Book of Micah 5,1-4a. The LORD says : You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel ; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. (Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.) He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace. Psalms 80(79),2ac.3b.15-16.18-19. O shepherd of Israel, hearken. from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power.
Once again, O LORD of hosts, look down from heaven, and see: take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you; give us new life, and we will call upon your name. Letter to the Hebrews 10,5-10. For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'" First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in." These are offered according to the law. Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He takes away the first to establish the second. By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,39-45. Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
Book of Micah 5,1-4a. The LORD says : You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel ; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times. (Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.) He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth; he shall be peace.
Psalms 80(79), 2ac.3b.15-16.18-19. O shepherd of Israel, hearken. from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth. Rouse your power.
Once again, O LORD of hosts, look down from heaven, and see: take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
May your help be with the man of your right hand, with the son of man whom you yourself made strong. Then we will no more withdraw from you; give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
Letter to the Hebrews 10,5-10. For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'" First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in." These are offered according to the law. Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He takes away the first to establish the second. By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,39-45. Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
On this third Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to joy. Listen carefully: to joy. The prophet Zephaniah addresses these words to a small group of the people of Israel: “Sing aloud, O Daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (3:14) Shout with joy, rejoice, exult: this is this Sunday’s invitation. The inhabitants of the Holy City are called to rejoice because the Lord has taken away his judgments against them (cf v. 15). God has forgiven, he did not wish to punish! As a result the people no longer have any reason for sadness. There is no longer reason for desolation, but rather, everything leads to joyful gratitude toward God who always wishes to deliver and save those he loves. And the Lord’s love for his people is endless, tantamount to the tenderness of a father for his children, of a groom for his bride, as Zephanaiah again says: “he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (v. 17). This is — so it is called — the Sunday of joy: the third Sunday of Advent, before Christmas.
This appeal by the prophet is particularly appropriate during the Season in which we are preparing ourselves for Christmas, because it can be applied to Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God-with-us: his presence is the wellspring of joy. Indeed, Zephaniah proclaims: “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst”, and a little later he repeats: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory” (vv. 15, 17). This message finds its full meaning in the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, narrated by the evangelist Luke. The words addressed to the Virgin by the Angel Gabriel are like an echo of those of the prophet. What does the Archangel Gabriel say? “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you! (Lk 1:28). He tells Our Lady to “Rejoice”. In an isolated hamlet of Galilee, in the heart of a young woman unknown to the world, God kindles the spark of happiness for the entire world. And today, the same announcement is addressed to the Church, called to receive the Gospel so that it may become flesh, concrete life. He says to the Church, to all of us: “Rejoice, little Christian community, poor and humble but beautiful in my eyes because you ardently desire my Kingdom, you hunger and thirst for justice, you patiently weave the fabric of peace, you do not pursue the powerful of the moment but remain faithfully beside the poor. And thus you fear nothing but your heart is in joy”. If we live like this, in the presence of the Lord, our heart will always be in joy — when there is ‘high-level’, full joy, and the humble everyday joy, which is peace. Peace is the smallest joy, but it is joy.
Saint Paul, too, exhorts us today to have no anxiety, to have no despair about anything, but rather, in every circumstance, to make our requests, our needs, our worries known to God “by prayer and supplication” (Phil 4:6). The awareness that we can always turn to the Lord in our difficulties, and that he never rejects our invocations, is a great reason for joy. No worry, no fear will ever be able to take away this serenity which comes not from human things, from human comforts, no: the serenity that comes from God, from knowing that God lovingly guides our lives, and he always does so. Even in the midst of problems and suffering, this certainty fosters hope and courage.
--->However, in order to receive the Lord’s invitation to joy, it is necessary to be people willing to call ourselves into question. What does this mean? Just like those who, after listening to the preaching of John the Baptist, ask him: You preach this, but we, “What then shall we do” (Lk 3:10). What should I do? This question is the first step for the conversion that we are called to carry out during this Season of Advent. Let each of us ask ourself: what should I do? A very small thing, but “what should I do?”. And may the Virgin Mary, who is our mother, help us to open our heart to the God-who-comes, so that he may shower our whole life with joy.
