Prepare for Mass

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. – Mt 6:33

  • Subscribe

  • SocialVibe


  • Next Sunday

    Fourth Sunday of Advent

    This Past Sunday

    Third Sunday of Advent

  • Spin the Tee for Totally Random Post

    Pinwheel!
  • Hear My Voice

    Download a children's coloring page for this week's Mass Gospel Reading
    Children's book to help "Prepare for Mass" Preview sample pages from the book and read reviews. If you like it, please go back to PrepareforMass and order it directly from the link.
    "Religion is not a Technology!" - There needs to be a personal relationship there. - Father Ted Tyler

  • Prepare for Mass now on Twitter

    @prepareformass

  • Twitter Updates

  • Listen to the readings

    12-20-2009

    Next Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Advent Year C

    BENEDICT XVI

    ANGELUS

    Saint Peter's Square Fourth Sunday of Advent, 24 December 2006

    Dear Brothers and Sisters,

    The celebration of the Holy Birth is at hand. Today's vigil prepares us to live intensely the mystery that tonight's Liturgy will invite us to contemplate with the eyes of faith.

    In the Divine Newborn, whom we will place in the manger, our Salvation is made manifest. In the God who makes himself man for us, we all feel loved and welcomed, we discover that we are precious and unique in the eyes of the Creator.

    The birth of Christ helps us to become aware of the value of human life, the life of every human being, from the first instant to natural death.

    To those who open their heart to this "baby wrapped in swaddling clothes" and lying "in a manger" (cf. Lk 2: 12), he offers the possibility of seeing with new eyes the realities of every day. He can taste the power of the interior fascination of God's love and is able to transform even sorrow into joy.

    Let us prepare ourselves, dear friends, to meet Jesus, the Emmanuel, God with us. Born in the poverty of Bethlehem, he wants to be the travelling companion of each one of us on our life's journey. In this world, from the very moment when he decided to pitch his "tent", no one is a stranger.

    It is true, we are all here in passing, but it is precisely Jesus who makes us feel at home on this earth, sanctified by his presence. He asks us, however, to make it a home in which all are welcome. The surprising gift of Christmas is exactly this: Jesus came for each one of us and in him we have become brothers.

    The corresponding duty is to increasingly overcome preconceptions and prejudices, to break down barriers and eliminate the differences that divide us, or worse, that set individuals and peoples against one another, in order to build together a world of justice and peace.

    With these sentiments, dear brothers and sisters, let us live the last hours that separate us from Christmas, preparing ourselves spiritually to welcome the Child Jesus. In the heart of the night he will come for us. It is his desire, however, also to come in us, to dwell in the heart of every one of us.

    So that this may occur, it is indispensable that we are open and that we prepare ourselves to receive him, ready to make room for him within ourselves, in our families, in our cities.

    May his birth not find us unprepared to celebrate Christmas, forgetting that the protagonist of the celebration is precisely him!

    May Mary help us to maintain the interior recollection so necessary to taste the profound joy that the Redeemer's birth brings. To her we address our prayer, thinking particularly of those who are prepared to celebrate Christmas in sadness and solitude, in sickness and in suffering: to all may the Virgin bring comfort and consolation.

    vatican.va

  • Archives

  • RSS Today’s Gospel

  • RSS Homily of the Day

  • Archives

  • RSS Father Dave Dwyer’s Homilies

    • No Excuses December 11, 2009
      Friday of the Second Week of Advent. Father Dave relays a message of Jesus in the Gospel today: perhaps we make too many excuses as to why we can not fulfill our faith promises. (Preached on Friday, December11th, 2009, 12:15pm, St. Malachyâs Church, Broadway and 49th, Times Square, New York City.)
    • Why Do We Need John the Baptist? December 5, 2009
    • Reverse Psychology December 4, 2009
      Friday of the First Week of Advent. Father Dave helps us to recognize that our faith and hope for the future can also effect us positively today. And whatever you do: don't tell anybody. Or should we? (Preached on Friday, December 4th, 2009, 12:15pm, St. Malachyâs Church, Broadway and 49th, Times Square, New York City.)
    • Like a Rock December 3, 2009
      Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, priest. Father Dave uses the analogy of a large, sturdy, if not always particularly comfortable rock for us to think about the presence of God in our lives. (Preached on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, 12:15pm, St. Malachyâs Church, Broadway and 49th, Times Square, New York City.)

  • RSS Busted Halo Show – Father Dave Dwyer The Catholic Channel Sirius 159

  • RSS SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

    • Sunday Sunday Sunday: 12/20/09 December 14, 2009
      Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: Micah 5:1-4a; Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19; Heb 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45.
    • Sunday Sunday Sunday: 12/13/09 December 7, 2009
      Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent: Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:10-18.
    • Sunday Sunday Sunday: 12/06/09 November 30, 2009
      Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent: Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; Luke 3:1-6.
    • Sunday Sunday Sunday: 11/29/09 November 23, 2009
      Readings for the First Sunday of Advent: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14; 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2; Luke 21:25-28, 34-36.

  • Pages

  • Site meta

  • Holy Eucharist

    Source and Summit
«
»

Who do you say I am?

Posted by Bob Kenward on June 22, 2008

For me one of the most powerful realities of the authenticity of my faith in the true Church of God is found from within the recorded traditions of so many people across thousands of years.  The Sacred Deposit of Faith including both Tradition and Sacred Scripture is entrusted to the bishops-the successors to the apostles-in union with the successor of Peter by the authority of Jesus.  Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Son of the living God” – Mt:16:16.  To which Jesus replied, for it was not flesh and blood that revealed this but my Father who is in heaven – Mt:16:17.

Jesus entrusted the keys to the kingdom of heaven to Peter in the vicinity of Caesarea Phillipi.  This city was built on a huge rock formation.  This rock formation was also in a place where the false Greek god Pan was worshipped.  Pan was the god of sheperds and flocks.  He was a god of fear and from his name we get the word “panic”.  It is very interesting that Jesus chose to travel a long distance to Caesarea Phillipi with his disciples to this giant wall of rock where the false god of sheperds and flocks who instilled fear was worshipped.  Jesus chose this place to tell Peter that his name is rock and that upon this rock, I will build my church and the powers of death will not prevail over it.  He gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven and said whatever you bind and loose on earth will be bound and loose in heaven.

For the early Christians, many of them gladly accepted death at the hands of their persecutors rather than deny their faith.  Peter himself after denying Jesus three times during His passion would later die a martyr’s death choosing to be crucified upside down. 

The early Christians knew that a crown of righteousness in the kingdom of heaven awaited them and that in the end God would deliver them from every evil.  Peter himself had a great deliverance as he was recued from death in prison by an angel of God – Acts:12:6-11.   The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear Him.

PRAYER:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here.  Ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule and guide AMEN

This entry was posted on June 22, 2008 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul Apostles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

«
»