Meditation on November 29, 2015 readings

Meditation on November 29, 2015 readings

Direct link to audio file: 2015-Nov-29_08-41-06

First Sunday of Advent
Reading 1
Jer 33:14-16

The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
“The LORD our justice.”

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14

R. (1b) To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior,
and for you I wait all the day.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.

Reading 2
1 Thes 3:12—4:2

Brothers and sisters:
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.

Finally, brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God
and as you are conducting yourselves
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

Gospel
Lk 21:25-28, 34-36

Jesus said to his disciples:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Express Announcements ~ 29 November 2015

Express Announcements ~ 29 November 2015

* Celebrate our Parish Feast Day and Holy Day of Obligation: Immaculate Conception, December 8. Vigil Masses at 6pm and 7:30pm on Monday evening and special Masses throughout day on Tuesday, December 8 at 6:30am, 9am, Noon, 6pm and 7:30pm.

* There will be no Religious Education Classes on December 7 and 8 in observance of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Classes will resume on Wednesday, December 9 as regularly scheduled.

* Advent Lessons and Carols, our annual Advent prayer service, is on Friday, December 11 at 7:30pm. Saint Mary Choirs present Advent songs along with scripture readings and hymns for all to sing.

* Handcrafts from the Holy Land will be on sale after all Masses December 12 and 13. A perfect Christmas gift from Bethlehem will complete your shopping list for Christmas giving and help people in great need in the land where Jesus was born.

* Complete some of your holiday shopping by purchasing SCRIP gift cards! Set up an account today and earn rebates for HCA. Email Torie Baldwin at  scripcoordinator@holycrossweb.com for the school enrollment code.

* Subscribe to the Saint Mary website, www.stmaryfred.org and receive important updates via email. The subscription box is on the homepage. Enter your email address, click “subscribe.”

 

From Our Pastor ~ 29 November 2015

From Our Pastor ~ 29 November 2015

 

Dear Good People of Saint Mary,

Happy new year! It seems right that we end the last year with Thanksgiving, the moment that we come to consider what we have and are thankful for as we step into the new year through the lens of the Advent Season.

Thankfulness is the step in the spiritual life that has to take place before real growth begins. Sometimes people say they get “stuck” and don’t know why they can’t seem to move forward, a block can happen on any level of life, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally. It sometimes happens because a person feels they didn’t get what they wanted, or maybe are  angry because someone else got more. Anger is a big blocker. Learning to be grateful for whatever it is—a little or a lot—is often the key to renewal and a deep abiding peace that  everyone in the world is seeking.

We start with one light in the darkness as the metaphor of this path from darkness of a world without a Savior to a brilliant light in the presence of God-with-us at the birth of Jesus. A Way. From the dangerous darkness of ignorance to the clarity of Truth incarnate. From no hope to founded faith. A Truth. The light grows almost  mperceptibly at first, like a seed in the earth, a grace unrecognized that goes to work and brings us to discover that we are no longer alone. Here there is Love.

There is a remedy to the darkness, an answer to the ignorance and loneliness that can paralyze entire cultures. There is a relationship that changes lives and transforms our night into brightest day.

As I was thinking about this one Advent candle, I realized that I was comparing it to the one great candle that is for us the symbol of new life. We light that candle in that moment of fulfillment, the resurrection of Jesus at the Easter Vigil. At that moment the suffering and death which we have caused with our lives becomes a new reality, a chance for us to change with the silent grace of the Cross. As we venerate the Light of Christ, we realize that the path starts Today, God’s grace penetrates the darkness of our world and begins the process of transformation.

I have taken some of the words of the Easter Exsultet, the ancient proclamation which is chanted at the Vigil Mass in veneration of this Light, and made it a prayer for us at this beginning of time, the first Sunday of Advent:

Lord, This is our night, as when you led our forebears, Israel’s children, from slavery in Egypt and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea. This is our night as when your pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin.

This is our night when, even now, throughout the world, you set believers apart from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin, leading them to grace and joining them to your holy ones.

This is our night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death and rose victorious from the grave. Our birth would have been no gain, had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rises from the dead!

This is our night of which it is written: The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.

With your sanctifying power take our night: dispel wickedness, wash faults away, restore innocence to the fallen and joy to mourners, drive out hatred, foster concord, and bring down the mighty.

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, accept our candle, a sign of our solemn offering. Bring us your Peace.

We don’t know what to do with the darkness of our world but, like the growing light of the season of Advent, we start with only a spark of grace and God’s plan grows in us. God’s plan isn’t a concept or an idea for us to agree or disagree with. It is a real plan being revealed in history and put into action with the light of grace that has been placed in your our hearts, yours and mine. Our names are literally written into this plan to be a part of the dispelling of night to be transformed by the light of his day, brighter than the sun, a path that leads beyond the empty tomb. Let us begin.

God bless you,

Fr. Don

Meditation on November 22, 2015 readings

Meditation on November 22, 2015 readings

Direct link to audio file: 2015-Nov-22_10-43-42

Reading 1
Dn 7:13-14

As the visions during the night continued, I saw
one like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
when he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5

R. (1a) The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.

Reading 2
Rv 1:5-8

Jesus Christ is the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes. Amen.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, ” says the Lord God,
“the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”

Gospel
Jn 18:33b-37

Pilate said to Jesus,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”