"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Feast of the Church: The Great O Antiphons
December 18: "O Adonai"
These Great «O Antiphons" at the Magnificat were first used by the Church in the 8th and 9th centuries.They are said in order, based on various titles for the Christ and are scripturally-based short prayers for the 17th to the 23rd of December.
In these "O Antiphons" the Church expresses her deep longing for the coming of the Messiah.
Christ, Lawgiver and Redeemer of Israel
(See Exodus 3; Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6)
O Adonai,
et dux domus Israël,
qui Moyse in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Mighty Lord,
and leader of the house of Israël,
who appeared to Moses in the burning bush,
and on Sinai gave him the law,
come to redeem us with outstretched arm.
Saints of the Day:
Bl. Giulia Nemesia Valle
(1847-1916)
Giulia is the name chosen by her parents Anselmo Valle and Cristina Dalbar. She was born in Aosta on the 26th June 1847 and was baptised on the same day in the ancient collegiate church of Saint Orso.She spends the first years of her life within a happy family who rejoices at the birth of another child - Vincent - and where the parents' work who run a milliner's shop and a solid commercial activity respectively assures a certain welfare. But the mother dies when Giulia is still four. The two orphans are thus entrusted first to the care of the paternal relatives in Aosta and later to the maternal ones in Donnas. Here they find a calm environment The school, catechism and the preparation for the sacraments take place at home under the guide of a priest who happens to be a family friend.
When Giulia is eleven, she is sent to France in Besançon, in a boarding school run by the Sisters of Charity where she could continue her schooling. Her separation from the family costs her a new suffering, a new experience of solitude directing her towards a deep friendship with "the Lord who keeps her mother with Him".
In Besançon she learns French thoroughly, enriches her culture and becomes skilful in housework. Her delicate goodness matures and it renders her loveable and attentive towards the others.
Five years later, Giulia returns to her valley, but her house at Donnas is no longer there. Her father got married again and moved to Pont Saint Martin. Here the familiar situation is strained and living together is not so easy. Her brother Vincent cannot stand her: he goes away alone without receiving any more news from him....Giulia remains, and out of her solitude crops up the stimulus to seek what her family couldn't provide for her, to look after those who experiment her same sorrowful event and find out ways and means that express friendship, understanding, kindness and goodness for everyone.
In that period, the sisters of Charity came to settle at Pont Saint Martin. In them, Giulia rediscovers her teachers of Besançon, the daughters of Saint Jeanne-Antide Thouret who give her help and encouragement. She observes the life-style that they offer to God and to the others and chooses to become one of them. When her fathers presents her the suggestion of a prosperous marriage, Giulia doesn't hesitate: she has promised her life totally to God : she only desires to become a Sister of Charity.
On the 8th September 1866 her father accompanies her to the Monastery of Santa Margherita in Vercelli where the Sisters of Charity run a noviciate.
A new, peaceful and joyful life starts for her in spite of the suffering separation. It's now a matter of building a deeper relationship with God, of knowing herself and the mission of the community in order to accomplish God's will. Giulia starts joyfully her new journey. Every day she discovers what she must lose or acquire: "Jesus strip me of myself, let me be wrapped in you. Jesus I live for you, and I die for you..." is the prayer that already accompanies and will continue to accompany her during her lifetime.
At the end of the noviciate, together with the new habit she receives a new mane: Sr. Nemesia. It's the name of one of the earliest martyrs of the church. She is happy with the name and makes out of it a life's program : to witness at all costs, totally and for ever her love for Jesus.
She is sent to Tortona, in St. Vincent's Institute where she finds several activities: an elementary school, cultural courses, a boarding school and an orphanage. She teaches both in the elementary school and French in the higher classes. That's the favourable ground where she can sow kindness. Sr. Nemesia is present where humble work is to be done, where there is pain to be relieved, where apprehension hinders good relationships, where fatigue, pain and poverty put limits to life.
A voice immediately spreads within the institute and in the city: "Oh, the heart of Sr. Nemesia!"
Everyone is convinced to have a particular place in this heart that knew no boundaries: Sisters, orphans, pupils, families, poor, the clergy of the nearby seminary, young soldiers of the numerous barracks of Tortona turn to her and seek her as if she were the only Sister present in the house.
When she is nominated superior of the community at the age of forty, Sr. Nemesia feels perplexed, but she remembers that : to be a superior means "to serve", and therefore she can give herself without any limits. Thus she humbly faces the ascent. The traces the main contents of her programme:
"Keep a quick pace, without looking behind and concentrate on the one goal : God Alone ! To Him the glory, to the others joy, for me to pay the price, never make others suffer. I shall be very strict with myself and full of charity towards the others : love gratuitously offered is the only thing that remains."
Her charity has no limits. In Tortona she is called "our angel".
In the morning of the 10th of May 1903, , the orphans and the boarders find a message addressed to them from Sr. Nemesia: "I am leaving happily, I entrust to our Lady... I shall follow you in every moment of the day". She left alone at 4 o'clock in the morning, after 36 years... In Borgaro, a small country in the vicinity of Turin, there is a small group of young girls waiting to be accompanied along a new path, towards the total self-gift to God and to serve him later in the poor...They are the novices of the new province of the Sisters of Charity... The method of her formation remains always the same : that of kindness, understanding that educates to renouncement out of love, patience that knows how to wait and how to find the correct way that is convenient to everyone.
