The Church celebrates tonight and today the Holy Mass of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ three times: the Mass during the night, the Mass at dawn and the Mass during the day. Three times with different readings and different prayers we celebrate the same Mystery. Sharing the same joy – we are not alone, there is no more darkness, we have God who has become a man, “today true peace has come down to us from heaven” (from Entrance Antiphony). 

We celebrate the first Mass with the Angels: “And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angels, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rest” (Lk 2:13-14).

It is my private idea – if you are in darkness, in the night, spiritual or just natural – remember about the Angels. Ask them for help. They were there during this the most important night. (And also they appeared to announce the Miracle of Resurrection – they know where they should be).

The Mass at dawn is with shepherds. “When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” (Lk 2:15)

Let us go. Simple reaction. Be ready to go. When Good News arrives, you can’t stay in the same place. You should go. “When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child” (Lk 2:17). Spread the message. I know – it is so hard. But it could be your different face, or A word of forgiveness or A phone call after years of silence – because you got the message, you went to confession, you prepared your heart and He visited you. Spread the message, and if you don’t know how – ask the shepherds – they will tell you.

The Mass of light. “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). His word is a true light. “In the begging was the Word, nad the Word was God… What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (J 1:1, 3b-5).

God’s Word in our life. He came as a Child and stayed with us as a Word. And He – the Word is a light and life.

No more darkness. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”.

“Grant us, Lord, as we honor with joyful devotion the Nativity of your Son, that we may come to know with fullness of faith the hidden depths of this mystery and to love them ever more and more” (Prayer after Communion, Mass at Dawn). 

“Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent” (2 Samuel 7:2)

It was about the ark of God, it was about the Son of God. Not a luxury, but simplicity. To be close to people.

God chose to be, as He announced, Emmanuel: God-with-us. And among us.

That is why we try to have churches in every part of the city, in every village and in every home of consecrated people. God came to us to be with us, not to live in a “house of cedar”, where it would be so difficult to visit Him.

Today is the last day of Advent. In a few hours He  will come. To our homes, to our families, where He is so expected by our children.

He doesn’t need any special place, our heart will be perfect. Open, warm, protective, tender and totally for Him.

with a lot of prayer and close to you

Father J. 

“What, then, will this child be?” (Lk 1:66)

The basic concern of every parent. What, then, will this child be? Specially if our child is delicate and sensitive and needs a little bit more attention then other children.

Have you got any idea how stressful it could be for parents to know something about God’s plan for him or for her? Think about Elisabeth and Zachariah: “even from his mother’s womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will bring back many of the Israelites to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to reconcile fathers to their children and the disobedient to the good sense of the upright, preparing for the Lord a people fit for him.“ (Lk 1, 15-17); or about Mary and Joseph. This is your son and the Son of God, “he will save his people from their sin” (Mt 1, 21). Take care of Him. Prepare Him for the future. Prepare your son to His role.

What they did as parents? They did nothing special. Jesus spent thirty years in normal family life. No special schools for very talented children future Redeemer of the world! “He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority… And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people.. (Lk 2, 51-52). Maybe this is a good advertisement for home schooling. 😉

How often do we think about profession, some important role. Can we prepare our child to be e.g. president of the country? What we think is important for the future of our children we will give them. The majority will think about education. As good as possible. The best kindergarten, the best primary school, high school, college, university. The better education we’ll give the better career they will have.

Others will think about giving them a good start in life through covering all the basic needs, like apartment with good equipment, car, some savings for nice vacations or other needs. And so…

Do we remember that our child is not ours. She or he is a miracle, a gift from God. Our child IF IT BELONGS to anybody, belongs only to God. Remembering about this is the most important “education” and “good start” for our child.

And even if our child becomes a president of our country or Apple or Google CEO, at the same time probably he or she will be a husband or wife.

So, what we really can do for the best future for our children is to help them understand and believe that he/she is a miracle, a wonderful gift from God, always loved and always worthy.

The other thing we can do is to show them how to protect our love in the family, how to respect a woman, how to take care of our relationship.

With prayer for you

Fr. Jay

“Joseph her husband” (Mt 1:19)

One of my favorites saints. For many ages totally hidden. “Discovered” and made famous by St. Therese of Avila. Recently “invited” to every Eucharistic Prayer soon after Our Lady, as a “Her Spouse”.

I have no idea how he was able to respond to all those challenges: fell in love with Our Lady, and was informed that she offered her virginity to God, found her pregnant, decided to leave her quietly, and after an Angel’s intervention took Her into his home, escaped to Egypt to protect his Family, all these years silent, protective, totally devoted to Our Lady and Jesus.

True inspiration for our life. True saint without any extraordinariness. Normal family life, full of work, daily family activities, oriented to God, close to Our Lady, in a real relationship with Jesus.

“He did as as the Angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1, 24)

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1:45)

God’s word.

Whom do I believe: God? and His promises? what He said to me in the Bible? or … All this Bible is a nice story, but not about me.

If you have thoughts like this it is high time to ask immediately Our Lady for intervention. She is not only the First and Most Powerful Believer, but also Our Mother and our Guide in our pilgrimage of faith.

When She met Archangel Gabriel and accepted Her mission, She – only on the basis of God’s word – went to visit Her relative. “Elisabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said… blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord”. (Lk 1:41-42.45).

Today the reading from the Song of the Songs reminds you, how important you are. You are His beloved, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song 2:10.14).
These are His words to you. When you are entering the church for the Mass or just for a short prayer, He is telling you this: “Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song, 14).

