Christmas 2004

Merry Christmas from Ad Altare Dei!

The most excellent gift that I have received over the past few days is a renewed appreciation and love for our dear Mother, the Church on Earth and in Heaven, and our precious Lord who left us the wondrous mystery that is our Church. In preserving Her in spite of the sinfulness of Her members, She continues to bring us His teachings and give us His graces, and we have Christ's word that He will never leave Her. I wish never to take Her for granted! Would that, some day, I might even have the courage to lay down my life in witness to Her and that Christ to whom she is wedded.

Today's feast is more than a mere birthday. Today, we celebrate an event - the Incarnation of God in human flesh. We celebrate God humbling Himself so as to be born a child from the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Oh, the minds that have tried for centuries to wrap themselves around that one! Fundamentally, what we learn is that you and I are worth so much to God that He might do this for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. -- The Gospel of John 3:16

We have value because God so loves us. Yes, even those who have no family or friends to love, those without a home, or without food, or without a steady job that they might earn a living and provide for themselves and their families.

Personent hodie Voces puerulae,
Laudantes iucunde Qui nobis est natus,
Summo Deo datus, Et de virgineo
Ventre procreatus.

In mundo nascitur; Pannis involvitur;
Praesepi ponitur Stabulo brutorum
Rector supernorum; Perdidit spolia
Princeps Infernorum.

Magi tres venerunt; Munera offerunt;
Parvulum inquirunt, Stellulam sequendo,
Ipsum adorando, Aurum, thus et myrrham
Ei offerendo.

Omnes clericuli, Pariter pueri,
Cantent ut angeli: 'Advenisti mundo:
Laudes tibi fundo Ideo: Gloria
In excelsis Deo'.

A marvelous mystery. Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief.