Catholic Readings From 4th Sunday of Advent 2019
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Previous Calendar: 4th Sunday of Advent ; Other Titles: Twenty-four hour period iii O Antiphons: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with yous." Merely she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. And so the angel said to her, "Exercise not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. "Behold, yous will excogitate in your womb and bear a son, and yous shall name him Jesus. He will exist great and volition be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no terminate."
Click hither for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Grade of the Roman Rite.
Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from Isaiah 7:10-14. The Lord himself volition give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and acquit a son, and shall name him Emmanuel' (Is 7:14). This well-known affidavit by the prophet Isaiah announces the coming of the Messiah into homo history. It already gives us a taste of the proximity of that marvelous, stupendous day which will be the 'dies natalis' of Jesus. Information technology was foretold by the prophets and proclaimed throughout the whole of Sacred Scriptures that He would be the I who would fulfil and bring them to completion. Our God volition be incarnated and born due to the generous willingness of the 'Virgin' who, from the very beginning of time, was chosen to exist the Mother of the Savior.
The second reading is from the Letter of the alphabet of St. Paul to the Romans 1:ane-7. St. Paul opens his letter to the Jewish and Gentile converts of Rome, the first generation of Christians in the captial urban center of the empire, by stating that he is an Apostle chosen past Christ to spread the good news of the Incarnation. He calls this news the Gospel of God," for it is an account of that almost incredible act of God's love for us. God sent his divine Son, as man amid united states of america in this work, in lodge that we might exist with the three divine Persons for all eternity in the next world.
The Gospel is from Matthew 1:18-24. "How unsearchable are the judgements of God and how inscrutable his ways!" as St. Paul says to the Romans (xi :33). If God had preserved the kingdom of Judah (which he could so easily have done), and if the Messiah, the son of David, were to be built-in in the imperial palace in Jerusalem, information technology would be natural and we would nearly say, more fitting the nobility of the Messiah. Instead, God allowed the kingly line, and the throne of Judah, to disappear, and he chose a humble carpenter of Nazareth, a true descendant of David just a lowly i, to be the foster-father of his divine Son, when he took human nature and came on earth to "dwell among us." But God'south ways are not our means. Information technology is not by their social standing, nor by their bank-accounts, that God values men. Virtue is the calibration he uses when weighing men. In God's eyes, no king sat on the throne of Judah, non fifty-fifty David himself, who was more acceptable to God as foster-father for his Son, than the carpenter of Nazareth.
This is the last Dominicus of our training for Christmas, the anniversary of Christ's birth. Similar Joseph, we tin all feel unworthy of the honor of welcoming him into our hearts and our homes. We are indeed unworthy, non because we have little of this world's goods, but because we have then fiddling humility, then little charity, so little faith and trust in God'due south goodness. Let the states try to imitate Joseph and Mary, the humblest of the humble, the kindliest of the kindly, and the greatest-ever believers in God'due south goodness and mercy. We tin never hope to equal them, just we can follow them humbly, from afar.
The feast of Christmas should describe the hearts of every kid of God towards the furnace of divine dearest. In the manger, the infinite love of God for us miserable sinners is dramatically and forcefully portrayed before our optics. In that helpless Baby, represented by a statue, we know that the person, and the ability, of the omnipotent Creator and sustainer of the universe prevarication subconscious "He emptied himself, taking the grade of a slave" for usa. He became a creature, like ourselves, so that he would make us sharers in his divine nature. He came on world to bring us to heaven. He hid his divine nature then that he could encompass us with it.
"Unsearchable indeed are the judgements of God, and inscrutable his means." But though we are unworthy of his space dear, it nevertheless stands out equally articulate as the noonday sun in the Incarnation. We realize that we can never make ourselves worthy of this infinite dearest, just permit the states imitate Joseph and accept the honour which God is giving united states of america, as we trust that he will keep to make us daily less unworthy.
Excerpted from The Sunday Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
O King of the Gentiles
"Come up and save man, whom Thou hast fabricated out of dust." What is homo? He is but a particle of dust, an insignificant creature who has farther separated himself from God through sin. He has been cut off from the fountain of truth and banished from God to darkness and misery. Still in the ruins there dwells a spirit that possesses a capacity for truth. In these ashes there is yet a spark that may exist fanned to life to burn with the brilliance of divine life. Merely merely God can revive this flame. For this reason the Church cries out, "Come and save human, whom Yard hast made out of dust." Relieve him who is so weak, and then miserable and helpless. Retrieve his nothingness. Consider the many enemies who lay snares to rob him of divine life and to entice him into sin. Think of his obscured noesis and his proneness to evil, of his tendency to error, and his weakness in the face of temptation. Guard him from the enticements of the world; shelter him from the poison of erroneous instruction; deliver him from the devil and his angels.
During these days before Christmas, the Church contemplates the overwhelming misery of unregenerated flesh. She cries out, "Come and save human being, whom G hast fabricated out of dust."
Jesus is King of all nations. "The kings of the earth stood up and the princes met together against the Lord and against His Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder, and permit us bandage away their yoke from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them. Then shall He speak to them in His anger and trouble them in His rage. Merely I am appointed king by Him over Sion, His holy mount. ... The Lord hath said to Me; Thou art My Son; this day take I begotten Thee. Ask of Me and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the globe for Thy possession" (Ps. 2:2-viii). Well may Herod seek the life of the newborn king. Indeed, many kings and tribes and nations in the form of time shall deprecate the divine Male monarch, Christ. Merely to Him has been given all power in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28: i8). Before Him every knee shall bend, and every tongue shall confess that He is the Lord (Phil. 2:10f.).
The more the mighty condemn the kingship of Christ, the more shall He be exalted past the Father.
Now He comes to us in the course of a lovely child. Ane day in the presence of the Roman governor He volition assert His correct to kingship. Merely after this one public confession of His royal origin He withdraws again into the obscurity which He had freely chosen. For the present He is satisfied with this manifestation of His royal dignity. The mean solar day will come, however, when He will manifest it with power and majesty equally He comes again on the clouds of heaven. Before all nations God volition declare: "I have anointed Him King of Sion. My holy mountain." All men shall pay Him homage equally king; all nations shall acclaim Him the King of Celebrity.
Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
6th O Antiphon:
Symbols:Crown and Scepter
Come, and evangelize man, whom You formed out of the dust of the world.
O King of the Gentiles and their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both 1; Come up, and deliver man, whom Y'all formed out of the dust of the earth.
O King Gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
The crown and scepter signify Christ's universal kingship. Every bit we sing in the fifth O Antiphon, Christ is not but the King of the Jewish nation, but the "Desired One of all," the cornerstone which unites both Jew and Gentile.
Recommended Readings:Apocalypse 15:1-4
Today is Twenty-four hours 7 of the Christmas Novena.
Commentary for the Readings in the Extraordinary Form:
Fourth Sunday of Appearance
"John, the son of Zachary," to a world at present awaiting its God, pleads for our final pre-Christmas "make prepare." "Make set up the mode of the Lord, make directly His paths" (Gospel).
Heroically, in the desert, he warns confronting the softness of life in the urban center, pictured in the background. Alive to the danger of a "soft garments" life, he is seen in a rough "garment of camel pilus," carrying a baptismal crush, "preaching a baptism of repentance."
Excerpted from My Sunday Missal, Confraternity of the Precious Blood
Catholic Readings From 4th Sunday of Advent 2019
Source: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2019-12-22
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