The Virgin Mary, Mother of God

On the Octave Day of Christmas our thoughts go to the one whose “yes” allowed it all to happen. How well we know the story, which tells us of how the Archangel Gabriel was sent to Nazareth to a young virgin named Mary, addressing her as “full of grace,” and assuring her that there was nothing to fear, that she had been chosen by God to conceive and bear a Son. And when Mary questioned how such a thing should take place, the Archangel outlined for her the great plan of God, how she would be overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and would give birth to the Son who would be holy, the Son of the Most High God.

To all of that, Mary said “yes.” And it is in her “yes” to God that we find a treasury of truth – truths around which we form our devotion – because these truths about Mary speak impressively about her divine Son. So what are they?

First, the Church teaches us that Mary was immaculately conceived. At the instant of Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, she was, by the special grace of God, protected from the stain of original sin. Why would God do that? He did it because of the great destiny which was hers – that of being the Mother of God. It was her flesh which would give flesh to Jesus; it was her body which would be His tabernacle for nine months; therefore, it would be beyond possibility that the Mother of God should be stained with the sin of Adam, since God can endure no sin. This was taught implicitly and explicitly from the earliest days of the Church, and was confirmed and solemnly proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854, when he stated infallibly, “The most holy Virgin Mary was, in the first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

Second, the Church teaches us that Mary was impeccable. In other words, she committed no personal sin, and she was free from every moral imperfection. Certainly, she lived a human life. She was wife and mother, so had work to do and was subject to pain and tiredness; but she, like her son Jesus Christ, had nothing in her which led her to act against the perfect moral law of God. This formal teaching of the Church is deduced from the words of the archangel Gabriel, when he addressed her as being “full of grace,” since moral guilt could not be reconciled with being filled completely with God’s grace. Once again, this teaching is defined because of Mary’s relationship with her Son, and not through simple merit of her own. She did not sin because of a special grace and privilege given to her by God, because He had chosen her to bear the Incarnate Word.

Third, the Church teaches us that Mary was perpetually a virgin. Three states of virginity are professed in this teaching: Mary conceived her Son without a human Father; she gave birth to Jesus without violating her virginity; and she remained a virgin after our Lord was born, for the rest of her life. The virginal conception is contained in all the ancient creeds, which speak of “Jesus Christ… who was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary...” The biblical basis of this, of course, is the prophecy of Isaiah (“A virgin shall conceive and bear a son...”), and it is confirmed in St. Matthew’s Gospel, which quotes this directly from the prophecy of Isaiah. All the early Church Fathers confirm this teaching, and it was verified by the fifth general council of the Church, held at Constantinople in the year 553, where Mary was confirmed as being “perpetually virgin.” Certainly, the ancient theologians did not go into the physical details, but they speak in modest analogies, such as the “emergence of Christ from the sealed tomb,” his “going through closed doors,” the “penetration of light through glass,” the “going out of human thought from the mind.” The Church also teaches us that she remained a virgin after Christ was born. Her marriage to Joseph was not consummated physically, and so she bore no other children. From the fourth century on, such sayings as that of St. Augustine became common: “A virgin conceived, a virgin gave birth, and a virgin remained.”

All these truths about Mary go beyond her, to her Son Jesus Christ. All of them are true because of the one great truth of history: that Almighty God took human flesh upon Himself, and was born of this special woman, a virgin, chosen by God Himself, a virgin prepared for this task through her immaculate conception, a virgin preserved for this task through her impeccability, a virgin honoured for this task through her perpetual virginity, as a constant witness to the fact that it was her pure flesh which was given to the Incarnate Word. These truths are not simply esoteric theological statements. They are truths which impact history. They are truths which prepared for that ultimate moment of history when God entered personally into time and space.

