Category: Gesima

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Evening Meditations for the Third Sunday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

The charity of Christ presseth us (2 Cor. v. 14). It was not enough, says St. Augustine, for the Divine Love to have made us to His own Image in creating the first man, Adam, but He must also Himself be made to our image in redeeming us. Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, beguiled by the serpent which suggested to Eve that if she ate of that fruit she should become like to God, acquiring the knowledge of good and evil; and therefore the Lord then said: Behold, Adam is become one of us! (Gen. iii. 2). God said this ironically, and to upbraid Adam for his vast presumption. But after the Incarnation of the Word we can truly say: “Behold, God has become one of us!”

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Spiritual Reading for the Third Sunday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

In his preaching St. John the Baptist exclaimed: Make straight the way of the Lord (Jo. i. 23). In order to be able to walk always in the way of the Lord, without turning to the right or to the left, it is necessary to adopt the proper means. There are two very important means about which we will speak to you here.

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Morning Meditation for the Third Sunday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

Take comfort, take comfort, O men, saith the Lord, by the mouth of Isaias: Be comforted; be comforted, my people, saith your God. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her; for her evil is come to an end; her iniquity is forgiven (Is. xl. 1). God hath discovered a way of saving man, while at the same time His Justice and His Mercy shall both be satisfied. Justice and Peace have kissed (Ps. lxxxiv. 11).

04.xii.22 Advent II / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Features / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Evening Meditations for the Second Saturday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

Jesus Christ revealed to the Venerable Agatha of the Cross that whilst He was in His Mother’s womb, that which afflicted Him more than any other sorrow was the hardness of the hearts of men, who would, after His Redemption, despise the graces which He came into the world to diffuse. And He had expressed this sentiment before, by the mouth of David, in the words just quoted, which are generally thus understood by the holy Fathers: What profit is there in my blood, whilst I go down to corruption? 

04.xii.22 Advent II / Advent / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Spiritual Reading for the Second Saturday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

He who is called by God to a Religious Institute in which regular observance reigns should understand that the end of every such Institute is that its members walk in the footsteps and imitate as exactly as possible the example of the most holy life of Jesus Christ — a life entirely detached and mortified, full of sufferings and humiliations. I have said an Institute in which regular observance reigns, for it would be better, perhaps, to remain in the world than to enter a Religious Institute that is relaxed.*

04.xii.22 Advent II / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Morning Meditation for the Second Saturday in Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! (Cant. ii. 10). Mary well understood the voice of God calling her to devote herself to His love. And thus enlightened she at once offered herself to her Lord. Behold, O Mary, I this day present myself to thee, and in union with thee I renounce all creatures and devote myself entirely to the love of my Creator.

03.xii.23 Advent I / 10.xii.23 Advent II / 27.xi.22 Advent I / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Features / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Evening Meditations for Friday in the Second Week of Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

Consider that God, having created the first man to serve Him and love Him in this life, and to be afterwards taken by Him to reign eternally with Him in Paradise, enriched him for this end with many lights and graces. But ungrateful man rebelled against God, refusing Him the obedience which he owed Him both in justice and gratitude; and thus he unhappily remained as a rebel, deprived, with all his posterity, of Divine grace, and for ever excluded from Paradise.

03.xii.23 Advent I / 10.xii.23 Advent II / 27.xi.22 Advent I / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Spiritual Reading for Friday in the Second Week of Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

St. Jerome spent his days in the Cave of Bethlehem in prayer and penance, and trembled at the thought of Jesus coming at the Last Day to judge the world.

03.xii.23 Advent I / 10.xii.23 Advent II / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Morning Meditation for Friday in the Second Week of Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

In tribulations God enriches His beloved souls with the greatest graces. It is in his chains that St. John comes to the knowledge of the works of Jesus Christ. Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord, with which we are chastised have happened for our amendment and not for our destruction (Judith, viii. 27).

03.xii.23 Advent I / 10.xii.23 Advent II / 27.xi.22 Advent I / Culture / Daily Mass Propers / Devotional / Features / Gesima / Lent / Lifestyle / Liturgy / Sensus Fidelium

Evening Meditations for Thursday in the Second Week of Advent ~ St Alphonsus Liguori

Consider that God, having created the first man to serve Him and love Him in this life, and to be afterwards taken by Him to reign eternally with Him in Paradise, enriched him for this end with many lights and graces. But ungrateful man rebelled against God, refusing Him the obedience which he owed Him both in justice and gratitude; and thus he unhappily remained as a rebel, deprived, with all his posterity, of Divine grace, and for ever excluded from Paradise.