December 18: O Adonai, O Lord

O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel,
who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush,
who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain:
Come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free. 

Moses Before the Burning Bush, bas relief plaque by Scott Sullivan, 2004.

 Look at just a part of the story of Moses in the Old Testament, Exodus 3: 1-17. What can you tell your children about what is going on there? While we know that God is so much stronger and wiser and better (and any other good superlative we can think of!) than us, isn't it amazing that God loves us so much to always want to help us?

God helped our ancestors and helps us in many ways: inspiring people to take on leadership when times were tough, providing that wisdom and guidance and vision to figure out how to make things better, and giving us laws to set us free. 

Giving us laws? That's not freedom!!! Oh, but if you look at the Ten Commandments (Exodus Chapter 20), they really are basic laws that help people get along with each other. It's hard to trust people who steal and lie and covet what doesn't belong to them, isn't it?

You could list with your child some of the laws in your family, and why they exist. (E.g., Not touching hot stoves, being home or in bed by a certain time both are matters of safety or good health, picking up after yourself is a sign of respect for everybody else who lives there, etc.)  Good rules help us feel more secure and free us from constantly trying to figure out what's right. (Bad or silly rules are just annoying, aren't they?!)

In what ways can your child name that Jesus 'stretched out his mighty hand to set us free', by his actions or words? What laws did he give us? (for ideas, see: Matthew 25: 31-40; Luke 6: 27-38; John 13: 34-35)

In your own words or using the words of the antiphon at the top of this post, pray with your child for God to lead you along the paths of safety and goodness.

December 17: O Sapientia, O Wisdom

O Wisdom, O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care:
Come and show your people the way to salvation.

Figure of Wisdom by John LaFarge, 1901

Questions to ponder with your child...

• What's the difference between being smart and being wise? (one simple thought: A smart person knows the correct answers, a wise person looks for the best outcome)
• Go to the Old Testament and read Wisdom 7:22-8:1. Maybe you can pick out a few verses to share with your child, and talk about wisdom.
• If we were to be 'wise', what would that look like, how would we act, how would we make choices?

Using the words of today's antiphon or your own words,

pray with your child and ask God for the gift of wisdom.

(You are always welcome to post comments: yours or your child's thoughts on the topic!)

Holiday Mass Schedule

You can find the mass schedule for the next couple of weekends posted here.

Please remember that the Christmas Eve services get very crowded, and will begin as soon as the Church is full. Since these services tend to draw in our brothers and sisters who may not pray with us regularly, please take it upon yourself to be extra welcoming to unfamiliar faces. YOU may be reason they might decide to come back another week!!

O Antiphons

As we reach the latter part of Advent, we encounter seven traditional and ancient antiphons (responses) in the Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. You may recall that in Jewish practice the day begins at sundown, so praying these antiphons during the vespers of December 17-23 takes us to the beginning of Christmas Eve. Each of these prayers is a plea for Jesus' coming, addressing him by an ancient Scriptural name, and petitioning for a particular act of salvation from him.

Here's an interesting bit of information, found at catholic-resources.org:

In the traditional arrangement, when viewed from Christmas Eve backward, the first letters of the Latin texts (Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia) spell out the phrase ero cras ("I come tomorrow").

Please come back each day this week, as we bring our Advent preparation to its joyful conclusion!

A Holy Day

Wednesday, December 8 is an important day for us as Catholics. We call it a 'Solemnity'- that means it's a really big feast day, in fact, it is one of our "Holy Days of Obligation". Holy Days are those special times- in addition to every Sunday -when we as Catholics are called to come together in Mass and celebrate or commemorate something significant.

December 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I invite you to look at the readings for this day. The Gospel talks about the Annunciation to Mary about Jesus, not about HER conception... no wonder some Catholics get confused about who this feast is about! (If it helps to remember, we celebrate the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary of God's special plan for her on March 25- exactly 9 months before Christmas!)

I can think of three good reasons to use this Gospel:
1) Mary's role as the mother of Jesus, which she embraced at the Annunciation, was an acceptance that required all the strength and grace a human could muster ... a gift God gave Mary at her own conception to keep her from sin ('full of grace') throughout her life. Of course, since she had free will like every human being, she still could have said 'no' to God's invitation to bear Jesus, but because of this special gift from first instant of her life, she had enough love, courage and strength to say 'yes'!
2) From the 'it is fitting' school of thought - if God was to become human, God would deserve nothing but the best (e.g., would you really want to drink fine wine from paper cups?!), and to use old terminology, the 'stainless vessel' of Mary, sinless from the first instant of her life, was the most fitting means of the Incarnation.
3) Compare the Gospel with the first reading - a Genesis version of sin entering the world through Eve (AND Adam) succumbing to the temptation of the serpent. Through previously sinless Eve sin entered the world, and through the miraculously sinless Mary, the 'new Eve', the means of salvation from sin was born into our world.
oh, and
4) not so good a reason, but a practical one: there really is no Scriptural evidence for the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception beyond the angel's brief reference to Mary as "full of grace", and her cousin Elizabeth's later greeting her as "blessed among women".

But let's put this a bit more simply: every time we honor Mary, what we say about her is both a reflection of what we believe about Jesus, and what we hope for or anticipate for ourselves. So in this case, we celebrate the redemptive power of God through Jesus Christ to save us from the power of sin, enabling Mary physically and us spiritually to freely say 'yes' to God's invitation to carry Jesus in our lives.

So, please come and celebrate how much God loves us! Mass times at St. Andrew the Apostle are 6:30am, 9:00 am and 7:30pm.

Check out the new link!

Look over to the right side of the page, under the link for St. Andrew parish website. If you click on that link "Lectionary Readings for Children" , it will take you to a page which links to the upcoming Sunday readings, but using wording that is easier for children to understand. To tell you the truth, sometimes it makes it much easier for adults to understand the message, too!

Enjoy!

Feast of St. Nicholas

December 6 is the feast of St. Nicholas.
Click to read a little information about this 4th Century Bishop from the area that is now Turkey.

A tradition in my family, and for many families, is for children to leave their shoes out overnight when going to bed December 5, and finding them filled with small gifts and/or candy upon awakening (we put our shoes in the hall, rather than outside - St. Nicholas always found them okay!). As adaptations happen over time and across cultures, that's not a far stretch to hanging one's sock (stocking) by the fireplace for Santa Claus, eh?!

Maybe a few gold candy coins in a sneaker this year could open an opportunity to talk about how St. Nicholas was concerned about caring for those in need, and how fun it can be to do good deeds in secret, just to be nice, not to be recognized!