It was at that time that Caesar Augustus, the master of the world, determined to issue an order for a census of the world which was ruled by Rome. To every outpost, to every corner, the order went out: every Roman subject must be enrolled in his own city. It certainly was not in the mind of Caesar Augustus that his imperial order was a part of God’s great plan that the Saviour of the world should be born of the chosen Virgin Mary in a little-known place called Bethlehem. But this order of Caesar Augustus – perhaps thought of by him only incidentally, and then ordered casually – meant that countless lives were interrupted as people gathered the necessary supplies for their various journeys. So it was that Joseph and Mary, visited by angels and touched by God, were traveling in eternity at the order of an earthly ruler. And because of that, how things were to change! In a dirty stable, Pure Love was born. The “Living Bread come down from heaven” was laid where animals had eaten. The ancestors of Joseph and Mary, the Jews, had worshipped the golden calf, and now the ox and the ass were bowing down before their God.

As Mary fulfilled the plan of God by conceiving and giving birth to Jesus Christ, so His passion began. He was born in a borrowed stable; He was buried in a borrowed tomb. The swaddling clothes which Mary wrapped around him when he was born looked forward to the grave-clothes which she would help to wrap around His lifeless body some thirty-three years later. The wooden manger in which His mother had laid him foreshadowed the wooden Cross from which she would receive His body into her arms.

And so in Christ, heaven came to earth, and it came through the Blessed Virgin Mother. God’s glory was announced to shepherds and to kings. And they came, as men and women have been coming ever since, to worship the Word Made Flesh.

Pope St. Sylvester I

St. Sylvester was born in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope St. Marcellinus. This took place during a brief time of peace for the Church, immediately preceding the persecutions of Diocletian. Sylvester was one of the clergy who survived the cruelties during the reign of terror which ensued, and eventually saw the triumph of Constantine in the year 312. Two years later he succeeded St. Melchiades as Bishop of Rome.

 
The Council of Nicaea was assembled during Pope St. Sylvester's pontificate, in the year 325. By that time he was advanced in years, and so was not able to attend personally. He sent legates to the Council, and because they were the Pope's personal representatives, their names appear first among the signatories of the Decrees, preceding the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. St. Sylvester was Pope for twenty-four years and eleven months, and he died in the year 335.

Be merciful to the people of thy flock, O Lord, eternal Shepherd of our souls: and keep us in thy continual protection at the intercession of Saint Sylvester, whom thou didst raise up to be shepherd of the whole Church; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: Mosaic in St. Mark's Basilica, Venice. 

Into our midst He came...

Into our human condition Christ came. Into our tragedies and our sicknesses and our confusions, into our every need, He came. He chose to become, really and entirely, very Man. He took our flesh and blood. He breathed our breath of life. He was, while He was here, a man with men. And so that we might not feel Him in His situation and condition to be above any of us, He actually chose to be below most of us, on a level with the most humble and helpless. He asked for no privilege as the Son of God. He went through all that man must endure. He had no desire to be spared any burden of our mortal state. As each thing came in the course of years, He accepted it. He hurried nothing. He waited until the years changed the baby into the child, and the child into the boy, and the boy into the man. He came to be among us, not as a passing vision, not as something strange, but to be “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.”

He accepted what was most universal in human experience, including pain and suffering. He was willing to be man. A simple, plain man was He, unknown, unhonoured in the world, “made like in all things unto his brethren.” He came because mankind is so precious in God’s sight. He died as we do, and in dying, so He died for each of us. 

And as He came for the good and the blessing of each of us, so He came for all those around us. He came for our friends and neighbours. He came for those whom we love, and for those whom we don’t especially like. He came for those from whom we are estranged and for those against whom we might have done some wrong. He was incarnate and He died, not only for those who hope that they are in His grace, and who live in His peace, but He came, too, for those who are misguided and blinded by the things of this world. He came for the outcast and the forsaken and foolish and for those who are in ignorance. He came for all sinners, for criminals, for those who seem to have no hope. He came for them all. He was “for a little while made lower than the angels.” He came to heal all of the unspeakable agonies that the multitudes have suffered from war and from disease and from every torture; He came to alleviate all that has been endured throughout the ages by those faithful departed whom we remember by name at the altar. For all of us He came.

It is a pretty season, this time of birth and guiding stars, this time of gifts and good feelings. But He came not to make it pretty. He came to make us whole.

