Showing posts with label Mass Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mass Christmas. Show all posts

Thursday, 25 December 2014

Christmas Message and Urbi et Orbi blessing - Nativity, Sol. Feast

Midnight Christmas. 
News from Nunraw Abbey
  Christmas Message and Urbi et Orbi blessing - 2014.12.25 
  
 Starts at 11:50 AM - Pope Francis gives his traditional Christmas message and the Apostolic Blessing "Urbi et Orbi" to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and to those listening to him on radio and television.

Jesus is the salvation for every person and every people
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Urbi et Orbi Message of Pope Francis
Thursday 25 December 2014

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2014-12-25 Vatican Radio
Urbi et Orbi Message of Pope Francis
Thursday 25 December 2014
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Happy Christmas!
Jesus, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, is born for us, born in Bethlehem of a Virgin, fulfilling the ancient prophecies.  The Virgin’s name is Mary, the wife of Joseph.
Humble people, full of hope in the goodness of God, are those who welcome Jesus and recognize him.  And so the Holy Spirit enlightened the shepherds of Bethlehem, who hastened to the grotto and adored the Child.  Then the Spirit led the elderly and humble couple Simeon and Anna into the temple of Jerusalem, and they recognized in Jesus the Messiah.  “My eyes have seen your salvation”, Simeon exclaimed, “the salvation prepared by God in the sight of all peoples” (Lk 2:30).
Yes, brothers and sisters, Jesus is the salvation for every person and for every people!
Today I ask him, the Saviour of the world, to look upon our brothers and sisters in Iraq and Syria, who for too long now have suffered the effects of ongoing conflict, and who, together with those belonging to other ethnic and religious groups, are suffering a brutal persecution.  May Christmas bring them hope, as indeed also to the many displaced persons, exiles and refugees, children, adults and elderly, from this region and from the whole world.  May indifference be changed into closeness and rejection into hospitality, so that all who now are suffering may receive the necessary humanitarian help to overcome the rigours of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity.  May the Lord open hearts to trust, and may he bestow his peace upon the whole Middle East, beginning with the land blessed by his birth, thereby sustaining the efforts of those committed effectively to dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
May Jesus, Saviour of the world, protect all who suffer in Ukraine, and grant that their beloved land may overcome tensions, conquer hatred and violence, and set out on a new journey of fraternity and reconciliation.
May Christ the Saviour give peace to Nigeria, where [even in these hours] more blood is being shed and too many people are unjustly deprived of their possessions, held as hostages or killed.  I invoke peace also on the other parts of the African continent, thinking especially of Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and various regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I beseech all who have political responsibility to commit themselves through dialogue to overcoming differences and to building a lasting, fraternal coexistence.
May Jesus save the vast numbers of children who are victims of violence, made objects of trade and trafficking, or forced to become soldiers; children, so many abused children.  May he give comfort to the families of the children killed in Pakistan last week.  May he be close to all who suffer from illness, especially the victims of the Ebola epidemic, above all in Liberia, in Sierra Leone and in Guinea.  As I thank all who are courageously dedicated to assisting the sick and their family members, I once more make an urgent appeal that the necessary assistance and treatment be provided.
The Child Jesus.  My thoughts turn to all those children today who are killed and ill-treated, be they infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a culture that does not love life; be they children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence. I think also of those infants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born.  Even today, their impotent silence cries out under the sword of so many Herods. On their blood stands the shadow of contemporary Herods.  Truly there are so many tears this Christmas, together with the tears of the Infant Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, may the Holy Spirit today enlighten our hearts, that we may recognize in the Infant Jesus, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, the salvation given by God to each one of us, to each man and woman and to all the peoples of the earth.  May the power of Christ, which brings freedom and service, be felt in so many hearts afflicted by war, persecution and slavery.  May this divine power, by its meekness, take away the hardness of heart of so many men and women immersed in worldliness and indifference, the globalization of indifference.  May his redeeming strength transform arms into ploughshares, destruction into creativity, hatred into love and tenderness.  Then we will be able to cry out with joy: “Our eyes have seen your salvation”.
With these thoughts I wish you all a Happy Christmas!


