Happy Epiphany!
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Sunday, January 08, 2012
Those figures who came from the East were not the last but the first of a great procession of those who, throughout the epochs of history, are able to recognize the message of the Star, who know how to walk on the paths indicated by Sacred Scripture.
Thus they also know how to find the One who seems weak and fragile but instead has the power to grant the greatest and most profound joy to the heart of man.
In him, indeed, is made manifest the stupendous reality that God knows us and is close to us, that his greatness and power are not expressed according to the world’s logic, but to the logic of a helpless baby whose strength is only that of the love which he entrusts to us.
In the journey of history, there are always people who are enlightened by the light of the Star, who find the way and reach him. They all live, each in his or her own way, the experience of the Magi.
—Benedict XVI, Solemnity of Epiphany 2010
Merry Christmas, Day 12
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Thursday, January 05, 2012
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, The Family of John the Baptist Visiting Christ
Thank God, this negative detail [“no room in the inn”—mankind too preoccupied with itself to make space for God] is not the only one, nor the last one that we find in the Gospel.
Just as in Luke we encounter the maternal love of Mary and the fidelity of Saint Joseph, the vigilance of the shepherds and their great joy, just as in Matthew we encounter the visit of the wise men, come from afar, so too John says to us: “To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
There are those who receive him, and thus, beginning with the stable, with the outside, there grows silently the new house, the new city, the new world.
The message of Christmas makes us recognize the darkness of a closed world, and thereby no doubt illustrates a reality that we see daily.
Yet it also tells us that God does not allow himself to be shut out. He finds a space, even if it means entering through the stable; there are people who see his light and pass it on.
—Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass 2007
Merry Christmas, Day 11
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, January 04, 2012
The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people.
What does this mean?
The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people….
Awake, the Gospel tells us. Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one God. To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence.
There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf.” The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself.
Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass, 2009
Merry Christmas, Day 10
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Tuesday, January 03, 2012
See more of Sheila Diemert’s work at SheilaDiemert.com
In the Bethlehem Grotto human loneliness is overcome, our existence is no longer left to the impersonal forces of natural and historical processes, our house can be built on the rock: we can plan our history, the history of humanity, not in Utopia but in the certainty that the God of Jesus Christ is present and goes with us.
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let us run joyfully towards Bethlehem, let us welcome in our arms the Child that Mary and Joseph will present to us. Let us start out from him and with him, facing all the difficulties. The Lord asks each one of you to cooperate in building the city of man, seriously and enthusiastically conjugating faith and culture. For this reason I invite you to seek always, with patient perseverance, the true Face of God…. Seeking the Face of God is the profound aspiration of our heart and is also the answer to the fundamental question that continues to surface ever anew in contemporary society.
—Vespers for the University Students of Rome, December 15, 2011
Merry Christmas, Day 9
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Monday, January 02, 2012
Icon, The Nativity of Christ
Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half metres high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half metres has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but…it seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our “enlightened” reason.
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We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions – the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God’s kindness may shine upon them, that they – and we – may be touched by the kindness that God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable.
—Benedict XVI, Homily for Midnight Mass, 2011
Merry Christmas, Day 8
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Sunday, January 01, 2012
Madonna, Marianne Stokes
God’s Face took on a human face, letting itself be seen and recognized in the Son of the Virgin Mary, who for this reason we venerate with the loftiest title of “Mother of God.” She, who had preserved in her heart the secret of the divine motherhood, was the first to see the face of God made man in the small fruit of her womb. The Mother had a very special, unique and, in... READ MORE
Merry Christmas, Day 7
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Saturday, December 31, 2011
Julius Schnorr
God himself had spoken in many and various ways to mankind. But now something new has happened: he has appeared. He has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he dwells. He himself has come into our midst. This was the great joy of Christmas for the early Church: God has appeared. No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words. He has “appeared”. But now we ask: how has he appeared? Who is he in reality? The reading at the Dawn Mass goes on to say: “the kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed.”
—Benedict XVI, Homily for Midnight Mass, 2011
Merry Christmas, Day 5
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Thursday, December 29, 2011
The Birth of Jesus, James Tissot
“The Word became flesh.” Before this revelation we once more wonder: how can this be? The Word and the flesh are mutually opposed realities; how can the eternal and almighty Word become a frail and mortal man? There is only one answer: Love. Those who love desire to share with the beloved, they want to be one with the beloved, and Sacred Scripture shows us the great love story of God for his people which culminated in Jesus Christ.
Pope’s Christmas Message, 2010
Merry Christmas, Day 4
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Flight into Egypt, Domenico Fiasella
From the December 26, 2010 Angelus:
The Holy Family of Nazareth experienced many trials, for example – as mentioned in the Gospel according to Matthew - the” Massacre of the Innocents ,” which forced Mary and Joseph to emigrate to Egypt. But, trusting in divine Providence, they found their stability and provided a serene childhood and a solid education for Jesus. “
“Dear friends - he concluded - the Holy Family is certainly unique and unrepeatable, but at the same time it is the “model” for every family, because Jesus, true man, chose to be born to in a human family, and in so doing has blessed and consecrated it. Therefore, we entrust to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph all families, so they are not discouraged by trials and difficulties, but always cultivate conjugal love and confidently devote themselves to the service of life and education.
Merry Christmas, Day 3
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Faith on Tuesday, December 27, 2011
...part of this night is simply joy at God’s closeness. We are grateful that God gives himself into our hands as a child, begging as it were for our love, implanting his peace in our hearts.
But this joy is also a prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in blood come to an end. Fulfill the prophecy that “of peace there will be no end” (Is 9:7). We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to show forth your power. Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in the world – the “kingdom of righteousness, love and peace.”
—Benedict XVI, Homily for Midnight Mass 2010
