A Sunday Thought About Archangels
For the most part, Sundays trump individual feast days. So the feast of the Archangels will have to play second fiddle to Sunday's scheduled readings. But even though it's Sunday, we can still celebrate this glorious feast of the Archangels. For me, this day always brings the first inklings of Christmas ("Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains..."). And for the first time, I noticed that the day before the feast of the Archangels we celebrated St Wenceslaus ("Good King Wenceslaus looked out on the feast of Stephen...").
No wonder Christmas begins to work it's way into my consciousness.
Now let's connect this happy note with last Sunday's thought about the importance of meditating on Death - perhaps for some of us a decidedly less happy note. When I came across the Abbot's words reminding us that our lives may very well end in an instant - perhaps the next instant, as in right now - right after that I came across this in my reading of Scripture that same morning. These are the opening lines of Psalm 24:
So with this first inkling of the spirit of Christmas, let's connect the dots between last Sunday's post and today's thoughts. For this we jump to the end of Psalm 22. Those of you who know and love Handel's "Messiah" will recognize this. I never realized before how perfectly it reminds us to look up from our immersion in the world, to raise our eyes to Our Lord:
And if you're not familiar with this wonderful part of the Messiah, here's a lovely performance done in authentic baroque style...
Feeling Christmas-y yet?
No wonder Christmas begins to work it's way into my consciousness.
Now let's connect this happy note with last Sunday's thought about the importance of meditating on Death - perhaps for some of us a decidedly less happy note. When I came across the Abbot's words reminding us that our lives may very well end in an instant - perhaps the next instant, as in right now - right after that I came across this in my reading of Scripture that same morning. These are the opening lines of Psalm 24:
The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereofAs we saw last Sunday, even us good Catholics can become so immersed in this world that we wind up spending most of our times focused on it- the world - and not on Him - on the Creator of this world.
the world and those who dwell therein...
So with this first inkling of the spirit of Christmas, let's connect the dots between last Sunday's post and today's thoughts. For this we jump to the end of Psalm 22. Those of you who know and love Handel's "Messiah" will recognize this. I never realized before how perfectly it reminds us to look up from our immersion in the world, to raise our eyes to Our Lord:
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors;Such are the connections that result from simply spending a few moments meditating and reading some Scripture before heading off to work. (Try it sometime and you'll know what I'm talking about.)
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;
and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.
And if you're not familiar with this wonderful part of the Messiah, here's a lovely performance done in authentic baroque style...
Feeling Christmas-y yet?
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