Catholic Fire

"Jesus rises to glorify the Father and to save us. The mystery of the Resurrection is therefore for us; it is our mystery, it is our glory, it is our burning fire of love, it is our light." ~ Fr. Marie - Dominique Philippe, OP, priest, professor, philosopher, founder of the Community of St. John

Each year Christmas is for us a feast of unity with the Father, of unity with the Holy Spirit, and of unity with the Word Made Flesh. It is this presence of her child, her God, that took hold of Mary and plunged her into an immense thanksgiving, for God was accomplishing marvels in her in giving Himself completely to her, as a little child is completely given and completely relative to His mother. Mary is mother in a stronger and more profound way than all other mothers (this is the summit of maternity), in the sense that her son, her little child, is given to her by the Holy Spirit and resembles her in a unique way. He is all hers, and He gives her the light which allows her to gaze upon Him, to contemplate Him, and to be wholly absorbed by His presence and by His silence. Let us ask Mary that we, too, be absorbed by this presence and this silence that we belong wholly to Jesus and that this feast of the Nativity be a great grace for us, a new starting point in our complete gift to H...

Luke 2: 1 - 14 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great jo...

Fourth Sunday of Advent Today's Mass Readings Advent Meditation with Video Today is Day Eight of the Christmas Novena. On This Day in Catholic History 1988 - Pope John Paul II met with Yasser Arafat at the Vatican. The pontiff told the PLO leader he believed Palestinians and Jews had "an identical fundamental right" to their own countries but that both must reject violence, including terrorism and reprisals. Birthdays 1582 - Severo Bonini , an Italian composer, organist and Benedictine monk, (d. 1663) 1935 - Paul Hornung , American football player (Notre Dame) 1938 - Bob Kahn , American Internet pioneer 1971 - Steve Stenstrom , American football quarterback

Gospel: Matthew 1:18 - 24 When the angel says, "For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit", he is underlining the fact that she obeyed the will of God, and that her relationship with Joseph remains the same. It is not she who chose to be Mother of God -- God chose this for her, and she accepted it. The angel, therefore, allows Joseph to receive Mary and to love her in a new way but which is nonetheless in continuity with His first love for her.... "She shall bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus." Each of these words from the angel carries weight and allows us to understand the role that God is giving to Joseph. Naming a new-born child is something that comes under the authority of the father, and in doing this the father acts as God's instrument; for, to name a tiny child is surely to point him already in a certain direction. And we are told how Joseph is to name the child: "You shall call His name, Jesus, for it is He who shal...

Gospel Luke 1:46 - 56 Throughout her whole life Mary lived in an attitude of gratefulness and thanksgiving. Her Magnificat burst forth in the presence of Elizabeth, but it was ever present in her soul. Mary lived in such poverty that she always recognized God's free gift of love for her. If we were poorer, if we had a greater sense of our littleness, of our poverty, and if we recognized that everything is free, that the Lord has given everything to us, then we would more often be in an attitude of gratefulness. We would always look at Jesus, thanking Him for being there, for loving us, and for gathering us into His love. We should always be thanking Jesus, thanking Mary for protecting us and for keeping us faithful to responding to His love. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us this attitude of thanksgiving with Mary, our Mother, so that with her, we can always sing our Magnificat. ~ ~ From the Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe, OP (Priest, Philosophy Professor, Founder of t...

Video: O' Antiphons~December 20 via EJGcatholi at Love To Be Catholic . Thursday of the Third Week of Advent Today is the fourth of the O Antiphons. O sublime majesty of the coming Redeemer! To Him has been delivered the key, the government of the house of David (Is 22:22). Boundless is His power over the graces and privileges of the Church, over the souls and hearts and the wills of men. He holds the destiny of the Church in the palm of His hand. He is Master of the storms that arise to destroy the Church and the souls committed to her. He is capable of dealing with the false principles and the errors that threaten her doctrines. He has overcome the devil and his associates, the world, the flesh and its tribulations. To Him all power is given (Matt. 28:18). "He shall open and none shall shut" (Is 22:22). Against the power that is His all other forces are powerless. The destiny of souls and the government of the Church are placed in His hand. He is the Lord of all. O Key...

Gospel: Lk 1:26 - 38 When the angel speaks to Mary, she is "greatly troubled", anxious, but this is so she may receive these words with a totally new heart ... to be as little as possible before the Father, before the Will of the Father for her. She doesn't argue, Mary must teach us this littleness. To perfectly observe all the rules is fine, but we want to have the heart of a child, instead of seeking and measuring our perfection. Our perfection is not so much! We must be like little children, always starting afresh, and live by the Word of God. God's Word allows us to be truly children of God totally docile to what He is expecting from us. Let us consider the docility of the Virgin Mary: she does not look at her perfection. It is very beautiful to see the Holy Virgin as a very little child before the Father, with only one desire: to fulfill perfectly what the Father requires from her and not her own project. Mary has no project: she is too poor, too little, ...

