Prayer for the New Year
O God of new beginnings and wonderful surprises,
thank you for the gift of a new year.
May it be a time of grace for me,
a time to grow in faith and love,
a time to renew my commitment
a time to renew my commitment
to following Your Son, Jesus.
May it be a year of blessing for me,
May it be a year of blessing for me,
a time to cherish my family and friends,
a time to renew my efforts at work,
a time to renew my efforts at work,
a time to embrace my faith more fully.
Walk with me, please,
Walk with me, please,
in every day and every hour of this new year,
that the light of Christ might shine through me,
in spite of my weaknesses and failings.
Above all, may I remember this year that I am a pilgrim
on the sacred path to You. Amen.
that the light of Christ might shine through me,
in spite of my weaknesses and failings.
Above all, may I remember this year that I am a pilgrim
on the sacred path to You. Amen.
Mary, Mother of God
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Saturday ~ 1 January 2005
Reading I (Numbers 6:22-27)
Reading II (Galatians 4:4-7)
Gospel (St. Luke 2:16-21)
As we celebrate this great solemnity of our Blessed Mother, we stop to reflect upon a couple of different things. It is today, of course, the octave day of Christmas, and therefore the purpose for celebrating this feast is the Divine Maternity, or Mary as the Mother of God. It is also the day that Our Lord was circumcised, on the eighth day after His birth. It is the day that His name was formally given to Him, just as it is today that a child actually does not have a name until the child is baptized. Parents, of course, choose a name sometimes long before the baby is even born, but the child receives a name as a Christian person at the moment of Baptism. So too, Our Lord received His name in His human reality on the eighth day when He was circumcised. All of these events would be taking place over these eight days. We think about Our Lady coming down from Galilee and going to the area outside of Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, and giving birth to her Son, laying Him in a manger, all of the different things that certainly would have been going on around her and within her during those days, with prayer, gazing upon her Son Who is God and reflecting upon the mystery that was conceived within her and born through her, bringing the Child in now for circumcision, and having everything fulfilled exactly as it had been proclaimed by the angel.
We are told that Our Lady held all of these things in her heart and she pondered them. Our Lady continues to ponder things within her heart as she gazes now, not upon the infant face of her Son, but upon the face of her Son in glory, united perfectly with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But as Our Lady looks at the Holy Trinity, she sees within God every single person, every single action, and she recognizes each of these people as her own children because they are made in the image and likeness of God; and Jesus Christ, Who was born of Mary, is, as Saint Paul says, the image of the invisible God. The great mystery is that Mary is made in the image and likeness of Jesus, and Jesus is made in the image and likeness of Mary. So as she looks upon God and sees all of these people created in the image and likeness of the One Who was created in her image and likeness, she reflects upon all these things. She holds them in her heart.
And what she is holding in her heart is exactly what Saint Paul told us in the second reading, that not only in the fullness of time was the Son of God born for us, born under the law, born of a woman; but that in Him we have all become members of Jesus Christ, we have all become children of God, and we have all become heirs of heaven. Just as every child is made not only in the image and likeness of God but also in the image and likeness of his parents, Our Lord was no different. Each one of us, as a member of Jesus Christ through Baptism, has been remade into the very likeness of Jesus Christ Himself. As a member of Jesus Christ, we are able then to call God our Father. And if we can call God our Father because He is the Father of Jesus Christ, then we also call His Mother our Mother because spiritually we are born from the same virginal womb, we are brought forth into the same divine life, we are made members of the same Person to Whom she gave birth.
So as we celebrate today her divine maternity, that is, the fact that she is the Mother of God, we celebrate also her spiritual maternity, that is, that she is the Mother of each and every one of us in the spiritual realm, that we are her children, that we have become heirs of heaven through her Son. Our Lady is our Mother. Every good mother, of course, wants only what is best for her children. Every mother feels very acutely all the things that happen with her children, and, like Our Lady, every other mother holds all these things in her heart and she ponders them. She rejoices when her children rejoice; she suffers when her children suffer.
We need then to look at ourselves and ask, “What are we doing to our Mother’s heart?” Are we giving her cause for rejoicing? What have we given to Our Lady to ponder? Are we giving her holiness, goodness, virtue, and all the things that would resemble her Son so she can look upon us and see her Son within us, and see us within her Son, and continue to ponder the mystery of God become man so that man could become as God? Or are we giving to our Mother the problems that mothers of lots of young people have to deal with now, wondering what happened, wondering why, wondering about this child and all of the errant ways, having to ponder things that are more like the devil than they are like Christ? We want to give to our Mother only the best. We want to give to her the greatest gift that we can, and the greatest gift that we can give to our Blessed Mother is to be more like her Son, to be holy, to be virtuous, to be prayerful, to have our sights set on heaven.
