WORD 2day: 23rd December, 2013

Needed Traits to Receive the Lord #2: READINESS

The second trait necessary is that of Readiness. Readiness does not mean a mere passive waiting... it is an active preparation, without which one would miss the moment of truth. The coming of the Lord is the moment of truth for us, and we have to be ready - which is, to be prepared in heart and mind, in spirit and in action. That is what the first reading calls us to - to be well disposed to be refined as silver is refined in the furnace, to make our life worthy of the sacred mysteries we are about to celebrate. It is like the period of pain that Elisabeth and the time of muteness that Zachariah had to go through. The sacrament of Confession is a wonderful moment of refinement, a great sign of our READINESS to receive the Lord, this Christmas! 

Novena... Day 8... O Emmanuel

23rd December: O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Based on the famous prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, the title Emmanuel is the key to the mystery of incarnation. 

The symbol is the virgin with the child in the manger. It is not just any child, but the promised salvation of the God of the universe, the king who has come to meet his subjects to make them co-heirs to his throne.

The prayer is to save us, as the Lord our God... in simple words it is to stay with us, to live with us. to sanctify us, to make us worthy of God and of God's great big family.

Novena...Day 7... O King of Nations

22nd December: O King of Nations

O King of the nations, and their desire,

the cornerstone making both one:

Come and save the human race,

which you fashioned from clay.

Based on Isaiah 9:6, 2:4 and 28:16, the King of the nations is a yearning of the people of Israel. They wanted Yahweh to be their king always, even when they had a human king ruling them. That is why they did not give in to the Emperor worship that was so widespread in the dominant cultures of their times. God is the king, forever and over all!

The Symbol is the crown, and some times even the sceptre, that signifies the central place that God has in our personal and universal history; and the authority that rests solely with God.

The prayer is to save the human kind, from slaveries of sin and death to the freedom of the children of God, for that is what we are, children created in the image and likeness of God. It is to grow in this identity and dignity that the coming of the Lord invites us.