Her novices recall : "She knew each one of us, she understood our needs, she treated us according to our characters and she asked
The character of the Provincial Superior which "was perfectly opposite to hers", disagreed with her method. She was in favour of a rigid, strong and immediate method. Such a difference in their points of view caused relevant contrasts which found their expression in reproaches and humiliations. Sister Nemesia accepted everything in silence, smiling as she went ahead, without hurrying and without neglecting her responsibilities: "From one station to the other, let us continue our way in the desert...and if the desert is deaf, your Creator is always listening..."
Sr. Nemesia's path nears the end. Already thirteen years have passed since her arrival in Borgaro. About five hundred novices have learnt from her how to walk on the paths traced by God. She has given everything : now the Lord asks her to "hand over" to others even "her noviciate".
The prayer that has become hers since the beginning: "Jesus strip me of myself, let me be wrapped in You" has accompanied her throughout her life. Now she can say "I don't exist any more". She has given up everything. It's the perfect offering of an existence fully offered to Love.
Sr. Nemesia dies on the 18th December 1916.
© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
SAINT GATIAN
Bishop
(3rd century)
St. Gatian came from Rome with St. Dionysius of Paris, about the middle of the third century, and preached the Faith principally at Tours in Gaul, where he fixed his episcopal see. The Gauls in that part were extremely addicted to the worship of their idols. But no contradictions or sufferings were able to discourage or daunt this true apostle, and by perseverance he gained several to Christ.He assembled his little flock in grots and caves, and there celebrated the divine mysteries. He was obliged often to lie hid in lurking holes a long time in order to escape a cruel death, with which the heathens frequently threatened him, and which he was always ready to receive with joy if he had fallen into their hands.
Having continued his labors with unwearied zeal amidst frequent sufferings and dangers for near the space of fifty years, he died in peace, and was honored with miracles.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Book of Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Time’s coming”—God’s Decree—
“when I’ll establish a truly righteous David-Branch,
A ruler who knows how to rule justly.
He’ll make sure of justice and keep people united.
In his time Judah will be secure again
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name they’ll give him:
‘God-Who-Puts-Everything-Right.’
7-8 “So watch for this. The time’s coming”—God’s Decree—“when no one will say, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ but, ‘As sure as God lives, the God who brought the descendants of Israel back from the north country and from the other countries where he’d driven them, so that they can live on their own good earth.’”
Psalm 72: A Solomon Psalm
1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God,
the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
help the children of the needy,
come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom
and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
from the River to the Rim.
9-14 Foes will fall on their knees before God,
his enemies lick the dust.
Kings remote and legendary will pay homage,
kings rich and resplendent will turn over their wealth.
All kings will fall down and worship,
and godless nations sign up to serve him,
Because he rescues the poor at the first sign of need,
the destitute who have run out of luck.
He opens a place in his heart for the down-and-out,
he restores the wretched of the earth.
He frees them from tyranny and torture—
when they bleed, he bleeds;
when they die, he dies.
18-20 Blessed God, Israel’s God,
the one and only wonder-working God!
Blessed always his blazing glory!
All earth brims with his glory.
Yes and Yes and Yes.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 1: The Birth of Jesus
18-19 The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.
20-23 While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).
24-25 Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.
Thursday of the Third Week of Advent
Commentary of the Day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Homilies on the « Missus est » no. 2, 13-15 (trans. St Mary’s Community, York)
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home"
“Joseph, her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly" (Mt 1,19). Truly, because he was just, he would not expose her to shame; for as he would not have been just had he countenanced one that was guilty, neither would he have been just if he had condemned one whose innocence had been proved. Since, then, he was just and unwilling to expose her, why had he a mind to divorce her? I give you on this point not my own opinion, but that of the Fathers: Joseph's reason was the same as Peter's when he said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord," (Lk 5,8) and that of the centurion when he exclaimed, “I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof" (Mt 8,8).
Joseph looked on himself as a sinner and as unworthy to entertain one in whom he beheld a superhuman dignity. He beheld with awe in the Virgin-Mother a certain sign of the Divine Presence, and as he could not penetrate the mystery, he wished to divorce her. Saint Peter was struck with awe at the greatness of Christ's power; the centurion by the majesty of Christ’s presence; and Joseph was naturally afraid at the novelty and splendor of the miracle and the depth of the mystery. We need not wonder that Joseph thought himself unworthy of the society of such a Virgin when we hear Saint Elizabeth exclaim with fear and trembling: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1,43)…
But why divorce her secretly? So that people might not seek out the reason for their separation or come to demand an explanation. What could this just man have replied to… people always ready to dispute? If he had concealed his thoughts, if he had asserted his fiancée’s purity, those sceptics would have mocked him and stoned Mary… So Joseph, who wanted neither to lie nor to blame, acted rightly… But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid! What is born of her comes from the Holy Spirit.”
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