Friday, December 24, 2010
CHRISTMAS - A
CHRISTMAS - A
ISAIAH 52:7-10
How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger
announcing peace, of the messenger of good news, who proclaims
salvation and says to Zion, 'Your God is king!' The voices of your
watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for
with their own eyes they have seen Yahweh returning to Zion. Break
into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for
Yahweh has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has
bared his holy arm for all the nations to see, and all the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God.
HEBREWS 1:1-6
At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets; but in our time, the final days, he
has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of
all things and through whom he made the ages. He is the reflection of
God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being, sustaining all
things by his powerful command; and now that he has purged sins away,
he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high.
So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has
inherited is higher than their own name. To which of the angels, then,
has God ever said: You are my Son, today I have fathered you, or: I
shall be a father to him and he a son to me? Again, when he brings the
First-born into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God pay him
homage.
JOHN 1:1-5, 9-14
In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was
God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came
into being, not one thing came into being except through him. What has
come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and
light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. The
Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming
into the world. He was in the world that had come into being through
him, and the world did not recognise him. He came to his own and his
own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave
power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name who
were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from
God himself. The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his
glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the
Father, full of grace and truth.
REFLECTION
We've been listening for some time now to Christmas music. Perhaps
there are a million things on our minds now: gifts to wrap, the noche
buena, cards to write, shopping hangover, etc. Let us now place all
those million worries aside and keep still and come to the silence of
this night. Let us listen carefully to a different kind of sound, the
sound of our longing. To help us listen, we can perhaps clasp our
hands (close your eyes if that helps) and ponder what we have been
wanting all along, what our hearts have been truly longing for all
these years. What do we truly wish for every Christmas? If Heaven were
to ask us tonight what our lifelong wishes are, what would these be?
Whisper a prayer to the Child, tell him what we most desire tonight.
What is our lifelong wish?
Perhaps tonight our only lifelong wish is to love and be loved. If
Heaven could grant our wish, perhaps we only ask to be more patient,
more kind, more grateful. Perhaps tonight we long to begin forgiving
or to be forgiven. Perhaps we yearn to be less distant, more loving
with those who are near to us. Perhaps our only want tonight is for
our children to remember us, to visit us. To be close, to be family
again. Perhaps as the song goes, we only want her or him our beloved
to be home for Christmas. Perhaps we are yearning tonight to have the
strength to let go, to be faithful, to be free. Maybe tonight, we only
want to understand the one who has hurt us. Perhaps our heart's desire
is to be less jealous or envious or anxious. If only perhaps we could
be less afraid or insecure; if only we could find rest for our wearied
lives. Perhaps we have been wanting to say the words "I love you" but
we cannot and can only mean the love indirectly. Tonight perhaps we
only want to trust that God is still kind and that life is still good.
Perhaps we wish for once we could refrain from the words and silences
that so readily tear our lives apart. Perhaps our only longing now is
to be able to pick up the broken pieces of our life and go on
believing that even shards and splinters are never wasted. Perhaps
tonight we only want to be quiet and alone, to allow time to heal our
heart. Perhaps tonight our only wish is to not be alone, to have a
friend, to be a friend, or for love to never end...
Christmas longing is something that we allow to grow on us. Only after
many Christmases do we discover that the longing just as much abides
in God as it does in us. It is not only we who long for the wholeness
of Paradise again.
The Child that sleeps in a manger is no genie in a bottle, no baby
Santa with a sack full of gifts, no Aladdin living in some magical
lamp; the Child of Mary is neither falling star to wish upon nor fairy
godmother to our Cinderella dreams. If we were to cradle this Child in
our arms or sit him on our lap, and if we were to let his little hands
clasp and curl around our little pinky finger, we would soon realize
that this Child also needs what we need; that this Child will never be
the same without our love; this Child longs for what we long for,
desires our very desires; this Child dreams what we dream of.
If tonight the Child Jesus should wake us from our sleep, cradle him
in our arms and whisper tender little things to soothe his need and
longing. Hush him back to sleep in the manger of our heart. Whisper to
him how real our longing is to love and be loved. Tell him how afraid
we are to be alone. Then whisper to him that we love him in spite of
all the fallen pieces, in spite of all that has happened to our life.
Whisper to him how much we long to love him and there be consoled to
find in the very longing itself the nearness of all that we desire.
