What a night!
What a night last Friday was! We had Adoration before and after the 7:30 Mass (for the Immaculate Conception), with a good-sized crowd showing up well before Mass and many who stayed well after Mass. Live music (by our 6 pm group, "Apostles Lips") was a powerful and welcomed addition to our Adoration experience. It also allowed me the opportunity to offer the sacrament of Reconciliation of which several people took advantage. I've heard that my reflection (on the titles of Jesus) went over well; the notes from the reflection are below.
This Friday night we will continue with the Advent series during Adoration; my reflection will be on the miracles of Christ. Ed Becker will provide the live music; I have played his CDs during Adoration before, and at least a few people have given positive feedback about his music. It will be another great treat to have him!
We will probably follow the same format as last week (minus the break for Mass) - exposition @ 7 pm, music, reflection, quiet prayer, opportunity for confession, music, and benediction. The plan is to finish @ 8ish, but it may go a bit past that, especially if confessions go for a while. Please come for at least a few minutes, and invite 2-3 friends or family members to join us. It's a great way to prepare for the coming of Christ together!
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Advent Series: Person of Christ
Dec 7: Titles of Jesus
I. Welcome
- to Adoration (every Friday)
- to series
II. Informal titles
- friend, teacher, healer
III. Tonight – some of the formal titles
- Christ / Messiah
- Son of Man
- Son of God
IV. Jesus as “Christ”
- “Christ” very much in line with “messiah”
Christ: “anointed”
Messiah: God’s anointed one
- did Jesus think of himself as the messiah?
- he was profoundly conscious of being Messiah
One theologian (Wright) – if there was one thing that Jesus was conscious of, it was that he was the messiah
Mt 16:16ff
- Peter: “you are the Christ”
- not revealed by man, but by Father
- Peter exalted for using this title for Jesus
Paul uses ‘Christ’ constantly in his writings
- from day one
- indicated that Jesus took title himself
V. Jesus as “Son of Man”
- Jesus’s most common way to refer to himself
- as Jesus relates to us
- Mt 16:16ff – “the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve”
- Jesus is the servant of man
- why did God become man?
St Athanasius: “the Son of God became man so that we might become God”
- title has background in Judaism
- Daniel 7:14- Daniel’s vision of one like a “Son of Man” in glory
- compared to John’s vision in apocalyptic literature
-Christ is servant of man, but also judge of all mankind
Mk 14:62 – “you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven”
VI. Jesus as “Son of God”
- Son of Man (his relation to us), Son of God (his relation to Father)
- Resurrection is the main clue that he is Son of God
- the question for St Paul and for us
- if raised from dead, he is the Son of God
- the Father is the One who raised the Son from the dead
- Christ refers to himself as “the Son” in relation to God the Father
1) Mt 11: 25-27
“No one knows the Father but the Son…”
2) Mk 12:1-12
-parable of the wicked tenants; implies that Jesus is the son of the king (Father)
- very strong words from Jesus: many thought they were blasphemy
- No one ever called God ‘Father’
- from total abstinence (OT) to total evidence (Jesus)
- new revelation about God: he has one Son, a man
- Jesus is unique Son of God
- Jews believed they were all sons of God
- Jn 5 & 15: Jesus claims to be unique Son of God
- vertical relationship w/ Father: Son of God
- horizontal rel’ship w/ us: Son of Man
- Cross
- fully human, fully divine
VII. Adoration: we are saying to the host in the monstrance:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”
posted by Fr Greg @ 9:50 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
A few words about Adoration......
Amazing, Inspiring, Beautiful, Powerful, Awesome, Life Altering....
Go! You will be so happy you did.
An Advent story at Happy Catholic's blog:
When Marvin was a young teenager (around the 1930s or early ‘40s, I imagine), he asked his father if he could go with the other kids to some entertainment event (he didn’t say what kind). His father said it wouldn’t be appropriate and told him no. Marvin said he was going anyway, and headed out.
“If you go out without my approval,” his father told him as he reached the door, “this house will be locked when you get home, and you’ll have to sleep somewhere else.”
Marvin refused to back down. He left. He enjoyed the event.
That, he said, was the short part of the night.
When he got home he found the house dark, the doors locked. Even that window in the basement that the kids could sometimes work loose was locked tight.
Marvin stood in the dark, thinking about his options. It wasn’t winter, but it was fall and the night was getting cold.
He remembered a sort of loft in the chicken coop which his brother and he had appropriated as a “secret place.” It had a sort of a mattress and a ratty quilt.
He went into the chicken coop and climbed up. The “mattress” was there, but the quilt was gone.
Lacking other options, he lay down on the mattress and curled up in a fetal position. The cold wind blew in through the cracks. The coop stank of chicken droppings. There was no way to sleep. He lay there in the darkness hugging himself, shivering. The hours passed slowly. He wondered if he could make it through the night.
Then, at last, he heard a door open. He heard a creaking sound as someone climbed the board ladder to the loft. Someone put a pillow under his head, lay down and held him close, and pulled a quilt over both of them.
In the darkness, he heard his father say, “Marvin, when I said that if you disobeyed me you’d have to find another place to sleep tonight, I didn’t say that I would sleep inside.”
And so that pastor taught his son the true meaning of the Incarnation.
Wish I’d had a dad like that.
Wait. I do.
Here is another Advent story which occurred last Friday, and Saturday the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
A woman, her husband and their 11-month baby visited the crisis pregnancy center where I volunteer, seeking material assistance. Their apartment had sustained fire and water damage after the apartment above theirs caught fire.
They had been moving from place to place, first staying at a hotel for a few days, then with the apartment manager. They were now with friends. The baby did not have a crib in which to sleep. (sound familiar?) The belongings which they did manage to salvage were kept in their car, which was used for storage.
Aside from the fact that this trio reminded me of the Holy Family, travelling from place to place seeking shelter, I couldn't believe it when the mother told me her name was, in part, a variation of the name Ann and the baby's name, a form of the name Mary!
Fran-
Is there anything this family could use? I have several girls and have an overflow of things, many of which still have tags. I'd love for them to go to someone who could use them. I also have a crib I am recently no longer using- oh, and an almost new high chair too!
Thank you so much, anon. I would have to contact her first and check. The problem for the moment is that they are living in the friend's basement and do not have a lot of area in which to keep things. If they have to move again, then they may not have a way to transport it. But I will phone her and see what she may be able to use. I will reply in this space when I receive an answer. Again, thank you VERY much!
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