Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
GospelLuke 1:26-38 (English
Standard Version Anglicised: India)
In the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee
named Nazareth,to a virgin betrothed to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.And he came to her and said,
“Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!”But she
was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting
this might be.And
the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour
with God.And
behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus.He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most
High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father
David,and he will
reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be
no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the
angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will
be called holy—the Son of God.And behold, your
relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the
sixth month with her who was called barren.For nothing will be impossible with
God.”And Mary
said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to
your word.” And the angel departed from her.
In both paintings above Mary has the word of God, the Hebrew Bible, what we Christians call the Old Testament, open in front of her. And when she says, let it be with me according to your word, she is accepting the Word. The opening words of St John's Gospel, read at the Mass During the Day on Christmas Day and read at the end of every Mass in the Extraordinary Form, tells us who the Word is: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Further on, in Verse 14, St John writes those magnificent words that are at the centre of our faith: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes what St John of the Cross said about this: In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.
Here is part of the Angelus address of Pope Benedict XVI on 21 December 2008:
The Gospel of
this Fourth Sunday of Advent proposes to us the account of the Annunciation (Lk 1:
26-38), the mystery to which we return every day in reciting the Angelus. This prayer makes us relive the decisive moment
at which God knocked at Mary's heart and, having received her "yes",
began to take flesh, in her and from her.
The Collect of today's Mass is the
same as the one we recite at the end of the Angelus that in Italian, says: "Infondi nel nostro
spirito la tua grazia, O Padre. Tu che all'annunzio dell'Angelo ci hai rivelato
l'incarnazione del tuo Figlio, per la sua passione e la sua croce guidaci alla
gloria della risurrezione" [Fill our hearts
with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your Son as
man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his
Resurrection].
With only a few days until the Feast of Christmas, we are
invited to fix our gaze on the ineffable mystery that Mary treasured for nine
months in her virginal womb: the mystery of God who is made man.
This is the
first foundation of the redemption. The second is the death and Resurrection of
Jesus and these two inseparable aspects express a single divine plan: to save
humanity and its history, assuming them fully by taking on the entire burden of
all the evil that oppresses it.
Extraordinary Form of the Mass
Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)
The Fourth Sunday of Advent .
The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 12-20-2020, if necessary).
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by
God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of
the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one!
The Lord is with you.’But she was much perplexed by his words
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for
you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the
Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He
will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be
no end.’ Mary said
to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come
upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the
child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has
also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be
barren. For
nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
In both paintings above Mary has the word of God, the Hebrew Bible, what we Christians call the Old Testament, open in front of her. And when she says, let it be with me according to your word, she is accepting the Word. The opening words of St John's Gospel, read at the Mass During the Day on Christmas Day and read at the end of every Mass in the Extraordinary Form, tells us who the Word is: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Further on, in Verse 14, St John writes those magnificent words that are at the centre of our faith: And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes what St John of the Cross said about this: In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.
'Silence' is not what most of us associate with the days coming up to Christmas. But the Church invites us to enter into an inner silence during these days, difficult though that may be. The above is on a parchment, part of a Missal, which in the old days included the readings during Mass. Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar, was declared 'Blessed' by St John Paul II in 1982. This work again invites us into contemplation of the wondrous event of the Annunciation, the moment of the Incarnation when God became Man in the womb of Mary.
Julian of Vézelay (c.1080 - 1165), a French Benedictine monk, reflects on the silence into which Jesus entered, the silence that Mary bore in our heart, the silence that God invites us to enter at this time:
There came a deep silence. Everything was still. The voices of prophets and apostles were hushed, since the prophets had already delivered their message, while the time for the apostles' preaching had yet to come. Between these two proclamations a period of silence intervened, and in the midst of this silence the Father's almighty Word leaped down from his royal throne. There is a beautiful fitness here: in the intervening silence the Mediator between God and the human race also intervened, coming as a human being to human beings, as mortal to mortals, to save the dead from death.
I pray that the Word of the Lord may come again today to those who are silent, and that we may hear what the Lord God says to us in our hearts. Let us silence the desires and importunings of the flesh and the vainglorious fantasies of our imagination, so that we can freely hear what the Spirit is saying. Let our ears be attuned to the voice that is heard above the vault of heaven, for the Spirit of life is always speaking to our souls; as scripture says, a voice is heard above the firmament which hangs over our heads.But as long as we fix our attention on other things, we do not hear what the Spirit is saying to us.
Collect
Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord,
your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son
was made known by the message of an Angel,
may by his Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory of the Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
1. 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!
2. ‘For know a blessed mother thou shalt be, All generations laud and honor thee, Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold Most highly favored lady,’ Gloria!
3. 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 favored lady. Gloria!
4. 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 favored lady,’ Gloria!
The Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord has four different Mass formularies, each with its own prayer and readings. Any of the four fulfills our obligation to attend Mass. These are:
Vigil Mass, celebrated 'either before or after First Vespers (Evening Prayer) of the Nativity'; that means starting between 5pm and 7pm.
Mass During the Night, known before as 'Midnight Mass'. In many parts of the world it does begin at midnight but here in the Philippines since the 1980s it begins earlier, usually at 8:30pm or 9pm.
Mass at Dawn.
Mass During the Day.
When you click on 'Readings' below from the New American Bible you will find links to the readings for each of the four Masses. The readings from the Jerusalem Bible for the four Masses are all on one page.
