December 24, 2009
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent: Mass in the Morning
"Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!" Nathan answered the king, "Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you." But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said: "Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in? 2 Samuel 7:2-5
And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death's shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1:76-79
Piety
waiting while moving... by Matt Maher
can you imagine...........
waiting for hundreds of years.
for an answer.
for a solution. to all the problems we face
not one seemed to fit. or work.
and men came. spoke of one to come.
but society would reject them. kill them.
and still, we'd be waiting.
and all the while, hidden in chaos. in the middle of a census.
there they were.
A family.
set apart for an awesome task.
to raise God.
from a baby to a man.
what to do, what to say.
and all the while, waiting for freedom to come. for deliverance.
for a future.
Can you imagine being a mother, knowing every kick on the wall of your uterus was from
God?
That's waiting while moving forward. Except the moving forward is the movement of God, and not the movement of man.
so wait for Him. and move with Him.
Study
The second canticle from Luke 1 makes up our Gospel today as we complete Advent preparations for Christmas coming at midnight on December 24.
The three canticles from the Gospels, the “Magnificat,” the “Benedictus,” and the “Nunc dimittis,” are recited every day, respectively, in the hours of Vespers, Lauds, and Compline. The Canticle of Mary (“Magnificat”) is for many the more familiar of the three canticles in Luke because it also forms the lyrics of popular hymns more than the other two. The Canticle of Zechariah (“Benedictus”) is familiar to priests, nuns, monks and others who participate in Lauds (“Morning Prayer”) on a regular basis. The Benedictus also is a prayer featured in various other liturgical offices, notably at a funeral, at the moment of interment, when words of thanksgiving for the Redemption are recited as an expression of Christian hope.
What does it say? Sources tell us that the Canticle of Zechariah takes decidedly Hebrew Bible themes and retells them with a Christian premise. The Jews had borne the burdens of exile in Egypt and were then ruled by the belligerent Roman forces. They saw deliverance now at hand which makes this a fitting close to the Advent Gospels.
Zechariah first points to the coming fulfillment of God’s oath to Abraham; but the fulfillment is described as deliverance not for the sake of political, economic or even religious power, but that “we may serve [God] without fear, in holiness and justice all our days.” This theme of holiness and justice is woven throughout the Gospel of St. John.
The second part of the message is a song from a loving father to his son. Zechariah recognizes now the truth that the angel told him. John will be the fulfillment not of the Covenant of Abraham but of the prophecy of Isaiah which we considered earlier in Advent. John also applied this prophecy to his own mission. (He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' as Isaiah the prophet said." John 1:23)
What does it mean? The allusion to Christ's coming under the figure of the rising sun had also some influence on its adoption. (“The daybreak from on high will visit us.”) As we get up to face a new day, we reflect upon Christ waking up first as a baby and then being raised up as the Son of God on the third day after his execution.
John’s ministry was about calling on us to change (“Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand.”) Such personal change began with his father at the hour of John’s birth. This prayer was first sung by Zechariah when the birth of his son changed his life, removing the doubt that rendered him mute (a significant punishment for his lack of faith and praise) and restoring his voice to sing God praise.
What does it matter? Why was this one chosen to help start every day for the Liturgy of the Hours/Divine Office/Breviary?
First, consider the significance of Morning Prayer. Catholic sources say that St. Benedict of Nursia introduced this prayer into the Divine Office because this is a song of hope and thanksgiving. Having made it through another dark night, we rise to greet the day sharing in the rejoicing spirit of a new father.
Dr. Pius Parsh writes: “Lauds is a jubilant hour, fresh as the morning dew, perhaps the most beautiful of all the hours. Its symbolism deserves attention. It is night; nature and men are asleep. In the far east the grey of dawn appears; then the ruddy hue of morning, the harbinger of a new day, spreads across the horizon, and the world of nature begins to stir. But all this natural beauty is only a symbol and reminder of a most wonderful event in the story of salvation. It was at this beautiful hour that our Savior burst the bonds of death. Resurrection—that is the background theme of Lauds. And the two pictures together, dawn and resurrection, remind us of a third arising from slumber, the spiritual awakening of the human soul.
“There is, then, a threefold resurrection: nature awakens, the Savior rises from the dead, the human soul celebrates its spiritual resurrection. Such is the background to our prayer of Lauds. It is an explicit song of praise; praise is the hour's central theme. If we can get a feeling for these three pictures intermingling in our Lauds prayer, if we can enter into the spirit of this threefold resurrection, if we can enlist the forces of nature to pray and praise and exult along with us while reciting this hour reasonably early in the morning, perhaps even in the open air, then we are certain to be struck by the full impact of its meaning.”
Dr. Parsh goes on to explain that the climax of Lauds is the Gospel song, the Benedictus. He says that it is placed in the daily Morning Prayer as a hymn in praise of man’s redemption and as a greeting to the dawning day of salvation which is destined to be one more step toward its completion. As the members of the Church pray the Benedictus, we take Zachariah’s place so that every day is a new coming of the Redeemer, and the Church greets her Savior as the "Day-Spring from on high".
In a lecture on the Benedictus, Pope John Paul II quoted from the writings of St. Bede the Venerable who described the prayer: “The Lord ... has visited us like a doctor does his patients, because to cure the inveterate sickness of our pride, he has offered us the new example of his humility; he has redeemed his people, because he has liberated us, who had become servants of sin and slaves of the ancient enemy, at the price of his blood -- Christ found us who were lying in ‘darkness and the shadow of death,’ that is, oppressed by the long blindness of sin and ignorance. ... He has brought us the true light of his knowledge and, banishing the darkness of error, he has shown us the sure way to the heavenly homeland. He has directed the steps of our works to make us walk in the way of truth, which he has shown us, and to make us enter the home of eternal peace, which he has promised us.”
Action
Consider taking part in Morning Prayer or Lauds in the near future either as part of a group prayer (such as occurs daily at 7:10 a.m. at Missionhurst chapel before morning Mass) or as personal prayer.
In addition to web sites where you can read the Office of the day, you also can download a free application for your I-phone for Lauds, Vespers and Compline to pray with others around the world at the same time.
On the internet, learn more about the Divine Office at:
http://divineoffice.org/
http://www.breviary.net/breviary/brevintro.htm
http://www.universalis.com/index.htm
