One of Us Yet Mother of God: 8th Day of Christmas

One of Us

We must start with the fact that Mary was one of us, fully human. As Charles Dickens says in the opening lines of A Christmas Carol:* “This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”  Just as Marley’s death is an essential element in Dickens’ tale, the Incarnation’s meaning for mankind is directly connected to the Blessed Mother’s humanity. After all, if Christ isn’t born of a human woman, He’s not fully human himself. How else can He die and redeem humankind? Mary is the guarantor that Jesus, while He truly is God, is truly one of us.

Virgin and Child, by Jacopo Bellini, 1465

We celebrate that wonderful yet confounding reality today. The World knows today, the Eighth Day of Christmas, as New Year’s Day. In the Church it is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the final day in the Octave of Christmas.  The secular observance celebrates no more than another turning of a calendar page, but in the Church we look at time with an eye on eternity. The Nativity of Christ turns around all of human history. That’s why we eventually adopted the BC/AD arrangement of the centuries with its mirror-image numbering of years. The Nativity is at the center of time.  Jesus’s mother, Mary, plays an essential part in that unique and astonishing event.

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Last year’s post for the Solemnity of Mary-

8th Day of Christmas – The Scandal of Mary, Mother of God and Marian Medley

The Holy Family and the Crisis of Our Family: 7th Day of Christmas

Holy Family 

The Holy Family, whose feast we celebrate today, commemorates the Holiest Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But, as always, there’s more to it. The name of the feast also reminds us that “the family” in general, composed of father, mother, and children, is itself “holy.” It is, in fact, a gift of God.  

St. Paul underscores the sanctity of the family, qua family, in his letter to the Ephesians: 

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

Alarming Trends 

Today’s feast, much like the Solemnity of Christ the King, is a fairly new addition to the liturgical calendar. Devotion to the Holy Family had been growing for some time. The formal feast did not join the ranks of official observances until 1921. Pope Pius XI established it in response to increasing threats to the integrity of the traditional family.  

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

The Flight into Egypt, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1647-1650

The trends that already looked alarming a century ago have now grown and metastasized in ways that would have astounded our great-grandparents. The family in its traditional configuration is tottering under open and sustained attack . . .

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The Paradox of Christmas and St. Thomas Becket: 5th Day of Christmas

St. Thomas Becket, Christmas Martyr

Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, met a violent end on this date in the year 1170. Knights loyal to Becket’s former patron and friend, Henry II of England, burst into his cathedral. There they murdered the archbishop as he was celebrating Vespers. And so the 5th Day of Christmas (oh yes, Merry Christmas!) is also the feast of St. Thomas Becket, bishop and martyr.

Peter O’Toole as King Henry II (l) and Richard Burton as Thomas Becket (r) in the 1964 film Becket

       It’s striking how many martyrs’ feast days we observe during the Christmas season: St. Stephen on the 2nd Day of Christmas, The Holy Innocents yesterday; on Christmas Day itself the Church used to celebrate a second mass, not for the Nativity, but for the martyr St. Anastasia.  Today’s martyr has attracted the attention of numerous authors over the years . . .

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The Beloved Disciple at the Foot of the Cross: 3rd Day of Christmas

St. John the Evangelist

The Beloved Disciple, St. John the Evangelist, stands for all of us at the foot of the Cross:

So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:25-27)

The Beloved Disciple

St. John the Evangelist, by Alessandro Turchi, 17th Century

May God bless you on this 3^rd Day of Christmas!  Today we observe the Feast of St. John the Evangelist. He is author not only of one of the Gospels, but (possibly) also three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. Sacred artists have traditionally depicted St. John as an eagle. He appears as a great bird because he “soars” to greater heights, theologically speaking, than the other Evangelists.  He also carries the name “The Beloved Disciple” because in his Gospel he often refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

   Many people have wondered over the centuries why John makes such a point of depicting himself as The Beloved Disciple.  On one level, of course, it must reflect his lived experience . . .

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St. Stephen and Good King Wenceslas: 2nd Day of Christmas

Good King Wenceslas on the Feast of Stephen

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Soft and crisp and even  

Merry 6^th Day of Christmas! The Christmas Season abounds with all nature of celebrations and observances. We might be surprised that a large number of those observances involve martyrs. Even the joyous celebration of Christmas itself, as we saw yesterday, is also the feast of the martyr St. Anastasia. And we see the same thing today. The very first day after we celebrate the birth of our savior we commemorate the death of his first martyr, St. Stephen.

See also – St. Stephen and the Incarnation: 2nd Day of Christmas

We read the story of his martyrdom in the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 6-7). We also know St. Stephen’s name from the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas.”  The song does not actually tell us anything about Stephen himself. It instead describes how Good King Wenceslas goes out on the saint’s day, in an act of Christian charity. His mission is to share his Christmas bounty with a lonely and poverty-stricken old peasant.  

