Sunday Reflections, 4th Sunday of Advent, Year A, 21 December 2025

 

The Dream of St Joseph

Georges de La Tour [Web Gallery of Art]

An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife’ (Matthew 1:24).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: (England & Wales, Scotland, India)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Matthew 1:18-24 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
    and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife [into his home].

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ Carrying the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 1:7; Second Reading).

Many years ago a young friend of mine in Mindanao on his first day in school was asked by his teacher who his father was. The boy answered, Ang Dios nga Amahan - 'God the Father'. The youngster was correct. Our deepest identity is that through baptism we are sons and daughters of God the Father, brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, as St Paul states in today's Second Reading. 

Not only is that our identity, it is also our mission because through Jesus we have received grace and apostleship . . . among all the nations. In his First Letter to the Corinthians St Paul spells out what this may mean: For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). Being a son or daughter of God the Father, a brother or sister of Jesus and of one another demands that we help carry the Cross of Jesus and that we make him known to others.

St John of the Cross writes: When he [God the Father] gave us, as he did, his Son, who is his one Word, he spoke everything to us, once and for all in that one Word. There is nothing further for him to say.

I highlight some of those words: he spoke everything to us, once and for all in that one Word. There is nothing further for him to say.

Christ in Agony on the Cross

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

El Greco's two paintings here show very clearly that we preach Christ crucified. The background of the city of Toledo, Spain, where the artist lived for many years, highlights the truth of the words of St John read at the Mass During the Day on Christmas Day: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The Risen Lord lived in Toledo in El Greco's time, as he lives there now, as he lives wherever we are.

Advent prepares us to meet Jesus Christ, recalling the moment of his birth at Christmas; prepares us to meet him when he comes again in glory at the end of time, while preparing us to meet him at the moment of our death. And it prepares us to meet him in our daily lives, often in surprising and unexpected ways. All of this is the way of Jesus to draw us into a more intimate relationship with him, to draw us more deeply into our understanding of him as the Father's one Word.

Pope Benedict XVI in his General Audience on 3 September 2008 spoke on what had happened to St Paul on the road to Damascus. He finished with the  following words [emphases added]. 

Turning now to ourselves, let us ask what this means for us. It means that for us too Christianity is not a new philosophy or a new morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ. Of course, he does not show himself to us in this overwhelming, luminous way, as he did to Paul to make him the Apostle to all peoples. But we too can encounter Christ in reading Sacred Scripture, in prayer, in the liturgical life of the Church. We can touch Christ's Heart and feel him touching ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, only in this encounter with the Risen One do we truly become Christians. And in this way our reason opens, all Christ's wisdom opens as do all the riches of truth.

Therefore let us pray the Lord to illumine us, to grant us an encounter with his presence in our world, and thus to grant us a lively faith, an open heart and great love for all, which is capable of renewing the world.

May the coming week be a time when we meet the loving Heart of Christ intimately and feel him touching ours.

Gabriel's Message

A traditional Basque carol sung by Voces8 

TEXT The angel Gabriel from heaven came, his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame; "All hail," said he, "thou lowly maiden, Mary, most highly favored lady," Gloria! "For know a blessed Mother thou shalt be, all generations laud and honour thee, thy Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold, "most highly favoured lady," Gloria! Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head, "To me be as it pleaseth God," she said. "My soul shall laud and magnify His holy Name." "Most highly favoured lady," Gloria! Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ was born in Bethlehem, all on a Christmas morn, and Christian folk throughout the world will ever say, "most highly favoured lady." Gloria!

The Annunciation

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

Traditional Latin Mass

Fourth Sunday of Advent

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-21-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. Gospel: Luke 3:1-6.

Every Valley from Messiah by Handel

Tenor: Jon Vickers; conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:4) quoted in today’s Gospel (Luke 3:5).

                                             

'Follow me.' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year C

The Crucifixion of St Peter

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (John 21:18, today's Gospel).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 21:1-19 [or 21:1-14] (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

^[When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”]

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Fr Keith Gorman

(21 January 1920 - 19 December 2016)

Fr Keith Gorman was a Columban priest from Australia who worked for many years in Japan. I met him a number of times and was always struck by his delightful sense of humour and how he had grown old gracefully. In one of the articles he wrote for Columban magazines he said that his idea of heaven was having breakfast with Jesus on the shores of eternity. He clearly had today's gospel in mind. 

