Reading 1 Is 11:1-10 On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land's afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra's den, and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17 Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever. O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king's son; he shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment. R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever. Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more. May he rule from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever. For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out, and the afflicted when he has no one to help him. He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor; the lives of the poor he shall save. R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever. May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun his name shall remain. In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed; all the nations shall proclaim his happiness. R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Reading 2 Rom 15:4-9
Brothers and sisters: Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing praises to your name.
Alleluia Lk 3:4, 6 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God. R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 3:1-12 John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
S. S.BENEDICT XVI - ANGELUS - 9-12-2007 ...As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the Christmas of Christ, this call of John the Baptist to conversion resounds in our communities. It is a urgent invitation to open our hearts and welcome the Son of God who comes among us to make divine judgment manifest. The Father," writes the evangelist John, "judges no one, but He has entrusted the Son with the power to judge, because He is the Son of man (cf. Jn. 5:22, 27). And it is today, in the present, that our future destiny is at stake; it is by the concrete behavior we keep in this life that we decide our eternal fate. At the sunset of our days on earth, at the moment of death, we will be judged by whether or not we resemble the Child who is about to be born in the poor cave of Bethlehem, for He is the standard of measurement that God has given to humanity. The heavenly Father, who in the birth of His Only Begotten Son manifested His merciful love to us, calls us to follow in His footsteps by making, like Him, of our existences a gift of love. And the fruits of love are those "worthy fruits of conversion" to which St. John the Baptist refers, as he addresses the Pharisees and Sadducees who flocked, in the crowd, to his baptism in lashing words.
Through the Gospel, John the Baptist continues to speak through the centuries, to every generation. His clear and harsh words are all the more salutary for us, the men and women of our time, in which even the way of living and perceiving Christmas is unfortunately, very often, affected by a materialistic mentality. The "voice" of the great prophet asks us to prepare the way for the coming Lord, in the deserts of today, outer and inner deserts, thirsting for the living water that is Christ. May the Virgin Mary guide us to a true conversion of heart, so that we can make the necessary choices to attune our mentalities to the Gospel
H..H..POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 4 December 2016 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
In the Gospel given this second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist’s invitation resounds: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt 3:2). With these very words, Jesus begins his mission in Galilee (cf. Mt 4:17); and such will also be the message that the disciples must bring on their first missionary experience (cf. Mt 10:7). Matthew the evangelist would like to present John as the one who prepares the way of the coming Christ, as well as the disciples as followers, as Jesus preached. It is a matter of the same joyful message: the kingdom of God is at hand! It is near, and it is in us! These words are very important: “The kingdom of God is in our midst!”, Jesus says. And John announces what Jesus will say later: “The kingdom of God is at hand, it has arrived, and is in your midst”. This is the central message of every Christian mission. When a missionary goes, a Christian goes to proclaim Jesus, not to proselytize, as if he were a fan trying to drum up new supporters for his team. No, he goes simply to proclaim: “The kingdom of God is in our midst!”. And in this way, the missionaries prepare the path for Jesus to encounter the people.
But what is this kingdom of God, this kingdom of heaven? They are synonymous. We think immediately of the afterlife: eternal life. Of course this is true, the kingdom of God will extend without limit beyond earthly life, but the good news that Jesus brings us — and that John predicts — is that we do not need to wait for the kingdom of God in the future: it is at hand. In some way it is already present and we may experience spiritual power from now on. “The kingdom of God is in your midst!”, Jesus will say. God comes to establish his lordship in our history, today, every day, in our life; and there — where it is welcomed with faith and humility — love, joy and peace blossom.
The condition for entering and being a part of this kingdom is to implement a change in our life, which is to convert, to convert every day, to take a step forward each day. It is a question of leaving behind the comfortable but misleading ways of the idols of this world: success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price. And instead, preparing the way of the Lord: this does not take away our freedom, but gives us true happiness. With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is God himself who abides among us to free us from self interest, sin and corruption, from these manners of the devil: seeking success at all costs; seeking power to the detriment of the weak; having the desire for wealth; seeking pleasure at any price.
