Greeting Glory to God who is able to give you the strength to live according to the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This Good News is now proclaimed to all. May you accept this Good News and may the Lord Jesus be always with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction
People chosen by God for a special mission in his plan of salvation are constantly presented in the Bible as chosen and loved before birth, with their birth announced in a special way; they are moved by the Spirit of God; their mission demands sacrifices. Witness the call of Samson in his folkloric saga, or
When the kings of God’s people had not fulfilled their mission of guiding the people to God, the prophet Jeremiah announced that God would do away with them and himself become the shepherd of his people. But he would make this new beginning through a human, a virtuous shoot of the house of David. Through
The liturgical readings of today call our attention to Christ in his human reality: human like us in everything except sin, as St. Paul clarifies. He was a descendant of sinners, who, as the Church Fathers stress, are even singled out in Matthew’s family tree of Christ. He was a man born of a woman,
People and events are agents of salvation: heaven and earth cooperate, but ultimately it is God who saves through people. In the first reading, through the prophet, God addresses Cyrus the Great, who let the Jews return from exile. He was an instrument of God to bring liberation to the Jews. Pagans, too, are called
God had spoken continually to his people in words and deeds, yet they did not listen. But among them a remnant of poor people will return to God. With them, all the pagan, sinful nations will come to serve God. Sinners who recognize their poverty are perhaps more open to God than those who boast
“We want to be liberated from those illusions, frustrations, injustices and repression to which the modern world has subjected us in violation of its promises – this is what the young are saying, the disinherited, the automatons of modern technology: we want to be free persons, real persons, people rescued from hunger and from the
The religious name, which Juan de Yepes took as a Carmelite, was a very fitting one: Juan de la Cruz. Once St. Teresa of Jesus had drawn him into the reform of the Carmelite order, trials beset him from all sides, especially from his own confreres, who misunderstood his intentions and even imprisoned him. Yet
Greeting May the God of peace make you perfect and holy, and keep you sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rejoice, for the Lord is with you. R/ And also with you. Introduction by the Celebrant • Exult for Joy How is it that, with all the good things the
On December 9, 1531, our Lady appeared to a young Indian convert, Juan Diego, in Tepeyac, Mexico, now part of Mexico City. On his cloak she left the impression of her image. This site became the most venerated place of pilgrimage for Latin America. Under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary was declared
