Nuestra familia La familia de José, María y Jesús 2021

Nuestra familia

La familia de José, María y Jesús 2021

26 de diciembre de 2021

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Eclesiástico 3: 2-6, 12-14; Salmo 128; Colosenses 3: 12-21; Lucas 2: 41-52

 

En esta Fiesta de la Familia de José, María y Jesús, el Evangelio nos recuerda que nos pertenecemos y somos responsables unos de otros. José y María viajaron con su tribu a Jerusalén para la cena pascual, y ciertamente la tribu cuida a cada persona, y Jesús estaba en edad de cuidar a los niños más pequeños que se habrían extraviado. En términos judíos bíblicos, Jesús era casi un hombre y estaba aprendiendo a ser responsable de sus familiares. Si bien se le da cierto énfasis a la preocupación de sus padres, la mayor conciencia es que Jesús está eligiendo su camino hacia la edad adulta, y ha elegido una vida de servicio a los demás para la gloria de Dios.

 

Una parte más significativa de este pasaje es que Jesús regresó a Nazaret con José y María para aprender a obedecerlos. ¿Porque es esto importante? Fueron los pequeños detalles de la obediencia en la vida diaria los que le permitieron a Jesús entender su don para nosotros, que es su obediencia de fe a Dios. No podría comprender la obediencia de la fe a menos que aprendiera las complejidades de la obediencia a sus padres. Es la obediencia de la fe de Jesús lo que nos salva; no es nuestra fe en él, sino que mostró obediencia a Dios lo que permitió que Dios lo resucitara, para afirmar todo lo que hizo. El acto de obediencia en la Cruz significa que podemos ser llamados hijos de Dios, adoptados en la familia de Dios como amados, porque el evento de Cristo fue el acto que nos acercó más a Dios. Dios nos mostró, a través de la humanidad en su Hijo, que Dios entendía el sufrimiento humano y quería mostrarnos compasión.

 

A medida que experimentamos la vida, sabemos que no hay familias humanas perfectas, y siempre que los cristianos luchan por una vida familiar ideal, nuestra conciencia de la importancia de la caridad y la misericordia es lo que define la vida familiar cristiana. Las familias humanas existen de muchas formas diferentes, y lo que importa es que somos responsables unos de otros. Nos ocupamos de la formación y educación de los demás, aseguramos la atención médica esencial y nos aseguramos de que cada uno esté a salvo de enfermedades y aflicciones, incluimos a los que no están reconciliados y distanciados, damos la bienvenida a los que pueden ser diferentes a nosotros. Practicamos el cuidado y la hospitalidad que Jesús nos brinda y, natural y generosamente, lo brindamos a los demás. La familia humana participa de lo divino cuando nos amamos unos a otros con un amor indescriptible. Este amor se encargará de todos los desafíos y siempre tendremos un hogar. Siempre estarás en el corazón de Jesús y también perteneces a nuestros corazones. Somos familia.

 

Escritura para la misa diaria

 

Lunes: (Hechos 6) Esteban obró grandes maravillas entre la gente y los adversarios debatieron ferozmente con él. Lo echaron fuera de la ciudad, lo apedrearon y lo pusieron a los pies de Saúl.  

 

Martes: (1 Juan) Lo que oímos y vimos con nuestros ojos, lo que miramos y tocamos con nuestras manos, se refiere a la Palabra de vida.

 

Miércoles: (1 Juan) Dios es luz y en él no hay tinieblas. Tenemos comunión con él. Camina en la luz como él está en la luz.  

 

Jueves: (1 Juan) Somos amigos de Dios si guardamos sus mandamientos. Quien ama a su hermano vive en la luz y no hay nada en él que cause una caída.   

   

Viernes (Eclesiástico 3) Dios pone a un padre en honor sobre sus hijos; la autoridad de una madre que él confirma sobre sus hijos. Cuida de tu padre cuando sea mayor.   

 

Sábado (1 Juan 2) Es la última hora y el anticristo viene. Tienes la unción del Santo y tienes todo el conocimiento.

 

Evangelio: 

Lunes: (Mateo 10) Jesús dijo: “Cuídate de los hombres que te entregarán a sus atrios y te azotarán en sus sinagogas. Serás conducido ante gobernadores y reyes.  

 

Martes: (Juan 20) Magdalena corrió hacia Simón Pedro y los discípulos amados para contar la noticia de que Jesús había sido sacado de la tumba. Atemorizados, corrieron a ver la tumba.