This is a gospel I often return to. Imagine being served breakfast by Jesus himself, as the seven apostles were on that blessed morning! And the second part, which will surely and unfortunately be omitted by many priests who will choose the shorter gospel, is for me one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. Jesus is calling us into a deep intimacy with him. He addresses his question Do you love me? not only to St Peter but to each one of us today.

It is in that context that he tells Peter Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep. Jesus emphasises the relationship of intimacy with him as being fundamental, not the mission on which he sends us. Being sent on mission is a consequence of being invited into a deep, personal and intimate relationship with him.

For me as a priest today's gospel tells me that I must put prayer at the very centre of my life, not only the official prayer of the Church - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Breviary, the Sacraments - but personal prayer.  The same applies to all who are called by God to the single life as priests, as religious, as lay persons.

Today's gospel is a call to married persons to put their spousal relationship at the centre of their lives. Through the Sacrament of Matrimony Jesus himself is the foundation of that relationship. And it is the bride and groom who confer that sacrament on each other, not the priest. He is a witness on behalf of the Church to their exchange of vows.

The first question Jesus puts to Peter is, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? I understand this to mean 'Do you love me more than the others love me?' Husbands and wives are called by God to love each other more than anyone else loves them - including their children and their parents. And I take it to mean also that God calls them to love each other more than they love their children and their parents.

This does not mean loving anyone less, but rather drawing their children, especially, into their love for each other, a love that is based on God's love for them as a couple.

I truly believe that when their children become more important for spouses than they do for each other their marriage is heading for trouble. The same applies, I believe, to priests and religious who place their work, no matter how important and good in itself it may be, above their personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.

I once heard a boy of around 11 in the Philippines say, What I love most about my parents is that they are always together. He felt drawn into their love for each other, the same love that led to his being born. 

A teenage girl in the Philippines who had been abused told me how she was drawn to Jesus by a very poor black-and-white copy of Rembrandt's painting below that I showed during a Sunday homily. She said to me, He looks so human. She was basically expressing a desire to be close to Jesus, which is the desire Jesus has for her and for each of us. (I brought her coloured, framed copy the following Sunday).

Young Jew as Christ 

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

For married couples, if God grants them children, Feed my lambs means primarily taking care of their children until they are ready to take on the responsibility of being adults. My mother often reminded me that when I'd be 21 - the then legal age of majority in Ireland, now 18 - I would be responsible for myself. I never took this to be an admonishment but rather as her giving me something valuable to aspire to. This, along with how I saw her and my father carrying out their responsibilities, was also a way in which they carried out the words of Jesus, Feed my lambs. 

Countless single individuals, never married or widowed, with a deep sense of the love of Jesus for them have 'fed the lambs and sheep' because of that relationship. Many of us have been strengthened in our faith or have grown in our awareness of God's love for us through such persons. Often enough I have written here about Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati. St John Paul II, who beatified him, said of him, I, too, in my youth, felt the beneficial influence of his example and, as a student, I was impressed by the force of his Christian testimony.

The First Reading expresses in a different way the centrality of our invitation from Jesus to enter into an intimate relationship with him: But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men'. In other words, as Christians we are meant to live the values of Our Lord Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives.

As it happens, there are elections  in the Philippines on Monday 12 May. Will those involved in these elections allow the values of the gospel to determine how they vote? How we vote is also a way to Feed my lambs . . . Tend my sheep . . . Feed my sheep. How we vote is meant to be a consequence of the intimate relationship into which Jesus calls us within the Church. And when it comes to legislators making laws that are contrary to God's will, as some laws are, we need to make our own the words of St Peter in the First Reading: We must obey God rather than men.

How do we do this? By accepting the invitation of Jesus: Follow me.

Worthy is the Lamb

from Messiah by Handel

Performed by Academy of Ancient Music with Voces8

Conducted by Barnaby Smith

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever (from Apocalypse/Revelation 5:12-13, today’s Second Reading).

[Handel used the King James translation, slightly adapted.]

Collect from the Mass for the Election of a Pope

O God, eternal shepherd, who govern your flock with unfailing care, grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The conclave to elect the successor of Pope Francis begins on Wednesday 7 May.

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday After Easter

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-04-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: 1Peter 2:21-25. Gospel: John 10:11-16.

A Jutland Shepherd on the Moors

Frederik Vermehren [Web Gallery of Art]

So there shall be one flock, one shepherd (John 10:16; Gospel)..