Healing the Rift

"When 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…" and that Word took flesh untainted by sin from the Virgin chosen from the beginning of time. It was done for the healing of that tragic rift between God and Man.

God created all things to be in perfect unity. He made the universe as a reflection of His own divine order. He created Man in His own image, to be in perfect communion with Him. But through the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, disorder entered into the world, and perfect communion was broken. And ever since that time, there has been a tendency in the natural order of things for there to be disintegration, the breakdown of things, a crumbling. Sadly, what should be unnatural has become all too normal in the world around us, and within us, and even within the Church.

Christ founded the Church to be One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic – and so she is. But our sin has caused division, and that’s a clear contradiction to the Divine Will of our Lord. While there may well be an invisible spiritual communion deeper than we know, especially through the bonds of baptism, nonetheless there is to be a visible communion, too, because that is the Will of Christ, and the constant invitation from God is that we work and pray to build up both the spiritual and visible unity of Christ’s Body. It is this purpose – the building up of unity – which is outlined at the very beginning of the Apostolic Constitution, Anglicanorum coetibus. In fact, this stated purpose is sometimes glossed over in the search for the particulars of the Personal Ordinariates. People tend to look at the details of how they’re established, and of who can belong, of the liturgical use, and of who can be ordained – indeed, any number of other details.

But all that neglects the reason for Pope Benedict XVI’s great generosity, and that is to help bring about the prayer of Christ “that they all may be one.” It’s not accidental that the first three paragraphs of the Apostolic Constitution speak of the Church as “a people gathered into the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and that the Church was instituted by Christ as “a sacrament…of communion with God and of unity among all people,” and that this Church is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. Then, recognizing that there are “many elements of sanctification and of truth [which] are found outside her visible confines,” he says that these “are forces impelling towards Catholic unity.”

What had been broken, the Personal Ordinariates invite us to repair. The communion that has been impaired, we are asked to restore. The fellowship which has been strained, we are bidden to strengthen.

God’s Incarnate Love came into this world by Our Lady’s “yes,” and it would gladden her heart for her children to be one again. She, who stood beside the Cross and saw her Son in agony, would be comforted by us taking away this pain of separation. There are few things that touch a mother’s heart more, than to see her whole family together at one table. This is why we have been given the Apostolic Constitution: so that we can put division behind us, and join together with one voice and one heart in “that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel” to the whole world.

“Lord Jesus, make us one, as you and the Father are one.” Amen.

The Holy Innocents

In the midst of celebrating the incarnation of holy innocence, our joy is tempered by the remembrance of the deaths of the Holy Innocents. A wicked ruler ordering death much as he might order the destruction of an unwanted animal; terrified parents seeing their children's blood on the same streets where their families had walked for generations; brutalized children having their lives stolen scarcely after they had begun; a whole town maimed beyond recognition, all because the sin of Adam and Eve necessitated the birth of a Saviour.

We relate the slaughter of the Holy Innocents to the millions of children murdered through abortion -- and quite rightly so. But the horror of abortion is something that goes even beyond what happened on the streets of Bethlehem. The deaths of those little boys in Bethlehem afforded some safety to the Christ Child, because the sly Herod thought he had accomplished his purpose, and so the Holy Family was able to continue unmolested on its journey to the safety of Egypt. Those little boys, even in their suffering, had parents who did all they could to protect them from the violence descending upon them. Those little boys were named, and they were loved, and they were incorporated into God's family through the religious rites attended to by their mothers and fathers. The little boys of Bethlehem are remembered even today, and their deaths are able to be seen as being directly related to the mystery of the Holy Incarnation.

But the little victims of abortion... theirs is a holocaust that defies description. Not a single action of a single wicked ruler are their deaths; rather, their deaths are "a matter of choice" -- choices made by the very ones who should be protecting their innocent lives. These are not deaths being endured for any noble cause. These are deaths born of ignorance, of selfishness, of greed, of any number of the spoiled fruits of sin.

