The path we are on

"True humility will walk happily along the road by which the Lord leads it" (St. Teresa of Avila).

The Word was Made Flesh to heal the Flesh

"For the Word is visible to the heart alone, while flesh is visible to bodily eyes as well. We already possessed the means to see the flesh, but we had no means of seeing the Word. The Word was made flesh so that we could see it, to heal the part of us by which we could see the Word" (St. Augustine).

Slaves, obey your human masters

"Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but in simplicity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will receive recompense for the wrong he committed, and there is no partiality" (Col. 3:22-25)

Pope Benedict XVI

God is always faithful to his promises, but he often surprises us in the way he fulfils them. The child that was born in Bethlehem did indeed bring liberation, but not only for the people of that time and place - he was to be the Saviour of all people throughout the world and throughout history. And it was not a political liberation that he brought, achieved through military means: rather, Christ destroyed death for ever and restored life by means of his shameful death on the Cross. And while he was born in poverty and obscurity, far from the centres of earthly power, he was none other than the Son of God. Out of love for us he took upon himself our human condition, our fragility, our vulnerability, and he opened up for us the path that leads to the fullness of life, to a share in the life of God himself. As we ponder this great mystery in our hearts this Christmas, let us give thanks to God for his goodness to us, and let us joyfully proclaim to those around us the good news that God offers us freedom from whatever weighs us down: he gives us hope, he brings us life.

St. John of Kanty

"Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause."

From Psalm 142

Velóciter exáudi me, Dómine;*
defécit spíritus meus.
Non abscóndas fáciem tuam a me,*
ne símilis fiam descendéntibus in lacum.
Audítam fac mihi mane misericórdiam tuam,*
quia in te sperávi.
Notam fac mihi viam, in qua ámbulem,*
quia ad te levávi ánimam meam.
Eripe me de inimícis meis,*
Dómine, ad te confúgi.
Doce me fácere voluntátem tuam,*
quia Deus meus es tu.

Lord, make haste and answer;
for my spirit fails within me.
Do not hide your face
lest I become like those in the grave.

In the morning let me know your love
for I put my trust in you.
Make me know the way I should walk:
to you I lift up my soul.

Rescue me, Lord, from my enemies;
I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will
for you, O Lord, are my God.
Let your good spirit guide me
in ways that are level and smooth.

The Log Goof

"Easy as falling off a log!"cried the earl, falling off a log with a loud thump.

~From Thaddeus

My soul doth magnify the Lord

"The Lord is magnified, not because the human voice can add anything to God but because he is magnified within us. Christ is the image of God, and if the soul does what is right and holy, it magnifies that image of God, in whose likeness it was created and, in magnifying the image of God, the soul has a share in its greatness and is exalted." St. Ambrose.

John Paul II

"The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter him with all his own self; he must 'appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deeper wonder at himself" (Veritatis Splendor, 8)

Bonaventure

"God appears to do no less a thing when He deigns daily to descend from heaven upon our altars than He did when He came down from heaven and took upon Himself our human nature." ~ St. Bonaventure

Lumen Gentium 3

The Son, therefore, came, sent by the Father. It was in Him, before the foundation of the world, that the Father chose us and predestined us to become adopted sons, for in Him it pleased the Father to re-establish all things.To carry out the will of the Father, Christ inaugurated the Kingdom of heaven on earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. By His obedience He brought about redemption. The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world. This inauguration and this growth are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus, and are foretold in the words of the Lord referring to His death on the Cross: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself".

God is love

³ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

8

Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

9

In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.

10

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

11

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.

12

No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.

13

⁴ This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit.

14

Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.

15

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.

16

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

17

In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world.

18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.

19

We love because he first loved us.

20

If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God ⁵ whom he has not seen.

21

This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Nimrodel

An Elven-maid there was of old,

A shining star by day.

Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,

Her shoes of silver-grey.

A star was bound upon her brows,

A light was on her hair

As sun upon the golden boughs

In Lorien the fair.

Her hair was long, her limbs were white,

And fair she was and free;

And in the wind she went as light

As leaf of linden-tree.

Beside the falls of Nimrodel,

By water clear and cool,

Her voice as falling silver fell

Into the shining pool.

Where now she wanders none can tell,

In sunlight or in shade;

For lost of yore was Nimrodel

And in the mountains strayed.

The elven-ships in haven grey

Beneath the mountain-lee

Awaited her for many a day

Beside the roaring sea.

A wind by night in Northern lands

Arose, and loud it cried,

And drove the ship from elven-strands

Across the steaming tide.

When dawn came dim the land was lost,

The mountains sinking grey

Beyond the heaving waves that tossed

Their plumes of blinding spray.

Amroth beheld the fading shore

Now low beyond the swell,

And cursed the faithless ship that bore

Him far from Nimrodel.

Of old he was an Elven-king,

A lord of tree and glen,

When golden were the boughs in spring

In fair Lothlorien.

From helm to sea they saw him leap,

As arrow from the string,

And dive into the water deep,

As mew upon the wing.

The wind was in his flowing hair,

The foam about him shone;

Afar they saw him strong and fair

Go riding like a swan.

But from the West has come no word,

And on the Hither Shore

No tidings Elven-folk have heard

Of Amroth evermore.

John Paul II

With this understanding of God's eternal nature and omnipotence and the beginning and the end of all things, the Church invites us to prepare ourselves again for the coming of God.

This is he who is totally other above all of creation.  He is the infinite divine Spirit.  Yet he embraces simultaneously all those things that are created and all those things that breathe. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Thus, he is not only outside the created world enthroned in the unsearchable Godhead.  He is in our world.  Creation itself is pervaded by his presence.  And that presence always tells of his coming.  It announces to us that he comes.  God, as the Creator and the Lord of all, comes eternally to this world which he has called into being out of nothing.

He also sustains everything he has created.  He is divine providence itself.  The world has in him - in God - its true destiny.  All those things that have being because of God's power and omnipotence continue to exist through him.

Every created thing "declares the glory of God" and bears witness to his presence and to his coming.  God's advent is manifest in the very existence of the world, in its origins and in its development.