Monday, December 31, 2007

Johnsonbrothers Stone On Trent

Feast of the Holy Family and Nativity Cross

There are so many beautiful things to say about the family. Let us begin by recalling that the family is first and foremost a human and social reality. The family as a community of life, including parent (s) and child (ren) has always existed. The couple and the family sprang from the heart of God as the foundation, the basic unit of society. In Over the ages, societies and religions have recognized the value and necessity of the family and have taken legal means to protect religious and value.

If we look carefully at the Holy Family, we must admit that this is not a typical family. Despite this, we can find models. Joseph is a man devoted to his wife and son, a wise man, which hosts the divine inspiration to guide hard choices. Mary, as the mothers of all countries and all ages, focuses on the needs of her child. As the women in her society, she is submissive to her husband. Worldwide Today, she probably would try to help her Joseph to take responsibility by giving her confidence and by communicating their needs. The baby Jesus is a baby like everyone else, which leaves carry around with abandon while his parents are upset. It will grow like other children, learning about life in the school of his father and mother.

Jesus probably knew the text of the First Reading (Year A), from the book of Sirach, which invites children to honor and support their parents, especially their elderly parents. It's a great comment of the fourth commandment of God: "Honor thy father and thy mother so extend your days on earth that gives you the Lord your God. "Sirach is also highlighting not only the children's homework, but the rewards attached to them by implication.

The second reading from the Letter of Paul to the Colossians, is an invitation to live the family and social virtues: tenderness, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, mutual support. This is surely the atmosphere in the Holy family. St. Paul insists on forgiveness and then he concludes by summarizing: "Above all this there is love: he is the bond of perfection."

In creating man and woman, woman and man in his image, God made us creatures of relationship, of communion of beings, and when our union of love bears fruit in the coming of a child, we produce a kind of earthly image of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, where the Holy Spirit springs eternal for the eternal love that unites the Father and the Son.

When a man and a woman joined two lives connected by marriage, he should no longer be room for individualism among them. Since everything that happens to one will affect the other, individual choices must always take into consideration the needs of others. This is the model of any successful human relationship, including relationships within a Christian community. In the family of God, as in our own families, there may be a tension and conflict, but God's plan is that one day we can combine our differences and our differences into wealth and power.

It would be good to reread the "Charter of Rights of the Family" (1983) available online.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

What Do You Title A Wedding?



Merry Christmas! The desire is to put the whole week after Christmas, because Christmas Day, like Easter, lasts a week (eight days, one octave). It's party "happy" par excellence, full of light and music.

The birth of the Infant God is a sign of contradiction. It brings out the best in some and worse in others. Some want to spoil the joy of the majority by diverting the Christian festival to turn it into a celebration of the winter solstice, with an emphasis on consumption.

Nevertheless, Christmas is a highlight for families. Gatherings in churches and in Christian families are around the manger and gifts. The gifts are exchanged with love compared to sunshine sparks splendid ultimate gift: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. "

The Church reminds us that Easter is the biggest feast of the year, but Monsieur and Madame Tout-le-Monde the magic of Christmas Eve outweighs that of the Easter Vigil. Anyway, the two celebrations forming part of the grand mystery: the invasion (infiltration, so it is not coercive) of the Earth (the whole universe created) by the Creator who "is looking for attention." God does not want to be scared of him and he presents himself as a baby. He wants to seduce us by being the All-Petit, Tout Mignon, the All-Holland.

St. Paul rightly says in the Epistle to the Galatians: "But when it came the fulfillment of time, God sent his Son, born of woman and subject to the law, pay for the release of those subject to the law, we may be given to adoptive son. Son, you're well, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, crying: Abba - Father "(4, 4-6) all here: the incarnation, redemption, adoption . Because the Son became one of us, through him, through him, with him, in him, we become the adoptive son and daughters of God.

I've seen a Christmas card that represented the Virgin Mary holding her twin babies. In the eyes of God the Father, as good parents in the land, there is no difference between her children and her adoptive child genetically. Today is the 26th, the feast of St. Stephen, who said: "I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." With Christ, we are standing at the right the Father.

Angels are intangible and their music is of another order than ours, but I thank God for their worship of the Son and all the Christmas carols new and traditional distilling in our hearts the joy of Birth the Savior. In our family, this year we listen with great pleasure Claire Pelletier sings "The First Christmas" on a new CD of great beauty, especially the first song, which says: "Christmas for the love of Mary / We sing joyously / Who brought the fruit of life / It was to save us. "

Bethlehem means" house of bread ". Our priest Jacques likes to remind us that if Jesus is laid in a manger is to give food. The baby Jesus is fine to eat.

Finally, I want a koan Offir Christian chewing until the light burst forth: "The wood of the crib and the wood of the Cross from the same tree."

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

How Do Myammee Change Her Hair

Large anthems "O"

In good mother, my pastor Masses during the week, Bishop Gérard St-Denis, likes doing it to highlight special occasions. This week, inspired by Michael Hartney, an intern at the parish, he had the good idea of integrating at the end of the Mass into "liturgy extension," a moment of celebration with Word and prayer that unfolds daily scriptural riches of the antiphon "O" of the day. A booklet presents the text and the progress for each of seven days (from December 17 to 23) and prolongs the prayer through meditation.

