Let's talk about today's readings 12/24/08 - morning mass

[cheeto1]

Does anyone go to morning mass on Christmas Eve? Does
anyone even have a morning mass offered on Christmas Eve?

Here are the readings:
2Samuel7:1-5.8-12.14.16
Psalm 88
Luke 1:67-79

In the gospel, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke
a prophecy. I wonder if he understood what his words meant.
In the same way I wondered if his wife Elizabeth understood what
her words meant when she was filled with the Holy Spirit and said, “How is it that the mother of my Lord should visit me?”
When Mary was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Magnificat, it seemed like she really did understand her words.

And the last words of the Advent Season 2008 in the prayer
after communion: FOR HE IS LORD FOR EVER AND EVER.
I mean to think of these words all day. He will be Lord of everything I say and do this day, Amen.

If you read the morning readings, did anything strike you? :bible1:

 

[Light_Seeker]

Does anyone go to morning mass on Christmas Eve? Does
anyone even have a morning mass offered on Christmas Eve?

Didn’t go, the family (& daugther’s boyfriend) are going to vigil at midnight. Our parish has their normal morning & evening Mass today, and has added 3 Masses today, 4 tomorrow. No Christmas vacation time for our priests

In the gospel, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke a prophecy. I wonder if he understood what his words meant.

I thought about this too. But imagine … Zach is a priest, visited by an angel in the temple telling him his (old) wife will become pregnant. And she does! And he’s deaf & dumb. Then cousin Mary visits them, and his wife immediately recognizes her as the Messiah bearer. And I’m sure Mary told Elizabeth & Zach about Gabriel. So good old Zach is touched by angels & miracles everywhere. As a Priest, he probably spent the entire pregnancy time on his knees, praying, & studying scripture … who wouldn’t!

Now with all the prophesies about Isiah’s return foreshadowing Messiah’s return, I’m sure Zach must have realized, in his priestly study, what what happening!

But a few things grabbed my attention in Zachariah’s prophecy today:

Luke 1:77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins

The Jews were waiting for the return of Isiah. To free them from their bondage - namely the persecution of the Romans. But Zach prohesizes salvation from sin, not what the Jews at the time thought. A spiritual salvation, not physical.

Not in todays readings, but finishes the passage:

Luke 1:80 And the child grew, and was strengthened in spirit; and was in the deserts until the day of his manifestation to Israel.

Now Elizabeth & Zech were old, I presumed they died when John was young. As a son of a priest, why didn’t John assume Zech’s priestly roles? Who raised John? Why did he become a hermit in the desert instead of a priest at the temple? And what is it about Israel’s deserts? Isiah, John, and Jesus all spent time in the desert - something interesting is happening out there! Seems like a more holy place than their temples.

In the OT readings today, they’re the same as last Sunday’s Mass Some good posts were put there in that thread.

Thanks for listening to me on my soapbox. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and God Bless you and your families!