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One Minute Reflection – 31 December – ‘… He sent His own Mind into the world, as its Lord. …’

One (maybe 3 minutes today 😘) Minute Reflection – 31 December – “Month of the Immaculate Conception” – The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas, Readings: 1 John 2:18-21, Psalms 96:1-2, 11-12, 13, John 1:1-18

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14

REFLECTION – “There is only one God, brethren and we learn about Him only from Sacred Scripture. It is,therefore, our duty to become acquainted with what Scripture proclaims and to investigate its teachings thoroughly. We should believe them in the sense that the Father wills, thinking of the Son, in the way the Father wills and accepting the teaching He wills to give us, with regard to the Holy Spirit. Sacred Scripture is God’s gift to us and it should be understood in the way that He intends: we should not do violence to it by interpreting it according to our own preconceived ideas.

God was all alone and nothing existed but Himself, when He determined to create the world. He thought of it, willed it, spoke the word and so made it. It came into being instantaneously, exactly as He had willed. It is enough then for us to be aware of a single fact, nothing is co-eternal with God. Apart from God, there was simply nothing else. Yet, although He was alone, He was manifold because He lacked neither reason, wisdom, power, nor counsel. All things were in Him and He Himself, was all. At a moment of His own choosing and, in a manner determined by Himself, God manifested His Word and through Him, He made the whole universe.

When the Word was hidden within God Himself, He was invisible to the created world but God made Him visible. First God gave utterance to His Voice, engendering Light from Light and then, He sent His own Mind into the world, as its Lord. Visible before to God alone and not to the world, God made Him visible. so that the world could be saved by seeing Him. This Mind that entered our world was made known as the Son of God. All things came into being through Him but He alone is begotten by the Father.

The Son gave us the law and the prophets and He filled the prophets with the Holy Spirit, to compel them to speak out. Inspired by the Father’s power, they were to proclaim the Father’s purpose and His will.

So the Word was made manifest, as Saint John declares when, summing up all the sayings of the prophets, he announces that this is the Word through Whom the whole universe was made. He says – In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Through Him all things came into being; not one thing was created without Him. And further on he adds: The world was made through Him, and yet the world did not know Him. He entered His own creation and His own did not receive Him.” – St Hippolytus of Rome (Died c 236) Bishop, Father of the Church and Martyr (An excerpt from his A Treatise against Noetus, Book 1).

PRAYER – All-powerful, ever-living God, we thank You for the human birth of Your Son, which is the source and perfection of our Christian life and worship. Number us among His people, for the salvation of all mankind is found in Him, for the Word became flesh who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever, amen.

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Quote/s of the Day – 25 December – “And the Word became flesh…”

Quote/s of the Day – 25 December – The Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.

John 1:1

“And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.”

John 1:14

“On this day, on which the Lord of all came among servants, let the lords also bow down, to their servants lovingly.

On this day, when the rich One was made poor for our sake, let the rich man also make the poor man, a sharer at his table.

On this day, a gift came out to us without our asking for it, let us then give alms to those, who cry out and beg from us.

This Lord of natures, today was transformed, contrary to his nature; it is not too difficult for us also to overthrow our evil will.

Bound is the body by its nature, for it cannot grow larger or smaller but powerful is the will, for it may grow to all sizes.

Today the Deity imprinted itself on humanity, so that humanity might also be cut into the seal of Deity.”

St Ephrem (306-373)
Father and Doctor

(Homily on Our Lord, 21)

“… Let us keep the Feast,
not after the manner of a heathen festival
but after a godly sort;
not after the way of the world
but in a fashion above the world;
not as our own
but as belonging to Him
who is ours,
or rather as our Master’s;
not as of weakness
but as of healing;
not as of creation
but of re-creation.

St Gregory of Nazianzen (330-390)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“Awake, mankind!
For your sake God has become man.
Awake, you who sleep,
rise up from the dead
and Christ will enlighten you.
I tell you again,
for your sake,
God became man.”

St Augustine 354-430)
Great Latin Father
and Doctor of the Church

Posted in ADVENT QUOTES, CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRISTMASTIDE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, The INCARNATION, The MOST HOLY & BLESSED TRINITY, The NATIVITY of JESUS, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 25 December – ‘ … This indeed is wonderful …’

One Minute Reflection – 25 December – The Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, Jesus Christ – Mass during the day – Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 98:1-6, Hebrews 1:1-6, John 1:1-18

Christ has been born for us, come, let us adore Him!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. … John 1:14

REFLECTION – “Christ has come from the Father, He has come from the Word, He has come from the Holy Spirit, since the whole Trinity accomplished His conception and His incarnation. For to come from the highest Trinity was, no other, than to be conceived and to become, a human being, by the same Trinity. Therefore, it was said: “His going forth is form the highest heaven.” (cf. Ps 18[19]:6)
The Only-Begotten … begotten of the Father eternally, begotten in time, He came forth from His Mother, remaining invisibly with the Father and dwelling visibly with us. For to go forth from the Father was this – to enter upon our world, to be seen openly and to become what, from the nature of the Father, He was not. This indeed is wonderful, He came from Him from Whom He did not depart, going forth from Him, with Whom He stayed, so that without intermission, He was wholly in eternity, wholly in time, wholly was He found in the Father, when wholly in the Virgin, wholly in His own Majesty and in His Father’s at the time, when He was wholly in our humanity.
If you ask how, gather the truth by means of an illustration. A word conceived in the heart goes forth complete in the voice, so that it comes perfectly to others, yet remains wholly in the heart. So the good Word, spoken forth from the heart of the Father, went forth into the broad plain, yet did not leave the Father.” … St Amadeus of Lausanne (1108-1159) Cistercian Monk and Bishop (On the praises of the Blessed Mary, homily II).

