Christmas
is usually a special time for families to get together. The first
Christmas, however, was not a holiday for the family of Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph. It was many a perilous journey. Today, the Gospel recounts
to us how the Holy Family was a family always on the move! Jesus, Mary,
and Joseph made three kinds of journey during the first Christmas season. The first journey was as subjects of a colonial ruler.

The
second was as fugitives of an insane king. The third was as returnees
from an exile. Theirs were journeys we never want to make. The first
Christmas season was not a holiday. It was a holy day instead. The
humility, the faith, and the obedience of the Holy Family made the
first Christmas season a holy day. The Christmas season is a holiday
because it is a holy day. This is both a gift and a mandate to us.

Christmas is holiday for us because Jesus, Mary, and Joseph made it a holy
day by their humility to obey despite knowing their exalted status, by
their faith in God who protects those who trust in Him, and by their
obedience to God who instructed them to return to Nazareth where Jesus
grew up and came to be known as the Nazorean.

Christmas is our mandate as well. Knowing how Christmas
became a holiday should motivate us to make the spirit of the season
overflow to all the days of the year. We are called to make every day a
holy day. Like Jesus, Mary, and Joseph let us exercise humility, faith,
and obedience. Christmas can then be our gift to every man and woman we meet as well. The Feast of the Holy Family teaches us that Christmas
is both a gift and a mandate. And as a gift and a mandate, it is the
love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph for God and for one another that united
these two dimensions of the Christmas season. Without love, Christmas
can never be both a gift and a mandate. Without love, humility, faith,
and obedience are not possible. Only with
love can we make each day a holiday. It is love that makes our reunions
during this season and at anytime of the year truly worth the journey. Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Christmas is both a gift and a mandate.

Eternal
God, You are our Loving Father and the source of every family on earth.
Help us to live like the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Teach
us humility. Grant us faith. Help us to obey. Amen.

Blessed John Alcober, martyr, pray for us.

Jesus
was presented to God. He was presented to His Father. He was Joseph’s
and Mary’s first-born Son. First-born sons, according to the Law of
Moses, must be consecrated to Yahweh. First-born sons belong especially
to God; hence, parents offer a prescribed sacrifice to buy back from
God their first-born sons.

A
first-born opens his mother’s womb. The Jews believe that a barren
womb is an accursed womb. Life is God’s greatest blessing; life
belongs to God, no one can cause it, no one can take it away, no one
except God. God is the Father of Jesus, but He is our Father, too.
Jesus, according to the Pauline epistles,
is the first-born among the dead. God, our Father, bought us back from
sin and death. Jesus, His own Son, was the price He had to pay. The
First-born Son became the ransom price!

At
the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, where I am presently
serving, the Christmas creche at the foot of the sanctuary is just a
few arms away from the crucifix. During our Christmas Eve Mass, I was
looking intently on the two biblical tableaus: one showing us the
humble birth of the Savior and the other reminding us what awaits the
newborn Baby after thirty-three years. Then I catch my self whispering
a prayer: Lord, I hope they notice… I hope they really do… Bethlehem and Calvary are indeed just a few arms away from each other.  Fr. Bobby T.

REFLECTION QUESTION: Bethlehem and Calvary are indeed just a few arms away from each other.

My
Jesus, I present my self to You as You are presented today to the
Father. I unite my self with You so that I, too, like You, may be
pleasing to the Father. Amen.

St. Trophimus, missionary, pray for us.

adapted from Kyregma

Matthew 2:13-18

Today
we remember the ongoing holocaust of abortion that seems to be getting
worse year by year. I find it unbelievable how we can slaughter the
unborn and yet protest about the maltreatment of animals in experiments
and so on. Do not get me wrong, I believe that there should be limits
as to what sort of experimentation should be permitted on animals but
we move the argument to a much higher plane when we begin to talk about
human beings. Either we believe life is sacred or it is not! Either we
respect it from the moment of conception or any other respect is
irreparably compromised! Life has an absolute quality of respect or it
has no protection at all. We can see where it all
leads as we are now also fighting legislation against euthanasia; next
it will be eugenics proper, and from there, who knows?

13 When
they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. 14 Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. 15 He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of
Egypt I called my son. 16 When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were
no more.

      Meditation 12/23- 12/29 Zechariah’s Song

"Praise the Lord, the God of Israel,

because he has visited and redeemed his people.

He has sent us a mighty Savior

from the royal line of his servant David,

just as he promised

through his holy prophets long ago.

Now we will be saved from our enemies

and from all who hate us.

He has been merciful to our ancestors

by remembering his sacred covenant -

the covenant he swore with an oath

to our ancestor Abraham.

We have been rescued from our enemies

so we can serve God without fear,

in holiness and righteousness

for as long as we live.

Luke 1:68-75

I just happened to find a booklet last night which contains a lot of prayers. I remember some prayers during my high school days. I attended high school in  Notre Dame of Midsayap for Girls back in the Philippines. It is a Catholic school exclusively for girls. I remember that every Wednesday, we used to pray the Novena since our school is near the Church. We also used to have a Mass every first Friday of the Month. Every month of October we also pray the Rosary everyday.  I wanted to post these prayers here in my Blog also for others to read.  You might find these useful.

Salve Regina

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary. Amen

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Happy Holidays to all my friends, relatives and family!! May you enjoy the spirit and the true essence of Christmas, celebrating it with love, peace, contentment and happiness!!! May everyone will have a happy, bountiful and debt free New Year too!!! God bless us all!!!

…Knowing what You want..

One half of knowing what you want is knowing what you must give up before you get it.. by Sidney Howard

Matthew 1:1-17

This
genealogy traces Jesus’ origins through Joseph, His foster father,
back to Abraham. This situates Jesus within the context of the work of
God among the Jewish People. It affirms the possibility that He is the
Messiah as we see that He is a descendantof Judah and David. The
genealogy, while somewhat boring to read and listen to, contains many
clues concerning the identity of Jesus and His mission if only we will
study it carefully. For example, what is unusual about all the women
mentioned in it?

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4 Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became
the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 Salmon
the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of
Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, 6 Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. 8 Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile. 12 After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, 15 Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah. 17 Thus
the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen
generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations;
from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations.