Day 13 of Christmas
Greeting Hello. I’m Father Gilles Surprenant. Today is the 13th day of Christmas until the Baptism of the Lord. We thank God for bringing us together in the radiant Christmas light still shining on the Face of Jesus. Television air time for this Live Daily Mass is so very expensive to produce; so we at Salt + Light & Mary Queen of the World Cathedral in downtown Montreal very much appreciate your support by way of your prayers and donations. Thank you.
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Penitential Rite The world is already throwing Christmas away with appeals to shop and lure us to spend a lot of money for things we do not really need. The world tries to get us to spend by promising savings. In contrast, the Kingdom of God continues all year long to invite us to cultivate relationships with others and with God our Maker. Brothers and sisters let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.
HOMILY
There is no denying the divine glow coming from the love of God and shining brightly upon our souls during these radiant days of the Christmas Season. The exterior lights shining their Christmas beauty are sadly already being put out by our culture and society that is much more impressed by the light shining exteriorly into our lives from cinema, TV, computer, and smart phone screens. The light shining within us at Christmas and every day of the year is actually God Himself – for Jesus is the Light of the world. Christmas lights, as beautiful as they may be, only have lasting value in drawing our attention to Jesus Himself, personally, and to the Father.
God’s Light is gentle and peaceful; He respects our freedom and makes lots of room for us to freely choose to enter more personally into relationship with Jesus, and through Him with the Father as we allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten us, carry us, console us, and forgive us.
By contrast, the light shining into our lives on all of those HD screens is very invasive. It employs an infinite variety of means to capture our attention, seduce our spirits, and lead us to any number of places to which we would normally never choose to go in our right minds.
Far more dangerous than the current worldwide Covid-19 Pandemic is the worldwide plague of pornography which is aggressively invading even the eyes, imaginations, hearts, minds, and spirits of children; thereby violating them and robbing them of their innocence. A child exposed or worse, addicted, to pornography is violated and robbed of its innocent ability to see other people as persons; as they now look upon others for their sexual body attributes.
Adults who are exposed or worse, addicted, to pornography, have surrendered their God-given power to live as children of God and to look upon their neighbor as a sister and brother in Jesus. Other people, even in the family, are increasingly seen as possessing sexual attributes. This is far worse than the adverse wind against which the apostles struggled in their boat.
We women and men who allow ourselves to be trapped by the spirit of the world, by the demons who dominate the air waves, have shut down our God-given power to give life and to nurture life. We have shut down our God-given power to stand at the gate and defend all life and protect the innocence and dignity of the children of God entrusted to our care. We are allowing our children, family, and neighbors to be violated and robbed of their innocence and their God-given capacity to love and be loved and to be able to welcome happiness in love.
Our current captivity in the plague of pornography is a willing submission to the tricks and powers of demons who act under the direction of the prince of this world a.k.a. Lucifer, Satan the Accuser, and the Devil, the Adversary of God. The Good News and the beauty and radiance of Christmas is that a Son has been given to us who is called Emmanuel, Wonder Counselor, Son of God, and Prince of Peace. This Child grew up in Galilee and became our Redeemer, the One Savior of the world. He has defeated his adversary by his death on the Cross and offers us to share in his victory; providing we believe in Him and follow in his way.
At every moment and in every place the Holy Spirit is at hand within us to empower us to lift up our eyes and turn to Jesus and worship Him who is the Son of God our Savior, Jesus who says to all that we are personally loved by God: the Father, + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Announcement:
Salt + Light Media and Mary Queen of the World Cathedral are partnering to produce and air this Live Daily Mass. To fully recover their expenses over $1,000.00 would be needed for each and every Live Daily Mass. You are currently being offered a rebate to air your Mass intentions at the current rate. As we continue to develop this new project which began in October we are happy to receive your contributions and Mass intentions to support this Live Daily Mass. Please continue to send your donations and Mass intentions to Salt + Light Media or to the Cathedral. Thank you. To contact me simply send an email to fathergilles@gmail.com
https://frgilleshomilies.blogspot.com
© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