 

Miércoles (Mateo 2) Cuando los magos partieron, un ángel le dijo a José que llevara a su esposa e hijo a Egipto porque Herodes iba a buscar al niño para destruirlo.  

 

Jueves (Lucas 2) Cuando se cumplieron los días de la purificación, María y José llevaron al niño al templo, donde conocieron a Simeón, un hombre justo y devoto.

   

Viernes (Mateo 2) Cuando Herodes murió, un ángel le dijo a José que regresara a Israel. "De Egipto llamé a mi hijo".

 

Sábado (Juan 1) En el principio era el Verbo, y el Verbo estaba con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios. Todas las cosas llegaron a ser a través de él. Una luz brilla en la oscuridad.  

 

Santos de la semana

 

26 de diciembre: Esteban, el primer mártir (muerto en 35), fue uno de los siete diáconos originales elegidos para ministrar a los cristianos de habla griega. Los judíos lo acusaron de blasfemia. Aunque fue elocuente en su defensa, Saulo de Tarso condonó su sentencia de muerte.

 

27 de diciembre: Juan, apóstol y evangelista (m. 100), era hermano de Santiago y uno de los tres discípulos que estaría en el círculo íntimo. Dejó la pesca para seguir a Jesús y estuvo con él en los principales acontecimientos: la transfiguración, la resurrección de la hija de Jairo y la agonía en el huerto. También se cree que es el autor del cuarto evangelio, tres cartas y el libro del Apocalipsis.

 

28 de diciembre: Los Santos Inocentes (m. 2), eran los niños de Belén que tenían menos de dos años para ser asesinados por el rey Herodes en un intento de eliminar el ascenso del rey recién nacido como lo predijeron los astrónomos del este. Este evento es similar al rescate de Moisés del Nilo por la matanza de los bebés varones por parte del faraón.

 

29 de diciembre: Thomas Becket, obispo y mártir (1118-1170), fue el canciller y arzobispo de Canterbury en Inglaterra durante la época del rey Enrique II. Cuando no estuvo de acuerdo con el rey sobre la autonomía de la Iglesia y el estado, fue exiliado a Francia. Cuando regresó, se enfrentó nuevamente con el rey que lo hizo asesinar en la catedral de Canterbury. 

 

30 de diciembre: La Familia de José, María y Jesús , fue una fiesta instituida en 1921. Originalmente era el tercer domingo después de Navidad. La Sagrada Familia se ve a menudo en las pinturas del Renacimiento, y muchas de ellas son de la huida a Egipto.

 

31 de diciembre: Silvestre I, papa (muerto en 335), sirvió en la iglesia poco después de que Constantino emitiera su Edicto de Milán en 313 que reconocía públicamente al cristianismo como la religión oficial del imperio y le proporcionaba libertad de culto. El emperador y otros benefactores construyeron grandes iglesias públicas. Silvestre estaba vivo durante el Concilio de Nicea, pero no asistió debido a su vejez.

 

Esta semana en la historia de los jesuitas

 

· 26 de diciembre de 1978. Asesinato de Gerhard Pieper, bibliotecario, asesinado a tiros en Zimbabwe.

· 27 de diciembre de 1618. Henry Morse ingresó en el English College de Roma.

· 28 de diciembre de 1802. El Papa Pío VII permitió que el Padre General Gruber afiliara a los jesuitas ingleses a la Compañía de Jesús en Rusia.

· 29 de diciembre de 1886. Publicación del decreto de beatificación de los mártires ingleses.

· 30 de diciembre de 1564. Carta del Papa Pío IV a Daniel, Arzobispo de Mayence, deplorando los panfletos maliciosos y difamatorios publicados contra la Sociedad en toda Alemania y deseando que use su influencia contra el mal.

· 31 de diciembre de 1640. Muere John Francis Regis. Fue misionero en los pueblos y aldeas de las remotas montañas del sur de Francia.

· 1 de enero de 1598: P. Murió Alfonso Barréna, de apellido Apóstol del Perú. Fue el primero en llevar la fe a los guaraníes y chiquitos en Paraguay. 

Photo: A frosted Tree

 

Poem: Claudia Serra from "The Moment Before Everything" in ANNUNCIATION edited by Elizabeth Adams

To get to you,

I traveled light years

Through cosmic storms and dust,

Only to find you sleeping

on your simple cot.