As we remember the deaths of the Holy Innocents, pray also for those who are being murdered in their holy innocence. And pray, too, that the twisted hearts which allow and encourage such unspeakable things might be changed.

O Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and nurslings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths: mortify and kill all vices in us; and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith, even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictured: "The Massacre of the Innocents"

by Giotto di Bondone, 1320

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

The cave of St. John on Patmos.

Our spiritual journey continues during this Octave of Christmas, as we travel from the Feast of young St. Stephen to the Feast of the aged St. John. And what a journey he made, being taken from tending his fishing nets by the Galilean sea to a cave of exile on the island of Patmos. In both places he was called by the Lord Jesus; first, to listen to the Divine Word so he could follow, and second, to record the Divine Word so those of us who have come later can also follow.

On one of our parish pilgrimages we went to Greece and Turkey, where we visited the cave in which St. John received the apocalyptic vision. As many holy places as I have visited, rarely have I been as affected as I was while standing in that place. There it was that the Risen Lord spoke to John with a power so overwhelming that a fissure was left overhead, dividing the rock into three pieces as a reminder that the Trinity had revealed the truth on that spot. Every place one looked, there was a reminder of John: the hollow in the rock where he rested his head when he grew so tired he could no longer stand upright; the sloping shelf on which the Revelation was recorded. It was all I could do to keep my shoes on my feet, so clearly was this "holy ground." It seemed as though the breath of history was held in that place, and that the apostle would at any moment appear once again to take up his pen to continue recording the living and awe-full word of the Lord. But of course, that could not be. It was there, in that cave, that the final word was spoken. What St. John heard there was the last word of truth. There is no more to be revealed; all we can pray for now is for our increased understanding of what Christ has spoken once for all. Here are the last words the Lord spoke to the last living apostle, written down with trembling hand:

"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let him who hears say, "Come." And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price. I warn every one who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if any one adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen.

Shed upon thy Church, we beseech thee, O Lord, the brightness of thy light; that we, being illumined by the teaching of thine apostle and evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that we may at length attain to the fullness of life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Feast of the Holy Family

The Feast of the Holy Family gives honour to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and it is an occasion when we remember the importance of every family. In fact, it is so essential in the Church’s understanding of herself that the family is known as the “domestic Church.” Parents have the great privilege and responsibility of raising up yet another generation of Catholics who will walk in the great “stream of faith” which has come from others, and they are given the grace to do this through the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. 

While parents have this as their primary obligation, every one of us – whether parents or grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, clergy, teachers, friends – has the responsibility of assisting in the solid Catholic upbringing of children. Christ Himself has given us this responsibility as members of His Body. 

Children need to be developed in virtue; they need to be formed in character. And as our children learn the virtues, so our families – and the Church – will be strengthened and will be that leaven which will help our society come to know God as He has revealed Himself to us. 

How do children learn these things? 

First, through the examples they see around them. What children witness in the lives of parents and grandparents, and in the other adults whom they admire, they will tend to imitate. 

Second, by repeated practice. We need to remind our children constantly to do the right thing, to the point that they know they can do the right thing because they have become accustomed to doing it. 

And finally, by word; that is, by what they hear coming from our own lips, and having those words match the actions they see in our lives. 

We do our children no favour when we allow them to control us; rather, we have an obligation to assert a godly control over them, guiding them and correcting them and forming them in the image of Christ. 

Let this Feast of the Holy Family be a reminder to us of our responsibility to exhibit a solid, holy Catholic life. We must impart good habits of mind, will, and heart to our children, and to do it through hard work and sacrifice each day, setting an example for them of what a Catholic life can be, when it is well lived. 

With God's assistance and with our own dedicated and sacrificial work, we can help our children to grow into great men and women, and that will lay the foundation for every family to become more like the Holy Family.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the prayers of the Blessed Mother and of St. Joseph, help us to do this. 

