Weekday Readings

December 23 Luke 1.57-66 What is the name? What is my name? Who do I say that I am? Christ comes to give me my name. In the midst of all the opposition, the only name I will accept is the name given by the Spirit of God. My prayer is the continual affirmation of my name. Let not the world or the false self name me. I will not live by that name of servitude. God gives me my name. Listen for it. Be called by it. Live by it. December 24 Luke 1.67-79 The negative part of our life is the “shadow of death.” What we long for is the “way of peace.” Death flows from sin, the chaos of being scattered. Peace is Shalom, the coming together in wholeness, in the Holiness of Christ Jesus our Redeemer. Our prayer is always very simple. Come Lord Jesus, come. Displace the darkness. Give the peace that is divine love and unity found only in You and in Your Spirit, the Gift of the Father, the Giver of the Only-Begotten Son, and the Spirit who makes the Word alive within us. Zechariah proclaims the salvation narrative in exultation. The Church sings Zechariah’s canticle for her morning praise her Liturgy of the Hours. This praise has resounded for millennia and will resound in the Church safeguarded by Christ the Savior to endure until His coming again. Christmas: See Sunday Readings tab. ^{December 26} ^{Feast of St. Stephen} ^{Matthew 10.17-22} ^{On Christmas Day the Father gives His Son as our Savior. Today, on this feast of St. Stephen, the Son promises the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of your Father.” The context of living in the Kingdom is clearly shown: it is conflict and persecution from many quarters of world-powers. Christmas cannot ever be cast in the tones of sentimentality. Stephen is at once the model of reality and at the same time of the contemplative. First, Stephen in his life soon faces the reality of witnessing to Jesus. He gives himself to ministering to the hungry in his diaconate. But, secondly, he is the contemplative: He sees Jesus in glory; he lives already in the realm of the Kingdom in glory. His citizenship is in heaven—he carries the contemplative gaze upon Christ in glory. It is a true vision because it issues forth in love. He forgives his murderers. Trinitarian love moves full circle through him. Stephen is another Christmas gift to the Church.} ^{December 27} ^{St. John the Apostle and Evangelist} ^{John 20. 2-8} ^{Any merely holiday sentimentality continues to be removed. Our Christmas scene now is in the tomb. Jesus as Son is generated eternally from the Father. Jesus is born as Savior-Son of Mary at Bethlehem. Jesus, as Man, is born into the glory of the resurrection. That same life is born into us fundamentally through our faith in that resurrection and by our baptism. John looks and believes. John peers into the mystery of death-resurrection and believes in the Son of the Father. Come and see. Run to the tomb and look in, and believe. Run to the crib at Bethlehem; look in and believe. The rhythm of our contemplative life is that coming and seeing. We must move toward where God calls us and there, we must learn to look and to see. Ultimately our whole reason to be is the abiding with the Trinity in the eternal life already begun.} ^{December 28} ^{The Holy Innocents, Martyrs} ^{Matthew 2. 13-18} ^{Jesus is one with the exiled and the refugees who presently and throughout history have fled the terror of destructive forces beyond their control. All they have is a helplessness in the face of violence. All they have is the rudimentary defense of fleeing. Christ's name and presence cause the martyrdom of the male infants of Bethlehem.} ^{His name is a sword that pierces and penetrates the very existence of others. My silent prayer lays me open to all the forces arrayed against the Kingdom. My prayer rises up with the lament of Rachel, pleading for justice and redemption for all the innocents who die in their own blood or in the pain of their poverty, or who are discarded in the rite of abortion. My prayer is part of the work of bringing the Kingdom's final justice to all the wronged of the earth, especially the abused and slaughtered children of our modern cast-off society.} William Fredrickson, OBLOSB, D.Min. --
For questions, comments or other communication, please contact: William Fredrickson Fredrickson46@msn.com

December 23
Luke 1.57-66
What is the name? What is my name? Who do I say that I am? Christ comes to give me my name. In the midst of all the opposition, the only name I will accept is the name given by the Spirit of God. My prayer is
the continual affirmation of my name. Let not the world or the false self name me. I will not live by that name of servitude. God gives me my name. Listen for it. Be called by it. Live by it.

December 24
Luke 1.67-79
The negative part of our life is the “shadow of death.” What we long for is the “way of peace.” Death flows from sin, the chaos of being scattered. Peace is Shalom, the coming together in wholeness, in the Holiness of Christ Jesus our Redeemer. Our prayer is always very simple. Come Lord Jesus, come. Displace the darkness. Give the peace that is divine love and unity found only in You and in Your Spirit, the Gift of the Father, the Giver of the Only-Begotten Son, and the Spirit who makes the Word alive within us. Zechariah proclaims the salvation narrative in exultation. The Church sings Zechariah’s canticle for her morning praise her Liturgy of the Hours. This praise has resounded for millennia and will resound in the Church safeguarded by Christ the Savior to endure until His coming again.

Christmas: See Sunday Readings tab.

^{December 26}

^{Feast of St. Stephen}
^{Matthew 10.17-22}
^{On Christmas Day the Father gives His Son as our Savior. Today, on this feast of St. Stephen, the Son promises the Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of your Father.” The context of living in the Kingdom is clearly shown: it is conflict and persecution from many quarters of world-powers. Christmas cannot ever be cast in the tones of sentimentality. Stephen is at once the model of reality and at the same time of the contemplative. First, Stephen in his life soon faces the reality of witnessing to Jesus. He gives himself to ministering to the hungry in his diaconate. But, secondly, he is the contemplative: He sees Jesus in glory; he lives already in the realm of the Kingdom in glory. His citizenship is in heaven—he carries the contemplative gaze upon Christ in glory. It is a true vision because it issues forth in love. He forgives his murderers. Trinitarian love moves full circle through him. Stephen is another Christmas gift to the Church.}

^{December 27}

^{St. John the Apostle and Evangelist}
^{John 20. 2-8}
^{Any merely holiday sentimentality continues to be removed. Our Christmas scene now is in the tomb. Jesus as Son is generated eternally from the Father. Jesus is born as Savior-Son of Mary at Bethlehem. Jesus, as Man, is born into the glory of the resurrection. That same life is born into us fundamentally through our faith in that resurrection and by our baptism. John looks and believes. John peers into the mystery of death-resurrection and believes in the Son of the Father. Come and see. Run to the tomb and look in, and believe. Run to the crib at Bethlehem; look in and believe. The rhythm of our contemplative life is that coming and seeing. We must move toward where God calls us and there, we must learn to look and to see. Ultimately our whole reason to be is the abiding with the Trinity in the eternal life already begun.}

^{December 28}

^{The Holy Innocents, Martyrs}
^{Matthew 2. 13-18}
^{Jesus is one with the exiled and the refugees who presently and throughout history have fled the terror of destructive forces beyond their control. All they have is a helplessness in the face of violence. All they have is the rudimentary defense of fleeing. Christ's name and presence cause the martyrdom of the male infants of Bethlehem.}
^{His name is a sword that pierces and penetrates the very existence of others. My silent prayer lays me open to all the forces arrayed against the Kingdom. My prayer rises up with the lament of Rachel, pleading for justice and redemption for all the innocents who die in their own blood or in the pain of their poverty, or who are discarded in the rite of abortion. My prayer is part of the work of bringing the Kingdom's final justice to all the wronged of the earth, especially the abused and slaughtered children of our modern cast-off society.}

William Fredrickson, OBLOSB, D.Min.

December 26

December 27

December 28

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^{December 26}

^{December 27}

^{December 28}