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Friday
Jesus, in the darkness of these Advent nights let me be guided by the light of your word. Give me the humility to be led by you and the wisdom to learn from you. I feel your light in my life and in the world. I am grateful for the Savior who awaits us, and eagerly await the time of rejoicing. Let me look forward in hope and turn to you with great trust, knowing you will guide my steps along the unknown path of this day. |
Advent and Christmas programme Penitential service : 13/12/2019 - 6.00pm Prayer, praise and meditation : 15/12/2019 at 5.00pm Christmas Vigil Mass for children 6:00pm Christmas Vigil Mass for adults: 8.30pm Christmas Day Masses 9:30am and 11:30am December 26th Boxing Day Mass: 10:00am December 31st Thanksgiving Adoration 10.00 to 10.50pm Vigil mass 11.00pm January 1st New year day 10.00am |
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Todays Gospel Reflection:
“For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” Matthew 11:18-19a Yuck. What we have here is the ugly sin of calumny. Calumny is the intentional twisting of facts so as to misrepresent the truth. Basically, calumny is a lie meant to do harm to another. Jesus points out that both He and John the Baptist were ridiculed and falsely accused of being sinful. John, for example, fasted much which was quite virtuous. But the Pharisees interpreted it as the work of the devil. Jesus spent time at many people’s homes as a guest and He was accused of being a glutton and drunkard. When someone gives into calumny, they often look at some virtue in another and twist it some way so as to deceive and misrepresent the truth. And it is often done out of envy or jealousy. This sad situation should be an opportunity for each of us to look at how honest we are in our relations with one another. When you see goodness in another are you able to rejoice in that fact? Are you able to honestly give thanks to God for their goodness? Or do you immediately start to interpret their virtue in a false way. Reflect, today, upon the way you look at others around you and, especially, how you speak about them. Look at their virtue and try to honestly honor them for it. And if you see yourself falling into any form of jealousy or envy, surrender it over to our merciful God so that it doesn’t turn into the ugly sin of calumny. Lord, help me to see others in the light of humility and truth. Help me to see their goodness and virtue and to rejoice in it. Strip from me any falsity and calumny. Jesus, I trust in You. |
Our Lady of Guadalupe
The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story. A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower, and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady. Juan was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared. Eventually the bishop told Juan to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Juan to try to avoid the lady. Nevertheless the lady found Juan, assured him that his uncle would recover, and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma. On December 12, when Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground, and the bishop sank to his knees. On the tilma where the roses had been appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. Reflection Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary—and the God who sent her—accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for the indigenous population. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God’s preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself. .
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