Via EJGcatholi at Love To Be Catholic. Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent Today's Mass Readings Advent Meditation: The Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe, O.P. Today is Day Four of the Christmas Novena. On This Day in Catholic History 401 - Pope Anastasius I died. American History Highlight 1998 - President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. Birthdays 1933 - Cicely Tyson , Award - wining American actress ( Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), The Rosa Parks Story (2002) (TV), The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) (TV), "Roots" (1977) 1944 - Tim Reid , American actor ( WKRP in Cincinnati ) 1944 - Zal Yanovsky , Canadian guitarist ( The Lovin' Spoonful ) (d. 2002 ) 1956 - Tom Lawless , baseball player 1957 - Kevin McHale , American basketball player 1972 - Alyssa Milano , American actress ( Who's the Boss? ) 1974 - Jake Plummer , American football player

Gospel: LK 1: 5 - 25 Today we are reminded of the annunciation made to Zechariah. Zechariah is too concerned with the accomplishment of the Word of God; he is not contemplative enough. Zechariah doubts and in doing so wants to rely on the accomplishment of the promise. We do this so easily. We have such a hard time remaining in the divine light of God's Word. We want to see results right away so we can confirm what we've understood. The results become our security, and we are no longer fully confident in God's Word. And so we lose the grace of contemplation; we withdraw into what is connatural to our human knowledge. This is what Zechariah does. He wants to be sure, certain. he doesn't have a faith that is loving enough. God loves him and wants to make him a contemplative, and so He punishes him. Zechariah becomes mute -- he can no longer argue to reflect on or to analyze what the angel has said. He must fully adhere to the mystery in absolute purity and truth. And beho...

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent Today is the second of the O Antiphons, O Adonai (O Almighty God). As Moses approached the burning bush, so we approach the divine Savior in the form of a child in the crib, or in the form of the consecrated host, and falling down we adore Him. "Put off the shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground . . . I am who am." "Come with an outstretched arm to redeem us." This is the cry of the Church for the second coming of Christ on the last day. The return of the Savior brings us plentiful redemption. Today's Mass Readings Today's Advent Meditation with Fr. Philippe Today is Day Three of the Christmas Novena. On This Day in Catholic History 1431 The Council of Florence (Basel) was declared dissolved by Pope Eugenius IV because of anti-papacy statements. It continued, however, at various times and in various locations through 1445. Birthdays 1886 - Ty Cobb , American baseball player (d. 1961) 1888...

Gospel: Mt 1: 18 - 25 God did not push Joseph aside, but he did test his heart to see how far his magnanimity would go, just how far he would be faithful. Being ready to start over from scratch requires a radical purification - being ready to say to God that we are ready to do His will as He Himself wants it to be done and not according to our little plans. Joseph had already made plans when he met Mary. With his human prudence in the depths of his heart, did he not dream of something great and wonderful? It was necessary for all of this to be swept away in order for him to be poor. It is not possible to be the husband of Mary and the father of Jesus except in great poverty. Joseph's heart was broken, but there was no revolt against God within him. With a great spirit of poverty he accepted all that he had been left out. Joseph accepted it all because he believed in the will of the Father was greater than anything else. Here we touch on the depth of Joseph's soul: in...

Video via Love To be Catholic. Today's Liturgy: Monday of the Third Week of Advent Today we begin the O Antiphons, the seven jewels of our liturgy, dating back to the fourth century, one for each day until Christmas Eve. These antiphons address Christ with seven magnificent Messianic titles, based on the Old Testament prophecies and types of Christ. Today's Mass Readings Today's Advent Meditation with Fr. Philippe Today is Day Two of the Christmas Novena. On This Day in Catholic History 1187 Pope Gregory VIII died (b. ca. 1100). 1999 Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) told an international symposium, “Today, on the eve of the Great Jubilee, I feel the need to express deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus.” Birthdays 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier , American poet and abolitionist (d. 1892) 1894 - Arthur Fiedler , American conductor (d. 1979) 1937 - Art Neville, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, vocalist, Neville Brothers 1953 - Barry Livingston , an American acto...

Gospel Mt. 1: 1 - 17 To make us better understand the desire of the people of God, the Church gives us this Gospel of the generations that are awaiting the Messiah. All the people of Israel, starting with Abraham, are waiting for the Messiah. "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day: he saw it and was glad. (John 8:56) This is the first Magnificat of Abraham's heart. This great expectation from Abraham all the way to Joseph and Mary, makes us understand divine preparation. In this genealogy, there were moments that were not directly under the breath of the Holy Spirit, there were some serious mistakes. Mary, however, is immaculate ... Mary, together with Joseph, carries the great desire of these successive generations. Fourteen, fourteen, fourteen: a symbolical number to show the fullness of this expectation, to show us how all the people of Israel are carrying and representing all the desires of mankind and presenting them to the Messiah. How great and wonderful it i...

