To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances;
to seek Him, the greatest adventure;
to find Him, the greatest human achievement.

Saint Augustine

Saturday, December 25, 2010

We join in the singing of all the centuries

Hello, everyone! It's early on Christmas morning, and I should be in bed! Went to a lovely Midnight Mass tonight to welcome our Saviour into the world. Rejoice! Our King has come!

He whom the entire universe could not contain was contained within your womb, O Theotokos.

Madonna of the Rose Bower, by Stefan Lochner, circa 1440-42

Before I go to bed, I'd like to offer for your Christmas reading our dear Pope Benedict's Midnight Mass homily for this year. The full text can be found here. It is truly excellent, and I highly recommend you to read it!

An excerpt: (so hard to pick what to quote!)

Saint Luke does not say that the angels sang. He states quite soberly: the heavenly host praised God and said: “Glory to God in the highest” (Lk 2:13f.). But men have always known that the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that above all on this night of joyful proclamation it was in song that they extolled God’s heavenly glory. So this angelic song has been recognized from the earliest days as music proceeding from God, indeed, as an invitation to join in the singing with hearts filled with joy at the fact that we are loved by God. Cantare amantis est, says Saint Augustine: singing belongs to one who loves. Thus, down the centuries, the angels’ song has again and again become a song of love and joy, a song of those who love. At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth, angels and men. Yes, indeed, we praise You for Your glory. We praise You for Your love. Grant that we may join with You in love more and more, and thus become people of peace. Amen.




*Theotokos is Greek for "God-bearer," the first and foremost title for Mary. Essentially equivalent to the Latin title of Mater Dei -- Mother of God.

Friday, December 24, 2010

The Tree of Life my soul hath seen

This is one of my most favorite songs ever, and one of my favorite "Christmas" songs. It's not really a Christmas song per se, but it tends to be performed around this time of year. :) I added a video of it being sung at the bottom of the post, so you can follow along with the words.
I hope it moves you as much as it does me -- it often brings me to tears.


Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, circa 1784, New England area

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the Apple Tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the Apple Tree.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.



Choir of King's College, Cambridge
(video from about 1993, so excuse the dated look)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Did we forget what it means to be human?

By some stroke of luck, I managed to win a free DVD of The Human Experience, by Grassroots Films. It was being offered through the Catholic young women's magazine Radiant. :)

The contest only required you to watch the trailer and post your response/thoughts on Radiant's Facebook wall. I caught the giveaway in the nick of time (last day)....and won!!! Still can't believe it. Well, I got the DVD in the mail today! So excited to FINALLY be able to watch it. I have known about this film since around 2008. Just the trailer alone has the ability to make me cry. SO beautiful. It has won over 30 awards and film festival honors. Over 30!! And because of that, and because I think more people should know about this film and watch it, etc-- I am sharing the trailer with you. There's actually two of them. I will share the longer, "main" trailer first. ^_^ Please tell me your thoughts on it!



And here is the teaser-trailer, also beautiful and has different footage from the longer one. :)


Monday, December 13, 2010

Christmas Novena to End Abortion (Please join us!)

Hello, all!

A pro-life friend of mine has started a 'project' gathering as many people together to pray a Christmas novena for an end to abortion. It would begin on the 16th. Currently the goal is for 500 novenas, with a potential goal of 1000 if we get enough people interested.

He describes the novena intention thus:

Let’s pray for all expectant mothers that they will respect and cherish the life they carry like Mary did, and for fathers that they may support the mother as St. Joseph supported Mary.

For those who don't know what a novena is, it is nine days set aside for a special or particular prayer intention. (the word 'novena' coming from the Latin for nine) Here is a little history behind the custom.

He has set up an email list on the website you can subscribe to so you can get daily reminders to pray the novena in your inbox. :)

There is also a Facebook event for it you can join. :)

Blessings to all, please pass the word around! And please sign up! It won't be very hard to do, trust me, and it's for a good cause!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Am I not here, who am your Mother?


Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe! If you are unfamiliar with the story, here you can read an English translation of the earliest, original account (that was written in the Aztec language!) of the apparitions that took place in 1531. Also, here is another link relating the story.

Our Lady of Guadalupe was the first "title" and apparition of Our Lady that I learned of when I was little. When I say 'apparition,' I mean 'appearance', more or less. That is, one of the many occasions she has visited the world to try and bring us back to her Son. Accounts of these visits date back to the first few centuries A.D. However, the "big" apparitions, the ones beyond a private visit like many saints and mystics received, the ones where she beseeches us to repent, to sin no more, and turn back to God, etc, it would seem all of them have taken place beginning in the late Middle Ages or so and experiencing more with the Renaissance on. The late 19th-20th centuries have been called a "Marian Age" precisely because the world has experienced an unprecedented number in a short space of time; this can be viewed as a blessing, which it is, and also as a sobering reminder of the direction the world is taking. Repentance and prayer, for renewal of faith, are the common themes. We must amend our lives.

Yes, it was Guadalupe first I learned about, through the children's television show Wishbone, no less! I don't recall the "real-life" storyline of the show (they always tied whatever was going on in Wishbone's family's life into whatever story/book/literature/legend they were depicting), but I remember a Hispanic man sat down with Joe (Wishbone's human) and told him the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which then got told to us like a mini movie with Wishbone the dog portraying St. Juan Diego, lol. Thereafter, I would recognize the image, and be happy to see it, usually in Mexican restaurants. :) I don't think I fully grasped the fact that this Mary was also the very same Mary of Christmas songs, Nativity sets, etc...my young mind didn't quite go that far yet. Even though I knew she was "Mary," it just didn't totally click! We didn't talk much about her at the church we went to, and I always wondered about that. I distinctly remember asking my mother one day "Why don't we talk about Mary very much?" I wanted so much to know more. Funny that it never occurred to me to look up books, or even online, once that became common. It wasn't until we were looking into the Catholic faith that I learned more, and suddenly realized the Mother I had long sought was Mary!

Mary was always there in some small way in my life, little "signposts" and hints along the way, if you will, to something more. I should make a list of all the ways... :P

And then at long last she brought me to her Son's Church, the Church He founded on this Earth for the salvation of mankind, for the "keeping of His sheep," and ministering to His flock. <3

Know for certain that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all who love me, of those who cry to me, of those who have confidence in me. Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection, in the folds of my mantle and the crossing of my arms? What more could you need?

~ words of Our Lady to St. Juan Diego
Here is a newsletter from Monastery Icons containing lots of fascinating information on the unexplainable-to-science tilma upon which is the miraculous image! It is truly wonderful to learn about, so please do read! :)

And lastly, here is a beautiful reflection on today and Our Lady from Fr. Mark at Vultus Christi.

An excerpt:

And so there was music for the ear and the vision for the eye. The plan of God revealed in the enfleshment of his Word is that all things created should be restored to holiness, and that our physical senses themselves should be graced and opened to the mysteries of God. "The flesh," said Tertullian, "is the hinge of salvation." The Virgin chose two other signs before giving that of her miraculous image. The first involves touch. She touched Juan Diego. With an exquisitely maternal tenderness, she arranged roses, marvelous roses picked on a bare and windy hillside in December, in his cloak. The second sign concerns the roses themselves; they were fragrant. They must have been to Juan Diego like this second great feast of the Virgin in December is to us -- surprising like roses blooming in the snow. The third sign is the image, a portrait that is radiantly beautiful. A piece of heaven printed on the poor cloak of a poor man. It is this image that continues to surprise us, to delight us, to be for us a kind of visitation of the Mother of the Lord.

Blessed feastday to all!