PRAYER – Almighty God, Your incarnate Word fills us with the new light He brought to men. Let the light of faith in our hearts, shine through all that we do and say. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.

The Word was God in the beginning and before all time, today, He is born to us, the Saviour of the world.

Posted in CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, CHRISTMASTIDE!, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, I BELIEVE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 31 December – ‘As Your Word descended, our heart has been melted…’

One Minute Reflection – 31 December – The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas, Readings: 1 John 2:18-21, Psalm 96:1-2, 11-13, John 1:1-18

He came to his own home and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God…. John 1:11-12

REFLECTION – “Lord, we have heard Your works and we have been astounded.   We have pondered Your marvels and we have fainted.

As Your Word descended, our heart has been melted and all our innermost being, trembling, has been laid bare to Him.   For while silence, held all things and night, in her journey reached her mid-course, Your Almighty Word came from its royal abode (cf. Wis 18:14-15).   You poured out, O Father, the tenderness of Your love upon us and You could no longer contain the multitude of Your mercies.   You shed light in the darkness, dew upon the dryness and in the bitter frost, You kindled a raging fire.   Your Son appeared to us as an abundance of food when grievous famine threatened, as a spring of living water, to a life in distress and fainting from thirst in the heat.   Or surely, just as there is wont to appear, a strong helper and deliverer for men besieged, who are about to rush out into battle, with death before their eyes and with the enemy’s threatening sword (…): so He appeared for us and became our Salvation.

Yet it is an excellent and salutary thing to recount again the beginning of our Salvation and to treat of His incarnation, to recall whence He came and in what sort He descended.” … St Amadeus of Lausanne (1108-1159) Cistercian Monk, Bishop – On the praises of the Blessed Mary, homily III, SC 72.john 1 11-12 he came to his own and his own received him not - your son appeared to us - st amadeus of lausanne 31 dec 2019.jpg

PRAYER – All-powerful, ever-living God, we thank You for the human birth of Your Son, which is the source and perfection of our Christian life and worship.   Number us among His people, for the salvation of all mankind is found in Him, for the Word became flesh who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever, amen.the word became flesh alleluia alleluia 31 dec 2019.jpg

Posted in Blessed JOHN HENRY Cardinal NEWMAN, CHRISTMASTIDE!, DOCTORS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, The NATIVITY of JESUS, The WORD

Christmas Wisdom with St Alphonsus Liguori – Christmas! Mass During the Day – John 1:1–18

Advent and Christmas Wisdom with St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) – Christmas! Mass During the Day – John 1:1–18

The Birth of Jesus

“Consider that the birth of Jesus Christ, caused universal joy in the whole world. Jesus was the Redeemer who had been desired and awaited for so many years.   He was called ‘the desire of the nations’ and ‘the desire of the eternal hills.’   Today, we behold Him, born in a little cave!   Let us consider, that this day, the angel also announces to us the same great joy announced to the shepherds.   “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for a saviour has been born.”

What great rejoicing there is in a country when the firstborn son of a king is born.   But surely, there should be even greater rejoicing when we see the Son of God born! We were lost and he came to save us.   He is the shepherd who has come to save His sheep from death.   He is the lamb of God, who has come to sacrifice Himself, to become our deliverer, our life, or light and even our food in the Most Holy Sacrament.

Saint Maximus says that for this reason, among many others, Jesus chose to be laid in the manger, where the animals are fed, to make us understand that He has become human and also our food.   “In the manger, where the food of animals is placed, He allowed Himself to be laid, demonstrating that His own body would be the eternal food of humankind.”

Besides this, He is born every day in the Sacrament of the Altar, the Altar is the crib and we go to the Altar to be fed and nourished.   Some might desire to hold the Infant Jesus in their arms as the prophet Simeon did but faith teaches us, that when we receive Holy Communion, we too, hold the same Jesus, who was in the manger in Bethlehem, not in our arms alone but in our hearts.

My beloved Jesus, if I do not love You, who are my Lord and God, whom shall I love?”

Scripture

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

John 1:14

Prayer

Almighty God, Your incarnate Word fills us with the new light He brought to men.   Let the light of faith in our hearts shine through all the ages, to bring Your light to all nations. Come, come, let us adore our Holy Babe of Bethlehem, through whom we pray, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever amen.

“Let us, at this season, approach Him with awe and love, in whom resides all perfection and from whom we are allowed to gain it.   Let us come to the Sanctifier to be sanctified….
May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him, who as at this time became a little child for our sake, more simple-minded, more humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God.”…Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)john 1 14 and the word became flesh - let us approach - bl john henry newman - christms with st alphonsus 25 dec 2018