The Proclamation Of The Birth Of Christ

The Roman Martyrology for Christmas day contains a formal announcement of the birth of Christ in the style of a proclamation.  It begins with creation and relates the birth of the Lord to the major events and personages of sacred and secular history.  The particular events contained in the proclamation help to situate the birth of Jesus in the context of salvation history.

The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ may be sung or proclaimed after the greeting and introduction of the Christmas Midnight Mass.  The Gloria and opening prayer immediately follow the proclamation.

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December, unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth and then formed man and women in his own image.

Several thousand years after the flood, when God made the rainbow shine forth as a sign of the covenant.

Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah; thirteen centuries after Moses led this people of Israel out of Egypt.

Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judges; one thousand years from the anointing of David as king; in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.

In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad; the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome.

The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus; the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming, being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and nine months having passed since his conception, was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary.

Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

A Love Affair

From Gerry Straub Blog:

A Love Affair

Speculation On The Subject Of Barabbas

What became of Barabbas? I ask but no one knows
Let off his chain he went in the brightly lit street
he could turn to the right go straight turn to the left
spin around in a circle crow cheerfully as a rooster
He the Emperor of his own head and hands
He the Governor of his own breath

I ask because in a sense I took part in the whole thing
Swayed by the crowd in front of Pilate's palace I cried
along with all the others free Barabbas free Barabbas
Everyone was shouting and if I alone has been silent
it would all have happened as it was ment to happen

So perhaps Barabbas went back to his gang of thieves
In the mountains he kills swiftly and plunders deftly
Or maybe he set up a pottery workshop
and now cleans his crime-stained hands
in the clay of creation
He's a water carrier a mule driver a moneylender
a shipowner -- a ship of his carried Paul to Corinth
or -- the possibility cannot be excluded --
he became a valued spy in Roman pay

Behold the marvel at the vertiginous play of fate
with possibilities power and smiles of fortune

By the Nazarene
was left alone
without alternative
with a steep
pathway
of blood

Zbigniew Herbert

Zbigniew Herbert (t 1998) was a spiritual leader of the anti-communist movement in Poland.

From Magnificat, Holy Week 2008, Vol. 10, No. 1

God Of Mystery

One dimension of God is mystery so awesome
in its brightness that before it we are blinded.
We imagine the God of mystery as dwelling far away,
above and beyond the heavens he has made.
Yet this some God of mystery dwells very near to us,
in our midst, in Jesus Christ.

#@#@#@#

Wine Of Peace

Jesus wine of Peace,
wine of love,
may we drink of you,
may we taste your presence,
your promise,
our future.
Drink well and live.
--David Haas,
"Jesus Wine of Peace",
communion hymn

#@#@#@#

The whole life of Christ recapitulates itself ever anew in man.
To live as a Christian means to participate in the re-enactment of Christ’s life.
This happens every time a believer takes a step closer to the Lord, whenever he conquers himself in the course of following Christ.
When he carries out within himself the Lord’s commandment, something dies with him: the old man.
And something rises up: the new man, “made after the fashion of Christ.”
Christ rises within him.

And so on, ever the same.
Until such time as there slowly grows up within him “the glory of a child of God,” “made after the image and likeness of Christ,” at first invisible, concealed, covered over with ashes and debris, frustrated, imperiled; but then gradually growing stronger until finally it is revealed, after this death, and the old man drops away forever.

That is Christ’s love: that he lives in us in this way, and we in him, and what is his and what is ours becomes one.
That is what Christ’s love is: the love of the Redeemer who dies for us; the love which bestows itself , which gives its all, body and soul, for his life becomes our life, and ours his.

That is what Christ’s love is.
And it only in the light that shines hence that all else that had to do with love in his life takes on clarity in the plan or design of Christ’s love: how he called to himself the weary and oppressed that he might comfort them; how he took unto himself all the sufferings of mankind, bringing relief; how he showed tenderness for all living things, plants and animals: the first kind of love we spoke of shows in all these instances.
That is the love that is revealed in them.

-- Monsignor Romano Guardini

Monsignor Guardini († 1968) was born in Italy and was a renowned theologian and writer.

#@#@#@#

May Your Christmas Be Merry And Bright

In a world where many believe God to be absent,

we place our trust in Jesus Christ,

God's law of love made flesh in our midst,

whose coming we prepare to celebrate with joy.

Come , Lord Jesus!

You came to make visible God's creative love for all people:
-- kindle in your people the fire of your love amid the dulling cold of winter.

You came to make visible God's fidelity to his promise of salvation:
--make vibrant your people's fidelity in a time of broken promises and hollow words.

You cam to make visible God's presence in every time and place:
--renew our faith in your abiding presence.

May the blessings of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon us and remain with us for ever!

-- Magnificat

Distressing Disguise

A dear friend once confided to me that she believed that, if Christ were to show up at her door, she would probably not let him in.
Would she be ready, she wondered, to have him enter her life, to wreck her prefect planning, to rearrange her priorities?
Jesus tell us "that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did whatever they pleased. So will the Son of Man suffer at their hands."
This challenge to "recognize" Jesus is clearly much more than seeing him or even acknowledging where he came from.
Rather, we need to see him, as Mother Teresa so often said, "in distressing disguise" -- in the face of a spouse, a parent, a child.
Jesus Christ is present here and now as the person who annoys me and disturbs me, who disrupts my plans and disappoints my expectations.
To be kind to him I cannot simply stand on niceties.
I have to change.
Ihave to say things that don't seem to come naturally, kind things.
I have to give something I don't seem to have to give.
I have to open the door to my heart.
During Advent each of us ought to ask for this grace:

to see that it is Christ knocking at
the door of our hearts and to let him in!

-- Lisa Lickona

Loving Father, give me the freedom to change so as to
be completely open to the presence of your Son in my life

Taking Up The Cross

Life is never without its crosses, but there is a difference betweek taking up the cross and just being weighed down by it.
If I take up the crosses in my life in union with Jesus Christ, he helps along he way.
If I refuse his help, I am simply crushed under their weight.

Lord, uphold me in your love.

When the weight of my cross seems too much to bear,

-- and I feel myself falling.

When I am tempted to abandon the cross,

-- and seek the easy way out.

When I am overwhelmed with guilt,

-- and are tempted to depair.