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My Christmas Eve thoughts for you; Hark The Angel
Topic Started: Dec 25 2013, 07:46 AM (125 Views)
Mike
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We have been busy as bees these past few days, and I thought to myself how selfish I have become. Forgive me and have patience.

Family is not a matter of blood but rather encompasses all we are.. all of humanity and all we love. You folks and I have shared a path for the better part of a decade now, some longer some a little less, and you are of my family. I laugh and I cry for you and pray for all of you daily. I'm not here every moment but there is not a moment that I love you less. My favorite Christmas song is Hark The Herald Angels Sing.. I compiled this little summation of this song and I can't think of a better time to share it and a message with you than now..Christmas Eve.

Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth, and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled.

You know fellas, there are many great Christmas carols and hymns.. but few have the theological richness of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing." Written by Charles Wesley, brother of the founder of Methodism (they get it right sometimes), "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" reminds us of two important truths. Christ is the God-made-Man, Whose Incarnation is the singular event in human history, toward which all of mankind once struggled, and in the shadow of which all of mankind now lives.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.. Hail the incarnate Deity.. Pleased as man with man to dwell.. Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Christ's Incarnation could have taken on a different form... God could have sent His Son as a full-grown Man. That He chose not to...the fact He chose, instead, to have His Son follow (so far as His glory allowed) the normal path of human life..draws mankind to God as God enters mankind. In the words of the Athanasian Creed, Christ's Incarnation accomplishes "the assumption of humanity in the Godhead." By becoming Man, Christ united man with God in a way that even Adam and Eve had not been.

Mild He lays His glory by Born.. that man no more may die.. Born to raise the sons of earth.. Born to give them second birth.

The Eastern Fathers of the Church (and, later in the West, Blessed John Duns Scotus).. speculated that Christ would have become Man even if mankind had not sinned. But we did, both through Adam and Eve and personally. And thus Christ's Incarnation takes on an even greater significance...the felix culpa.. the "happy fault" of Saint Augustine, that reconciled sinners to God and gave them ..gave us.."second birth."

Without Christ's sacrifice on the Cross on Good Friday and His Resurrection on Easter Sunday, our faith, as Saint Paul says, would be in vain. From the Annunciation through the Nativity, through the Crucifixion and the Resurrection to the Ascension, Christ's life is not a series of separate events, but a single seamless cloth. When we look at the Child in the manger, we cannot help but see the Man on the Cross, and we know that our redemption has been accomplished.

On Christmas morning, Bethlehem and Calvary are united as we, like the centurion, proclaim, "Truly this is the Son of God."

Hark the herald angels sing.. Glory to the newborn King!

As all of you gather with family, with friend, or alone, know this to be true....God in heaven loved you, He loved you more than any love we mortals can envision..we celebrate His birth in flesh tomorrow and gather today as those wise men did so long ago, in praising and ushering Him into our lives.

Mike and the pups.
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Brewster
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Merry Christmas, Pups.

(You too, Mike!)
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colo_crawdad
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The very warmest of Christmas wishes for you and yours, Fr. Mike.
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Sea Dog
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Merry Christmas, Mike.
Drop in more often!
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Neutral
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Merry Christmas to all.
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Jack of 32
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Merry Christmas Mike and all that post here.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season....
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tomdrobin
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Merry Christmas Mike.
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Thank you Mike.
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Thumper
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Bless you Fr Mike and thank you. Hope you are having a joyous Christmas season.
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