Insult Machine Bergoglio: “Be a mother and not an old maid!!”

Bergoglio insulting his own again…

(RNS) When Pope Francis this month wanted to highlight his appointment of several women to a blue-ribbon theological commission, he called the female theologians “strawberries on the cake.”

Yikes.

Two weeks earlier, when the pontiff gave a speech to the European Parliament, he used another lady-based analogy, this time underscoring the continent’s demographic decline and cultural crisis by comparing Europe to a grandmother who is “no longer fertile and vibrant.”

Ouch.

Yes, Francis is a veritable quote machine, tossing off-the-cuff bon mots that the public finds enormously appealing in large part because they are coming from a Roman pontiff — not an office known for its improv routines.

But when he speaks about women, Francis can sound a lot like the (almost) 78-year-old Argentine churchman that he is, using analogies that sound alternately condescending and impolitic, even if well-intentioned.

Indeed, Francis has spoken repeatedly of the “feminine genius” and the need for a church to develop “a deeper theology of women,” and of his determination to promote women to senior positions in Rome. He also points out that some of his remarks are meant as jokes, the fruit of a sense of humor that is part of his appeal.

Still, not everyone is amused.

“I am at a loss to see how this could be other than insulting to women who’ve already given up having families of their own to serve God,” The Washington Post’s Melinda Henneberger wrote after a speech in which the pope warned nuns not to become spiritual “old maids.”

And in a Los Angeles Times column this week, New Testament scholar Candida Moss of Notre Dame and Yale Bible professor Joel Baden blasted Francis’ granny comments to the European Parliament as “nothing other than crass chauvinism.”

For all his positive comments and reforms, they said, the pope “reveals a highly patriarchal view” of the value and traditional role of women.

Here are seven examples of what these critics are talking about:

1. “Be a mother and not an old maid!”

“Please, let it be a fruitful chastity, a chastity that generates sons and daughters in the church. The consecrated woman is a mother, must be a mother and not an old maid (or “spinster”). … Forgive me for speaking this way, but the motherhood of consecrated life, its fertility, is important.”

— Address to nuns from around the world, May 8, 2013

2. “I am wary of ‘masculinity in a skirt.’“

“It is necessary to broaden the opportunities for a stronger presence of women in the church. I am wary of a solution that can be reduced to a kind of ‘female machismo’ (“machismo in gonnella,” he said in Italian, or “masculinity in a skirt”) because a woman has a different make-up than a man. But what I hear about the role of women is often inspired by an ideology of machismo.”

— Interview with Jesuit publications, September 2013

3. “The fact is, woman was taken from a rib.”

Q: Do you see a bit of misogyny in the background (of your references to women mainly as mothers and wives rather than leaders)?

A: “The fact is, woman was taken from a rib.” (The pope gives a hearty laugh.) “I am kidding, that was a joke … ”

— Interview with the Italian daily Il Messaggero, June 29, 2014

4. “Pastors often wind up under the authority of their housekeeper!”

Q: Can we expect some historic decisions from you, such as making a woman the head of a Vatican department … ?”

A: (He laughs again) “Well, pastors often wind up under the authority of their housekeeper!”

— Interview with the Italian daily Il Messaggero, June 29, 2014

5. “Europe is now a ‘grandmother,’ no longer fertile and vibrant.”

“In many quarters we encounter a general impression of weariness and aging, of a Europe which is now a ‘grandmother,’ no longer fertile and vibrant. As a result, the great ideas which once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction … “

— Address to the European Parliament, Nov. 25, 2014

6. Woman theologians “are the strawberries on the cake!”

“I would like to note, in the context of the increasingly diverse composition of the Commission, the greater presence of women — still not enough. … They are the strawberries on the cake, but we want more!”

— Address to the International Theological Commission, Dec. 5, 2014

7. “A church that seems more like a spinster than a mother”

“When the church does not (evangelize), then the church stops herself, is closed in on herself, even if she is well-organized, has a perfect organizational chart, everything’s fine, everything’s tidy — but she lacks joy, she lacks peace, and so she becomes a disheartened church, anxious, sad, a church that seems more like a spinster than a mother, and this church doesn’t work, it is a church in a museum. The joy of the Church is to give birth … “

— Homily at morning Mass, Dec. 9, 2014

Caution: Bergoglio Speaks about Women

Ukrainian Catholic Church arming soldiers to fight pro-Russian separatists

Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church equips military

(The Christian Science Monitor) As the train bringing the wounded soldier home from the front line grinds to a halt, the crowd on the platform bursts into patriotic song. Maj. Ruslan Androsyuk’s three-year-old son jumps into his arms, unsteadying him as he limps from the carriage.