FAUSTI - Through Mary, having become obedient to the Word, God visits His people and His people recognize Him. This recognition is the aim of His plan, the aim of His hard work, the fulfilment of the history of salvation; the encounter between Israel and the Church, between God's people and His Messiah. The mystery of the Visitation is the anticipation of this eschatological event, in which Mercy will be used for all those who were locked up in disobedience. It is the final joy of the encounter, so obstructed and long-awaited, between Bride and Groom, of which the Canticle sings. The Lord's visit is the meaning of personal and universal history. But who knows how to discern it? Elizabeth is pregnant with two millennia of waiting, Mary of the Eternal One . Their encounter is the embrace between the Old and New Testaments, between promise and fulfilment. Two women are saluting each other. In their mutual acceptance is recognized the One who is Welcome. The encounter takes place through the initiative of She who is blessed because She believed in the fulfilment of the Word of the Lord: Mary goes to Elizabeth, sign that the One to whom "nothing is impossible" , has given (1:36). The N. Testament recognizes in the Old Testament the pre-contained gift as promise of the impossible. Only in this visit and frequenting of the A. T. the N. Testament understands the reality of which it is fulfilment. For this reason Luke carefully introduces his reader of pagan origin into the history of Israel, of which he offers in the first chapters as a summary. Outside of the promise of the A. T. it is impossible to recognize the gift of God who came to visit us. Only the Baptist is able to indicate this! Law and promise are like the hands that, through Israel, God created so that humanity can extend toward Him and welcome Him. A gift that cannot find hands to receive and sustain it, falls and is lost. Mary, by visiting Elizabeth, recognizes the truth of what happens in her; the Church, by referring to the A. Testament, understands what she conceived. And in Mary and in the Church Israel sees the Visit that the Lord has made to us. This recognition is a great mystery: it represents the passage from promise to fulfilment, the gift of the full knowledge of the Lord.
Book of Micah 5,1-4a.
RispondiEliminaThe LORD says : You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel ; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.
(Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.)
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Psalms 80(79),2ac.3b.15-16.18-19.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken.
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see:
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
Letter to the Hebrews 10,5-10.
For this reason, when he came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in." These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,39-45.
Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
Book of Micah
RispondiElimina5,1-4a.
The LORD says : You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel ; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.
(Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.)
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Psalms 80(79),
2ac.3b.15-16.18-19.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken.
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see:
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
Letter to the Hebrews
10,5-10.
For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings, you neither desired nor delighted in." These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, "Behold, I come to do your will." He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this "will," we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Luke
1,39-45.
Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 16 December 2018
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
On this third Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to joy. Listen carefully: to joy. The prophet Zephaniah addresses these words to a small group of the people of Israel: “Sing aloud, O Daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (3:14) Shout with joy, rejoice, exult: this is this Sunday’s invitation. The inhabitants of the Holy City are called to rejoice because the Lord has taken away his judgments against them (cf v. 15). God has forgiven, he did not wish to punish! As a result the people no longer have any reason for sadness. There is no longer reason for desolation, but rather, everything leads to joyful gratitude toward God who always wishes to deliver and save those he loves. And the Lord’s love for his people is endless, tantamount to the tenderness of a father for his children, of a groom for his bride, as Zephanaiah again says: “he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (v. 17). This is — so it is called — the Sunday of joy: the third Sunday of Advent, before Christmas.
