Readings for Dec 24, 2017 for Christmas Eve

MASS READINGS

December 24, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

Pour along, we beseech you lot, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the Incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an Angel, may past his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of his Resurrection. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of due east-books!

Previous Calendar: Quaternary Lord's day of Appearance ; Other Titles: Day 3 O Antiphons: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)

"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you lot." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might exist. Then the angel said to her, "Do non be afraid, Mary, for you accept found favor with God. "Behold, you volition conceive in your womb and acquit a son, and you shall proper name him Jesus. He volition exist neat and will exist chosen Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his begetter, and he will rule over the business firm of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom at that place volition exist no stop."

This yr Advent is very short, Lord's day being the simply day in the 4th week. In the General Roman Calendar, today is the concluding day of Advent, Christmas Eve, and also (beginning with the vigil Mass) is the first day of Christmas time. The liturgical texts express wholehearted confidence in the imminent coming of the Redeemer. There is much joyous expectation. Most families have their own observances, customs that should be preserved from generation to generation. Today is the last day of our Christmas Novena.

Click here for commentary on the readings in the Extraordinary Course of the Roman Rite.

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Sunday Readings
The first reading is taken from Isaiah seven:x-14. The Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel' (Is 7:xiv). This well-known affirmation by the prophet Isaiah announces the coming of the Messiah into human being history. It already gives u.s. a taste of the proximity of that marvelous, stupendous solar day which volition be the 'dies natalis' of Jesus. It was foretold by the prophets and proclaimed throughout the whole of Sacred Scriptures that He would exist the I who would fulfil and bring them to completion. Our God volition be incarnated and built-in due to the generous willingness of the 'Virgin' who, from the very starting time of time, was called to exist the Mother of the Savior.

The second reading is from the Letter of the alphabet of St. Paul to the Romans ane:1-7. St. Paul opens his letter of the alphabet to the Jewish and Gentile converts of Rome, the first generation of Christians in the captial city of the empire, by stating that he is an Apostle called by Christ to spread the adept news of the Incarnation. He calls this news the Gospel of God," for information technology is an account of that almost incredible human action of God's love for us. God sent his divine Son, as man amidst us in this work, in order that nosotros might be with the three divine Persons for all eternity in the next world.

The Gospel is from Matthew ane:18-24. "How unsearchable are the judgements of God and how inscrutable his means!" as St. Paul says to the Romans (eleven :33). If God had preserved the kingdom of Judah (which he could so hands take done), and if the Messiah, the son of David, were to be born in the royal palace in Jerusalem, information technology would be natural and we would well-nigh say, more fitting the dignity of the Messiah. Instead, God allowed the kingly line, and the throne of Judah, to disappear, and he chose a humble carpenter of Nazareth, a truthful descendant of David but a lowly one, to be the foster-father of his divine Son, when he took man nature and came on earth to "dwell among u.s.a.." Just God's ways are not our means. It is not by their social standing, nor by their bank-accounts, that God values men. Virtue is the scale he uses when weighing men. In God's optics, no king sat on the throne of Judah, non even David himself, who was more adequate to God as foster-father for his Son, than the carpenter of Nazareth.

This is the terminal Sunday of our preparation for Christmas, the ceremony of Christ's nascence. Like Joseph, we can all feel unworthy of the honour of welcoming him into our hearts and our homes. We are indeed unworthy, non because nosotros take petty of this globe'south goods, simply considering nosotros have then lilliputian humility, and so little charity, so little faith and trust in God'southward goodness. Let us try to imitate Joseph and Mary, the humblest of the humble, the kindliest of the kindly, and the greatest-ever believers in God's goodness and mercy. We tin can never hope to equal them, simply we tin can follow them humbly, from distant.

The feast of Christmas should draw the hearts of every child of God towards the furnace of divine dearest. In the manger, the infinite love of God for the states miserable sinners is dramatically and forcefully portrayed earlier our eyes. In that helpless Baby, represented by a statue, we know that the person, and the power, of the omnipotent Creator and sustainer of the universe lie subconscious "He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave" for us. He became a animal, like ourselves, so that he would make us sharers in his divine nature. He came on earth to bring us to heaven. He hid his divine nature and then that he could comprehend us with it.

"Unsearchable indeed are the judgements of God, and inscrutable his ways." Only though we are unworthy of his infinite love, information technology yet stands out equally clear equally the noonday lord's day in the Incarnation. We realize that nosotros can never brand ourselves worthy of this infinite dearest, but let the states imitate Joseph and have the accolade which God is giving us, as we trust that he will go on to make us daily less unworthy.

Excerpted from The Sun Readings by Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

Today is Day Nine of the Christmas Novena.

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Commentary for the Readings in the Extraordinary Form:
Fourth Lord's day of Advent
"John, the son of Zachary," to a world now awaiting its God, pleads for our final pre-Christmas "make ready." "Make ready the fashion of the Lord, make directly His paths" (Gospel).

Heroically, in the desert, he warns confronting the softness of life in the urban center, pictured in the background. Alive to the danger of a "soft garments" life, he is seen in a rough "garment of camel hair," carrying a baptismal trounce, "preaching a baptism of repentance."

Excerpted from My Sunday Missal, Confraternity of the Precious Claret

Readings for Dec 24, 2017 for Christmas Eve

Source: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2017-12-24

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