Introit

  

Collect

O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,
grant, we pray,
that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading Is 52:7-10

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. 9 Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1,2-3,3-4,5-6

R/. All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

 

Second Reading Heb 1:1-6

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Alleluia

 

 Gospel Jn 1:1-5,9-14

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 4 What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Catena Nova

You, O God, are above all that is. These words cannot contain all that could be sung of you. What hymn can ever celebrate your praise? And on what shall the mind rest since you are above the reach of all comprehension? You only are unknowable yet all that we can think comes forth from you. All beings give you praise, those that think and those that have no thought. All that is makes prayer to you. To you every thinking creature sends up a song of silent praise. All that moves has its motion from you. All that stays still has its rest in you. You are the end of all beings. You are the all and yet are nothing of what created beings are. You are not one among many and you are not the totality of all beings. You have all names there are. Yet for me it is not possible to name you for you are the only one to whom no name can be given. Have mercy, O God! You are above all this is. These words cannot contain all that could be sung of you (St. Gregory Nazianzus).

While everything was hushed and still, and night was half way through its course, your almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from your royal throne in the heavens. In this text of scripture, written long before, the most sacred moment of all time is made known to us, the moment when God’s almighty Word would leave his Father’s tender embrace and come down into his mother’s womb to bring us his message of salvation. “For God, who in many and various ways in the past spoke to our fathers through the prophets, in these last days has spoken to us through his Son, declaring: This is my beloved Son in whom l am well pleased; listen to him.” And so from his royal throne the Word of God came to us, humbling himself in order to raise us up, becoming poor to make us rich, and human to make us divine. The Word of God did not remake his creatures as easily as he made them. He made them by simply giving a command; he remade them by dying ....That is why I came down from my royal throne, why I did not shrink from enclosing myself in the Virgin’s womb nor from entering into a personal union with poor lost humanity. A newborn babe in swaddling bands, lay in a manger, since the Creator of the world could find no room at the inn.” And so there came a deep silence. Everything was still. The voices of prophets and apostles were hushed, since the prophets had already delivered their message, while the time for the apostles’ preaching had yet to come. Between these two proclamations a period of silence intervened, and in the midst of this silence the Father’s almighty Word leaped down from his royal throne. There is a beautiful fitness here: in the intervening silence the mediator between God and the human race also intervened, coming as a human being to human beings, as a mortal to mortals, to save the dead from death. I pray that the Word of the Lord may come again today to those who are silent, and that we may hear what the Lord God says to us in our hearts. Let us silence the desires and importunings of the flesh and the vainglorious fantasies of our imagination, so that we can freely hear what the Spirit is saying; for the Spirit is always speaking to us, but as long as we fix our attention upon other things, we fail to hear what the Spirit is saying (Julian of Vezalay).

When the time had come for him to be born, he went forth like the bridegroom from his bridal chamber, embracing his bride, holding her in his arms, whom the gracious Mother laid in a manger among some animals that were there at that time. Men sang songs and angels melodies celebrating the marriage of Two such as these. But God there in the manger cried and moaned; and these tears were jewels the bride brought to the The Mother gazed in sheer wonder on such an exchange: in God, man's weeping, and in man, gladness, to the one and the other things usually so strange. (St. John of the Cross)

This is especially the season of grace. We come to see and to experience God’s mercies. We come before him as the helpless beings who were brought on beds and couches for a cure. We come to be made whole. We come as little children to be fed and taught, like newborn infants longing for pure spiritual milk, that by it we may grow up to salvation (cf. 1 Pt 2:2). This is a time for innocence, and purity, and gentleness, and mildness, and contentment, and peace….This is not a time for gloom, or jealousy, or care, or indulgence, or excess, or license, not for quarreling and jealousy, as the Apostle says (Rom 13:13), but for putting on the Lord Jesus Christ…. May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like him, who at this time became a little child for our sake, more humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God. (St. John Henry Newman)

When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among the people, To make music in the heart. (Howard Thurman)

The Johannine Logos is foreign to any kind of violence; it is therefore forever expelled, an absent Logos that never has had any direct, determining influence over human cultures. These cultures are based on the Heraclitean Logos, the Logos of expulsion, the Logos of violence, which, if it is not recognized, can provide the foundation of a culture. The Johannine Logos discloses the truth of violence by having itself expelled. First and foremost, John’s Prologue undoubtedly refers to the Passion. But in a more general way, the misrecognition of the Logos and mankind’s expulsion of it disclose one of the fundamental principles of human society. . . . This revelation comes from the Logos itself. In Christianity, it is expelled once again by the sacrificial reading, which amounts to a return to the Logos of violence. All the same, the Logos is still in the process of revealing itself; if it tolerates being concealed yet another time, this is to put off for just a short while the fullness of its revelation. The Logos of love puts up no resistance; it always allows itself to be expelled by the Logos of violence. But its expulsion is revealed in a more and more obvious fashion, and by the same process the Logos of violence is revealed as what can only exist by expelling the true Logos and feeding upon it in one way or another (René Girard).