This appeal by the prophet is particularly appropriate during the Season in which we are preparing ourselves for Christmas, because it can be applied to Jesus, the Emmanuel, the God-with-us: his presence is the wellspring of joy. Indeed, Zephaniah proclaims: “The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst”, and a little later he repeats: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory” (vv. 15, 17). This message finds its full meaning in the moment of the Annunciation to Mary, narrated by the evangelist Luke. The words addressed to the Virgin by the Angel Gabriel are like an echo of those of the prophet. What does the Archangel Gabriel say? “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you! (Lk 1:28). He tells Our Lady to “Rejoice”. In an isolated hamlet of Galilee, in the heart of a young woman unknown to the world, God kindles the spark of happiness for the entire world. And today, the same announcement is addressed to the Church, called to receive the Gospel so that it may become flesh, concrete life. He says to the Church, to all of us: “Rejoice, little Christian community, poor and humble but beautiful in my eyes because you ardently desire my Kingdom, you hunger and thirst for justice, you patiently weave the fabric of peace, you do not pursue the powerful of the moment but remain faithfully beside the poor. And thus you fear nothing but your heart is in joy”. If we live like this, in the presence of the Lord, our heart will always be in joy — when there is ‘high-level’, full joy, and the humble everyday joy, which is peace. Peace is the smallest joy, but it is joy.
Saint Paul, too, exhorts us today to have no anxiety, to have no despair about anything, but rather, in every circumstance, to make our requests, our needs, our worries known to God “by prayer and supplication” (Phil 4:6). The awareness that we can always turn to the Lord in our difficulties, and that he never rejects our invocations, is a great reason for joy. No worry, no fear will ever be able to take away this serenity which comes not from human things, from human comforts, no: the serenity that comes from God, from knowing that God lovingly guides our lives, and he always does so. Even in the midst of problems and suffering, this certainty fosters hope and courage.
--->However, in order to receive the Lord’s invitation to joy, it is necessary to be people willing to call ourselves into question. What does this mean? Just like those who, after listening to the preaching of John the Baptist, ask him: You preach this, but we, “What then shall we do” (Lk 3:10). What should I do? This question is the first step for the conversion that we are called to carry out during this Season of Advent. Let each of us ask ourself: what should I do? A very small thing, but “what should I do?”. And may the Virgin Mary, who is our mother, help us to open our heart to the God-who-comes, so that he may shower our whole life with joy.
RispondiEliminaFAUSTI - Through Mary, having become obedient to the Word, God visits His people and His people recognize Him. This recognition is the aim of His plan, the aim of His hard work, the fulfilment of the history of salvation; the encounter between Israel and the Church, between God's people and His Messiah.
RispondiEliminaThe mystery of the Visitation is the anticipation of this eschatological event, in which Mercy will be used for all those who were locked up in disobedience.
It is the final joy of the encounter, so obstructed and long-awaited, between Bride and Groom, of which the Canticle sings. The Lord's visit is the meaning of personal and universal history. But who knows how to discern it?
Elizabeth is pregnant with two millennia of waiting, Mary of the Eternal One .
Their encounter is the embrace between the Old and New Testaments, between promise and fulfilment.
Two women are saluting each other. In their mutual acceptance is recognized the One who is Welcome.
The encounter takes place through the initiative of She who is blessed because She believed in the fulfilment of the Word of the Lord: Mary goes to Elizabeth, sign that the One to whom "nothing is impossible" , has given (1:36).
The N. Testament recognizes in the Old Testament the pre-contained gift as promise of the impossible. Only in this visit and frequenting of the A. T. the N. Testament understands the reality of which it is fulfilment.
For this reason Luke carefully introduces his reader of pagan origin into the history of Israel, of which he offers in the first chapters as a summary.
Outside of the promise of the A. T. it is impossible to recognize the gift of God who came to visit us.
Only the Baptist is able to indicate this!
Law and promise are like the hands that, through Israel, God created so that humanity can extend toward Him and welcome Him.
A gift that cannot find hands to receive and sustain it, falls and is lost.
Mary, by visiting Elizabeth, recognizes the truth of what happens in her; the Church, by referring to the A. Testament, understands what she conceived.
And in Mary and in the Church Israel sees the Visit that the Lord has made to us.
This recognition is a great mystery: it represents the passage from promise to fulfilment, the gift of the full knowledge of the Lord.