For ourselves, we need also to look at what happened with the shepherds. When they saw this Child, they returned, glorifying God, and telling everyone all about what had happened. We do not just look upon this Child – we receive the fullness of His being in Holy Communion. Do we return praising and glorifying God? Do we return out into the world by living the life of Christ and bringing Him to others? These are the examples we need to look at and from which we need to learn so that we will truly rejoice the heart of our Mother, so that the things she can ponder in each one of us are things that will bring her great joy, so that she will see in us the continuation of the mystery that took place within her, the mystery of the Incarnation, of the unity of the divinity and the humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. As she looks at us, the mystery continues that we who are incorporated into Christ have become her children, who share in the divine nature of her Son, so that the humanity and the divinity continue to operate in each one of us and we continue to live, not according to our fallen human nature, but according to the elevated divine nature that God has given to us, so that in all that we do we give praise and glory to God and give to our Mother a great reason to rejoice as she holds us in her heart and ponders the mystery and the reality of each and every one of us.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ A Voice in the Desert
Homily by Fr. Robert Altier
From: Saturday ~ 1 January 2005
Reading I (Numbers 6:22-27)
Reading II (Galatians 4:4-7)
Gospel (St. Luke 2:16-21)
As we celebrate this great solemnity of our Blessed Mother, we stop to reflect upon a couple of different things. It is today, of course, the octave day of Christmas, and therefore the purpose for celebrating this feast is the Divine Maternity, or Mary as the Mother of God. It is also the day that Our Lord was circumcised, on the eighth day after His birth. It is the day that His name was formally given to Him, just as it is today that a child actually does not have a name until the child is baptized. Parents, of course, choose a name sometimes long before the baby is even born, but the child receives a name as a Christian person at the moment of Baptism. So too, Our Lord received His name in His human reality on the eighth day when He was circumcised. All of these events would be taking place over these eight days. We think about Our Lady coming down from Galilee and going to the area outside of Jerusalem, to Bethlehem, and giving birth to her Son, laying Him in a manger, all of the different things that certainly would have been going on around her and within her during those days, with prayer, gazing upon her Son Who is God and reflecting upon the mystery that was conceived within her and born through her, bringing the Child in now for circumcision, and having everything fulfilled exactly as it had been proclaimed by the angel.
We are told that Our Lady held all of these things in her heart and she pondered them. Our Lady continues to ponder things within her heart as she gazes now, not upon the infant face of her Son, but upon the face of her Son in glory, united perfectly with the Father and the Holy Spirit. But as Our Lady looks at the Holy Trinity, she sees within God every single person, every single action, and she recognizes each of these people as her own children because they are made in the image and likeness of God; and Jesus Christ, Who was born of Mary, is, as Saint Paul says, the image of the invisible God. The great mystery is that Mary is made in the image and likeness of Jesus, and Jesus is made in the image and likeness of Mary. So as she looks upon God and sees all of these people created in the image and likeness of the One Who was created in her image and likeness, she reflects upon all these things. She holds them in her heart.
And what she is holding in her heart is exactly what Saint Paul told us in the second reading, that not only in the fullness of time was the Son of God born for us, born under the law, born of a woman; but that in Him we have all become members of Jesus Christ, we have all become children of God, and we have all become heirs of heaven. Just as every child is made not only in the image and likeness of God but also in the image and likeness of his parents, Our Lord was no different. Each one of us, as a member of Jesus Christ through Baptism, has been remade into the very likeness of Jesus Christ Himself. As a member of Jesus Christ, we are able then to call God our Father. And if we can call God our Father because He is the Father of Jesus Christ, then we also call His Mother our Mother because spiritually we are born from the same virginal womb, we are brought forth into the same divine life, we are made members of the same Person to Whom she gave birth.
So as we celebrate today her divine maternity, that is, the fact that she is the Mother of God, we celebrate also her spiritual maternity, that is, that she is the Mother of each and every one of us in the spiritual realm, that we are her children, that we have become heirs of heaven through her Son. Our Lady is our Mother. Every good mother, of course, wants only what is best for her children. Every mother feels very acutely all the things that happen with her children, and, like Our Lady, every other mother holds all these things in her heart and she ponders them. She rejoices when her children rejoice; she suffers when her children suffer.
We need then to look at ourselves and ask, “What are we doing to our Mother’s heart?” Are we giving her cause for rejoicing? What have we given to Our Lady to ponder? Are we giving her holiness, goodness, virtue, and all the things that would resemble her Son so she can look upon us and see her Son within us, and see us within her Son, and continue to ponder the mystery of God become man so that man could become as God? Or are we giving to our Mother the problems that mothers of lots of young people have to deal with now, wondering what happened, wondering why, wondering about this child and all of the errant ways, having to ponder things that are more like the devil than they are like Christ? We want to give to our Mother only the best. We want to give to her the greatest gift that we can, and the greatest gift that we can give to our Blessed Mother is to be more like her Son, to be holy, to be virtuous, to be prayerful, to have our sights set on heaven.
For ourselves, we need also to look at what happened with the shepherds. When they saw this Child, they returned, glorifying God, and telling everyone all about what had happened. We do not just look upon this Child – we receive the fullness of His being in Holy Communion. Do we return praising and glorifying God? Do we return out into the world by living the life of Christ and bringing Him to others? These are the examples we need to look at and from which we need to learn so that we will truly rejoice the heart of our Mother, so that the things she can ponder in each one of us are things that will bring her great joy, so that she will see in us the continuation of the mystery that took place within her, the mystery of the Incarnation, of the unity of the divinity and the humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. As she looks at us, the mystery continues that we who are incorporated into Christ have become her children, who share in the divine nature of her Son, so that the humanity and the divinity continue to operate in each one of us and we continue to live, not according to our fallen human nature, but according to the elevated divine nature that God has given to us, so that in all that we do we give praise and glory to God and give to our Mother a great reason to rejoice as she holds us in her heart and ponders the mystery and the reality of each and every one of us.
* This text was transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing. From ~ A Voice in the Desert
