Collect taken from the mass of the day.
Collect: Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near, we pray that to us, your servants, mercy may flow from your Word, who chose to become flesh of the Virgin Mary and establish among us his dwelling, Jesus Christ out Lord. Who lives and reigns…
“Almighty ever-living God, as we see how the Nativity of your Son according to the flesh draws near”
– We know that Christ is also the eternal son of God, so the Church is careful to recall that Christmas is the celebration of his fleshly birth and not the beginning of his existence. As we hear in the Gospel of John, the Word was with God in the very beginning.
“we pray that to us, your servants, mercy may flow from your Word, who chose to become flesh of the Virgin Mary and establish among us his dwelling, Jesus Christ out Lord”
– This rather complicated sentence basically asks that mercy come to us from the Word of God. In making this prayer, the Church is also mindful of the fact that the Son’s decision to become flesh is itself an act of mercy and so we have every reason to hope for him to continue to extend that same mercy to us.
Questions & Advice: Have we been acting like Christmas has already come? Do we really sense how significant it is that the Son of God chose to become flesh for our sake? Or is this just another excuse to party and buy useless stuff? The Church is praying for mercy from God in this prayer, but are we actually disposing ourselves to receive that mercy?
The best way to be disposed for mercy is to admit your need for that mercy, so go to confession before Christmas and ready your hearts to receive mercy from him. Another important part of receiving mercy is to give mercy – Catholics can never stress this part enough. Look over the works of mercy yet again and try to put at least one of each (corporal and spiritual) into practice today.
| O Come, O Come Emmanuel! |