Christmas Eve

...as Dickens put it, "of all the good days in the year." What a cultural treasure A Christmas Carol in Prose is. For many years I tried to read it every 24th. of December but have gotten out of the habit. I hope I have time tonight to at least start it.

The title link above takes one to the complete online text.


On a more ecclesial note, here is the Collect for the Vigil of Christmas, thanks as always to the inimitable Father Z.

(ad Missam in Vigilia):
Deus, qui nos redemptionis nostrae
annua exspectatione laetificas,
praesta, ut Unigenitum tuum,
quem laeti suscipimus Redemptorem,
venientem quoque Iudicem securi videre mereamur
Dominum nostrum, Iesum Christum.

This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary as well as the Gregorian Sacramentary. It was also in the 1962 Missale Romanum but the Novus Ordo version shifts the word order in order to improve the flow of the Latin.

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who gladden us
by the yearly expectation of our redemption,
grant that we may merit to see Your Only Begotten,
our Lord, Christ Jesus,
whom we in joy are now receiving as the Redeemer
also see in safety when He is coming as the Judge.



I have two Masses and The Austin Stone to get to this evening, but I hope to get time to write tomorrow.

The "O Antiphons"

Although baptised in the True Church and catechised through first Confession and Communion, I was yanked from Catholicism at an early age and have found a great many holes in my spiritual knowledge since beginning to return to Rome in 1998. One of the things I haven't known about until the last few years has been the "O Antiphons" of Advent, and I am joyfully paying close attention to them this year. The title above links to Fr. Z's excellent explanation of this beautiful liturgical tradition.

For 20 December :

O Clavis David

LATIN:
O clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel: qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris.

ENGLISH:
O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: come, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.

I must apologize for the lack of content on this blog, recent and otherwise. When I started it a year ago I meant it to be a fairly regular thing, but I've not been very vigilant in writing. Now that I've actually started my application process with the diocese, I'll have even less time to write. But I'm going to do my best over Christmas to get a little caught up. At the very least I need to record the story of how my vocation came, something I left out in my earler biographical sketches.

At any rate, anyone who happens to read this, please pray for me. At my age and my background, my acceptance by the Diocese of Austin is by no means a foregone conclusion. It is all in God's hands, of course, and I am fairly optimistic...but, I still need all the prayers I can get !

Grace and Peace and a holy Advent to all.

Avery Cardinal Dulles

Réquiem æternam dona ei, Dómine.
Et lux perpétua lúceat ei.
Requiéscat in pace.
Amen.
Anima ejus, et ánimæ ómnium fidélium defunctórum, per misericórdiam Dei requiéscant in pace. Amen.

(The title link is to His Eminence's obituary.)

The Immaculate Conception

(Piero di Cosimo, Immaculate Conception with Saints)



"...the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom, on account of the honor of the Lord, I wish to have absolutely no question when treating of sins - for how do we know what abundance of grace for the total overcoming of sin was conferred upon her, who merited to conceive and bear Him in whom there was no sin?..." ~ St. Augustine


This is one of my favorite feasts in the entire calendar; I think it is no coincidence that my sobriety date ( Dec. 4th.) is so close. Our Lady got me into the Church, and her prayers got me sober as well.

I wish I had more time to write ! Suffice it to say for the time being that I have talked with Fr. Mike Sis, the diocesan vocation director, and he has accepted me as an applicant. Now all the work starts !

Pray for me, O Holy Mother of God :
That I may be worthy of the promises of Christ !

Monday of the 1st. week in Advent

The Annunciation ~ Fra Angelico



COLLECT (GELASIAN SACRAMENTARY)
Fac nos, quaesumus, domine deus noster,
peruigiles atque sollicitos aduentum expectare Christi filii tui domini nostri,
ut dum uenerit pulsans,
non dormientis peccatis sed uigilantes et in suis inueniat laudibus exultantes. (GeV 1128)

LITERAL VERSION:
Cause us, we beg, O Lord our God,
wakeful through the night and full of concern to await the coming of Christ Your Son,
so that, when He will have come knocking,
He may find us not sleeping in sins but vigilant and exulting in His praises.


(This prayer courtesy of Fr. Z, of course. The link above takes one to his ineffable discussion of the same.)

I've just returned home to Austin after spending Thanksgiving in VA with my family. It was wonderful, as always. I am so very blessed to have a family that is normal and healthy (not perfect, of course-- but whose is?), and which has a belief in God and His Son. I especially enjoyed the time I got to spend with my nephew Philip Lee (now almost 7 yrs. old). He's a bright, cheerful boy and I'm very happy to say that he thinks a lot of his Uncle !

I took the opportunity to share the news of my vocation with my dear mother and my sister Julie. Mama seemed very happy (and my stepfather as well); Julie was harder to read, but that was probably because I sprang it on her suddenly at the last minute and she had little time to digest it. We'll have time to talk about it at a later date. She has been privy to my calling lo these many years and may not realize that I have finally made the irrevocable decision to move forward. Can't say that I can blame her if she is skeptical.

My friend Michael Ann (who is serving as a missionary in Germany, her excellent blog is listed to the left under "friends") sent me a lovely encouraging email when I told her...she is such a dear sister in Christ.

I meet with Fr. Mike Sis ( vocation director for the diocese) on Thursday...it will be then that the ball really gets rolling...if it is going to roll at all here in Austin. Deo volente !!!