12/23/18 Through 12/29/18

12/23/18 Through 12/29/18

Sunday
Fourth Sunday of Advent - Mary visits Elizabeth

There within the waters warm

Before I saw the light of morn

I heard the voice of one so sweet

Who traveled to my mother greet.

And then a presence strong and bold

I felt within my heart take hold.

For there within the womb I leapt

As all through me the Spirit swept.

Monday
Christmas Eve

The chains of sin, on earth, once loosed

Have every man, in time, seduced,

And bound him with their lust and greed

Creating such a Savior's need.

A helpless babe in stable born

To Mary on that Christmas morn.

Warmed by breath of ox and ass,

As starry hours of night would pass.

Our Savior humbly came to be,

That man might come to plainly see,

What satisfies the empty heart,

Is love that freely we impart.

Such love that every eye could see,

Reflecting pure humility,

That God should love each wretched one,

By sending us His precious Son.

Tuesday - Christmas Day

(This can be sung to the tune of  "Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming"

Amidst the cold of winter, 

The warmth of love arrives.

Our selfishness to splinter,

And change our sinful lives.

Humility unknown.

Before our blessed Savior,

Took manger as His throne.

There shepherds came to worship,

This King the angels hailed.

Before the swaddled baby,

All other lights are paled.

Our God in flesh behold.

With ox and ass to warm Him,

And save Him from the cold.

Wednesday
Feast of St. Stephen

Confound the enemy with love

And draw your strength from God above.

No weapon here on earth can stand

If we would love as God had planned.

Each act of love will blaze a path

Away from selfishness and wrath

And toward a place of peace and joy

If we, this strategy, employ.

Thursday
Feast of St. John the evangelist

Incarnate in flesh, yet incredibly true,

Our God came for people like me and like you.

He dwelt on the earth, and we heard and we saw,

Great wonders that filled us with love and with awe.

He ate and He drank, and He taught us each day,

Of loving each other, and just how to pray.

We touched Him and felt in the warmth of His heart,

Each beat a new burst of His love would impart.

You too have encountered this fountain of love

Who set aside glory with Father above,

To teach us and show us the path to His peace,

So share it with all that the joy may increase.

Friday
Feast of the Holy Innocents

In love and innocence are born

The faces of the coming morn,

But many never see the day

For wicked men have had their way.

To innocence no thought they give

Though little ones all want to live.

Convenience!, their battle cry,

As babe is torn from mom to die.

How have we let such wickedness,

Our hearts and souls and minds possess?

In shame we must repent and see

What God intended us to be.

Saturday
Prophecy of Simeon - Sorrows of Mary

And you, a sword shall pierce your heart,

The prophet spoke that day.

For soon, with child, you must depart,

To Egypt, on your way.

For three days lost, a foretaste of

His time within the tomb.

A call to ever greater love,

That you may fully bloom.

His passiontide, a grief beyond

What mind could ere conceive.

But graces won when morning dawned

You children now receive.

A mother's sorrows long endured

That we could plainly see,

And all her children be assured

Of love she has for thee.