O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy wondrous holiness didst adorn a human home, and by thy subjection to Mary and Joseph didst consecrate the order of earthly families: grant that we, being enlightened by the example of their life with thee in thy Holy Family, and assisted by their prayers, may at last be joined with them in thine eternal fellowship; who livest and reignest with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,
the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

Dear Mary, his Mother, sang sweet lullabies,
as Jesus, awaking, gazed into her eyes.
The most holy Virgin, with loving caress
embraced the world’s Saviour with Love’s tenderness.

Good Joseph stood guarding the Mother and Child,
his soul filled with awe and his heart undefiled.
The birth of young Jesus made angels to sing,
but Joseph in silence kept watch o’er his King.

What once was a stable may our hearts become;
may God’s holy fam’ly in us find a home.
With Mary and Joseph and angels above
we worship the Infant, the gift of God’s Love.

Text: V.1, Traditional

Vv. 2-4, Fr. Christopher G. Phillips, 1995

Music: Cradle Song, William James Kirkpatrick, (1838-1921)

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Illustration: "The Nativity"

by Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973)

God With Us

God came when He was not expected. He was born where there was no room for Him. Before He was invited, He came in the most humble of ways. Before we called on Him, He called on us. Before we let Him into our hearts, God took us into His own heart, and gave us His Child.

This little One, whose birth we celebrate at this time, is the Saviour born for us, to save us from our sins, to deliver us from eternal death, to redeem us from the Law and the wrath of God. We deserve hell, yet God brings down heaven. We deserve fire and brimstone, yet God sends a baby.

“Do not be afraid,” says the angel. We look on this Child's face and see the face of God come down to save us. This Child would grow up. He would open the eyes of the blind man. He would open the ears of the deaf. He would cast out devils. He would still the storm and raise the dead. He would hang on a cross and die. See the lengths to which God will go to rescue us! He divests Himself of His glory. He removes His royal robes and exchanges them for diapers. He hides His power and His majesty under the weakness of an Infant in the manger, the Man on the cross.

But we should not be deceived by such weakness. This is the Christ, God's anointed One, His Messiah, the hand of God reaching down to us. He is the Lord, God wearing our flesh, come to be with us as God had never been with us before.

The shepherds heard the preaching of the angel. They heard the words of the angel's birth announcement and left their work and ran to Bethlehem worship at the manger.

We cannot turn back the years and go to Bethlehem as it was that night. But Bethlehem can, and does, come to us. The Church is our Lord's grotto, the place where He makes His dwelling in a world that has no place for Him. The Altar is His manger. The One who once slept in a manger, who hung on a cross, who rose from the dead, and sits at the Father's right hand from whence He came and will come again, comes to us under the outward forms of bread and wine. In Holy Communion we find Him, wrapped in the swaddling cloths of humility. And so every Mass where Jesus is proclaimed Saviour, Christ, and Lord, is Christmas - Christ's Mass.

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Painting: "The Nativity"

by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898)

Salvation is born!

Lest the fact of the Incarnation and the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ become something relegated to cards expressing the greetings of the season with stars and angels hovering over nothing, our Holy Mother the Church marks each day of of the year, including Christmas, with the offering of the Mass, making the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ a present reality.

The Child was born for that purpose. The wood of the cradle makes way for the wood of the cross. The infant in the arms of Mary is the Saviour reposed in her arms. The beginning of the Passion of our Lord was at the moment of His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Shepherds came to adore the Lamb of God, and the Magi brought gifts in preparation for the death and resurrection of the King of the universe.

Here is mysterium tremendum: salvation is born in the stable, salvation is born on the cross, salvation is born on our altars.

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Painting: "The Nativity"

by Arthur Hughes (1832-1915)

A Pure Reflection

The prophet Malachi spoke of “a refiner and a purifier of silver.” It was the Messiah to whom he was referring. “He shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver.” [Malachi 3:3]

The refiner of silver worked like this: he would sit before the furnace and hold a crucible above the fire, containing the impure mixture of silver and lead. Then, as the crucible was heated, the lead would crumble away, until the pure silver would begin to shine. And when the refiner could see his own reflection shining clearly in the silver, then he would know that the metal was pure, and needed no further refining.