Relatives and friends wave balloons and Ukrainian flags, welcoming Androsyuk back after a mine ripped through his armored personnel carrier in the Donetsk region, leaving him with a broken leg, fractured ribs, and pierced lungs.

“If it wasn’t for his bulletproof vest he wouldn’t have survived,” said his wife, Olga, choking back tears.

But it wasn’t Ukraine’s government that supplied Androsyuk his gear. Like hundreds of other soldiers fighting against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, his equipment was provided by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

After decades of marginalization by both Ukraine’s communist and post-Communist regimes and its two dominant Orthodox churches, the UGCC is trying to establish itself as a major pro-European player by supplying government forces fighting in the east. By taking a direct role in the conflict, the UGCC hopes to win followers within a country that is becoming increasingly divided along ethnic and religious lines.

CHAMPIONING UKRAINE’S IDENTITY

The UGCC is a mystery to many outside of Ukraine. Founded in the 16th century, it is the largest of 22 eastern Catholic churches, each in full communion with Rome. (“Greek” was added to distinguish it from Ukraine’s tiny community of Roman Catholics.)

With some 7 million followers, around 15 percent of Ukraine’s population, the UGCC competes with Ukraine’s two, much larger Orthodox Churches—the Moscow and Kiev Patriarchates—for followers, influence, and political clout. (The Moscow branch claims 28 million adherents; the Kiev branch around half of that.)

The UGCC is concentrated in the western regions, especially Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil. Western and central Ukraine are home to over 3,000 UGCC parishes, the south and east just 205. The church’s centuries-old headquarters recently relocated from Lviv to Kiev, the capital.

But while its flock is relatively small, the UGCC prides itself with having shaped Ukraine’s cultural and political identity over the past two hundred years.

The national anthem—sung throughout the EuroMaidan protest movement that toppled former president Viktor Yanukovych—was composed by 19th-century priest Mykhailo Verbytsky. Indeed, the church’s links to Ukrainian identity spurred Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to dissolve the church in 1946.

It continued to hold secret services in cemeteries and forests, while UGCC priests delivered clandestine sermons in Soviet gulags. The UGCC also claims credit for keeping the Ukrainian language alive during Communist times—not a word of Russian is uttered between sanctuary walls.

Today the UGCC wants to “assert itself beyond its far western heartland on the back of the growth in Ukrainian self-identity in more central regions of Ukraine,” said Geraldine Fagan, an independent scholar on religion in the former Soviet Union and author of Believing in Russia—Religious Policy after Communism.

To do that, she said, the church is tapping into the turmoil caused by the conflict in the east, which has killed over 4,700 people and helped bring the country to the brink of bankruptcy.

In a bustling warehouse on the edge of Ternopil, deep in a Catholic heartland where rosary beads abound and the shining domes of cathedrals dot the landscape, UGCC volunteers organize stacks of American and European medical kits. Tourniquets and syringes poke out from the donated boxes.

“We are the loudest and most visible in expressing our support for Ukraine’s nationhood,” said Valia Konotopska, the charity’s head. “Our church was the first on Maidan.”

Maidan is the Kiev square where anti-government protests began just over a year ago. The Kiev Patriarchate began to hold services on the square only after the UGCC did, while the Moscow Patriarchate refrained, urging calm.

The UGCC’s direct role in the conflict is substantial. The powerful UGCC dioceses of Lviv and Ternopil have donated over $200,000 worth of equipment since March to Ukrainian forces, mostly body armor, ammunition, helmets, sleeping bags, stretchers, and medical supplies, official church records show.

RELIGION AND POLITICS

But the UGCC is not the only church to get involved in the fighting. The Kiev Patriarchate also donates gear—it is yet to provide figures—to government forces. And the Moscow Patriarchate has been linked to supplying the rebels.

To some observers, Ukraine’s churches appear to be using the conflict to settle old disputes.

While the two Orthodox Churches trade insults, threatening to further splinter, the UGCC has come under repeated fire from the Moscow Patriarchate, accusing it of drumming up anti-Russian sentiment. The UGCC has responded by saying such ire has only brought Catholics, Protestants, and the Kiev Patriarchate closer together.