Gospel Mt. 11: 2 - 11 John the Baptist's presence is wonderful for Elizabeth, for Zechariah, for all those who will follow John the Baptist and who will love him. But his presence is very awkward for the Sanhedrin, for the high priests, for the Pharisees and for all those who await a glorious Messiah. A glorious Messiah would not have chosen someone like John the Baptist as a forerunner! John the Baptist is the child of poverty, the child of the silence, the child of trust, the child of gratuity, he is the child of the desert. A John the Baptist can only announce the mystery of the Lamb, that is to say the mystery of the one who takes the place of sinners, who carries the whole of humanity. Zechariah's canticle will announce the great deliverance, but a deliverance that takes place in the interiority of love, that takes place in the divine light of truth and that completely excludes all triumphalism. ~ From the Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe, OP (Priest, Philosophy Professo...

Gospel Mt. 11: 16 - 18 Christ will return in glory. He will return victorious, carrying the insights of victory, and we will have only to greet Him as the One who is victorious. And yet it is difficult to to receive the victory of Christ! To receive Christ's victory is to receive the mystery of the Cross fully transformed by glory. The pride of today's humanity -- and we belong to this humanity, therefore we know this pride well -- is such that therefore we would like for man to be the victor! The "good" men, the Pharisees of all times, want it to be themselves who hold the victory, and not Jesus. Actually this is what lies behind the fact of not awaiting Jesus Christ's return: we don't want it to be Him, but rather the Pharisees of every era, those who claim to be good and believe themselves capable of of saving men ("If I were given power, I would be able to save men"), when this is not the case at all .... Today's culture is not seekin...

Memorial of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr St. Lucy is Patron: against hemorrhages; authors; blind people; blindness; cutlers; dysentery; eye disease; eye problems; glaziers; hemorrhages; laborers; martyrs; peasants; Perugia, Italy; saddlers; salesmen; stained glass workers; Syracuse, Sicily; throat infections; writers. Today's Mass Readings Advent Meditation: The Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe, O.P. On This Day in Catholic History 1124 Pope Callixtus II , whose pontificate was shaped by the Investiture Controversy over who would control the appointment of church officials, died. 1294 After issuing a constitution giving popes the right to quit, Pope Celestine V (ca. 1215–1296) shocked the world by resigning. 1521 - Pope Sixtus V was born (d. 27 August 1590) 1545 The Council of Trent began. Birthdays 1816 - Ernst Werner von Siemens , German engineer, inventor, and industrialist (d. 1892) 1818 - Mary Todd Lincoln , First Lady of the United States (d. 1882) 1887 - Alvin York , Amer...

Gospel: Mt. 11: 11 - 15 John the Baptist is the one who announces, who proclaims. He is the one who wants to awaken his people. Advent is marked by Mary's silence, and this silence is striking. But in order to recognize their Savior, the people people of Israel will need to be awakened by a John the Baptist. In a similar way, the people of God today also need witnesses who proclaim that God is completely given to us. In this gift He manifests just how much He loves us and desires to be close to us and present among us. During this time of Advent, we need to be awakened in our faith, in our hope and in our charity. John the Baptist shakes those who are falling asleep. He shakes believers who no longer have enough faith to stay awake. Through John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit wants to remind us that this time preceding Christmas is a time of mercy, so that we might be ready to welcome the Son of God, this little child who is our God, our Creator, and our Savior. May we welco...

Gospel Luke 1: 39 -45 The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is truly Mary who shows her presence. This enables us to understand that in our Christian life, Christ's presence and Mary's presence are primary and come before any spoken words. A mother is a silent presence, a presence that will help her children sleep peacefully, trustingly...a presence of love, of warmth for the heart, so that we might truly be in her hands, asking her to carry us and to teach us this evangelical way of littleness, which will allow us to obey just as a child obeys his mother. ~ From The Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe , O.P., Priest, Philosophy Professor, Founder of the Community of St. John

Image: Beautiful Snow in Backyard Yes, it snowed here over the weekend and it actually stuck to the ground. Snow is beautiful, especially when you're sitting in front of the fireplace inside, staying warm. Monday of the Second Week of Advent Old Calendar: St. Melchiades, pope and martyr Today's Mass Readings Today's Advent Meditation: The Daily Gospel with Fr. Philippe, O.P. On This Day in Catholic History 1968 Thomas Merton (b. 31 January 1915), French-born American Trappist monk, died by accidental electrocution while attending a conference of Buddhist and Catholic monks in Bangkok, Thailand. Birthdays 1830 - Emily Dickinson , American poet (d. 1886) 1911 - Chet Huntley , American journalist (d. 1974) 1914 - Dorothy Lamour , American actress (d. 1996)