You are in His eyes. Always. He loves you when you are sinner, when you are tired and have no strength to pray, when you are busy with preparing Christmas, and when you are praying. Always. There is no exception. No bad mood, no busy time with God. He is Our Father, The Savior, and the Paraclete.

Only three days left to His coming. And every day, with greater passion we call:
“O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God” (Alleluia)

“…The angel Gabriel was sent from God …to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph…and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1:26).

I love the Angels. The first persons created by God. Beautiful creatures, totally spiritual, and after passing the trial, totally devoted to God and to His service.

Messengers like Gabriel, warriors like Michael, healers like Rafael. To say nothing about our Guardian Angels.

Just before your conception God asked the Angels in a very similar way, like in the vision of Isaiah: “I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me’” (Is 6:8)  answered one of the angels and become your Guardian Angel forever. And from this moment on your Guardian Angel is always with you.

Angels are present during the Mass with their prayer “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and mentioned at the end of each Preface and in the first Eucharistic prayer, Angels are also present in Angelus Domini prayer and in the Rosary so happy to serve Our Lady, Angels protect our countries, cities, parishes and individuals. We owe them so much.

Sometimes people restrict prayer to Guardian Angels only to childhood and only to children, but they are our friends forever.

Can we imagine how happy was Gabriel to announce Zachariah the good news about Elisabeth’s pregnancy, and to proclaim Our Lady to be the Mother of God? We call him the Guardian Angel of the Holy Family, but he is always there to spread the good news to every family.

Remember to speak with your Guardian Angel every day, remember to say “thank you” for his daily help, remember to ask him in a special need. He is your friend. Always. And you can count on him. Please, refresh your friendship with him during this Advent. This is the time of the Angels. They brought Good News to Zachariah and Elisabeth, to Mary, St. Josef and to shepherds. Today they also serve to protect God’s life in our hearts.

O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness. (Alleluia)

Good News for mankind comes through announcing a new life – “You will be with child and will bear a son”. It was a message to the mother of Samson (Judges 13,7) and the mother of John the Baptist (Lk 1,13). Tomorrow the Virgin Mother will receive the same message.

God is a Father who loves life. He is the Creator of life because He is Love and He lives in a communion of persons. God is never alone. He is the Holy Trinity.

He shared with us the most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator- the transmission of human life (HV 1).

The great joy for parents, the future for this world. Any couple who become parents understand Advent – the time of expectation, the time, when the joy of birth is present before birth. We enjoy this coming time, we would like to have Christmas as soon as possible, even today, so decorations are ready and gifts already bought, but we know that we should wait. The Child will come when time comes. Not earlier, not later, just on time.
To prepare ourselves better for this time, we can pray for expecting mothers, for women suffering from infertility, for civilization of life. We can give today a smile to expecting mothers, maybe a small sign of help.

“O Root of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: come to save us without delay!” (from Alleluia) 

They shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us” (Mt 1:23)

God has chosen to be called Emmanuel, to ensure us that He is so close to us.
When we pray “Our Father who are in Heaven” it doesn’t mean that we should look somewhere up, into the sky.

This biblical expression does not mean a place (“space”), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not “elsewhere”: he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.

“Our Father who art in heaven” is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them.

“Heaven” could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries. (CCC, 2794).

It wasn’t our decision to bring God from heaven to earth. It was, from the beginning HIS own, independent decision to be Emmanuel, God-with-us

What we can do, especially during this time of Advent, is to open our hearts for Him. Not because we deserve, but because we need Him so desperately. Without Him we are helpless, with Him we are in power, we belong to Him, we are God’s children, and no one can take this dignity away from us.

O Leader of the House of Israel, giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai: come to rescue us with your mighty power. (Alleluia verse)

Today’s Gospel is a very long story of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

We could feel tired of listening to so many names. We know that this is the Gospel, Good News about our salvation, but … maybe a shorter version would be enough. Where is hidden the Good News for us and our salvation in these names?

When we listen carefully to this genealogy, we can find four names which shouldn’t be mentioned: female names. This is odd. Jewish genealogy doesn’t cover female names. And whats more: three of these names are not Jewish: Tamar, Rahab and Ruth were pagans.

Jesus Christ invited pagan women to His family. He wants to have all people in His family. Salvation is universal.

If you think that you are nobody, nothing special, just a poor, weak sinner, remember that He came to the poor, the weak and the sinners and in times, when women didn’t count He put their names into His genealogy to remind you and to protect your presence in His family forever.

“He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way” (Ps 25)

The simple difference between believer and pagan lies in prayer. Not in prayer generally but in the way how they pray. The pagan prays to change God’s will, the believer prays to change his own heart to follow God’s will. The pagan can even “pay” for this change in God’s will by sacrifices, litanies, candles; the believer can put his life on the line to be with God.

We are listening today to His words and pray: “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior” (Ps 25). We know that He is full of compassion and kindness, “good and upright is the Lord” (Ps 25), so we choose to listen to Him and follow His will, because He knows where our Home is. And He said “I am the way, the truth and the life”.
The chief priest and the elders (Mt 21, 23) had their own idea of God, heaven and future. They prayed a lot. But instead of accepting the salvation they were trying to destroy the authority of Jesus. They tried to be smart rather then simple. Their attempt had a very miserable effect.

Our prayer for today is: “Show us, Lord, your love, and grant us your salvation”. (Alleluia)

“He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way” (Ps 25)

PS. I received yesterday so much of wonderfull evidence of your memory of my 28th anniversery of priesthood. Thank U so much.