'Above all I invite you to remember your own Baptism' (BXVI). Sunday Reflections, Baptism of the Lord, Year C

 

The Baptism of Christ

Francesco Mochi [Web Gallery of Art] 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

At that time: As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, ‘I baptise you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’

Now when all the people were baptised by John the Baptist and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Comfort ye, my people

From Handel's Messiah

Tenor: Jon Vickers; Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is the beginning of the First Reading of today's Mass (Isaiah 40:1-3). The translation is that of the Authorized (King James) Version, used by Handel.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Baptism of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

BENEDICT XVI ANGELUS

Saint Peter's Square Sunday, 13 January 2013

[Emphases added.]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With this Sunday following the Epiphany the Christmas Season draws to a close: the time of light, the light of Christ who appears, like the new sun on the horizon of humanity, dispelling the shadows of evil and ignorance. We celebrate today the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus: that Child, Son of the Virgin, whom we contemplated in the mystery of his Birth. We behold him today as an adult immersing himself in the waters of the River Jordan and thereby sanctifying all water and the whole world, as the Eastern Tradition stresses. But why did Jesus, in whom there is no shadow of sin, go to be baptized by John? Why did he perform that gesture of penitence and conversion, beside all those people who in this way were trying to prepare for the coming of the Messiah? 

That gesture — which marks the start of Christ’s public life — comes in continuity with the Incarnation, the descent of God from the highest heaven into the abyss of hell. The meaning of this movement of divine lowering is expressed in a single word: love, the very name of God. The Apostle John writes: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”, and he sent him “to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:9-10). That is why the first public act of Jesus was to receive baptism from John, who, seeing him approaching, said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

Luke the Evangelist recounts that while Jesus, having received baptism, “was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’” (3:21-22). This Jesus is the Son of God who is totally immersed in the will of the Father’s love. This Jesus is the One who will die on the cross and rise again through the power of the same Spirit who now descends upon him and consecrates him. This Jesus is the new man who wills to live as the son of God, that is, in love; the man who in the face of the evil of the world, by choosing the path of humility and responsibility he chooses not to save himself but to offer his own life for truth and justice. 

Being Christian means living like this, but this kind of life involves a rebirth: to be reborn from on high, from God, from Grace. This rebirth is the Baptism, which Christ gives to the Church in order to regenerate men and women to new life. An ancient text attributed to St Hippolytus states: “Whoever goes down into these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God, throws off his servitude, and is raised to filial status” Discourse on the Epiphany, 10: PG 10, 862).

Following tradition, this morning I had the joy of baptizing a large group of infants who were born in the past three or four months. At this moment, I would like to extend my prayers and my blessing to all newborn babes; but above all I would like to invite you all to remember your own Baptism, the spiritual rebirth that opened the way to eternal life to us. May every Christian, in this Year of Faith, rediscover the beauty of being reborn from on high, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.

Sistine Chapel, 13 January 2013

Traditional Latin Mass

The Epiphany of the Lord

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-12-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossian 3:12-17. Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.

Christ Among the Doctors

Leonaert Bramer [Web Gallery of Art]

Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? (Luke 2:49; Gospel)

There is nothing further for God to say. Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C

St John the Baptist Preaching

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland)

Readings (English Standard Version; England & Wales, India, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 3:1-6 (English Standard Version Anglicised: England & Wales, India, Scotland)

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
    and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
    and the rough places shall become level ways,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

 

Every valley shall be exalted

from Messiah by Handel

Tenor: Jon Vickers; conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is Handel's setting of the last part of today's gospel.

Charles Kuralt was an American journalist who worked for many years for the CBS TV network in the USA. He was especially noted for his 'On the Road' features on the CBS Evening News. These started in 1967, the year I was ordained, and I became familiar with them when I went to study in the USA the following year.

I vividly remember one particular story - they were never from the highways but from the byways of the United States - about a man somewhat on the older side who lived in a small town somewhere in the heartland of the country. I forget the particular state. The nearest town was only a few kilometres away but there was no road connecting the two. People had to take a very long way around to get from one to the other.

The residents of both towns tried for years to persuade their politicians to build a road connecting them, without success. So this particular elderly citizen decided he'd start to build a road himself, using planks. When Charles Kuralt caught up with him he hadn't got very far - but he had started.

Legion of Mary Altar

[Wikipedia; photo]

This man was engaged in what the Handbook of the Legion of Mary calls Symbolic Action. The Handbook was written almost entirely by Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion.

The Handbook says, It is a fundamental Legion principle that into every work should be thrown the best that we can give. simple or difficult, it must be done in the spirit of Mary . . . 