When our Lord Jesus was born and when He looked at His mother’s face, the first recollection of His earthly life would have been His own face, shining, reflected in His Mother’s eyes, as the refiner of silver could see himself in the purity of the metal before him.

That’s what Jesus saw in Mary. He saw His own image, the image of God, shining and reflecting in her soul. He saw the reflection of His own love and holiness in her.

That’s what He looks for in us. Our sins are to be purged away. Our selfishness and our worldliness are to be refined away, as the lead is from silver, in the furnace of our contrition, until Christ sees His own face reflected in our hearts. He has promised that He will purify us, if we come to Him.

What Jesus saw in Mary, He looks for mystically in us, and He has made it possible through His saving work of redemption. As Mary bore the Incarnate Word within her, so we are afforded the privilege of bearing Christ within us. He was planted within us at baptism, and each time we receive Holy Communion, we bear Him within us in a marvelous way as we become living tabernacles for His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

St. John of Kanty

John Cantius was born in 1390 and grew up in Poland. He became a priest and began his ministry as a professor at the University of Krakow. He was in every way a good priest, and had a well-deserved reputation as an excellent teacher. 

He lived an austere life, eating no meat, sleeping on the floor, and getting little rest. Although John was very strict with himself, he was patient and kind to his students, who loved him in return. Unfortunately, this caused some jealousy amongst faculty members, who managed to have him removed from his position at the University.

John was sent by his bishop to do parish work, but he was completely inexperienced and ill-equipped for the duties of a parish priest. Although he exhibited his usual generosity and poured himself into the work, John was not successful in parish ministry.

Eventually he was able to return to the University to teach Scripture. Although a fine teacher, he was known even more for his holiness, and was recognized everywhere for his humility and remarkable generosity. He gave everything to those who were poor and kept only the clothes he most needed. When John died at age 83, people had already considered him to be a saint. He is the patron of Poland and Lithuania.

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God: that after the example of blessed John of Kanty, thy Confessor, we may so advance in the knowledge of the Saints, and likewise so learn to show mercy to all men; that by his merits we may be counted worthy to attain thy pardon; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

The Silent Word

The Scriptures refer often to silence. We read of the beauty of silence, and of how it pleases the Lord to receive from His faithful children the sacrifice of words unspoken and thoughts not expressed.

We see the greatest example of the meaning of silence in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the omnipotent Word of God, the very Word which brought the universe into being, and yet He came into the world as a child unable to speak. Indeed, there are no recorded words of His until He was twelve, and then silence descended again until His public ministry commenced.

There were times during His passion that our Lord’s silence spoke with a particular eloquence. Scripture tells us that when He was before Pontius Pilate, He made no answer to the accusations leveled against Him, nor did He speak a word while He was being mocked in Herod's court. But in those times of silence there was a strength communicated which ultimately would put to silence the cacophony calling for His death, until at the end there was but one voice remaining which proclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

One of the many things our Saviour teaches us is that we should challenge the habit of constant chatter and non-stop access to every word being said in every corner of the world. We should take time out from incessant talking with people and listening to the media. We need to provide for times and places of silence. We must "go apart" as Christ did on occasion, periodically leaving the crowded world that insists upon being seen and looked at, to be heard and listened to.

Of course, there are those with freedom to have solitude, but for some it is less easy. Different people are in different circumstances. Yet everyone should do whatever is possible to have at least some freedom from the oppressive noise that the world inflicts on us so that we can have times of quiet silence before God.

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Illustration: "The Light of Winter-time"

by Margaret Winifred Tarrant (1888-1959)

Away in a Manger

One of my earliest Christmas memories was learning to sing "Away in a manger" for a pageant. I must have been very young indeed, because I can remember it hadn't been too long since I had stopped sleeping in a crib, and because the carol said that our Lord had "no crib for his bed" I had the thought that we could probably give the one I had been using to the baby Jesus. It was a child's charitable thought which never worked out, but I've always loved the lullaby that inspired it.

Here's the traditional first verse, with three other verses I wrote several years ago.