Christmas is a day of great joy, even external, but above all, it is a religious event for which a spiritual preparation is necessary. In this season of Advent, let us be guided by the Baptist’s exhortation: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!”, he tells us (v. 3). We prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight when we examine our conscience, when we scrutinize our attitudes, in order to eliminate these sinful manners that I mentioned, which are not from God: success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price.
May the Virgin Mary help us to prepare ourselves for the encounter with this ever greater Love, which is what Jesus brings and which, on Christmas night, becomes very very small, like a seed fallen on the soil. And Jesus is this seed: the seed of the kingdom of God.
F.FALLETTI "TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES" What does it mean to go into the desert? To do a job or to meet man and God? Sin is a diaphragm that hinders the relationship with God, but also with men and nature, with what we encounter and the essential thing is that man knows how to seek enough to overcome this diaphragm to neutralize the work of the divider, to overcome all that separates him from others and to enclose him in the desert. to neutralize the work of the divider, to overcome everything that separates him from others and locks him in on himself and his world. To get out of sin, man must seek the presence of God and of his brothers and sisters: but for this, he must be moved by a desire, by something that attracts or by news that opens my eyes to what I have not seen and cannot see. It is to tear oneself away from what one already has in order to advance on a ground that opens to me with its mystery, its risk and the charm of its unexplored riches. All the scriptures tell us that the presence of God takes us out of our territory, it takes place in an "exodus". The sheep had found a grassy area and Moses looked around and absentmindedly observed the imposing mountain to which the search for pasture had led him. Suddenly his attention was drawn to a thorn and brush bush that seemed to have caught fire. A commonplace accident, but this fire is different. The bush seems detached and the fire comes from nothing and burns nothing. This fire attracts him. Moses approaches as if to examine a curious fact... and he discovers that Someone is waiting for him. "Moses, Moses" Who can call him in this desert? " I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh" (Ex 3:6). It is not easy to grasp immediately the meaning of an encounter with God! Moses knew that his ancestors had had an intimate relationship with a God who had appeared to them, showered them with blessings and comforted them with mysterious promises. ...He had a good position at court and now he is a refugee, far from his family, shepherding a flock that is not his own. What is this call and this mission? Mistrust, fear, surprise, agitation, exaltation, hope are mixed in his heart. Slowly the certainty that he cannot back down, leave as if nothing had happened, refuse the invitation makes its way. "Why me?" the more Moses tries to back out, the more the Lord clarifies His call, which presents itself more and more as a mission and an invitation to intimacy. He reveals His Name to him, becomes his friend, illuminates his face, opens his secret and discovers his project. And Moses begins to do wonders, things never done before, with a new courage, a confidence that he did not know, he the poor refugee, shepherd of sheep, brought up in Pharaoh's court. Just say "yes", Moses, and you will lead a huge people through the desert to the promised land, you will see the Lord deliver Israel with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. AND YOU TOO, WHOEVER YOU ARE, SAY YOUR "YES", EVEN IF YOU CANNOT KNOW TODAY HOW MUCH THE LORD IS WAITING FOR IT, YOU CANNOT KNOW THE WEIGHT IT WOULD HAVE FOR YOU, FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR ALL THE BRETHREN, FOR THE WORLD AND FOR THE CREATION THAT GROANS WHILE WAITING FOR THE LIBERATION!
Reading 1
RispondiEliminaIs 11:1-10
On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him:
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
a spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,
and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
but he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide aright for the land's afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
the calf and the young lion shall browse together,
with a little child to guide them.
The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,
together their young shall rest;
the lion shall eat hay like the ox.
The baby shall play by the cobra's den,
and the child lay his hand on the adder's lair.
There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,
as water covers the sea.
On that day, the root of Jesse,
set up as a signal for the nations,
the Gentiles shall seek out,
for his dwelling shall be glorious.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
he shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
May his name be blessed forever;
as long as the sun his name shall remain.
In him shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed;
all the nations shall proclaim his happiness.
R. Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.