All three see room to expand their influence, Fagan said.

“The bottom line is that various religious bodies have an interest in strengthening their national position in Ukraine because, unlike Russia, no one church predominates there,” she said.

The UGCC’s partisan stance could yet backfire. While President Petro Poroshenko and Ukraine’s parliament opposes Moscow’s policies, pro-Russian politicians could eventually return to power in Kiev, though this prospect is dimmed by the breakaway eastern republics’ cleaving of pro-Russian constituencies.

Still, were this to happen, UGCC could face increased discrimination against Catholics in Ukraine, as well as a disruption to its plan to expand beyond its traditional western strongholds.

‘TIMES OF CRISIS’

At a Sunday service in Ternopil’s 18th-century Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, worshipers overflow onto its gray and white stone plaza. The crowd is full of new parents, and the cry of babies mixes with the melodic hymns being broadcast through loudspeakers.

“Over the last year, we’ve seen more and more come to church. More turn to faith in times of crisis,” said Petro Terletsky, visiting chaplain and professor in theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

He has just delivered a sermon comparing Jesus’ Parable of the Wicked Tenants—whereby a landlord loses his vineyard’s fruits after lending to an ill-intentioned man—to Russia’s designs on eastern Ukraine.

“Our goal is to find a way to connect the east and west of Ukraine,” Terletsky said. “Buying body armor for our troops is part of this.”

Source: Christian Century

God, please save your flock from this crazy socialist pope!!

Crazy Pope Francis to Lead Fight Against Global Warming Junk Science…

Pope Francis will lead the fight against global warming junk science in a number of activities planned for 2015.
The Guardian reported:

He has been called the “superman pope”, and it would be hard to deny that Pope Francis has had a good December. Cited by President Barack Obama as a key player in the thawing relations between the US and Cuba, the Argentinian pontiff followed that by lecturing his cardinals on the need to clean up Vatican politics. But can Francis achieve a feat that has so far eluded secular powers and inspire decisive action on climate change?

It looks as if he will give it a go. In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on the subject to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

“Our academics supported the pope’s initiative to influence next year’s crucial decisions,” Sorondo told Cafod, the Catholic development agency, at a meeting in London. “The idea is to convene a meeting with leaders of the main religions to make all people aware of the state of our climate and the tragedy of social exclusion.”

Following a visit in March to Tacloban, the Philippine city devastated in 2012 by typhoon Haiyan, the pope will publish a rare encyclical on climate change and human ecology. Urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds, the document will be sent to the world’s 5,000 Catholic bishops and 400,000 priests, who will distribute it to parishioners.

Global warming – The Big Lie  – Gateway Pundit

Gunman who tried to assassinate John Paul II is expelled from Italy

Gunman who tried to assassinate John Paul II is expelled from Italy two days after laying flowers at his grave…

• Mehmet Ali Agca laid white roses on the tomb of Pope John Paul II
• Comes 31 years to the day the Pope visited him in prison and forgave him 
• He fired shots at point-blank range at the Pope in St Peter’s Square in 1981 
• Vatican officials have denied his request for a meeting with Pope Francis

An assassin who tried to kill Pope John Paul II has been expelled from Italy two days after he laid white roses on the tomb of the late pontiff and requested a meeting with Pope Francis!

Mehmet Ali Agca was bundled aboard an airplane at Rome’s Fiumicino airport by security last night to be sent home to his native Turkey after an Italian judge approved the expulsion. On Saturday Agca had made a surprise visit to the Vatican to place flowers on the tomb of John Paul II 31 years to the day that the Pope visited the assassin in prison and forgave him for the attempt on his life.

Scroll down for video 

Sent packing: Mehmet Ali Agca, an assassin who tried to kill Pope John Paul II, is escorted by security to a waiting airplane in Rome three days after his request to meet Pope Francis was denied

Mehmet Ali Agca is bundled aboard an airplane at Rome’s Fiumicino airport by security last night to be sent home to his native Turkey

Agca left John Paul critically injured when he fired several shots at close range in St Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981. The 56-year-old spent 19 years in prison for the failed assassination attempt. His motive remains a mystery. His arrival prompted questions as to how he was able to land in Austria and cross the border into Italy as he is banned from visiting either country until 2016. It is the second time Vatican officials have denied Agca’s request for a face-to-face meeting with His Holiness.

