.: 12/16/21

Thursday, December 16, 2021

† "..did you go out to see. . ."🙄

†Saint Quote
""Let us love the Cross and let us remember that we are not alone in carrying it. God is helping us. And in God who is comforting us, as St. Paul says, we can do anything."
–St. Gianna Molla

†Today's Meditation
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Even though the Disciples suffered persecution, they were filled with joy. One would have expected them to be depressed or angry or resentful. The very fact that they responded to persecution with joy is a sign that the Spirit was guiding their actions. We can use that same test with our own words and actions."
— Rev. Jude Winkler, O.F.M., p. 11

An Excerpt From
Daily Meditations Holy Spirit, p11

†Daily Verse
"Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will receive recompense for the wrong he committed, and there is no partiality."
–Colossians 3:23-25

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St. Adelaide of Burgundy

St. Adelaide (931-999 A.D.) was the virtuous daughter of King Rupert II of Burgundy, France. She became the Queen of Italy after being given in marriage to the future King of Italy. When her husband died, she was imprisoned for refusing a second politically-driven marriage. However, when the German Emperor Otto came to rule Italy, she accepted his rescue and offer of marriage. They had four children, the future Otto II and three daughters, two of whom became nuns. Pope John XII crowned Otto the Holy Roman Emperor in 962 A.D., and Adelaide was crowned as the Holy Roman Empress. When her son, Otto II, succeeded her husband as Emperor, she was driven from court by her jealous daughter-in-law. When they both died, Adelaide returned to court to rule the empire as regent Queen until her grandson was of age. She used her position, power, and influence to help the poor, evangelize her people, and to build and restore monasteries and churches. She afterwards retired to a convent in Germany, spending her remaining days in prayer. St. Adelaide is the patroness of princesses, empresses, second marriages, widows, parenthood, brides, exiles, and abuse victims. Her feast day is December 16.

Thursday of the Third Week in Advent

Lectionary: 190
Reading I

Is 54:1-10

Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear,

Break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor,

For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife

than the children of her who has a husband,

says the LORD.

Enlarge the space for your tent,

spread out your tent cloths unsparingly;

lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.

For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left;

your descendants shall dispossess the nations

and shall people the desolate cities.

Fear not, you shall not be put to shame;

you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced.

The shame of your youth you shall forget,

the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.

For he who has become your husband is your Maker;

his name is the LORD of hosts;

Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,

called God of all the earth.

The LORD calls you back,

like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,

A wife married in youth and then cast off,

says your God.

For a brief moment I abandoned you,

but with great tenderness I will take you back.

In an outburst of wrath, for a moment

I hid my face from you;

But with enduring love I take pity on you,

says the LORD, your redeemer.

This is for me like the days of Noah,

when I swore that the waters of Noah

should never again deluge the earth;

So I have sworn not to be angry with you,

or to rebuke you.

Though the mountains leave their place

and the hills be shaken,

My love shall never leave you

nor my covenant of peace be shaken,

says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

Responsorial Psalm

30:2 and 4, 5-6, 11-12a and 13b

R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear

and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world;

you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,

and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;

a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,

but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
"Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;

O LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing;

O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.

Alleluia

Luke 3:4, 6

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
All flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Lk 7:24-30

When the messengers of John the Baptist had left,
Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.
"What did you go out to the desert to see a reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see?
Someone dressed in fine garments?
Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously
are found in royal palaces.
Then what did you go out to see?
A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom Scripture says:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,

he will prepare your way before you.

I tell you,
among those born of women, no one is greater than John;
yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he."
(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors,
who were baptized with the baptism of John,
acknowledged the righteousness of God;
but the Pharisees and scholars of the law,
who were not baptized by him,
rejected the plan of God for themselves.)

Daily Meditation: Isaiah 54:1-10

My love shall never leave you. (Isaiah 54:10)

You have probably heard the saying "Never say never." It's often used pessimistically: "Be careful; anything can happen." One exception, though, is God's love: it will never leave you. Two thousand years before you were conceived, God sent his Son to be born, to live, and to die in the same human flesh that you are made of—because he loves you. And that will never change. The Israelites, who first heard this promise in exile, might have been tempted to question God's love. We too have doubts at times, so it's good for us to ponder, "Who is this God who loves us with a love that will never leave?"