Midnight Mass - Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord - Homily of Pope Francis


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“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” ( Is 9:1). “An angel of the Lord appeared to [the shepherds] and the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Lk 2:9). This is how the liturgy of this holy Christmas night presents to us the birth of the Saviour: as the light which pierces and dispels the deepest darkness. The presence of the Lord in the midst of his people cancels the sorrow of defeat and the misery of slavery, and ushers in joy and happiness.
We too, in this blessed night, have come to the house of God. We have passed through the darkness which envelops the earth, guided by the flame of faith which illuminates our steps, and enlivened by the hope of finding the “great light”. By opening our hearts, we also can contemplate the miracle of that child-sun who, arising from on high, illuminates the horizon.
The origin of the darkness which envelops the world is lost in the night of the ages. Let us think back to that dark moment when the first crime of humanity was committed, when the hand of Cain, blinded by envy, killed his brother Abel (cf. Gen 4:8). As a result, the unfolding of the centuries has been marked by violence, wars, hatred and oppression. But God, who placed a sense of expectation within man made in his image and likeness, was waiting. God was waiting. He waited for so long that perhaps at a certain point it seemed he should have given up. But he could not give up because he could not deny himself (cf. 2 Tim 2:13). Therefore he continued to wait patiently in the face of the corruption of man and peoples. The patience of God. How difficult it is to comprehend this: God’s patience towards us.
Through the course of history, the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption. This is the message of Christmas night. God does not know outbursts of anger or impatience; he is always there, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting to catch from afar a glimpse of the lost son as he returns; and every day, with patience. The patience of God.
Isaiah’s prophecy announces the rising of a great light which breaks through the night. This light is born in Bethlehem and is welcomed by the loving arms of Mary, by the love of Joseph, by the wonder of the shepherds. When the angels announced the birth of the Redeemer to the shepherds, they did so with these words: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” ( Lk 2:12). The “sign” is in fact the humility of God, the humility of God taken to the extreme; it is the love with which, that night, he assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations. The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.
On this holy night, while we contemplate the Infant Jesus just born and placed in the manger, we are invited to reflect. How do we welcome the tenderness of God? Do I allow myself to be taken up by God, to be embraced by him, or do I prevent him from drawing close? “But I am searching for the Lord” – we could respond. Nevertheless, what is most important is not seeking him, but rather allowing him to seek me, find me and caress me with tenderness. The question put to us simply by the Infant’s presence is: do I allow God to love me?
More so, do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us, or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today! The patience of God, the closeness of God, the tenderness of God.
The Christian response cannot be different from God’s response to our smallness. Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him: “Lord, help me to be like you, give me the grace of tenderness in the most difficult circumstances of life, give me the grace of closeness in the face of every need, of meekness in every conflict”.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this holy night we contemplate the Nativity scene: there “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” ( Is9:1). People who were unassuming, people open to receiving the gift of God, were the ones who saw this light. This light was not seen, however, by the arrogant, the proud, by those who made laws according to their own personal measures, who were closed off to others. Let us look to the crib and pray, asking the Blessed Mother: “O Mary, show us Jesus!”.



Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Christmas and New Year filled of peace and good health

Christmas Season,

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=26347 

The Great 'O' Antiphons: Christmas Eve - O Virgo Virginum
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The Great 'O' Antiphons:  Christmas Eve -  O Virgo Virginum  | The Great 'O' Antiphons,  Christmas Eve,  O Virgo Virginum

Annunciation - Simone Martini
O Virgo Virginum: The extra ‘O” !

A Thought for the Vigil of the Nativity

O Virgin of virgins how shall this be?
For neither before you was there any like you, nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem why do you marvel at me? The thing you behold is a divine mystery.