Turkish assassin Mehmet Ali Agca, 56, put roses on the tomb of Pope John Paul II, who he tried to kill in 1981

Agca, 56, spent 19 years in prison for the failed assassination attempt, which he carried out when he was 23

The assassin left John Paul critically injured when he fired several shots at close range in St Peter’s Square

‘He has put flowers on the tomb of John Paul II. I think that is enough,’ Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told La Repubblica newspaper. Agca, once a member of a Turkish far right group known as the Grey Wolves, carried out the attack on John Paul after escaping from a Turkish prison where he was serving a life sentence for killing journalist Abdi Ipekci in 1979. During the assassination attempt, John Paul was left seriously injured, with one bullet passing through his abdomen and another narrowly missing his heart. During his 19 years imprisoned in Italy, Ali Agca converted to Christianity, and the Pope helped to pressure Italian authorities for his eventual release and deportation to Turkey in 2000. He then served an additional ten years in prison for the murder of Ipekci and other crimes. He was released from jail in 2010. When police seized Agca, they found a letter in his pocket which read: ‘I have killed the Pope so that the world may know of the thousands of victims of imperialism.’ A number of theories have been put forward about who was behind the assassination attempt.

A SECOND OF SILENCE… FOLLOWED BY CRIES OF HORROR

On May 13 1981 John Paul II was on his way to his regular weekly public audience – being driven in his white – and then unarmored popemobile, through a crowd of 20,000 worshipers. The Polish pontiff had been elected less than three years earlier. At 5.17pm, shots rang out and John Paul II slumped back in his seat after being struck by four bullets – two of which hit him in the stomach. After a second of silence, people in the square began to scream: ‘Hanno sparato il Papa! Hanno sparato il Papa!’ (They’ve shot the Pope). A minute or so later, police grabbed a man running from the scene – Mehmet Ali Agca. Following a five-hour operation, John Paul II went on to make a full recovery.

After a second of silence, people began to scream: ‘Hanno sparato il Papa!’ (‘They’ve shot the Pope!’)

It comes 31 years to the day the Pope visited the assassin in prison and forgave him for the attempt on his life

Following a five-hour operation, John Paul II went on to make a full recovery and forgave his would-be murderer

Agca was released from prison in Turkey in 2000 after serving the best part of three decades behind bars

An official inquiry blamed Soviet-sponsored assassins – who wanted the Pope dead because of his support for the democracy movement Solidarity. But in 2011 Polish communist leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who died this year aged 90, claimed Islamic fanatics sponsored the would-be assassination. ‘Radical Islam detested the pope and saw in him a leader of crusades,’ he told Poland’s ‘Jezus’ Catholic magazine.  

Vatican officials have denied Agca’s request for a face-to-face meeting with Pope Francis

Source: Daily Mail

SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY – Meditations / Mass Propers

SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY

This is the only day, within the Christmas Octave, which is not a Saint’s Feast. During the Octaves of the Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, the Church is so absorbed in the respective mysteries, that she puts off everything that could share her attention; whereas, during this of Christmas, there is only one day which does not celebrate the memory of some glorious Saint, and our Infant Jesus is surrounded by a choir of heroes who loved and served him. Thus, the Church, or, more correctly, God for God is the first author of the Cycle of the Year shows us how the Incarnate Word, who came to save mankind, desires to give mankind confidence by this his adorable familiarity. We have already shown that the Birth of our Lord took place on a Sunday, the Day on which, in the beginning of the world, God created Light. We shall find, later on, that his Resurrection, also, was on a Sunday. This the first day of creation, and the first of the week, was consecrated, by the old Pagans, to the Sun: with us Christians, it is most sacred and holy, on account of the two risings of our divine Sun of Justice his Birth and his Resurrection. Whilst the solemnity of Easter is always kept on a Sunday, that of Christmas falls, by turns, on each of the days of the week we have already had this difference explained to us by the Holy Fathers: but, the mystery of Jesus’ Birth is more aptly and strongly expressed, when its anniversary falls on a Sunday. Other years, when the coincidence does not happen, the Faithful will, at least, be led by their Christian instincts, to give especial honour to the Day, within the Octave, which falls on the Sunday. 

