Friday, December 25, 2009

Feast of St. Stephen

Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Joyful Mysteries

December 26th has always been a special day for me —it’s the feast day of the first Christian martyr for Christ and my namesake. I pray to St. Stephen to intercede for me so that I may grow in faith, witness, perseverance and courage.

In the reading from Acts, Stephen is “... filled with the Holy Spirit, witnessing his belief in Jesus, sent by God and now standing at the right hand of God” and, “...working great wonders and signs among the people”. However, some of the listeners were infuriated by Stephen’s proclamations and challenges to the people, regarding their lack of living out the call of the prophets to turn to God and live out their belief. Their anger and frustration resulted in stoning Stephen to death.

The Gospel continues the theme of violence, as Jesus warns his followers, “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the parents their children; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.”

After the last couple of days of visiting with family and friends, and sharing gifts and love you may be asking, “What happened to the message of Christmas - that God loves us and is among us?”

That IS the question for today. In other words, how are we living out the message of Christmas? Do we truly believe that God lives with us and among us and in each one of us? Do our lives proclaim this belief that we are all of God in our day-to-day encounters with our family, friends, and co-workers? Global peace is something for which we all fervently pray and hope yet how do our national and international policies promote the building of the kinship of God?

Where and when is each of us called to announce, through our day-to-day actions, that God is in our midst...and how do we respond when challenged by the perspectives of others?

My prayer today is that we may quietly reflect on the true spirit and call of Christmas. Then, open ourselves to discover how we can live in the presence of God that is among all of us in our day-to-day lives during this holy and joyous season.

St. Stephen, Pray for us.
Child Jesus, help us.

No comments:

"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".