Reading 2
Rom 15:4-9
Brothers and sisters:
Whatever was written previously was written for our instruction,
that by endurance and by the encouragement of the Scriptures
we might have hope.
May the God of endurance and encouragement
grant you to think in harmony with one another,
in keeping with Christ Jesus,
that with one accord you may with one voice
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you,
for the glory of God.
For I say that Christ became a minister of the circumcised
to show God's truthfulness,
to confirm the promises to the patriarchs,
but so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
As it is written:
Therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles
and sing praises to your name.
Alleluia Lk 3:4, 6
RispondiEliminaR. Alleluia, alleluia.
Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths:
all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 3:1-12
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea
and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"
It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said:
A voice of one crying out in the desert,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
John wore clothing made of camel's hair
and had a leather belt around his waist.
His food was locusts and wild honey.
At that time Jerusalem, all Judea,
and the whole region around the Jordan
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance.
And do not presume to say to yourselves,
'We have Abraham as our father.'
For I tell you,
God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
I am baptizing you with water, for repentance,
but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I.
I am not worthy to carry his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand.
He will clear his threshing floor
and gather his wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
S. S.BENEDICT XVI - ANGELUS - 9-12-2007
RispondiElimina...As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the Christmas of Christ, this call of John the Baptist to conversion resounds in our communities. It is a urgent invitation to open our hearts and welcome the Son of God who comes among us to make divine judgment manifest. The Father," writes the evangelist John, "judges no one, but He has entrusted the Son with the power to judge, because He is the Son of man (cf. Jn. 5:22, 27). And it is today, in the present, that our future destiny is at stake; it is by the concrete behavior we keep in this life that we decide our eternal fate. At the sunset of our days on earth, at the moment of death, we will be judged by whether or not we resemble the Child who is about to be born in the poor cave of Bethlehem, for He is the standard of measurement that God has given to humanity. The heavenly Father, who in the birth of His Only Begotten Son manifested His merciful love to us, calls us to follow in His footsteps by making, like Him, of our existences a gift of love. And the fruits of love are those "worthy fruits of conversion" to which St. John the Baptist refers, as he addresses the Pharisees and Sadducees who flocked, in the crowd, to his baptism in lashing words.
Through the Gospel, John the Baptist continues to speak through the centuries, to every generation. His clear and harsh words are all the more salutary for us, the men and women of our time, in which even the way of living and perceiving Christmas is unfortunately, very often, affected by a materialistic mentality. The "voice" of the great prophet asks us to prepare the way for the coming Lord, in the deserts of today, outer and inner deserts, thirsting for the living water that is Christ. May the Virgin Mary guide us to a true conversion of heart, so that we can make the necessary choices to attune our mentalities to the Gospel
H..H..POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 4 December 2016
RispondiEliminaDear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
In the Gospel given this second Sunday of Advent, John the Baptist’s invitation resounds: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mt 3:2). With these very words, Jesus begins his mission in Galilee (cf. Mt 4:17); and such will also be the message that the disciples must bring on their first missionary experience (cf. Mt 10:7). Matthew the evangelist would like to present John as the one who prepares the way of the coming Christ, as well as the disciples as followers, as Jesus preached. It is a matter of the same joyful message: the kingdom of God is at hand! It is near, and it is in us! These words are very important: “The kingdom of God is in our midst!”, Jesus says. And John announces what Jesus will say later: “The kingdom of God is at hand, it has arrived, and is in your midst”. This is the central message of every Christian mission. When a missionary goes, a Christian goes to proclaim Jesus, not to proselytize, as if he were a fan trying to drum up new supporters for his team. No, he goes simply to proclaim: “The kingdom of God is in our midst!”. And in this way, the missionaries prepare the path for Jesus to encounter the people.
But what is this kingdom of God, this kingdom of heaven? They are synonymous. We think immediately of the afterlife: eternal life. Of course this is true, the kingdom of God will extend without limit beyond earthly life, but the good news that Jesus brings us — and that John predicts — is that we do not need to wait for the kingdom of God in the future: it is at hand. In some way it is already present and we may experience spiritual power from now on. “The kingdom of God is in your midst!”, Jesus will say. God comes to establish his lordship in our history, today, every day, in our life; and there — where it is welcomed with faith and humility — love, joy and peace blossom.