MASS

It was at Midnight, that the Lord delivered his people from bondage, by the Passage of his destroying Angel over the land of the Egyptians : so, also, was it in the still hour of midnight, that Jesus, the Angel of the Great Counsel, came down from his royal throne, bringing mercy to our earth. It is just, that whilst commemorating this second Passage, the Church should sing the praises of her Emmanuel, who comes, clad in his strength and beauty, to take possession of his Kingdom.

The Child that is born of Mary and is couched in the Crib at Bethlehem, raises his feeble voice to the Eternal Father, and calls him, My Father! He turns towards us, and calls us, My Brethren! We, consequently, when we speak to his Father, may call him, Our Father! This is the mystery of Adoption, revealed to us by the great event we are solemnising. All things are changed, both in heaven and on earth : God has not only one Son, he has many Sons ; hence forth, we stand before this our God, not merely creatures drawn out of nothing by his power, but Children that he fondly loves. Heaven is now, not only the throne of his sovereign Majesty, it is become our in heritance, in which we are joint-heirs with our Brother Jesus, the Son of Mary, Son of Eve, Son of Adam, according to his Human Nature, and (in the unity of Person) Son of God according to his Divine Nature. Let us turn our wondering and loving thoughts, first to this sweet Babe, that has brought us all these blessings, and then to the blessings themselves, to the dear inheritance made ours by Him. Let our mind be seized with astonishment at creatures having such a destiny! And then, let our heart pour out its thanks for the incomprehensible gift!

Gospel reflection

The passage of the Gospel selected for this Mass, though bearing on the Divine Infancy, yet gives us, and we may almost say prematurely, the terrible prophecy of Simeon regarding the dear Babe of Bethlehem. The heart of Mary that was overflowing with joy at the miraculous Birth of her Child is here made to feel the sword spoken of by the venerable Priest of the temple. Her Son, then, is to be but a sign that shall be contradicted! The mystery of man’s being adopted by God is to cost this Child of hers his life! We that are the Redeemed in his Blood, we may not yet dwell on the fatigues and the Passion and the Death of our Emmanuel; the time will come for that; at present, we are for bidden to think of Him other than the sweet Child that is born to us, and the source of all our happiness, by his having come among us. Let us catch up the words of Anna, who calls him the Redemption of Israel. Let our eye delight in the sight of the earth regenerated by the birth of its Saviour. Let us ad mire and study well this Jesus newly born among us, and adore, in humble love, the wisdom and grace that are in him. During the Offertory, the Church celebrates the wonderful renovation wrought in the world, a renovation which saved it from destruction. She sings the praises of the great God who came down into the poor Stable of Bethlehem, yet left not his eternal throne.

On this the sixth day since the Birth of our Emmanuel, let us consider how the Divine Infant lies in the Crib of a Stable, and is warmed by the breath of the Ox and the Ass, as Isaias had foretold: The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel hath not known me.1 Thus does the great God enter that world, which his own hands have created! The dwellings of men are refused him, for man has a hard heart for his God, and an indifference which is a real contempt. The only shelter he can find to be born in, is a Stable; and that necessitates his coming into the world in the company of poor dumb brutes.