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed,
the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

Dear Mary, his Mother, sang sweet lullabies,
as Jesus, awaking, gazed into her eyes.
The most holy Virgin, with loving caress
embraced the world’s Savior with Love’s tenderness.

Good Joseph stood guarding the Mother and Child,
his soul filled with awe and his heart undefiled.
The birth of young Jesus made angels to sing,
but Joseph in silence kept watch o’er his King.

What once was a stable may our hearts become;
may God’s holy fam’ly in us find a home.
With Mary and Joseph and angels above
we worship the Infant, the gift of God’s Love.

Text: V.1, Traditional,
vv. 2-4, Fr. Christopher G. Phillips, 1995

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Illustration by Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973)

Music; CRADLE SONG, William James Kirkpatrick, 1838-1921)

St. Peter Canisius, Secret Agent!

In the year 1565 the Vatican was looking for a secret agent. It was right after the Council of Trent and the pope wanted to get the decrees of the Council to all the European bishops. That would seem pretty simple to us today, but it was a very dangerous assignment in the sixteenth century. The first one who tried to carry the decrees through territory of hostile anti-Catholics was robbed and the documents were taken. This was a time when some people had rebelled against the Church, and they didn’t want the Church to succeed, so they did everything in their power to stop the decrees and documents from the Pope to reach any of the bishops. What to do? Rome needed someone courageous, but also somebody who wouldn’t be suspected of carrying important documents. They chose Peter Canisius. He was a well-known Jesuit priest who had founded several schools and colleges – in fact, he was such a respected educator, everyone admired him – even those who had left the Church. As he travelled, the reason he gave was that he was the official "visitor" of the various colleges he had founded – and he did visit them, so it was the truth. But among his belongings and books, he had hidden the Decrees from the Council of Trent, and as he would go through a particular area, he was able to distribute these important documents to the bishops.

Why did the Vatican choose St. Peter Canisius for this dangerous and important job? He had worked hard as a priest – and his work included not only founding educational institutions, but he was a very faithful pastor of souls. A terrible plague swept across Europe, and St. Peter Canisius, with no thought for his own safety, went among the sick and the dying, ministering to them and bringing them comfort – whether they were Catholic or not, they received encouragement and comfort from him. People never forgot his bravery and his kindness. He saw people who were ignorant of the Faith, and he knew that they were easily swayed by convincing speakers who were leading them into error, so he compiled a simple but effective catechism, and countless thousands of people were taught the truth and so were able to leave error behind. Because of the success and the need, Peter quickly produced two more versions: a Shorter Catechism for young students which concentrated on helping them choose good over evil by concentrating on a different virtue each day of the week; and a Shortest Catechism for young children which included prayers for morning and evening, for mealtimes, and for other times of the day, to get them used to praying.

This was a time of confusion, and in their frustration, very often priests would speak harshly to people who were weak in their faith. But St. Peter Canisius was known for his gentle and strong way of speaking. He really was a conduit of God’s love, and his quiet and polite speech won many people back to the Catholic faith. Although he worked throughout Europe, much of his work was centered in Germany, and he came to be known as a “second St. Boniface,” who was considered to be the Apostle of the Germans. Even near the end of his life, he continued his work, communicating with people through letters, and always keeping them in his prayers. St. Peter Canisius died on December 21, 1597.

O God, who didst strengthen Saint Peter Canisius, thy Confessor, for the defence of the Catholic faith: mercifully grant that by his example and teaching, the erring may be made wise unto salvation, and the faithful may stand fast in the confession of truth; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

A Promise Kept

Thus says the Lord: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.

- Micah 5:2

We’re accustomed to thinking of Advent as a time of preparation – preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and preparation for his return on the Last Day, when he will come to be our Judge. But Advent also is a time of fulfillment – a time when all the things that God promised throughout the ages, have actually come to pass. John the Baptist, as the Voice crying in the wilderness had been foretold, and then he came. Mary, the Mother of our Lord, had been foretold as the Virgin who would conceive and bear a Son, and so she did. Detail after detail was foretold in the Scriptures, and we see each one of them fulfilled, reminding us that when God promises, He always makes good on His promises.