The condition for entering and being a part of this kingdom is to implement a change in our life, which is to convert, to convert every day, to take a step forward each day. It is a question of leaving behind the comfortable but misleading ways of the idols of this world: success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price. And instead, preparing the way of the Lord: this does not take away our freedom, but gives us true happiness. With the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, it is God himself who abides among us to free us from self interest, sin and corruption, from these manners of the devil: seeking success at all costs; seeking power to the detriment of the weak; having the desire for wealth; seeking pleasure at any price.
Christmas is a day of great joy, even external, but above all, it is a religious event for which a spiritual preparation is necessary. In this season of Advent, let us be guided by the Baptist’s exhortation: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight!”, he tells us (v. 3). We prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight when we examine our conscience, when we scrutinize our attitudes, in order to eliminate these sinful manners that I mentioned, which are not from God: success at all costs; power to the detriment of the weak; the desire for wealth; pleasure at any price.
May the Virgin Mary help us to prepare ourselves for the encounter with this ever greater Love, which is what Jesus brings and which, on Christmas night, becomes very very small, like a seed fallen on the soil. And Jesus is this seed: the seed of the kingdom of God.
F.FALLETTI "TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES" What does it mean to go into the desert? To do a job or to meet man and God? Sin is a diaphragm that hinders the relationship with God, but also with men and nature, with what we encounter and the essential thing is that man knows how to seek enough to overcome this diaphragm to neutralize the work of the divider, to overcome all that separates him from others and to enclose him in the desert.
RispondiEliminato neutralize the work of the divider, to overcome everything that separates him from others and locks him in on himself and his world.
To get out of sin, man must seek the presence of God and of his brothers and sisters: but for this, he must be moved by a desire, by something that attracts or by news that opens my eyes to what I have not seen and cannot see. It is to tear oneself away from what one already has in order to advance on a ground that opens to me with its mystery, its risk and the charm of its unexplored riches.
All the scriptures tell us that the presence of God takes us out of our territory, it takes place in an "exodus".
The sheep had found a grassy area and Moses looked around and absentmindedly observed the imposing mountain to which the search for pasture had led him.
Suddenly his attention was drawn to a thorn and brush bush that seemed to have caught fire. A commonplace accident, but this fire is different. The bush seems detached and the fire comes from nothing and burns nothing. This fire attracts him.
Moses approaches as if to examine a curious fact... and he discovers that Someone is waiting for him.
"Moses, Moses" Who can call him in this desert? " I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh" (Ex 3:6).
It is not easy to grasp immediately the meaning of an encounter with God! Moses knew that his ancestors had had an intimate relationship with a God who had appeared to them, showered them with blessings and comforted them with mysterious promises.
...He had a good position at court and now he is a refugee, far from his family, shepherding a flock that is not his own. What is this call and this mission? Mistrust, fear, surprise, agitation, exaltation, hope are mixed in his heart. Slowly the certainty that he cannot back down, leave as if nothing had happened, refuse the invitation makes its way.
"Why me?" the more Moses tries to back out, the more the Lord clarifies His call, which presents itself more and more as a mission and an invitation to intimacy. He reveals His Name to him, becomes his friend, illuminates his face, opens his secret and discovers his project.
And Moses begins to do wonders, things never done before, with a new courage, a confidence that he did not know, he the poor refugee, shepherd of sheep, brought up in Pharaoh's court.
Just say "yes", Moses, and you will lead a huge people through the desert to the promised land, you will see the Lord deliver Israel with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.
AND YOU TOO, WHOEVER YOU ARE, SAY YOUR "YES", EVEN IF YOU CANNOT KNOW TODAY HOW MUCH THE LORD IS WAITING FOR IT, YOU CANNOT KNOW THE WEIGHT IT WOULD HAVE FOR YOU, FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR ALL THE BRETHREN, FOR THE WORLD AND FOR THE CREATION THAT GROANS WHILE WAITING FOR THE LIBERATION!