Category: Prayers

“Coming on the scene at this moment, [Anna] gave thanks to God and talked about the Child to all.” –Luke 2:38 Anna the prophetess had been coming to the Temple to worship for roughly sixty years – over twenty-thousand days worshipping God daily in the Temple! How easy it would be to not be alert the one day out of twenty-thousand that the Savior and Messiah showed up! Moreover, Anna didn’t have the benefit of advance notice that the Lord had given to Simeon (see Lk 2:26). Anna had to be ready and alert every day for twenty-thousand days. She...

“Whoever keeps His word, truly has the love of God been made perfect in him.” –1 John 2:5 Out of love and obedience, Mary and Joseph kept God’s commandments. The commandments required purification of the mother after childbirth and circumcision of the male child on the eighth day after birth (Lk 2:23; Lv 12:8; Ex 13:2). Mary and Joseph could have perhaps been tempted to feel that the special circumstances of the birth of their special Child placed them above the law. After all, many in positions of power have considered themselves above the law throughout human history. However, Mary...

“I am writing this to keep you from sin.” –1 John 2:1 Jesus Christ became man to overcome the bondage and death due to sin. In Jesus, we are no longer doomed to be subject to the tyranny of the world, the flesh, and the devil (1 Jn 2:16). Jesus has come to declare the victory of innocence over evil, of the Spirit over the flesh. It seems as if innocence once lost is impossible to be restored. Today’s feast of the Holy Innocents celebrates not the massacre of innocent babies by King Herod, but rather the victory of that...

“She ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple (the one Jesus loved).” –John 20:2 On this third day of Christmas, the Lord through His Church brings to our attention St. John, who has been customarily identified as the beloved disciple. The beloved disciple is nameless in John’s Gospel, possibly to indicate that all Jesus’ followers are beloved disciples. When we realize that the Lord loves us personally, perfectly, infinitely, and unconditionally, we are: deeply rooted and securely grounded (Eph 3:17), affirmed and fulfilled, freed from fear (1 Jn 4:18), able to give this great love which we have...

“I see an opening in the sky, and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand.” –Acts 7:56 Mass Readings: December 26 First: Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59; Resp: Psalm 31:3-4,6,8,17; Gospel: Matthew 10:17-22 Listen to the Mass Readings When a baby is born, he can be held, seen, heard, touched, and kissed. We celebrate a birth because after a baby is born we can enter into a new dimension of personal relationship with that baby. We likewise celebrate the birth of Jesus because His birth made it possible for Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and us to become...