At all events, these animals are his own work. When he created the irrational world of living things, he subjected it, as the inferior part of creation, to Man; and Man was to ennoble it, by referring it to the Creator. When Adam sinned, this subjection, this harmony, was broken. The Apostle teaches us, that the brute creation is not insensible to the degradation thus forced upon it by sinful Man. It obeys him with reluctance; it not unfrequently rebels against and deservedly punishes him; and on the Day of Judgment, it will take the side of its Creator, and avenge itself of that wickedness, of which Man has made it the unwilling instrument. In the mystery of his Birth, the Son of God visits this part of his creation; men refused to receive him, and he accepts the hospitality of the dwelling of brutes. It is from their dwelling that he begins the divine career of the Three-and-Thirty years. The first human beings he invites into the company of his blessed Mother and his dear St. Joseph, the first he admits into the Stable to see and adore himself, are Shepherds, who were busy watching their flocks, and whose simple hearts have not been corrupted by the atmosphere of cities. The Ox which, as we learn from Ezechiel 3 and St. John, 4 is one of the symbolic creatures standing round God’s throne is the figure of the sacrifices of the Old Law. The blood of oxen has flowed in tor rents upon the altar of the Temple: it was the imperfect and material offering prescribed to be made to God, until he should send the True Victim. The Infant Jesus, who lies in the Crib, is that Victim, and St. Paul tells us what he says to his Eternal Father: Sacrifices, and Oblations, and Holocausts for sin, thou wouldst not have, neither are they pleasing to thee; behold, I come The Prophet Zachary, foretelling the peaceful triumph of the Meek King, says that he will make his entry into Sion riding upon an Ass. We shall assist, further on in the year, at the accomplishment of this prophecy. Now that we are at Bethlehem, in our Christmas mystery, let us observe how the heavenly Father places his Divine Son between the instrument of his peaceful triumph, and the symbol of his Sacrifice on Calvary. Ah! Dear Jesus! Creator of heaven and earth how strange is this thy entrance into thine own world! The whole universe should have given thee a welcome of love and adoration and yet, what motionless indifference! Not one house to take thee in! Men buried in sleep! And when Mary had placed thee in the Crib, thy first sight was that of two poor animals, the slaves of him who proudly rejected thee! Yet, this sight did not displease thee for, thou dost not despise the work of thy hands. What afflicts thy loving Heart, is the presence of sin in our souls, the sight of that enemy of thine, which has so often caused thee to suffer. Oh! Hateful sin! We renounce it, and wish, dear Jesus, to acknowledge thee for our Lord and Master, as did the Ox and the Ass. We will unite in that hymn of praise, which creation is ever sending up to thee, by henceforth adding to it the homage of our adoration and gratitude; nay, we will lend speech to nature, and give it soul, and sanctify it, by referring all creatures to thy service.

The following Prose is the composition of Adam of Saint- Victor, and is one of the most mystical of the sequences in the Missals of the Middle-Ages. It will serve us as a further tribute of praise to the Divine Infant.

He that is the brightness of the Father, and his figure, taking to himself the likeness and nature of man, Gave fruitfulness to the Virgin, who became Mother, not by nature, but by his di vine power. The old Adam is at length made glad, and may sing a new canticle; And he that was a fugitive and captive, may now come before the world. Eve brought forth sadness to mankind ; Mary, the glad Virgin, brought forth the Fruit of Life. Neither did she thereby lose the treasure of virginity.

Hold a dew-wet crystal up to the sun; the spark glitters through, yet breaks not the crystal: so in the Birth of Jesus, it injured naught of the

Mother’s purity. Law and Nature stood wondering at that divine Birth, and reason was confounded. Yea, the Birth of Christ is an ineffable mystery so full of love, and so humble! Aaron’s sapless Branch yields leaf and flower and almond : so does the chaste Virgin her Child, the Son of God. Gedeon’s Fleece bears the dew from heaven; the creature bears the creature’s ransom the Creator. The Leaf and Flower, the Almond and the Dew, are mystic emblems of our Savior’s love. Jesus is the Leaf, that shades us; the sweet Flower, that regales us; the Almond- Nut, that feeds us; the Dew, that waters us with heavenly grace. Why is it, that the Virgin’s Delivery should be a stumbling-block to the Jews? Have they forgotten the dry Branch of Aaron, how it bore the Almonds t Let us once more contemplate the Almond-Nut; for, viewed in its true light, it is the mystic emblem of Him that is the Light. It unites in itself three things, and all three it gives to man : unction, light, and food. Jesus is the Almond-Nut. The rind is the cross and passion he endured in the Flesh: the shell is his Body his Flesh and Bones. The Divinity and the sweet ness of Jesus, which are sheathed within the Flesh, are figured by the kernel. Jesus is Light to the blind, and unction to the sick, and soothing to holy souls. O how sweet a Sacrament! He changes his Flesh that lies as hay in the manger, into the Wheat of the Elect. Give us, O Jesus! Whom thou now feedest with thyself under the Sacramental veils, to be satiated with the sight of thy holy Face in heaven. O Brightness of the Father, co-eternal with him! Take us hence to the joys of thy Father’s glory. Amen.

 We borrow from the Syrian Church the following stanzas of one of its Hymns, written by her sublime Poet, St. Ephrem, the Deacon of Edessa.

