God is born... (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   God is born as a helpless, vulnerable, thoroughly under-whelming baby who looks out at us quietly even as we look back at him and he judges us in that way that vulnerability forever judges false strength, transparency judges lies, generosity judges selfishness, innocence judges over-sophistication, and a baby, gently and helplessly and disarmingly, calls forth what’s best in us.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, Facebook, December 26, 2016

Image source:  https://tinybabystudiodotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/tiny-baby-studio-newcastle-newborn-photographer-open-eyes.jpg?w=760

The Lord of Christmas (Richard Paul Evans)

   Christmas began in a humble, hay-filled box of splintered wood.  The Magi, wise men who had traveled far to see the infant king, laid treasure-filled boxes at the feet of that holy child.  And in the end, when He had ransomed our sins with His blood, the Lord of Christmas was laid down in a box of stone.  How fitting that each Christmas season brightly wrapped boxes skirt the pine boughs of Christmas trees around the world.

--Richard Paul Evans, The Christmas Box

Image source:  https://dbethandrews.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/manger-and-cross-plain.jpg

Emmanuel, God with us...

Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel, 

which means, God with us!

Blessings at Christmas

from Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mill Valley!

Photo credit (1):  Steve Reiter

Photo credit (2): Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Welcoming in God's bold invitation (Rory Cooney)

 There was a woman, small as a star, 

Full of the patient dreams of her nation, 

Welcoming in an angel of God, 

Welcoming in God’s bold invitation. 

Let it be done, she sang, unto me. 

I am for you, I am for you! 

I am for you:  let it be! 

To hear this song composed by Rory Cooney and available on his Vision CD, click on the video below:

Image source (Artist: Rassouli)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/57/5a/da/575ada85bd5584462be7ad6e76dafca5--have-faith-visionary-art.jpg

Lyrics source

Vision CD 
Video source

God's kiss to humanity (St. Francis de Sales)

  Let him kiss me with a kiss of his mouth!  At last, this kiss which had been for so long differed, was accorded to his holy Lover, Our Lady, given by her celestial Spouse on the day of the Annunciation.  It was then that the divine union of the eternal Word with human nature, represented by this kiss, took place in the holy womb of the glorious Virgin.

--St. Francis de Sales, 

Sermon XLVI on the Annunciation, 

March 25, 1621 

Image source:  Maurice Denis, L'Annonciation (1913)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVIj1Zol5uHiDWvtGy2bGQ12L_BVQq_S0YPWe4rUlkU2UkrfFaTRFFQsuAD4Wgjyj4zuArTC4KDxPvK-bYo_57b8w7_2q7HaHxK8i8gMVT0XBYQxd3vsZm_zMhRb-0vVd1EEU0WsJhxJ6H/s1600/maurice-denis-theredlist.png