Luke 2:1-16
“In those days a decree went our from Caesar Augustus… “ I recall as a child memorizing the Christmas story according to Luke, primarily because we watched and re-watched A Charlie Brown Christmas each year on TV. Interesting that THE STORY of Christmas seems to begin with a notorious pagan, colonial, Roman, dictator! It may seem to those without the Light of Life that is faith in Christ Jesus, that Caesar precipitated the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. But, in view of THE SIGN and ultimately THE GIFT, the Truth and the Love of this season is clear. Far beyond human expediency, Father Creator God orchestrated the redemption of Humankind using the actors on the world stage according to his purposes – to remind us for ever that the living Holy Spirit of God is more than capable of reaching through time and space no matter what our circumstances to touch our hearts, minds, souls and strength with the Glory and Mercy of his Love, Light, and Life. This Holy Night, let us live into the Glory STORY of Christ Jesus, Immanuel, born in a stable cave in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary accompanied by her spouse Joseph, some two millenia ago. And let us, no matter what our circumstances this Christmas sing with the angels, “Glory to God in the Highest! And on earth peace to people of good will!”
 
Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.   (Psalm 25:5)
 
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
Adeste Fideles  J.F. Wade, 1751
 
A Blessed and Joyful Christmas season to you and your family!

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Isaiah 7:10 – 14
God, give me a Sign that you exist, the human spirit cries out.  God’s response in the time of Ahaz answers this challenge for all eternity; but how often do we, like the Israeli King, miss the message? King Ahaz was on a roll – he had had reasonable victories as he attempted to carve out the promised land from the enemies of Israel, and wanted a sign from God that he would continue to be successful. Faking piety, he asked God for confirmation that he would be successful in his next military campaign, but in pretentious, self-directed, religiousity Ahaz said he wouldn’t ask God for a sign.  God did respond to Ahaz (as he does to me each day) and to humanity throughout the ages - not with affirmation of my human plans and projects, but with THE SIGN that the Son of God would divinely become the Son of Man, born into ‘history’. Some 800 years later, and for us some 2000 years in the past, this happened. Through the purity and fiat of the Virgin Mary God’s Only Begotten Son was born, living into his names revealed by Gabriel to Mary  and Joseph,  ‘God With Us’, aka Immanuel and ‘God Saves’, Jesus, because he would redeem human kind from the pandemic of sin.  King Ahaz, who did not fully receive THE SIGN was not successful in his campaign, and finally, in order to create a peace of his own design, entered into a religious duality with a nation that worshipped ‘foreign gods’ that led Israel into a spiritual desert. Will I, unlike King Ahaz, pay attention to THE SIGN that we still celebrate at the winter solstice, and celebrate Christmas this year giving praise and homage to Jesus Immanuel at the feast of the Incarnation, the Nativity of our Lord? Holy Spirit of God, help me recognize and receive your SIGN Jesus Immanuel… 
 
Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.   (Psalm 25:5)
 
Christ’s birth was not a necessity, but an expression of omnipotence, a sacrament of commitment for the redemption of humankind.  
Saint Peter Chrysologus 406 – 450 AD
 
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Luke 1:26-38
The nature of Christ Jesus is summed up in the name by which he was made known to Mary: Immanuel, God With Us. For nine months the virgin nurtured the nature of Christ Jesus within her.  In utero, Jesus would have known her purity, unbounded and embracing love, and her humility as the very Thoetokos, the Bearer of the God. Clearly Mary unreservedly aligned herself with the holiness of the Holy Spirit of God with all the Light, Love, Life, and even Laughter that the Spirit of God brings to any human being who so embraces the Holy Spirit in heart, mind, soul and strength.  An what of me, and my life? Have I, like Mary, accepted the seed of Grace first given to me in Baptism and nurtured each time I (knowingly) receive Holy Communion? Do I allow the Father to grow up this Grace by His Holy Spirit in me, not merely ‘facing’ the chances and challenges of life, but in all humility and longing looking to my Heavenly Father to guide and direct me, just as Jesus did in his adult life? And what of US, the people of God in these ‘postmodern’ and ‘relativistic’ times? Do we allow the Father to grow up the Grace of God, that is the nature of Christ Jesus, in our places of work, worship and waiting and in our relationships? Will we purify ourselves of all the ‘vanities’ of this world, by using the goods of this world gently, and with humility keep our focus on the riches of the Kingdom of God, like Mary – and Jesus?  As much as we do so, then the Holy Spirit that was nurtured in the humility of the Son of Man, who was the Son of God - born of a country Virgin in a stable in the small town in Bethlehem in an impoverished state under the colonial power of the Roman Empire- that is Christ Jesus – that Spirit will be nurtured in us as well.  Holy Spirit of God, nurture in me the nature and humility of Christ Jesus, to know You and to love You…
 