Front page it says "according to a German office redesigned to be used at mass." Michael, organist and cantor, among others, composed lyrics to the tune of "Veni Emmanuel" which take the anthem of the day. For example, consider one that starts with "O Adonai". The proposed version sung by Michael says: "Oh come, great God, Adonai / Who says the law at Sinai: / Protect us in our fight / By the power of your arms. / Sing, Sing: The Emmanuel / will be born to thee, O Israel. "
for my personal benefit, I attempt here a very literal translation of the Latin text of each antiphon, which includes praise followed by an invocation that begins" come '.

17 - Sapientia, Quae ex ore altissimi prodisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum prudentiæ our viam.
- O Wisdom, which the mouth of the Most High are out, reaching from one end to the other end, gently and strongly with all: come to teach us the path of caution.

18 - O Adonai, and Dux domus Israel, which in igne Moysi flammæ apparuisti rubi, and ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad in our redimendum Bracchio extento.
- O Adonai, and General of the house of Israel, to Moses in the heat of the flame red are apparent, and to the law at Sinai donnas: come to redeem us by your outstretched arm.

19 – O Radix Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
– O Racine de Jessé, qui se tient debout en signe des peuples, sur lequel les rois retiendront leur bouche, que les nations imploreront: viens pour nous libérer, maintenant ne tarde plus.

20 – O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel, qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.
– O Clef de David, et sceptre de la maison d'Israël, qui ouvres, et personne do farm farms, and no one opens: come, and lead the loser out of his prison house, sitting in the darkness and the shadow of death.

21 - O Oriens, splendor lucis Aeternae and soil justitiae: veni, and shone in darkness and sedentary umbra mortis.
- O East, splendor of eternal light and sun of justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

22 - O Rex Gentium, and Desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, which Facis utraquist unum: veni, and salva hominem, quem formasti limo.
- O Roi des nations, et leur désiré, et pierre angulaire, qui fais des deux un: viens et sauve l'homme, que du limon tu as formé.

23 – O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.
– O Emmanuel, notre Roi et législateur, attente des nations et Sauveur de celles-ci: viens pour nous sauver, Seigneur, notre Dieu.

Voilà qui conclut cette réflexion sur les titres messianiques de Celui qui devait et qui doit venir.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Dutch Pay On Invitations

Our Lady of Guadalupe

It noted that the priest at mass this morning that the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12) had taken up the ranks, becoming listed as a solemnity in the liturgical calendar of the Americas. I have several reasons to want to emphasize today the importance of this word to honor the Virgin Mary.

She revered patroness of the various peoples of Mexico and the state of Mexico and Latin American countries in general .. I have often done during stays in this beautiful country to visit my parents who spend the winter in fifteen years. I once had the opportunity to attend Mass at Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City and I could even get close to the "paint" on the miraculous cloak of St. Juan Diego. I remember I had to work hard to succeed in receiving Holy Communion as the crowd was dense.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is the patron of the movement for the privileged life. Combatants to recognize the full humanity of unborn children know that the young Indian woman "depicted" on the mantle is pregnant because she wears distinctive clothing. I'm not very militant, but I used this day to pray for those I know who are committed to protecting the unborn.

Personally, I consider Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patroness of inculturation, a term which I define as "adaptation - the demonstration, implementation, the incarnation - Expressions of Faith Christian the many positive aspects of diverse cultures, especially indigenous. " Even before Jacques Cartier discovered Canada, the Holy Virgin appeared to an Indian from Mexico, under the guise of a Native American with the features and symbolic traditional costume who have sympathetic resonance for millions of indigenous Mexicans have rallied to the Christian faith, for they were joined in their cultural fabric. It is important that faith be transmitted in a way that reaches people in what they are. Christ is a Native American, the Virgin is an Indian. This is also true of "tribes" dechristianized the modern world: we need the language (in the sense of cultural events) today serves to proclaim the Good News in a way adapted to the mentality and contemporary culture.

is still the pastor who taught us today was in Canada the " Day of Prayer for Aboriginal Peoples. " On the Internet, I learned that this was done for five years. Just read the newspapers to know that our Aboriginal people have serious problems of poverty (and all the ensuing consequences) compared to the rest of Canadians. In the past and even today, Canadians of European origin have "abused" people who have gone before us in North America. The path to healing and reconciliation will necessitate social justice.

Finally, today I pray especially for my son doctoral student in the history of New France. If I understand correctly, in his thesis he wants to raise awareness of the various Indian bands who settled around Montreal and Quebec City at various times and for various reasons. It is hoped that the additional light thrown on the history of interactions between the French and the indigenous peoples will be of some use in current relationships between First Nations and the states of Quebec and Canada.

In the heart of Advent, as the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the festival highlights Mary is at the heart of all the comings of Christ, it stands for small and humble who are déencombrés enough to welcome him. Guadalupe is the Virgin inculturated and invites us to penetrate the heart of Christianity in our own culture.