But sometimes we are faced with works which are really impossible, that is to say, beyond human effort . . .

'Every impossibility is divisible into thirty-nine steps, of which each step is possible' - declares a legionary slogan . . .

Observe: the stress is set on action. No matter what may be the degree of the difficulty, a step must be taken. Of course, the step should be as effective as it can be. But if an effective step is not in view, then we must take a less effective one. And if the latter be not available, then some active gesture (that is, not merely a prayer) must be made which, though of no apparent practical value, at least tends towards or has some relation to the objective. This final challenging gesture is what the Legion has been calling 'Symbolic Action.' Recourse to it will explode the impossibility which is of our own imagining. And, on the other hand, it enters in the spirit of faith into dramatic conflict with the genuine impossibility.

The sequel may be the collapse of the walls of that Jericho.

I saw Charles Kuralt's broadcast some time between 1968 and 1971. In the autumn of 1982 I was working in a hospital in Minneapolis as a chaplain on a three-month Clinical Pastoral Education programme. Charles Kuralt came to town while I was there to give a lunchtime lecture in an auditorium near the hospital and I went along to hear him. When he invited questions from the very large audience someone asked him, What happened to that road the old man began to build? So I wasn't the only one who had remembered the story.

Mr Kuralt told us that the man had since died - but that the road between the two towns had finally been built by the authorities. 

The chances are that the man featured in Charles Kuralt's story, since he was from the heartland of the USA, was familiar with today's gospel. St John the Baptist is quoting the Prophet Isaiah and asking each of us to Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. He assures us that Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;  and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Jesus asks for our cooperation. When he was faced with the hungry crowds he asked the Apostles what food they had and then told them to feed the people. Their cooperation with their feeble resources enabled him to show God's bounty in a way they could not have imagined. At Cana Jesus told the servants to fill the water containers - and changed the water into the equivalent of about 600 bottles of the very best wine. (I once read a commentary that advised the reader to take that in a symbolic sense. I really don't see why we should diminish God's bounty! What Jesus did is indeed a symbol of God's bounty precisely because it was an act of that bounty in a specific situation.)

Linaioli Tabernacle (shutters open)

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

We have no idea what God can do with a seemingly insignificant or purely personal action. When the young St Anthony of the Abbot went of to live as a hermit in the desert, rather like St John the Baptist, he had no idea that it would lead to the foundation of monasteries of contemplatives around the world. 

Jesus, through the words of Isaiah repeated by St John the Baptist is calling us to actively prepare for his coming, in so many unexpected ways in our daily lives, through joys and sorrows, through the Mass and the sacraments, and in glory at the end of time. We are also preparing to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. However, that First Coming in the flesh has already taken place. 

St John of the Cross

Francisco de Zurbarán [Wikimedia]

St John of the Cross wrote in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, When he (God) gave us, as he did, his Son, who is his one Word, he spoke everything to us, once and for all in that one Word. There is nothing further for him to say. This is part of the Second Reading in the Office of Readings for Monday in Week 2 of Advent.

There is nothing further for him to say.

St John of the Cross goes on to write in the same passage, Consequently, anyone who today would want to ask God questions or desire some vision or revelation, would not only be acting foolishly but would commit an offence against God by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ, without wanting something new or something besides him.

God might give him this answer, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.' I have already told you all things in my Word. Fix your eyes on him alone, because in him I have spoken and revealed all. Moreover, in him you will find more than you ask or desire.

The writings of St John of the Cross and of other great theologians do not reveal to us anything new but rather bring us into a deeper understanding of the Word. Likewise, the messages that the Church recognises as having been received in such places as Lourdes, for example, do not reveal to us anything new but rather emphasise some aspect of the Word, usually a call to penance and to prayer, in other words, Prepare the way of the Lord.

God asks us to look to the future in active, sometimes symbolically active, hope like the old man in Charles Kuralt's story. Be ready to meet Jesus in whatever guise he comes and whenever he comes, each day, at the hour of our death, at the end of time.

 

Antiphona ad Communionem  

Communion Antiphon Baruch 5:5; 4:36

Ierusalem, surge et sta in excelso, 

Jerusalem, arised and stand upon the heights,

et vide iucunditatem, quae veniet tibi a Deo tuo.

and behold the joy which comes to you from God.

Traditional Latin Mass 

The Immaculate Conception

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-08-2024 if necessary).

Lesson: Proverbs 8:22-35.  Gospel: Luke 1:26-28.

The Annunciation

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

And he came to her and said, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!' (Luke 1:28; Gospel).