Stepping back,

I folded,

Quietly,

My gray ragged wings.

I could see why he chose you,

The glow of your pure breath...

I didn’t mean to frighten you,

Just wanted to keep looking...

I wanted to breathe in your innocent air,

Look at your soft,

Surrendered hands...

Another second ...

Before I told you the news.

Poem: “The Annunciation” by Elizabeth Jennings

Nothing will ease the pain to come
Though now she sits in ecstasy
And lets it have its way with her.
The angel’s shadow in the room
Is lightly lifted as if he
Had never terrified her there.

The furniture again returns
To its old simple state. She can
take comfort from the things she knows
Though in her heart new loving burns
Something she never gave to man
Or god before, and this god grows.

Most like a man. She wonders how
To pray at all, what thanks to give
And who to give them to. “Alone
To all men’s eyes I must now go”
She thinks, “And by myself must live
With a strange child that is my own.”

So from her ecstasy she moves
And turns to human things at last
(Announcing angels set aside).
It is a human child she loves
Though a god stirs beneath her breast
And great salvations grip her side.

Photo: The Ceiling at Campion Center

 

Prayer: Meister Eckhart

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity… But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.

Poem: "Prayer for a New Mother" by Dorothy Parker

 The things she knew, let her forget again

The voices in the sky, the fear, the cold
The gaping shepherds, and the queer old men
Piling their clumsy gifts of foreign gold

Let her have laughter with her little one
Teach her the endless, tuneless songs to sing
Grant her her right to whisper to her son
The foolish names one dare not call a king

Keep from her dreams the rumble of a crowd
The smell of rough-cut wood, the trail of red
The thick and chilly whiteness of the shroud
That wraps the strange new body of the dead

Ah, let her go, kind Lord, where mothers go
And boast his pretty words and ways, and plan
The proud and happy years that they shall know
Together, when her son is grown a man

Poem: "Joseph's Suspicion" by Rainer Maria Rilke

 The angel spoke to him and took great pains

to reach the man, whose hands were tightly balled:
“But don’t you see that in her every fold
she is as cool as God’s own early morn?”

Yet back at him the other darkly stared,
muttering just “What’s made this change in her?”
But then the angel cried out, “Carpenter,
you still don’t see the working of our Lord?

Because you make wood boards, would you, in pride,
really presume to call him to account
who unassumingly from that same wood
makes boughs burst into leaf and blossoms sprout?”

He understood. And as he raised his gaze
toward the angel, truly frightened now,
it wasn’t there. Slowly from his brow
he pushed the heavy cap. Then he sang praise.

Spirituality: John of the Cross

 To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to enjoy what you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. To come to the possession you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to what you are not, you must go by a way in which you are not.   

Visitations The Fourth Sunday of Advent 2021

                                                                 Visitations

The Fourth Sunday of Advent 2021

December 19, 2021

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Micah 5:1-4; Psalm 80; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45

 

Within Advent, we have both a settling down into the reality that Christ will be born for us, and a sense of quickening that the actual birth of a child is on its way. In our current Advent days, we get the sense that the beginnings of our salvation is near at hand. For some, it is likely that this will likely be their last Christmas, or it will be the first year without a loved one. The birth of the child is necessary for us because it reminds us that God has not forgotten us.

 

The Gospel scene portrays Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth and what I like about this scene are the conversations that are not written down. Certainly, Mary and Elizabeth talked about many matters – their common movements in pregnancy, the ways God surprised each, the changes happening in their bodies, the friends and relatives they have in common. What matters in this set of events is the nurturing dialogue and the emotions they shared with one another. It was in this sharing that something greater happened. In their common circumstances, they connected in profound ways and built up bonds of friendship.

 

This coming Christmas season is our moment of visitation with God. Just as Mary and Elizabeth shared their stories with one another, we have the same opportunity to share the news of our day with God. It is an opportunity for nurturing dialogue and a sharing of feelings in which, because of our honesty, something greater happens. It is our point of connection in which we are bound to God in friendship. Whenever we come together and share our deeper stories, we experience moments of meaningfulness.

 

This Advent time is important for us to come together and share goodwill with one another because there is great suffering in the world and we never know when someone will celebrate Christmas for the last time. This time is filled with parties and gatherings so we can visit with one another, another visitation, because these moments provide us happiness and remind us that we have a community based in charity to help us move through difficult times. Mary and Elizabeth’s difficult time was met with joy because two sisters came together to support one another; it is also our time to reach into the loved ones lives to share time together. When we do so, God touches those moments and makes them special, and God keeps the promise to be with us evermore. 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Judges 13) A barren woman was visited by an angel to receive the message that she would bear a son. She named him Samson and he spirit of the Lord stirred within him.  