He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.   (Psalm 91:4)
 
Advent… This means [each of us with our own lives] being a person who enacts freedom, in faith, hope and love, in the final movement of the world and history toward God’s arrival in it.
Karl Rahner, SJ [with short edit by bhi]
 
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Gospel Mystery of the Day                             December 10, 2025
                                                                        Second Week of Advent
                                                                         
Good Morning!      
Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
 
Holy Spirit of God, help me live into the gift of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus…
 
Isaiah 11:1-10, Is 30:19-26 & Eph 1:3-12
At Christmas time we give gifts and receive presents from others. It’s good to give fancy frivolities or serious socks, sparkly baubles or the tool someone needs but cannot afford.  But what of The Gift? Christmas celebrates the incarnation of Almighty God, in Christ Jesus, born of Mary to be first born of the ‘family of God’, to redeem human kind from sin so that we might have eternal life! Isaiah envisions this Gift: “the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might”… righteousness (that is ‘right relationships) and faithfulness will be His belt; …‘the wolf shall live with the lamb… and a little child shall lead them…”; and “Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher… and your ears shall hear…”this is the way; walk in it.” This is truly the gift that keeps on giving. And it is a gift freely given – not only needed by all, but given to all. Yet so few of us even take the time to fully unwrap this true Christmas Gift, let alone possess and care for it. Will I receive the special blessings of Christ Jesus that St. Paul refers to, by setting my hope on Him and living for the praise of His Glory?  Holy Spirit of God, help me live into the gift of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
 
The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… He restores my soul. (Psalm 23:1,3)
 
God loves us and enjoys us, and so he wills that we love and enjoy him, and firmly trust him; and all shall be well.
Julian of Norwich, in Revelations of Divine Love.
 
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Isaiah 4:2-6 
Comfort, security and happiness this side of heaven have a glory of their own. Who hasn’t basked in at least an occasional ‘good time’, that brings a glow to our souls and our faces, and a sense that ‘all is well’ to our hearts and minds. But the Glory of God is so much more than this.  It is the creative, electrically mysterious, sweepingly great, ineffable Light that creates stars out of black holes, an abundant natural world out of a very specific balance of elements and life forms, and divine Joy out of human sorrows. It is this Glory that filled the skies over Bethlehem the day God, by generative Mercy, touched down to earth in human form, incarnate through the Virgin Mary to redeem and save the world from its disease of sin. It is this Glory, fueled by divine Mercy, that the Lord promised the wandering Israelites would ‘cover’ them by day and lead them by night, and so protect them from ‘the Enemy’ that would prevent them from entering the promised land, that was their own prefiguration of heaven. We to day, just as the Israelites of old, are on journeys through a wilderness.  We are finding our way through cultural oases and digital deserts replete with their own customs, scorpions and serpents, and dry, shifting sands. We need not only protection and guidance, we need PROTECTION and DIRECTION, the kind provided to us by the Grace of God. We, too, need the shining GLORY and patient MERCY of God to cover us by day, when we need to be shielded from the fiery glitz and glamour of the world around us; and we need the steady fire of the GLORY and patient MERCY of God to lead us through the dark nights of grief, fear and unbelief – day by day, and even minute by minute. During the ‘day’ of good times, will I scatter away from faith in God to the comforts, securities and happiness of this temporal world, or will I simply walk ahead, taking shelter under the Cover of God’s Glory and Mercy? And when life is harsh and hard, will I wallow in my own darkness, or will I raise my head and look for the Everlasting Glory and Mercy of God that is always present to lead me on into the nearer presence of our Father-Creator? Holy Spirit of God, cover me by day and lead me by night with your Glory and your Mercy.
 
LORD, lead me in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your path straight before me. (Psalm 5:8)
 
God loves us and enjoys us, and so he wills that we love and enjoy him, and firmly trust him; and all shall be well.
Julian of Norwich, in Revelations of Divine Love.
 
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