The traditional seven ‘O’ Antiphons of the last week of Advent are a journey with the Prophet Isaiah and others, telling the story of the coming of the Christ from Creation to Bethlehem. For us in the Northern Hemisphere it is also a transition in two ways, firstly in liturgical terms from the glimmer of light as life began, to the rising of the Sun that never sets. It also comes at that point when the year turns, the darkest shortest day and longest night, the winter solstice takes place during this week. We have yet to face deep winter but the light is coming, alongside the cold days to come, a flash of sunlit hope appears.
That then is our journey of the seven antiphons, but there were others. They came later and appear as part of the rich varied tapestry of developments fitting for one age, but perhaps not the next. One such extra O still remains in two living liturgical traditions. Unlike the more ancient seven, this one ‘O Virgo Virginum’ is all about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, she who conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This antiphon has no connection with Isaiah, instead the words take the form of a short dialogue between Mary and the women of Jerusalem. This has echoes both of the poetic interplay between the daughters of Jerusalem and the woman in the Song of Songs and the Crucifixion narrative in Luke 23.28 where the women of Jerusalem are told by Jesus not to weep for him!
Nobody is certain when it was introduced, possibly by Amalarius of Metz in the 9th Century. Because England had a profound devotion to Mother of God by Anglo Saxon times, it is unsurprising that this ‘O’ was found in several English liturgical rites; Hereford, York and Sarum where it occurred on the 23rd December, O Sapientia then being moved to the 16th! The other rite in which it occurs is that of the Premonstratensian Order of Canons Regular, founded in 1120 by St Norbert, who early on developed a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary .
Whatever its history it seems a fitting way in which we come before that raw but profound moment of mystery and wonder, with Mary as she gives birth to her first born, Jesus! All we can do is let go of our questions and problems, placing our hopes, needs and wishes with her at the side of Christ, trusting in the power of intercession beyond all words. Her song, which always accompanies these antiphons sums up our prayers on the eve of the Nativity: ‘For the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation’.( Lk 1.49)
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Christmas Blessings of love, joy & peace

Midnight Mass Christmas...


Newsletter - Christmas 2014


    Doesn't it feel that Christmas has come along quicker than it used to?  It's as if someone turned too many pages of the calendar and has left everyone confused.  It's beginning to look like a moveable feast.  Perhaps that's why so many of us are late with our Christmas mail.  It's strange that when we plan to do some work the time it takes works to a different, opposite, universal law.

Since last Christmas, as most of you will be aware, we have sold our guesthouse and some of the surrounding property.  The new owner, Linda Leith, has wasted no time with her plans to start renovating the buildings and to have the scrub cleared in the woodland area.

Our own plans to set up one of the wings of the abbey as a new place to house the guests will, we hope, begin in the summer of 2015.  Before that happens, we will be converting an area to provide proper infirmary rooms for some of the more needy members of the community. This work is scheduled to begin after Christmas.

We have not been idle in the last couple of years.  Our work staff have been busy doing needy repairs throughout the building to good effect.

With the first Sunday of Advent, we began the year dedicated to Consecrated Life in the Church.  Pope Francis wants to draw the attention of the whole people of God to those who have given their lives to seeking God as Religious sisters, brothers or priests.

God is to be found in any lifestyle, as we know.  However, as we seek God in our own lives, we are being asked throughout this year to take stock of the various Religious vocations within the Church

We are all meant to deepen our own commitment to what we have undertaken in our following of the gospel.  This implies that we keep ourselves always open to what God is asking of us in our present state of life, and even, perhaps, something entirely different.  We could, for example, be drawn to serve God in an active Congregation of sisters or brothers or to do that in a more enclosed community life such as at Nunraw.

Making such a change means taking a big, even a radical, step in another direction from what we have been used to.  What must be said, however, is that once it has been taken, the change may not be as hard or difficult as expected.  Most of the everyday realities we will meet there are the same.  However, the distinction lies in the vows and the structure of community life.  That's what makes all the difference.  If it is very difficult, it probably means this is not what God wants for us.  We then need to remain open in prayer and stillness for some further indication from God as to where we should continue our search as we seek to get closer to God.

Becoming a member of a Religious Congregation or Order won't make us totally different people. It should, however, give us a new or renewed perspective on life and of people.

As already mentioned in our last newsletter, our novice, Br Seamus, made his first profession in the summer.  Now, this Advent, we have another addition to our numbers with the entry of Michael, our new postulant.  We wish both of them well in these their early years in the community.


   

   
May this Christmas and coming year be a time of blessing and happiness in your lives and families.  We keep you and your intentions in our prayers

As a post note, we remind you that both our tearoom and shop are opened every day from 2.00 pm until 4.30.  You may be passing nearby or thinking of going for a drive and would like to stop for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Our Community Mass on Sundays and Days of Obligation will be reverting to the later time of 11.00 am, beginning 1st January 2015.  That should make it more convenient for anyone who is travelling from a distance and would like to be here for the Mass.

