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Pray for Fr. Joe, Dan, Mary, Sanja,
        Rita, Jim, Rosie, Louie's family –
        Madonna, Christopher,
        all Shepherds of Christ intentions on lists.

December 22, 2019

December 22, 2019

December 22, 2019

Colossians 1: 24

It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church,

Romans 8: 17

And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint–heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.

4th Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 7: 10-14

Yahweh spoke to Ahaz again and said:

    Ask Yahweh your God for a sign,
    either in the depths of Sheol
    or in the heights above.

    But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask. I will not put Yahweh to the test.’
    He then said:

    Listen now, House of David:
    are you not satisfied
        with trying human patience
    that you should try
        my God’s patience too?
    The Lord will give you a sign in any case:
    It is this: the young woman is with child
    and will give birth to a son
    whom she will call Immanuel.

Psalm 24: 1-6

To Yahweh belong the earth and all it contains,
the world and all who live there;
it is he who laid its foundations on the seas,
on the flowing waters fixed it firm.

Who shall go up to the mountain of Yahweh?
Who shall take a stand in his holy place?

The clean of hands and pure of heart,
whose heart is not set on vanities,
who does not swear an oath in order to deceive.

Such a one will receive blessing from Yahweh,
saving justice from the God of his salvation.
Such is the people that seeks him,
that seeks your presence, God of Jacob.                Pause

Romans 1: 1-7

From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the service of the gospel that God promised long ago through his prophets in the holy scriptures.

    This is the gospel concerning his Son who, in terms of human nature was born a descendant of David and who, in terms of the Spirit and of holiness, was designated Son of God in power by resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received grace and our apostolic mission of winning the obedience of faith among all the nations for the honour of his name. You are among these, and by his call you belong to Jesus Christ. To you all, God's beloved in Rome, called to be his holy people. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 1: 18-24

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

Look! the virgin is with child
    and will give birth to a son
whom they will call Immanuel,

a name which means ‘God–is–with–us’. When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home; he had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.

4th Sunday of Advent

December 18, 2016

INTRODUCTION – (Isaiah 7,10-14; Romans 1,1-7; Matthew 1, 18-24) Our first reading takes us back 700 years before Christ to the Middle East. It was as complicated a political situation then as it is today. There are four nations and their kings involved in this complicated story. Tiglath-pileser III was king over the Assyrians. The Assyrians were the dominant power in the Middle East. They were an especially cruel and powerful nation whose capital was located in what is today northern Iraq. Ahaz was king in Jerusalem, and that’s the only name you will need to remember. There were two more kings whose lands were north of Jerusalem.

    These two kings from the north decided they wanted to go to war against Assyria and they wanted King Ahaz in Jerusalem to join them. Ahaz refused, so the two northern kings were going to attack Jerusalem to replace Ahaz with someone who would go along with their scheme. Ahaz decided to call on Assyria for protection.

    This is where our first reading comes in - an extremely important passage in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah warned Ahaz not to get involved with Assyria for they were too powerful. Isaiah promised, “God would keep the king and Jerusalem safe.” The two kings from the north would soon be destroyed. Ahaz did not have enough faith in God. Isaiah tried to offer Ahaz a sign that he should trust God. Ahaz, in a phony display of humility, protested, but Isaiah offered a sign anyway. For Ahaz, the sign would be that he would soon have a son to succeed him as king. He had no offspring at this time for he had recently sacrificed his only son to the Canaanite God, Moloch. This future son of King Ahaz would be called by the symbolic name Emmanuel for he would be a sign that God was with his people.

    God was faithful to his word. Ahaz did have a son who succeeded him and his son turned out to be a good leader. Almost eight centuries later, St. Matthew saw in this promise of Isaiah a greater depth of meaning as we will hear in today’s gospel. He saw that Jesus fulfilled this promise perfectly by being born of a virgin and by being a sign to us that God is with us.

HOMILY – Bob forgot to give his wife a gift or bring her flowers on their wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. He asked how he could make things right with her. She said with Christmas around the corner, she wanted a gift that would go from 0 to 200 in six seconds. So on Christmas he told her the gift was in the garage. She ran down excitedly, opened the garage door and there in the garage was a brand new, brightly shining, chrome plated bathroom scale. Bob hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

    It seems to be a guy thing to forget anniversaries. But anniversaries are very important. We are preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, an anniversary that people have celebrated for about 17 centuries. Both Matthew and Luke describe for us some of the events leading up to the birth of Jesus. Since most of our gospels this year will be from Matthew’s gospel, we listen to what Matthew tells us about Jesus’ birth. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth and the events that led up to it does not lend itself to beautiful works of art or musical compositions as does Luke’s infancy narrative. We can appreciate Matthew because he tells us what was happening with Joseph, while Luke tells us mostly about Mary. We wish they could have told us more, but these were the traditions they had to work with, so we are grateful for preserving them for us. Both Matthew and Luke stress the miraculous nature of Jesus’ conception and the problems it created for Mary and Joseph. To understand what was happening with Joseph, we have to know that for the Jews, marriage took place in two stages. First there was a formal exchange of consent before witnesses. The second step was at a later time (usually about a year later) when the groom took the bride to his home. Even before they came to live together, legally they were considered married.

    Problems arose when Mary conceived Jesus before they lived together. Joseph didn’t know what to do, at least not until the angel told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.” Of course, he obeyed the message of the angel. Until the angel spoke to him, we do not know what Joseph was thinking. I can’t imagine that Mary didn’t tell him what was happening, but whether Joseph didn’t believe what she told him and he thought she had been unfaithful, or whether he did believe her and he felt unworthy to be part of such a holy event, we are not told. Matthew doesn’t give us any insight into Joseph’s decision to divorce Mary. Matthew’s main intent is to tell us of the miraculous nature of Jesus’ birth and that Joseph had a necessary part to play as he was “son of David” (the title the angel gave him in his dream). Legally he would be Jesus’ father; he would give Jesus his name and, legally, Jesus would belong to the royal house of David. Jesus would fulfill the Messianic expectations of God’s people, and he would fulfill the ancient prophecy of Nathan, the prophet who told David 1,000 years earlier that “God would establish the throne of David’s kingdom forever.” (II Samuel, 7,13)

    Our gospel is interesting in that it confirms the miraculous conception of Jesus and it gives us a little more insight into the events that surrounded Jesus’ birth. In addition, our gospel has a message for us today. It shows us how our lives can take a sudden turn. We have our life planned out and we’re going along peacefully day by day doing what we had intended and then, without warning, everything is turned upside down. Perhaps it is a sudden sickness or death, a financial loss, a new child within the family, a new in law or whatever. (thoughts from Biblical Meditations for Advent and the Christmas Season by Carroll Stuhlmueller, pg 70) We are reminded we are not in charge and we have to fall back on our faith that God loves us and will help us get through whatever situation we are in. Only God saves (which is what the name “Jesus” means: Yahweh saves). Amen.

^{^{Given

October 29, 2016



R.
Please spread blessed holy water

(You can also mix Jesus and Mary water

with your blessed Holy Water if you have it.)

in your yard, around your house,

in the state you live in.


    And ask God to bless your state


Ask God to bless the United States

Pray all prayers through the intercession of

Our Lady of CLEAR – WATER.

Ask the Lady of CLEAR - WATER

to help with the blessed water.

Mary has appeared to me for 22 years,

in Ohio and Florida.}}