 

Tuesday: (Isaiah 7) This is the sign that you will be given: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be named Emmanuel.

 

Wednesday: (Song of Songs 2) My lover come, springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a young stag. Arise my beautiful one. Come.  

 

Thursday: (1 Samuel 1) Hannah presented her son, Samuel, to the Lord. She left Samuel to grow as a servant of God.     

 

Friday (Malachi 3) I am sending my messenger before me to prepare the way. I will send you Elijah the prophet to turn the hearts of all people back to God.  

 

Saturday (2 Samuel 7) When King David settled into his palace, he was distraught because his Lord had no proper abode for himself. The Lord told David that this house will be David’s.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 1) Zechariah, on priestly duty, and his wife, Elizabeth, prayed fervently. An angel visited them to announce that they would bear a son, who was to be named John. 

 

Tuesday: (Luke 1) The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son who would become the savior of the world. He shall be named Emmanuel.

 

Wednesday (Luke 1) Mary set out to the hill country to visit Elizabeth and Zechariah. When she entered the house, Elizabeth recognized that Mary was pregnant with the Lord.

 

Thursday (Luke 1) Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God, my savior.”   

 

Friday (Luke 1) When the time came to name Elizabeth and John’s son, they wanted to name him after his dad, but Elizabeth said, “No. He will be called John.”

 

Saturday (Luke 1) Zechariah sang, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free.”

 

Saints of the Week

 

December 19 - O root of Jesse's stem, sign of God's love for all the people, before you the kings will be silenced, to you the nations will make their prayers: come to save us without delay!

 

December 20 - O key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, opening the gates of God's eternal kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness.

 

December 21 - O radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come and shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.

 

December 21: Peter Canisius, S.J., priest and religious (1521-1597), was sent to Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and Switzerland during the time of the Protestant Reformation to reinvigorate the Catholic faith. He directed many through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius. He is a doctor of the church for his work in bringing many people back to the faith.

 

December 22 - O King of all nations, and their desire, and keystone of the church: come and save us, whom you formed from the dust.

 

December 23 - O Emmanuel, our king and giver of the Law, the hope of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, Lord our God.

 

December 24: ERO CRAS - In the Roman Catholic tradition, on December 23, the last of the seven “O Antiphons” is sung with the “Alleluia” verse before the Gospel reading at Mass and at Vespers – Evening Prayer in the Divine Office/Breviary. Most ordinary Catholics, however, are more accustomed to hearing these antiphons as verses in the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”

But the literary construction of these wonderful antiphons is arranged in a unique and surprising way: The order of the seven Messianic titles of the “O Antiphons” (and the seven verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) was fixed with a definite purpose. 

In Latin, the initial letters of the antiphons – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia – form a reverse acrostic – a play on words – ERO CRAS, which translates into English as “Tomorrow, I will be.”

So, in the silence of Christmas Eve, we look back on the previous seven days, and we hear the voice of the One whose coming we have prepared for – Jesus Christ – speak to us: “I will be here tomorrow.”

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• December 19, 1593. At Rome, Fr. Robert Bellarmine was appointed rector of the Roman College. 
• December 20, 1815. A ukase of Alexander I was published banishing the Society of Jesus from St Petersburg and Moscow on the pretext that they were troubling the Russian Church. 
• December 21, 1577. In Rome, Fr. Juan de Polanco, secretary to the Society and very dear to Ignatius, died. 
• December 22, 1649. At Cork, Fr. David Glawey, a missionary in the Inner and Lower Hebrides, Islay, Oronsay, Colonsay, and Arran, died. 
• December 23, 1549. Francis Xavier was appointed provincial of the newly erected Indian Province. 
• December 24, 1587. Fr. Claude Matthe died at Ancona. He was a Frenchman of humble birth, highly esteemed by King Henry III and the Duke of Guise. He foretold that Fr. Acquaviva would be General and hold that office for a long period. 
• December 25, 1545. Isabel Roser pronounced her vows as a Jesuit together with Lucrezia di Brandine and Francisca Cruyllas in the presence of Ignatius at the church of Sta. Maria della Strada in Rome.