God is omnipotent. That means he is all-powerful. "God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything" (CCC, 268). He can even love you despite your sins. He can love others through you, even if you find loving them difficult. Think about Jesus in the manger. Outwardly, he looked like any other newborn, weak and utterly dependent on Mary and Joseph's care. But we believe that he was the power and wisdom of God. And in the fullness of time, he revealed that power by conquering evil through his cross (Ephesians 1:19-20). All this so that his love would never leave you.

God is immutable. He is unchanging. He is constant and firm in his love for you. His attributes, his will, and his promises "do not change" (Malachi 3:6). If God says something, he will act on it; and if he declares something, he will bring it about. Not always in the way you expect and not always when you think it should happen. But it will happen. And he has promised that his love will never leave you.

This all-powerful, unchanging God wants to be the source of your peace. He wants to calm your heart when, like Israel, you face uncertainty and suffering. When your sins feel too great for him to forgive, he wants to remind you of his omnipotent and immutable love. When you are tempted to embrace the weak, changeable love of this fallen world, he longs to gather you to himself in great tenderness (Isaiah 54:7). This is the God whose love will never leave you!

"Lord, I praise you for your unchanging, all-powerful love!"

Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-13
Luke 7:24-30

From Today's Holy Scripture:
" For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.'

How soon we forget who is King around here. It isn't you. It isn't me. It is our Lord Jesus from Heaven. How quickly we forget! And even worse, how quickly we forget His Holy Word! Forget not! Let us Keep His Holy Word near and dear to our heart.

We pray in Psalms:
" I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me. I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me. O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit."
You preserved me from...hell. A person has a calling. Yours is not to be a descendant to hell, but to be a descendant of God. Yours is an obvious calling, for reading this very letter. And if we are His descendants, we are writing history as we speak, biblical history, where saints and angels are working together, to this very day, and most often in human form. Do you believe the Word? Let's dive into the Word of God.

We heard of our Lord in the Gospel today:
Our Lord continues about Saint John the Baptist:

"Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you."

Our Lord speaks about messengers, and in this particular moment, about a particular messenger. But the whole message spoke something to me. Prophets.
Prophets have existed since the beginning of time. And I am speaking about God's prophets. I am speaking about harbingers, like when our Lord speaks about a plant that gives signs of a season. He is signaling the time but there was a problem...the elders of the church ceased to believe...in prophets. They knew the people believed in prophets, but they remained obstinate in the law. They became obsessed with laws. They became blinded by their own laws.

And so, what about you? Are you so fixed in your thoughts and ideas that you can fail to see the true meaning of God's message?

The repented souls turned to the repentance that John announced, but "the Pharisees and scholars of the law,
who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)"
In their eyes, they had no need for repentance, they had the law.
They knew they were once saved always saved, yet, it was these unrepentant souls that had our Lord crucified.
And you? Have you no need for repentance?

Have you no need to prepare the Way of the Lord?
Because, His preparation is purgation, purification, mortifying oneself, with an ascetic, that is, a pious life for God.
Are you fond of His religion? Because many are saying that religion is not important, but these are lies from the pits of hell. God has set commands, and God has given His life for us, and God reaches out to souls that want a true life with Him.
Religion is important. It is everything. But the focus of religion is even more...the center of life and light...is God, the King, and we must make way for the Lord's coming.
He will come.
The King shall come.
And He wants to come inside and dwell, and give light to the whole place...and He will, because His will is good.

Let's pray.
Lord, Father, God,
Thank you for preparing the way.
Now I pray that we can prepare the way.
I pray that we can learn to be holy, sincere, and desiring Your holy will above all. I pray for grace for my community, my country, my world, but it is not mine, but this is where you have put me, to be a light...a light on in the dark for the grand Christ Mass, Thy Nativity, that is to come...where you touch earth from Heaven, a great gift never to be forgotten!

from your brother in Christ,
Adrian