[Jesus of Nazareth] was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be “like God”—he was God.  Now, this is not just a pious commonplace: it is not a commonplace at all. For what it means is this, among other things: that for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death —he [God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile (Dorothy L. Sayers).

Homily

 

 

 

 I just want you for my own

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

     With apologies to Mariah Carey, I hope her song might mean something more than it usually does today.   No Christmas gift could excel him through whom all things came to be and without whom nothing came to be (G). 

 

 

Intercessions (Joe Milner; The Sunday Website)

For the Church: that we who have moved from darkness to light may radiate the Light of Christ to all whom we encounter each day.

For people in every land and place: that God will grant peace and good will to everyone, reconciliation and forgiveness to those in conflict, and freedom from suffering to all the human family.

For all who celebrate Christmas: that our minds may be more aware and our hearts more responsive to all who are in need, especially the victims of war, refugees, famine, or who lack healthcare.

For the Christians who are unable to celebrate because of persecution and oppression: that God will strengthen them, fill their hearts with hope and help them to be signs of God’s love and presence.

For all who find Christmas difficult: that God will touch their lives with love and help them find supportive friends.

For those in the hospital, the homeless, the homebound, and the imprisoned: that the coming of Christ may bring hope, healing, and new opportunities for them.

For the forgotten, the marginalized and those with no social standing: that they may hear the Good News and experience the length, depth, and breadth of God’s love for them.

For all recovering from shootings or natural disasters: that God will heal their wounds, memories, and fears.

For peace in the world: that the Prince of Peace will turn hearts from violence and open every heart to the dignity of all human life, particularly in areas of warfare and civil unrest.

We praise you, gracious God, for the glad tidings of peace, the good news of salvation: your Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory. Let the radiance of that glory enlighten the lives of those who celebrate his birth. Reveal to all the world the light no darkness can extinguish, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, in the splendour of eternal light, God for ever and ever. Amen. (ICEL; 1998)

Offertory Antiphon

Offertory Hymn (John Rutter)

 

Christ is the morning star, The light of God that shines from afar; The Son of God in human form revealed, The wound of Adam’s sin for ever healed.

For God, who formed mankind of clay Will bring forth our salvation that day When he, who made all things since time began, Will send his Son, to live on earth as man.

And when he comes, a child on earth, The sun and stars will shine at his birth, To light a world that long in darkness lay: The light of God, the gift of Christmas Day. Christ is the morning star.

And when he comes again as King, Then heav’n and all creation shall sing; With saints in glory seated round his throne We’ll see his face, and know as we are known.

Christ is the morning star.

Communion Antiphon

Closing Hymn

 

Of the Father’s heart begotten
    Ere the world from chaos rose,
He is Alpha: from that Fountain,
    All that is and hath been flows;
He is Omega, of all things
    Yet to come the mystic Close,
        Evermore and evermore.

By his word was all created;
    He commanded and ’twas done;
Earth and sky and boundless ocean,
    Universe of three in one,
All that sees the moon’s soft radiance,
    All that breathes beneath the sun,
        Evermore and evermore.

He assumed this mortal body,
    Frail and feeble, doomed to die,
That the race from dust created
    Might not perish utterly,
Which the dreadful Law had sentenced
    In the depths of hell to lie,
        Evermore and evermore.

O how blest that wondrous birthday,
    When the Maid the curse retrieved,
Brought to birth mankind’s salvation,
    By the Holy Ghost conceived,
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
    In her loving arms received,
        Evermore and evermore.

This is he, whom seer and sybil
    Sang in ages long gone by;
This is he of old revealed
    In the page of prophecy;
Lo! he comes, the promised Saviour;
    Let the world his praises cry!
        Evermore and evermore.

Sing, ye heights of heaven, his praises;
    Angels and Archangels, sing!
Wheresoe’er ye be, ye faithful,
    Let your joyous anthems ring,
Every tongue his name confessing,
    Countless voices answering,
        Evermore and evermore.  Amen.