Displaying items by tag: Celebrating At Home

Receive your God!

The great Christmas feast is almost here. As always in Advent, what is promised in the first reading is brought to fulfilment in the Gospel reading. We began Advent with the cry, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’. We will end it with the joyful shout, ‘God is with us!’

In the first reading King David wants to build a house (temple) for God, but God says that, instead, God will build David and his descendants into a great house. God is not about building temples to himself and it’s not dwelling-places made of wood or stone that God wants. God is about building a dwelling-place in human flesh. God is about building a people among whom and in whom he can live.

In the Gospel, Mary accepts God’s invitation to make herself into a dwelling place for God by receiving Christ and God makes his dwelling-place in her human flesh. Through her God has come to live permanently in humanity.

That is what we, too, are about – making ourselves into a living dwelling place for Christ. The great gift of Jesus to the world is not meant to be frozen in one moment of time. Through us, that Gift is made present in every moment of history so that through us Christ is able to continue to touch, to hold and to heal the world.

"We must ourselves be the Mother of God.

God must be conceived in us, we must bring him into the world.”

(Blessed Titus Brandsma, OCarm, 1881-1942 )

• Celebrating At Home 4th Sunday of Advent 20 December PDF
• Celebrating At Home 4th Sunday of Advent 20 December EPUB
• Lectio Divina for 4th Sunday of Advent 20 December PDF
• Lectio Divina for 4th Sunday of Advent 20 December EPUB
• Celebrando en Familia - Cuarto Domingo de Adviento Carmelitas
• Celebrando in Casa - Quarta Domenica di Avvento
• Celebrando em familia - Quarto Domingo do Advento Carmelitas [Português]

Rejoice! The Lord is near!

Today is Gaudete Sunday. The name comes from the first word of the Entrance Antiphon in Latin, which means, ‘Rejoice’. The full text of the antiphon is: Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice! Indeed, the Lord is near.

That is what we are rejoicing in: God’s nearness to us. We recognise that nearness in the presence of Jesus, born so long ago, and his continuing presence through the Holy Spirit in our lives now. We rejoice that God has always been with us, whether we realised it or not. God has never left us.

Advent is very much about a fresh discovery of God’s presence and grace in our lives, in our own moment of history.

This is what we are celebrating on Christmas Day, too. Christ is God’s great present to the human family. Christmas celebrates not only the birth of Jesus in one moment of human history, but his continual birth in us so that he may be present in every moment of human history.

As we wait for the final coming of Jesus we, like John the Baptist, are called to be witnesses to the Light. We do that best by taking up the mission of the prophet in the first reading, just as Jesus did.

The Lord has anointed us to bring Good News to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken, to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison and a year of favour from the Lord. God trusts us to do that. We have been commissioned by the Church through our Baptism to do that.

Our faith in (that is, our living relationship with) Christ is meant to be lived openly, generously and graciously, at the service of our brothers and sisters in the world by being the living presence of Jesus in our day and age.

• Celebrating At Home 3rd Sunday of Advent
• Celebrating At Home 3rd Sunday of Advent ePub
• Lectio Divina for 3rd Sunday of Advent
• Lectio Divina for 3rd Sunday of Advent ePub
• Celebrando in Casa - Terza Domenica di Avvento
• Celebrando en Familia - Tercer Domingo De Adviento
• Celebrando em Familia - Terceiro Domingo do Advento Carmelitas [Português]

Repentance and forgiveness console God’s people and prepare the way for the Lord to enter our hearts. The magnificent first reading from the prophet Isaiah today looks forward to the appearance of God. Great preparations take place for his arrival - hills are lowered, valleys filled in, a straight highway is made in the desert. The joyful message of God’s approach is proclaimed from the mountain tops and shouted in the streets.

How will this God show himself to his people? Not as a warrior-king with a frightening display of military power or with thunderbolts in his hands, but as a shepherd-king: feeding his flock, gathering the lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading the mother ewes to rest. God’s coming liberates and frees his people through tenderness and forgiveness.

The Gospel presents John the Baptist as one who comes preparing the way for the Lord by proclaiming ‘a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. According to Mark, all Judea and the whole of Jerusalem come to John for baptism and to hear the proclamation of forgiveness – a moment of real conversion. John says that another will come, more powerful than himself, who will baptise, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.

Our Advent readings help us realise God’s profound love for us and his presence within us through the Holy Spirit. Knowing that God will always treat us with love and tender care helps us to turn again towards him and to trust in the depth of his mercy.

Our Advent journey is showing us how to prepare our hearts for a fresh discovery of God’s presence in our lives; how to recognise the hidden presence of Jesus among and around us; how to turn around and face towards God with faith, hope and love; and how to be the living presence of Jesus in our moment of history.

