Isaiah 52:7-10
How beautiful on the mountains,
are the feet of one who brings good news,
who heralds peace, brings happiness,
proclaims salvation,
and tells Zion,
“Your God is king!”
Listen! Your watchmen raise their voices,
they shout for joy together,
for they see the Lord face to face,
as he returns to Zion.
Break into shouts of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem;
for the Lord is consoling his people,
redeeming Jerusalem.
The Lord bares his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.
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Hebrew 1:1-6
At various times in the past and in various different ways, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son, the Son that he has appointed to inherit everything and through whom he made everything there is. He is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command; and now that he has destroyed the defilement of sin, he has gone to take his place in heaven at the right hand of divine Majesty. So he is not as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than their own name.
God has never said to any angel: You are my Son, today I have become your father, or: I will be a father to him and he a son to me. Again, when he brings the First-born into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God worship him.
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John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower.
A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
as a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.
The Word was the true light
that enlightens all men;
and he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had its being through him,
and the world did not know him.
He came to his own domain
and his own people did not accept him.
But to all who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to all who believe in the name of him
who was born not out of human stock
or urge of the flesh
or will of man
but of God himself.
The Word was made flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John appears as his witness. He proclaims:
“This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me
ranks before me
because he existed before me.”
Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received
yes, grace in return for grace.
since, though the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God;
it is the one Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
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We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!
We always wish people a merry Christmas and a happy New Year because of the famous 16th century secular song “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, and it is one of the few Christmas songs that mentions the new year celebration. Soon, we will be celebrating the arrival of the year 2008.
2008 years of what? The more accurate title for the year would be 2008 years since the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Dionysius Exiguus would say. Dionysius Exiguus is the name of the monk who devised the Anno Domini calendar system back in 525, and it was the Venerable Bede who began the process of bringing this AD system into general use in Western Europe. Bede was also the one who started using the term “Before Christ”, that is, “the time before the Lord’s true incarnation”.
In the past 100 years or so, some people have been trying to use the term “Common Era” and “Before Common Era” (C.E. and B.C.E.) to replace the AD/BC terminology, as it is more secular. But we must ask: what is the difference between the AD/BC system and the CE/BCE system? Absolutely nothing, save for the name. The CE/BCE has exactly the same calendar system as AD/BC system; it’s just supposed to sound less Christian. But if we ask ourselves: what world event is so significant that the Common Era starts from, and the Before Common Era ends at, we find that we have the answer has to come back to the same event that the AD/BC system is based on – the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So you see, my friend, no matter how much we try to secularize our holidays, the secular world is not going to be able to wipe out the reason for the season… unless we change the calendar system to something totally original. Then we won’t be celebrating New Year anymore, not at this time anyway. Think of all the businesses that stand to lose money!
So, my friends, do not worry about singing secular songs about the New Year or even the holidays this season, because remember that the reason we have these holidays and the reason we celebrate the New Year is because God became Man. The next time you write the year, be it 2007 or 2008, pause a second to remember why we have this year in the first place, and what event it marks.
Once more, we wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy New Year!
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Prayer:
Dear Lord, we offer to You the remainder of this year, and the next year, to you, and ask You to help us to devote more of our time and energy making known to the world the world-changing event that took place that allows us to celebrate the new year. Amen.
Give Thanks to the Lord for: Changing the world.
Filed under: Daily Reflections