The words of Micah tell of a promise made eight centuries before Christ’s birth. It was promised in a place called Judah, at a time which was very dark in the history of the Jews. Assyria had risen up as an overwhelming military and political power, and they had already successfully invaded the Northern Kingdom of Israel. They had destroyed families and had leveled towns, and had taken those who survived off into exile. The people of Judah were now living under this dark and menacing cloud; their homes and possessions were being destroyed; more and more of them were being killed. They thought they were on the brink of destruction.

But just when things were most bleak, God sent a prophet named Micah. He reminded the people of some very difficult things. He reminded them of how, as a nation, they had put their morals aside. He reminded them of how they had become luke-warm in their love for God, and had even begun to worship idols. He made them look at the consequences of these things they were doing – reminding them that their society had become so weak that it was easy for an enemy to overwhelm them. He asked them, “Why are you surprised?”

And yet, Micah didn’t stop with that message. He went on to remind them that God still loved them, and that there was real hope for the future. From Bethlehem would come forth a king, who would be ruler over all of Israel, and in him would be peace. Yes, the people would have to go into exile for a while; and yes, the days would still seem to be dark. But that glimmer of hope was held before their eyes; that tiny flame which would begin burning in the little town of Bethlehem would bring healing to the nation and salvation to the people. It was a promise made by God, and God always keeps His promises.

We need to keep that fact in mind: God always keeps His promises. As we see our own nation setting morality aside; as we witness arrogance in our leaders and selfishness in so many of our people and an increasing sense of the cheapness of human life, we need to remember that God does keep His promises. Although it is possible for a nation, as a nation, to lose God’s blessing, He still loves each person within that nation. And that promise of God’s love for us helps us get the attention away from our problems, so that, rather than concentrating on our disappointments, it can actually refine our faith, and give us hope as we remember what God has done.

No matter what difficulty we face – whether it be the troubles we face as a nation, or the difficulties we might have in our personal lives, God doesn’t forget us. He remembers us, He hears our prayers, and He responds in his perfect timing, just as He answered the long years of prayer by Zechariah and Elizabeth for a child when they were in their old age; and as He blessed the young Virgin Mary for her unwavering trust and obedience, when He showed his great love for us in the fact of the Incarnation, that statement of God’s amazing love, a love so great that He sent His only Son to earth, to be one of us, to fulfill the promise given through the archangel Gabriel, that He would save us from our sins.

No, God doesn’t forget us. He is working out His perfect plan on His own timetable. And this is a message we need to hear and take to heart. Even in the times of darkness or despair; in our times of struggle to have hope — we need to trust that God is working out a new and better future for us, and that His love will never give up on us. Because we are God’s people, we are a people of hope and love. In being touched by God’s love we can love others; in remembering God’s mercy to His children in the past, we can trust that there is hope for us too. Just as Micah promised a coming king of Israel who would “be great to the ends of the earth;” so we, like the people of Judah, need to embrace this King, who is Christ our Lord.

That is what Advent involves: patiently waiting for God, knowing that He always keeps His promises. This is the Advent message of hope and expectation: that God’s love is given to every single one of us. It doesn’t matter how old or young we are. It doesn’t matter what our situation is, God has come to give us hope, and He asks us to live in faith. He asks us to believe in His promises, even though we might not have all the details. Zechariah and Elizabeth didn’t have all the details, and yet they believed. Joseph and Mary certainly didn’t have all the details, and yet they faithfully obeyed God. This wasn’t just blind faith. They believed God because of the evidence of history. God had always kept His promises to His people, and there was no reason for them to think He would stop. And this is the faith God asks of us – not a blind faith, but a faith based on the evidence of what God has already done.

As Elizabeth said to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” There is always a blessing for us when we listen to the promises of God, and actually believe them. During the few days left in Advent, spend them preparing for the great Solemnity which is coming, the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And remember that He is the Promised One – the One who keeps His promises – the One foretold by the prophets, the One born of the Virgin Mary, and the One who comes to us today.

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Illustration by Margaret Tarrant (1888-1959)