Thought for This Christmas Season

[Sr. Dara]

Friends, with the Christmas season so close, let us take a moment to reflect on the glorious season which will soon be upon us.
Please share your own particular prayer of devotion at this miraculous time, when all Christians are called to celebrate the greatness of God and marvel at the wonders of creation.
With thanks and best wishes to you all, my sisters and brothers in Jesus, Sr. Dara.

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Sr. Dara

 

[The Disciple]

A Christmas Devotional - Silent Night


It happens every Christmas. Hustling, bustling, shopping, traveling, cooking. Parties, banquets, Santa Claus, pageants, decorations, trees, lights, clothes.

We get caught up in the season of Christmas, stressed about making arrangements to see and please everyone, pressured to balance an already busy schedule with unlimited amounts of additional activities, pushed to attend, give, join, gather and perform.

But it happens every Christmas. We are busily tending to our own flock, when out nowhere, the calm and peace and tranquility of Christmas comes. We are never prepared for it. We are always stunned. And amazed. And we experience the awe of the nativity, an event we never witnessed, but of which we somehow have mysterious first-hand knowledge.


Silent night, holy night,
all is calm, all is bright
round yon virgin
mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
sleep in heavenly peace.


It happens every Christmas, and it is frequently this hymn that catches us off guard. We vividly see and experience the serene relief of a world with a newly-born savior.

Then we are transported to the nearby hillside, where shepherds busily tended their sheep, completely unaware that they had been chosen to receive the best news ever heard. We join them, trembling, no quaking, with fear. And above them, the sky is laid open with what can only be described as glory.


Glories stream from heaven afar,
heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
With the angels let us sing,
Alleluia to our King;
Christ the Savior is born.


And this we can’t imagine or experience first-hand. Neither Bach nor Mozart ever composed music that remotely compared to the songs the angels sang that night. The total, absolute majesty that only heaven could produce, suitable for the greatest tidings from a glorious God to his lonely creation. We know it is unfathomable, and reserved only for the time when we enter his glory.

But we can see the glory in our Lord and Savior. He is our window, our path to our heavenly home. Even as a baby…


Son of God, love's pure light;
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at thy birth,


Dear Father,

It happens every Christmas. We get so caught up in the spirit of the season, that we lose sight of the meaning of Christmas, and the reason for the celebration in the first place. Keep us mindful that you are constantly reaching out for us, that you are always there for us. Just as you were many years ago on that amazing, Silent Night. Help us to see your glory through your glorious son, Jesus Christ.

For we pray in his name.

Amen.



From the soon to be published "Hymn Devotionals"

 

[Sr. Dara]

We are all called to reflect at this special time and I would like to thank you, Diciple, for your thoughts and words which have touched my heart and the hearts of all who read them.

These are words to reflect on in troubled times, when many in our parish face grave privations and the pressures of the less spiritual aspects of Christmas threaten to engulf us all.

I will continue to pray as I have been for many weeks, for a safe, happy and holy Christmas for all.

 

[FFX]

Yes Disciple, you've definitely hit an important nerve there . Thank you for your insight.

Yes, we often do forget the real meaning of Christmas. Let's not take Christ out of Christmas!!

Thank God, Jesus was born to die for our sins!!

 

[Albion]

That's exactly what I was trying to explain: there is no "other Revelation". Only one and it includes all. I'm obviously failing to express myself.

Oh, yes, but it's all semantics. You can say that the Bible is part of Tradition, that Tradition includes the Bible, etc. but it doesn't change anything. You depend upon material for dogma which is not taught by the Bible. And I know that a misinterpreted or tortured phrase taken from here or there in the Bible and connected, illogically, to some other one can produce a nubbin of a thought that can then be called the subject of "Development of Doctrine."

You can make any idea at all seem to have had been hinted at in the Bible if you work at it long enough. Still, you won't be satisfied with the Bible, so that's what I was talking about. BTW, many Catholics/Orthodox here have indeed said that it is a second stream of revelation or words to that effect, whether or not that is exactly how their church would put it.

Simple, 'Cause the RC's are wrong. How can one know which is right? Study and decide.

Study and decide? When a Protestant says to do that, he's immediately hit with charges of "personal opinion," "individual interpretation of scripture," and so on--it can't be right, they say. Must follow what the Church says, don't you know?

But we are still left to conclude that BOTH can't be right at once on such important doctrines as I mentioned, yet both say they follow the self-same Tradition. How then can Tradition be correct?

Our authority doesn't come from the Tradition.

No, I wasn't using the word in that way. It is Tradition which your church makes to be the authority for your doctrines.

Better wording would be "they claim the same source of knowledge but have a different interpretation". Authority comes from God to the Church.

All right. Then who is correct when several churches, all claiming to follow Tradition and not the Bible Alone, disagree?

Just one explanation. I can't speak for others, but Tradition actually can't be described with the word "infallible". Tradition is what comes from the Church, is fully accepted and proven unchangingly true.

I see what you mean, so I'll say inerrant.

But again, we're talkking about churches that say they are teaching truth that is certain because of where it came from--but disagree on the doctrines. How can that be, do you think?

Tradition is universal knowledge but it is easily distorted or lost without the Church

At bottom, Tradition is whatever the church in question decides it is and what it says. There is no permanent point of reference such as we have in the Bible.

 

[Psalms34]

...... uh-huh
Happy 4th of July all
I think I'm going to hang out at San Diego harbor and watch the fireworks this year