Santa is Real

With the Christmas Holidy coming up some of your kids are going to be told that Santa isn’t real. I have news for both them and you. He is very real.

Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas. As a member of the Communion of Saints he is very much alive, but he’s moved on. When he was here he became known for giving gifts to poor children. You can CLICK HERE for the rest of his story. Did I mention that bishops have red robes?

I know some grandparents whose son won’t let his daughter be baptized because he was teased by other kids as a child for believing in Santa. I’m sure he would have felt different knowing the history of Santa, but from what they say his heart has hardened and he’s now hostile to the Catholic faith he was raised in.

By the way, this Santa didn’t crave material goods. He inherited great wealth and gave it away. The Christmas season shouldn’t be about how much cheap Chinese electronic junk you can cram under the tree. It’s about the birth of our Saviour. Maybe if we remembered Jesus at Christmas we wouldn’t be bothered by massive retail corporations who refuse to say “Merry Christmas” because we wouldn’t be shopping there in the first place.

Advent has begun

I don’t have all of the Sunday readings done for Advent, nor do I have next Saturday’s reading for the Immaculate Conception done yet. Next Sunday’s reading took all of my time. Massive notes.

Anyway. WordPress has a neato super spiffy color scheme option that can make the Liturgical year for the most part. Since it’s the first week of Advent I set it at Purple.

OK. Not all text is purple. Just having fun.

God bless everyone. I hope this helps you all prepare spiritually for Advent and Christmas, otherwise it’s a waste of time, so if it’s not helping tell me so that I can skip all of this and go back to my own studies.

Daily Bible Readings With Traditional Catholic Commentary December 3 2007 Monday 1st Week of Advent

December 3 2007 Monday 1^st Week of Advent
Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/120307.shtml – Note. The Official Liturgical readings may not match the current NAB you may have.

Isaiah 4:2-6
Douay-Rheims Challoner

2 In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem.
4 If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every place of mount Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.

Psalm 122 Hebrew or 121 LXX/Latin
Text for study only. No commentary. No response.

1 I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord.
2 Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.
4 For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.
5 Because their seats have sat in judgment, seats upon the house of David.
6 Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem: and abundance for them that love thee.
7 Let peace be in thy strength: and abundance in thy towers.
8 For the sake of my brethren, and of my neighbours, I spoke peace of thee.
9 Because of the house of the Lord our God, I have sought good things for thee.

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew 8:5-11
Haydock NT

5 And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 And saying:

Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented.

7 And Jesus saith to him:

I will come, and heal him.

8 And the centurion making answer, said:

I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh: and to my servant, Do this, and he doth it.

10 And Jesus hearing this, marveled, and said to them that followed him:

Amen, I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the East, and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven:

Haydock Commentary Isaiah 4:2-6

• Ver. 2. Bud. That is, Christ, (Ch.) who was faintly prefigured by Zorobabel. Zac. iii. 8. Our Saviour was the fruit of the earth, and sovereign Lord. C.
• Ver. 3. Life. Only the faithful shall be saved. W.—The Jews, after the captivity, shall be more obedient. But converts to the faith of Christ are styled saints, (Rom. i. 7. &c.) such particularly as are predestinated to glory. Rom. viii. 30. C.—Those who are called to life and the true faith, may forfeit this honour, by their own fault. M.
• Ver. 4. Burning. By baptism of water and fire, or of the Holy Spirit. S. Jerome
• Ver. 5. Protection. God will protect his Church, more than he did the Israelites by the pillar. Ex. xiv. 20. S. Bas. &c.

 

Haydock Commentary Matthew 8:5-11

• Ver. 5. A centurion. The same who (Luke 7:3) is said to have sent messengers to our Saviour. But there is no contradiction: for what a man does by his servants, or friends, he is many times said to do himself. He came not in person out of humanity, but by his message shewed an extraordinary faith. Wi.—The centurion shews a much stronger faith in the power of Christ, than those who let down the sick man through the roof, because he thought the word of Christ alone sufficient to raise the deceased. And our Saviour, to reward his confidence, not only grants his petition, as he does on other occasions, but promises to go with him to his house to heal his servant. Chry. hom. xxvii. The centurion was a Gentile, an officer of the Roman army. According to S. Luke he did not come to him in person, but sent messengers to him, who desired him to come down and heal his servant, whereas he seems here not to wish him to come: “Lord, I am not worthy,” &c. These difficulties may be easily removed. A person is said to appear before the judge, when his council appears for him; so he may be said to have come to Jesus, when he sent his messengers. Or it may be that he first sent his messengers, and afterwards went himself. As to the second difficulty, it may be said the messengers added that of their own accord, as appears from the text of S. Luke. M.—S. Augustine is of opinion that he did not go himself in person, for he through himself unworthy, but that he sent first the ancients of the Jews, and then his friends, which last were to address Jesus in his name and with his word. l. ii. de cons. Evang. c. xx. Thus we see that the request of the two sons of Zebedee was made by themselves to Jesus Christ, according to S. Mark; (x. 35) and by the mouth of their mother, according to S. Matt. 20:20
• Ver. 7. On this occasion our Saviour does what he never did before: every where indeed he meets the will of his suppliants, but here he runs before his request, saying: “I will come;” and this he does to teach us to imitate the virtue of the centurion.
• Ver. 8. Origen says, when thou eatest and drinkest the body and blood of our Lord, he entereth under thy roof. Thou also, therefore, humbling thyself, say: Domine, non sum dignus; Lord, I am not worthy, &c. So said S. Chrysostom in his mass, Litturg. Græc. sub finem; and so doth the Catholic Church say at this day in every mass. See S. Augustine. Ep. cxviii. ad Janu. B.—See Luke 7:6
• Ver. 10. Christ here compares the faith of the centurion with that of the people in general, and not with that of his blessed mother and the apostles, whose faith was beyond a doubt much greater. M.—The Greek says, “neither in Israel.”—Jesus hearing this, marveled. That is, by his outward carriage, says S. Aug. seemed to admire: but knowing all things, he could not properly admire any thing.—I have not found so great faith in Israel. This need not be understood of every one, but of those whom he had cured. Wi.