With our kind regards and good wishes for a Happy Christmas,
       . . . Abbot and Community

  
    
Nunraw Abbey, Haddington, Scotland, EH41 4LW.    Email: nunraw.abbot@yahoo.co.uk



 
Nunraw Abbey view by H. Dittrich -'down through trees'.
  

Saturday, 5 January 2013

You will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending. Jn 1:51

Christmas Gift - Introduction
Day Twelve of Christmas

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: DGO <noreply@evzo.org>
To: ....donald...
Sent: Friday, 4 January 2013, 17:03
Subject:
 The Daily Gospel

Saturday, 05 January 2013

Saturday before Epiphany

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1:43-51.  ....Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this."  And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Commentary of the day : 

William of Saint-Thierry (c.1085-1148), Benedictine, then a Cistercian monk 
Meditations, VI, 3-4 ; SC 324 (trans. ©Cistercian publications, 1970) 

"You will see the sky opened"
If on earth we see two or three gathered together in your name with you, Lord, in their midst... what are we to say of that place where you have gathered your saints, who have “made a covenant with you by sacrifices”, and where “the heavens” you have made “proclaim your righteousness” (Ps 50[49],5-6)?

For that Beloved Disciple of yours was not the only one to find the way to heaven, nor was the open door revealed to him alone (Rev 4,1)... Out of your own mouth to all and openly you have proclaimed: "I am the door; if anyone enters in by me, he shall be saved" (Jn 10,9). You are the door, then, Lord; and when you say: "if anyone enters in by me," you open, apparently, to all who will. 

But of what use is it to us who are on earth to see the door in heaven standing open, when we cannot get up there? Saint Paul answers thus: "He who ascends is the same also as he who descended" (Eph 4,9). Who is he? He is love. For love in us mounts up to you, O Lord... because the love in you comes down to us. You, who loved us, you came down to us; by loving you we shall mount up to you. You who yourself declared: "I am the door," by your own self I pray you, open yourself to us that you may show more clearly what house you open, and when you open, and to whom.





http://happycatholic.blogspot.co.uk/2009_03_01_archive.html

This Just In and Going Straight by the Bedside


Angels and Their Mission by Cardinal Jean Daniélou

All it took was reading the introduction, so readable, so logical (you know that grabs me!) to make this the next theology book for my spare time.

Here's the description ... I am really looking forward to reading this.
From St. Augustine to John Henry Newman, the greatest among the saints and men of God have lived on familiar terms with the angels; and the Church has always accorded them a very large place in her theology.Recent theologians have dwelt on dry questions about the nature of the angels, but the early Fathers of the Church, with the memory of Jesus fresh in their minds (and of the angels of whom He spoke often) were fascinated with the energetic action of the angels among men and the ways in which the angels have carried out that mission from the instant of Creation through the time of Jesus; and how they will continue their work even unto the end of time.
From the works of these early Fathers of the Church, the late French Cardinal Jean Daniélou has drawn forth threads of knowledge and wisdom which he has here woven into a lucid and bright tapestry that shows us who the ministering angels really are, and how—in every instant and in every way—they are working for your salvation and mine.
Here you’ll find no sentimental cherubs: the Fathers knew that majesty and power cloak actual angels, which is why God gave them the formidable tasks of shepherding not only souls, but entire nations, and the motions of the entire material universe itself.
Open these pages to meet the glorious angels as they were known by the Church’s greatest saints and theologians: Origen and Eusebius, and Sts. Basil, Ambrose, Methodius, Gregory of Nyssa, Clement of Alexandria, and John Chrysostom (among others).



Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Mat. 2:13-18In today’s Gospel, "Rachel wept for her children because they were no more".


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Nivard
Sent: Tuesday, 27 December 2011, 11:21
Subject: Holy Innocents 2011

Daily Reading & Meditation (Adapted)
Wed Dec 28: Scrip. Mat. 2:13-18In today’s Gospel, "Rachel wept for her children because they were no more".

These innocent children and their parents suffered for Christ. Suffering, persecution, and martyrdom are the lot of all who follow Jesus Christ. 

There is no crown without the cross.

Jesus exclaimed that those who weep, who are reviled and persecuted for him are blessed. The word blessed describes a kind of joy which is serene and untouchable. It is self-contained and independent from chance and changing circumstances.  The Lord gives us a supernatural joy. This joy helps us to bear any sorrow or pain. Neither life nor death can take it away. Jesus promised his disciples that "no one will take your joy from you".