) should drink water before, during, and after the workout.
The following tips can help ensure your body has the
hydration it requires for optimum exercise performance and recovery. These are
general guidelines and may need to be increased for high-intensity or endurance
activities or races.
If you are a serious athlete, you may want to weigh
yourself before and after workouts to keep track of your fluid losses. Doing so
will help you develop an individual hydration schedule.
Before Exercise
· Drink at 16 ounces of water about two to three hours before
exercising.
· Drink 8 ounces of water about 30 minutes before exercising.
During Exercise
· Drink 8 ounces of water every 15 to 30 minutes during
exercise
· If exercising longer than 60 minutes, drink about 12 ounces
of a sports drink that contains a mixture of carbohydrates every 20 to 30
minutes.
After Exercise
· Drink 8 to 16 ounces of water 30 minutes after exercise.
· If you weighed yourself before exercise, weigh yourself
again and drink 16 to 24 ounces of water for every pound of body weight lost.
Throughout the Day
· Drink at least one-half to three-fourths of your body
weight in ounces of clean water throughout the entire day.
· Drink an additional 8 ounces of water for every cup of
soda, coffee, tea, or alcohol consumed. These beverages are acidic and
contribute to additional water loss in the body.
Important notes:
·
The body can only
utilize about 12-16 ounces of water at one time. Thus, when rehydrating, drink
16 ounces of water every 30 to 60 minutes.
·
Drink water BEFORE you
get thirsty. When you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. Thus, drink
water regularly throughout the day.
·
In preparation for a
sports performance, the time to really focus on proper hydration is the three
days prior to the event.
Ballet Arizona takes the Symphony Hall
stage in grand fashion with this holiday classic. Celebrate the joy and wonder
of the season with Ib Andersen’s The Nutcracker as
Tchaikovsky’s cherished score is masterfully performed by The Phoenix Symphony. Follow
Clara’s wintry adventures as she battles mischievous mice and charms the Sugar
Plum Fairy. Whether this is your first Nutcracker or your 101st,
this heartwarming tradition never fails to enchant and draw smiles from all!
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Purity.
· Religion in the home: Preschool for December
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
[6]https://www.waterbenefitshealth.com/proper-hydration.html#:~:text=Tips%20for%20Sports%20Hydration%201%20Drink%208%20ounces,mixture%20of%20carbohydrates%20every%2020%20to%2030%20minutes.
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