DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR DECEMBER  2006.

+ Thoughts for the Month of The Nativity of Our Lord +

Curiously enough, the note of this first Christ Mass (the Midnight Mass) is not the humility and simplicity of the Manger, but an overwhelming majesty. It is the song of the angels, rather than the devotion of the shepherds. It is the tribute to the Deity, rather than the carols or the homeliness of the Christ-Child. The Introit, as usual, sets the first note: “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” This is the recognition of hidden Deity. The Collect continues: “O, God, Who hast enlightened this holy night with the beams of the one true Light . . . ”

There are two occasions when the pomp of the Midnight Mass is hushed. The first is the Incarnatus, when the congregation kneels down, as at any other Mass, but now with peculiar emphasis. The second is the silence of the Consecration – a silence so intense that you seem to look down and down into depths you cannot probe. Remember that up to the last moment there has been the splendour of ceremony and the fanfare of music to greet the Child. Now, with the words on the lips of the priest THIS IS MY BODY, as he holds the Host, silence falls. The Child has come.
(Kenneth Ingram in ‘The Romance of Christmass’)

Bishop Anthony writes: Yes, the Child has come! Jesus comes in three ways. In His first coming at His holy Nativity when the Word was made Flesh and God became man for us sinners. His second coming is at every Mass when He comes, by His own command and decision, down onto the Altar and is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity at the hands and by the words of every valid Catholic or Orthodox priest.

Jesus has come to feed us! There can be no darkness any longer because the eternal promise is fulfilled. God Himself, both at Christmass and at every Mass, has visited, and visits, His people and there is a peace which human beings did not make and cannot spoil.

Our Lord’s third coming will be at the end of time when He comes again in His Glory to judge the living and the dead. But let us rather welcome this Last Day, this final coming, As Saint Augustine said: “Be watchful and vigilant. It is by design that Jesus concealed the Last Day from us. He wants us to be on the lookout for Him every day of our lives.”

He Who sits on the throne of Heaven is laid in a stable at Christmass. Above all, the God Who loves us yet Whom we cannot see, is touched by the hands of human beings!

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Let us pray: Heavenly Father, let us welcome Thy Son as our Redeemer now. Then help us to go forward to meet Him with confidence when He cometh at last to be our Judge. Help us to see Jesus made flesh as a visible reflection of Thyself. Let us come to know Thee, be filled with love for Thee, and desire to be with Thee forever and ever. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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And a passing thought.

God’s glory and goodness consist above all in the emanations of His tenderness (St.Thomas Aquinas)

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IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY,PRAY FOR OUR PEACE AND SALVATION!
JESU! HOLY INFANT OF PRAGUE,HAVE MERCY UPON US!