Hymn

By what name, O Lord Jesus! Shall we call Mary thy Mother? A Virgin? Yet, all eyes are on thee, her Son. Must we call her a Spouse 1 Yet, we know she was not such as men would call a Spouse. And now if thy Mother exceed the mind and understanding of all men; who shall think himself able to reach Thee, O Jesus Mary is thy Mother, if I think of her as she stands alone: if I think of her in what she has in common with other women, she is thy Sister. Yea, she was made thy Mother; and she is, too, thy Sister and thy Spouse, in the company of other holy women. How truly art thou thy Mother’s glory, who hast given her every kind of glory! She was thy Spouse, before thou camest into the world; and when thou didst come, she conceived thee in a supernatural way, and in the same did she give birth to thee, her self remaining a pure Virgin. Mary had the prerogatives of other mothers, without their humiliations. She conceived thee, but was a Virgin; she fed thee at her breasts, but was a Virgin. It was thy bidding, O Jesus! And at once, the purest Virgin was the perfect Mother. She carries thee in her arms, and refreshed with the lovely sight of her Jesus, she feels no weight. She gives thee food, for thou didst will to hunger; she gives thee drink, for thou didst will to thirst. And when she willed to press thee to her heart, thy love did temper down the burning fire of thine infinite perfection, that she might fondle thee and live.

The Liturgical Year – Dom Guéranger O.S.B.

SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF CHRISTMAS, OR THE SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE

Semi-Double / White Vestments

INTROIT –  Wisdom 18:14-15

Dum médium siléntium tenérent ómnia, et nox in suo cursu médium iter habéret, omnípotens sermo tuus, Dómine, de cælis a regálibus sédibus venit.

Ps. 92: 1.  Dóminus regnávit, decórem indútus est:  indútus est Dóminus fortitúdinem, et præcínxit se.

Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto. Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculórum. Amen.

Dum médium siléntium tenérent ómnia, et nox in suo cursu médium iter habéret, omnípotens sermo tuus, Dómine, de cælis a regálibus sédibus venit.

While all things were in quiet silence, and night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne.

Ps. 92: 1.  The Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel; the Lord hath put on his apparel, and girded himself about.

 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

While all things were in quiet silence, and night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne.

COLLECT

Almighty and everlasting God, vouchsafe, we beseech thee, to govern us in all our doings in the way of thy good pleasure: that we, faithfully serving thee in the Name of thy well-beloved Son, may worthily abound in all good works.  Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

Second Collect of the Octave of Nativity

Grant, we beseech thee, O Almighty God, that the new birth, in the flesh, of thine only-begotten Son, may deliver us whom slavery from of old doth keep under the yoke of sin.  Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

EPISTLE – Gal. 4: 1-7

The Lesson is taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians.

Brethren:  Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:  but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

GRADUAL – Ps. 44: 3, 1-2 

Thou art beautiful above the sons of men, grace is poured abroad in Thy lips.

My heart hath uttered a good word; I speak my works to the King. My tongue is the pen of a writer: that writeth swiftly.

ALLELUIA – Ps. 92:1

Alleluia, alleluia. 

The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded himself with might. Alleluia.

GOSPEL – Luke 2: 33-40

At that time:  Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.  And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.  And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.  And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.  And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

OFFERTORY – Ps. 92: 2-3

God hath stablished the round world, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is prepared from of old:  thou art from everlasting.

SECRET

Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God:  that these gifts which we offer in the sight of thy divine majesty, may obtain for us grace to serve thee in this life with all godliness, and bring us in the end to everlasting life.  Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

Second Secret Prayer of the Octave of Nativity

We beseech thee, O Lord, that by this new Birth of thine only-begotten Son thou wouldest vouchsafe to sanctify these our obliations: and to cleanse us from the defilement of all our iniquities.  Through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God…

PREFACE OF THE NATIVITY

It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places give thanks unto thee,  O Lord holy, Father almighty, everlasting God.  Because by the mystery of the Word made flesh, from thy brightness a new light hath arisen to shine upon the eyes of our souls, in order that, God becoming visible to us, we may be borne upward to the love of things invisible.  And therefore with the Angels and Archangels, with the Dominations and the Powers, with all the company of the heavenly throng, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name, evermore praising thee, and saying:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dóminus Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

COMMUNION – Matthew 2: 20

Take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel:  for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.

POSTCOMMUNION

Grant, O Lord, that by the operation of these thy mysteries, we may be cleansed from all our sins, and obtain that which we have asked according to thy will.  Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

Second Postcommunion of the Octave of Nativity

Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God:  that like as thy Son, born this day the Saviour of the world, hath been made the author of our heavenly birth; so he may bestow upon us the gift of everlasting life.  Who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.