Who we have been longing for all our lives is this Child whose little
hands reflexively clasp and curl around our finger, this Child who
longs for whatever much love is still left in our lives. Our lifelong
wish sleeps right here in the manger of our heart.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Jo Marcelo, Jun Lee, John Lawrence
- Vicky Fabella
- Susan
… for the personal intentions of
- Charles and Munira
- Felicity
- Josefina Hong, Laurent Cabuloy, Haressh Mirchadani, Maxienne Ponce
De Leon, Rosauro Canta, Joaquin Co, Francisco Madilar, Mark Anthony
Lao
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Emmanuel G. Osalvo
- Birthday: Edith Enriquez-Espe
- Birthday: Natividad B. Lomibao
- Wedding Anniversary: Mary & Christopher S. Lim
- Wedding Anniversary: Jeannette & Christopher Co Chan
- Prayer Intention: Castillo Family
… for world peace and reconciliation.
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only.
Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends,
colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the
following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
© 2010 Daily-Homily
THURSDAY 4TH WEEK OF ADVENT – YEAR II
MEMORIAL, ST. JOHN OF KANTY, PRIEST
THURSDAY 4TH WEEK OF ADVENT – YEAR II
MALACHI 3:1-4, 23-24
'Look, I shall send my messenger to clear a way before me. And
suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple; yes, the
angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yahweh
Sabaoth. Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will
remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire,
like fullers' alkali. He will take his seat as refiner and purifier;
he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver,
so that they can make the offering to Yahweh with uprightness. The
offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be acceptable to Yahweh as
in former days, as in the years of old. 'Look, I shall send you the
prophet Elijah before the great and awesome Day of Yahweh comes. He
will reconcile parents to their children and children to their
parents, to forestall my putting the country under the curse of
destruction.'
LUKE 1:57-66
The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a
son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had
lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy. Now it
happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child;
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother
spoke up. 'No,' she said, 'he is to be called John.' They said to her,
'But no one in your family has that name,' and made signs to his
father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a
writing-tablet and wrote, 'His name is John.' And they were all
astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke
and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the
whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea.
All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. 'What will
this child turn out to be?' they wondered. And indeed the hand of the
Lord was with him.
REFLECTION
What's in a name? When we Google the origin of the name John, the
simple translation shows "God is gracious." John is probably one of
the more popular names nowadays as well.
Perhaps John the Baptist had some inkling as to what God's plans were
for him. How many of us would choose to live an ascetic life in the
desert proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah? Not too many of us
probably. But, John embraced his role, the part he was to play for the
world's salvation. Even his parents had a sense of what their son was
supposed to do. That's why they named him, "John". He was sent ahead
to usher in the graciousness of God. He was to be a witness to
greatness. Hopefully, all of us can do our part to make God's grace
more present in our everyday realities. We need not become like
hermits like John.
This Christmas and throughout the New Year, may we always be
courageous in standing up for our faith. In this season of giving, let
us continually pray to be open to God's grace. Let the entire world
reverberate with God's promise that He is always with us. We are so
very fortunate and grateful that Our Savior chose to be one of us.
John the Baptist announced the coming of the Kingdom. May we who live
after him be part of that idyllic environment of love, peace, and
hope.
PRAYER REQUESTS
We pray …
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the
unborn.
… for the speedy recovery and healing of
- Vicky Fabella
- Jo Marcelo, Jun Lee, John Lawrence
- Susan
… for the personal intentions of
- Bill and Carol
- Charles and Munira
- Felicity
- Josefina Hong, Laurent Cabuloy, Haressh Mirchadani, Maxienne Ponce
De Leon, Rosauro Canta, Joaquin Co, Francisco Madilar, Mark Anthony
Lao
… for all the prayer intentions in the MTQ Dailyprayer Diary.
- Birthday: Achis J. Del Carmen
- Birthday: Joy Chua
- Birthday: Joan Ross T. Yao
- Wedding Anniversary: Josephine & Roderic Ng
- Wedding Anniversary: Isao & Peggy Lim Furukawa
… for world peace and reconciliation.
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers
and for those who need our prayers the most.
Have a good day!
**************************************************
These reflections are distributed free and are for personal use only.
Feel free to send the Daily Prayer reflections to your friends,
colleagues and relatives; however, if you do, please include the
following:
+================================================+
| The Daily Prayer, a service and an apostolate of the
| priests, laity and friends of Mary the Queen Parish
| http://www.marythequeen.org
| Distributed free and for personal use only.
+================================================+
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GoogleGroup Address: http://groups.google.com/group/daily_homily
To subscribe from this free mailing service, send email to: dailyhomily@earthlink.net
To unsubscribe: daily_homily-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
© 2010 Daily-Homily
