Advent Meditations: Saturday 19 December

Dec 19, 2020 by

Sat
Dec 19
am 55
pm:138, 139
Isa 10:20-27 Jude 17-25 Luke 3:15-20

ON THE CALENDAR   St. Nemesius Martyr of Alexandria, 250 – Nemesius was arrested in Alexandria for theft. During his trial, it was discovered that he was a Christian, a crime punishable by death under the imperial persecution. He confessed his faith and was imprisoned with a few thieves. Nemesius was whipped and beaten twice as severely as the others. After their beating, Nemesius and the other criminals were killed by being burned. Tradition honors him for dying among thieves, just as Jesus did.

O Antiphon # 3 Come, Flower of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: save us without delay. we recall and pray O Root of Jesse” thus recalling the OT imagery where the Jesse Tree represents Jesus’ family tree as seen in Isaiah 11:1, in which Jesus is referred to as a shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse, the father of David. So, this day we pray O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom the nations will do homage…. O Come, thou Rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan’s tyranny; from depths of hell thy people save and give them victory o’er the grave.

MEDITATION – In this short letter of Jude, he is now about to bring his letter to a close and wants to summarize what he has been talking about and encourage believers to take full responsibility for living the faith and states in practical terms how a disciple is to contend earnestly for his/her faith. One is to be mindful of false teachers.  And we note that he uses several historical examples and personalities from the Old Testament to impress upon the minds of his readers the earmarks of the false teachers. We do not want to believe in the church there are such persons. But those who teach walk a fine line always between representing the essence of the faith with the interpretation they have come to believe. We have seen this in recent times with the notion that there is no hell, and it is not part of the plan of God. Well, the story of the Last Judgement would indicate otherwise, so what is a person to do. Take on some teacher whose words are easier to hear or to stand in the tradition of the teaching of Christ and his Church? So, the challenge before us is to realize we have a gift of faith that is unique and set apart as our God is Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer who offers us the power to truly transform a life from the inside out and words that suggest otherwise need to be turned away.

Prayer: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who are weighed down from of old
by slavery beneath the yolk of sin, may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of your Only Begotten Son. We ask this in the name of the one who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Discipline/Activity Put out a Jesse Tree in your home or office a small tree made of evergreen branches. On these are placed symbolic ornaments with each representing a prophecy foretelling of Christ.  With your families or small groups, you can also create ornaments that represent the monogram symbols of Christianity.

ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: Every part of Holy Scripture announces through words the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, reveals it through facts and establishes it through examples… For it is our Lord who during all the present age, through true and manifest foreshadowing’s, generates, cleanses, sanctified, chooses, separates, or redeems the Church in the Patriarchs, through Adam’s slumber, Noah’s flood, Melchizedek’s blessing, Abraham’s justification, Isaac’s birth, and Jacob’s bondage.” St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers

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