The candles of the Advent Wreath remind us of the growing light and warmth of God’s love made visible in Christ.

• Celebrating At Home for 2nd Sunday of Advent 6 December
• Celebrating At Home for 2nd Sunday of Advent 6 December EPUB
• Lectio Divina for 2nd Sunday of Advent 6 December
• Lectio Divina for 2nd Sunday of Advent 6 December EPUB
• Celebrando em familia - Segundo Domingo do Advento Carmelitas [Português]
• Celebrando in Casa - Seconda Domenica di Avvento - Carmelitani
• Celebrando en Familia - Segundo Domingo de Adviento - Carmelitas

Stay awake!

Our Advent journey begins today. “The Advent readings form a rich tapestry of images centered on the truth that God has come among us. In Advent we do not pretend that we are waiting for Jesus to be born in a stable. That happened once in history and it will not happen again. We remember that birth as we remember our own birthdays. The God who came among us is still among us. Advent’s invitation is to become aware of the all-pervading presence of the risen Jesus as Emmanuel – God among us.” (Break Open the Word. The Liturgical Commission, Brisbane.)

This week’s Gospel calls us to ‘Stay awake’, to be vigilant and attentive so that we do not miss the moment when God breaks into human history once again. The God who came among us is still among us. In Advent we train our eyes to see the reign of God more clearly so that we may be totally caught up in God’s action in the world.

We live in the ‘in between’ time – between the first and final comings of Jesus. This excerpt from the Gospel urges us to stay awake, alert, watchful and ready not only for the ‘day of the Lord’s coming’ at the end of time, but also for when the presence of God breaks in our lives and our world.

• Celebrating At Home 1st Sunday of Advent 29 November
• Celebrating At Home 1st Sunday of Advent 29 November EPUB
• Lectio Divina for 1st Sunday of Advent 29 November
• Lectio Divina for 1st Sunday of Advent 29 November Epub
• Celebrando en Familia - Primer Domingo De Adviento
• Celebrando in Casa - Prima Domenica Di Avvento

Reflection - Being the living presence of God

Only Matthew tells us this story of final judgement in the Kingdom of God. He paints a picture of the glorious arrival of the King and the assembly of all the nations of people who are then separated into two groups, sheep and goats.
Judgement is then pronounced - not on the basis of physical beauty, wealth, power, status or even religious practice.

What determines who will inherit the eternal life of the Kingdom are the works of service done to fellow human beings in need: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no mention in the list of religious duties like prayer, liturgical worship, fasting, giving tithes or indeed any identifiably religious practice.

Very likely these things are presumed to be present in all the assembled people. But, the difference between the two groups is how they responded to fellow human beings in need.
At the end of the day, the disciple is called to be the Kingdom (living presence) of God in the world and to transform the suffering of its people into joy by deeds of loving kindness. The goats appear to have made horrible situations suffered by human beings worse by their neglect, their lack of love.

The virtuous disciple is the living presence of Jesus in the world. He or she realises that Jesus has entrusted the kingdom into his/her hands. In the Kingdom of Jesus, the disciple is not master but ‘servant’ - remember how frequently we have heard about the first being last and the last first?

The whole idea of ‘kingdom’ has been thoroughly re-written in the teaching of Jesus: there is only one master and you are all brothers… The disciples are indeed kings – they have the power of Jesus’ spirit in them. But this power is not to be exercised in the classical sense ‘having power over others’, but by being true servants. The power of the spirit of Jesus fuels deeds of loving kindness for the brothers and sisters of Jesus – reversing horrible human conditions, and bringing healing and salvation.

This is, once again, a ‘warning’ parable for disciples to make sure that they are living the life of the Kingdom properly. It is not meant as a ‘prophecy’ about the last day. It is meant for careful consideration by the disciples in their attempt to live the life of the kingdom which has been entrusted to them.

Disciples of Jesus are not to repeat the mistake of the Pharisees in objectifying faith in God and reducing it to external observance.

Disciples are to seize the life (grace) of the Kingdom within them, to work industriously with this great gift so that the life of Jesus at work in them overflows into deeds of loving kindness; so that, becoming one in heart and mind with Christ (as St Paul puts it), the disciples becomes Christ in his/her moment of history - seeing, thinking and acting as Jesus would.

• Celebrating At Home for Christ the King PDF
• Celebrating At Home for Christ the King EPUB
• Lectio Divina for Christ the King PDF
• Lectio Divina for Christ the King EPUB
• Celebrando em Familia - Jesus Rey do Universo Comum Carmelitas Português
• Celebrando in Casa - Festa di Cristo Re - Carmelitani
• Celebrando en Familia - Jesuscristo Rey del Universo - Carmelitas