A Christian King

Whether or not the incident recounted in the song ever happened, Wenceslas himself really lived and reigned . . .

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Merry Christmas (and Feast of St. Anastasia)!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas on this Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord! Scripture tells us:

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:9-14)

    Merry Christmas on this joyful, blessed, Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord!  What a wonderful time, amidst the fears and anxieties of this world, to remember the words of the Angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem.

Merry Christmas! December 25th is also the Feast of St. Anastasia of Sirmium

Today is also a good day to remember St. Anastasia, and say a little prayer, at least, asking for her intercession.

Saint Who?

     You may wonder, why St. Anastasia? (you may, in fact, wonder who is St. Anastasia)? Why should we remember her in particular in the midst of one of the greatest and most joyful feasts in the liturgical year, the celebration of the birth of Christ himself?

     The short answer is that the Church itself has done the same throughout most of its history. . .

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The Christmas Conversion of St. Thérèse

Stories of Conversion

The Christmas conversion of St.Thérèse may surprise us. Certainly, in the lives of the Saints we can find some amazing stories of conversion. The Risen Lord literally knocking his persecutor Saul to ground, for instance, and blinding him. Of course, it was all in order to raise him up as St. Paul. Then there’s the rich and spoiled son of an Italian cloth merchant who needed a year in a dungeon as a POW followed by a near fatal illness before he cast off self-indulgence to become St. Francis of Assisi. The vain (vaingloriohttps://spesdomino.org/2023/12/24/the-christmas-conversion-of-st-therese/#musicus, in fact) Spanish nobleman who had his leg nearly shot off with a cannonball, and then went through months of excruciating recovery, before he could begin to see God in All Things as St. Ignatius of Loyola.  

How startlingly different, and yet how strikingly the same, is the conversion of the little French girl Thérèse Martin, now St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus . . .

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The Christmas Conversion of St. Thérèse

Music for Advent:

Music for Advent: “O Come O Come Emmanuel” sung by the Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph

    

4th Sunday of Advent:

From Small Beginnings: the 4th Sunday of Advent

Even Little Saints See the Face of God

Little Saints

“. . . but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” And he laid his hands on them and went away.” (Matthew 19:14)

Antique St. Servulus Holy Card

One understandable drawback to the great liturgical feasts, such as the magnificent celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord at Christmas, is that we can overlook lesser observances in all the excitement. For instance, today (December 23rd) is the memorial of St. Servulus. He is worth remembering for his own sake, but his life also gives us some very fruitful matter for meditation on the penultimate day of Advent, as we prepare for Christmas itself. Let’s take a look at the story of St. Servulus. Here’s Butler’s Lives of the Saints (an account based on a homily by St. Gregory the Great):

St. Servulus

December 23.—ST. SERVULUS was a beggar, and had been so afflicted with palsy from his infancy that he was never able to stand, sit upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn himself from one side to another. His mother and brother carried him into the porch of St. Clement’s Church at Rome, where he lived on the alms of those that passed by . . .

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Even Little Saints See the Face of God

Wonder at the Incarnation: O Magnum Mysterium

Wonder at the Incarnation 

“O Magnum Mysterium” is an ancient responsorial song expressing our wonder at the Incarnation, that the Savior of the Universe should come into our world in a stable with animals as his witnesses:

O magnum mysterium,

et admirabile sacramentum,

ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,

iacentem in praesepio!

O great mystery,

and wonderful sacrament,

that animals should see the new-born Lord,

lying in a manger!

A wonder indeed.  I’ve often thought that, however amazing it is that God could create this immeasurable universe, there’s something much more astounding: He chose to become one of us, to join us here in this little corner of His universe . . .

Click below to read the entire article and hear “O Magnum Mysterium”:

Wonder at the Incarnation: O Magnum Mysterium

Keep Your Eye on the Ball: 3rd Sunday of Advent

3rd Sunday of Advent

Keep your eye on the ball: the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, is here.

Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-28)

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

photo by Nick Wass/Associated Press

     “Keep your eye on the ball” is a well-known sports expression.  It finds its origin in baseball, where keeping your focus on that little horsehide-covered sphere is essential not only to getting on base, but also to successfully fielding your position.  If you get distracted by something happening in the stands, or by an interesting looking bird flying by, the next thing to fly by might be a soft line drive just over your head.  It could cost your team the game . . . and cost you a place in the starting lineup.  The expression has come to take on a wider meaning, as evocative images frequently do.  We commonly use it today in any situation in which we are reminding someone to focus on the essentials and not get distracted.

     We can think of the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, as serving a similar purpose . . .

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Gaudete, by the mixed chamber choir of the Emanuel University in Oradea, Romania