News Item: : A Blessed and Holy Christmas to You All!
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Sunday 25 December 2016 - 00:36:11
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1507 )
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Sunday 25 December 2016 - 00:36:11
We wish all of our readers a blessed and holy Christmas! Thank you for your readership and prayers. Here is a Christmas Day reflection from the great St. Alphonsus de Liguori for your edification on this great feast.
The Birth of Jesus
What rejoicing is there in a country when the first-born son is born to a king! But surely we ought to keep still greater festival when we see the Son of God born and come down from Heaven to visit us, urged to this by the bowels of His mercy: Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us (Luke 1:78). We were lost and behold Him who came to save us: He came down from Heaven for our salvation (Credo of Nicaea). Behold the shepherd who came to save His sheep from death by giving His life for their sake: I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth His life for His sheep (John 10:11).
Behold the Lamb of God, who came to sacrifice Himself, to obtain for us the divine favour, and to become our deliverer, our life, our light, and even our food in the most Holy Sacrament!
St. Maximus says that for this reason, amongst others, Christ chose to be laid in the manger where the animals were fed, to make us understand that He has become man also to make Himself our food: ''In the manger, where the food of animals is placed, He allowed His limbs to be laid, thereby showing that His own body would be the eternal food of men.''
Besides this He is born every day in the Sacrament by means of the priests and the words of Consecration; the altar is the crib, and there we go to feed ourselves on His flesh.
Someone might desire to have the Holy Infant in his arms, as the aged Simeon had; but faith teaches us that, when we receive Holy Communion, the same Jesus who was in the manger of Bethlehem is not only in our arms, but in our breasts. He was born for this purpose, to give Himself entirely to us: A child is born to us, a son is given to us (Isaiah 9:6).
As we celebrate Christmas with the Traditional Latin Mass and the great Christmas Dinner, we pray that our readers will receive every grace and blessing in this holy Christmas season!Â
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1507 )