Sunday Morning Storyland - Sunday Sermons for Children
By: Rev. Wilfrid J. Diamond Imprimatur 1945

WE PREPARE the way of the Lord by rooting sin out of our lives, and the way to root out sin is to avoid the occasions of sin. Avoid occasions and prepare the way of the Lord. This morning's story tells us how we can avoid occasions of sin.

There was once a rich man who was very fond of his aged mother. One day he was going to hire a chauffeur to take her out for a drive every afternoon. Three men asked for the job.

The rich man said to them, "I wouldn't want any accidents to happen while you were taking my mother for a drive. O'll give you all the same test and see how well you can drive. Beside the road, there is a ditch. I want you to see how close you can drive to that without falling in."

The first driver said to himself, "This is easy." He got behind the steering wheel and came zooming down the road to miss the ditch by four inches.

The second man whispered to himself, "I can do better than that." He came zooming down the road and missed the ditch by two inches.

The third man had been thinking very hard in the meantime. He missed the ditch by three feet.

The other two men giggled. But the rich man said to him, "The job is yours. I want a man who will drive safely. A safe driver does not come as close to the ditch as he can."

The lesson is that we must avoid the occasion of sin. We must not see how close we can come to sin without falling into it. WE must stay away from it. If, then, whenever you go out with so and so, he tempts you to steal, stay away from him. If when you are with a certain girl, you always backbite someone, stay away from her. Those people are bad company for you. They are occasions of sin and are to be avoided. If you know that you have sinned in someone's company, avoid him in the future. If you curse and swear when you are with a certain group, avoid that group. Do not see how close you can come to the ditch of sin without falling in. Stay in your lane. The man who was hiring the the chauffeurs knew that if they drove close to the ditch all the time they would fall into it some day.

The devil tries to tempt you to come close to sin. He knows that you will fall into it if you do. You can fool him if you want to simply by staying in your own lane and by not driving close to the ditch. Stay away from the occasions of sin. Root sin out of your soul and you will be preparing the way of the Lord.

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By: Dom Gueranger Imprimatur 1927


O Emmanuel! King of peace! Thou enterest today the city of Thy predilection, the city in which Thou hast placed Thy temple - Jerusalem. A few years hence the same city will give Thee Thy cross and Thy sepulcher : nay, the day will come on which Thou wilt set up Thy judgement-seat within sight of her walls. But to-day Thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on Thy road to Bethlehem. Thy blessed Mother and Joseph her spouse would not lose the opportunity of visiting the temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first; (Agg. ii.10) for this second temple has now standing within it an ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. The Lawgiver Himself is in this blessed ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law as graven. The visit paid, our living ark descends the steps of the temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore Thee, O Emmanuel!   in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of Thee; for Thou wouldst give to Thy people the certainty of Thy being the Messias, by showing them that all the marks, whereby He was to be known, are to be found in Thee. And now, the hour is near; all is ready for Thy birth; come, then save us; come, that THou mayest not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us.


THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO JERUSALEM
O Jerusalem! city of the great God: lift up thine eyes round about, and see thy Lord, for he is coming to loose thee from thy chains.

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By: Dom Gueranger Imprimatur 1927


O King of nations! Thou art approaching still nigher to Bethlehem, where Thou art to be born. The journey is almost over, and Thy august Mother, consoled and strengthened by the dear weight she bears, holds an unceasing converse with Thee on the way. She adores Thy divine Majesty; she gives thanks to Thy mercy; she rejoices that she has been chosen for the sublime ministry of being Mother to God. She longs for that happy moment when her eyes shall look upon Thee, and yet she fears it. For, how will she be able to render Thee those services which are due to Thy infinite greatness, she that thinks herself the last of creatures? How will she dare to raise Thee up in her arms, and press Thee to her heart, and feed Thee at her breasts? When she reflects that the hour is now near at hand, in which, tenderness, her heart sinks within her; for, what human heart could bear the intense vehemence of these two affections - the love of such a Mother for her Babe, and the love of such a creature for her God? But Thou supportest her, O Thou the Desired of nations!  for Thou, too, longest for that happy birth, which is to give to the earth its Saviour, and to men that corner-stone, which will unite them all into one family. Dearest King! be Thou blessed for all these wonders of Thy power and goodness! Come speedily, we beseech Thee, come and save us, for we are dear to Thee, as creatures that have been formed by Thy divine hands. Yea, come, for Thy creation has grown degenerate; it is lost; death has taken possession of it: take Thou it again into Thy almighty hands, and give it a new creation; save it; for Thou hast not ceased to take pleasure in and love Thine own work.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON IN HONOUR OF CHRIST
 O King of peace! that wast born before all ages, come by the golden gate; visit them whom thou hast redeemed, and lead them back to the place whence they fell by sin.

O JESUS, Son of David! heir to his throne and his power! Thou art now passing over, in Thy way to Bethlehem, the land that once was the kingdom of Thy ancestor, but now is tributary to the Gentiles. Scarce an inch of this ground which has not witnessed the miracles of the justice and mercy of Jehovah, Thy Father, to the people of the old Covenant, which is so soon to end.  Before long, when Thou hast come from beneath the virginal cloud which now hides Thee, Thou wilt pass along this same road doing good, (Acts x. 38.) healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity, (St. Matt. iv. 23.) and yet having not where to lay Thy head. (St. Luke ix. 58) Now, at least, Thy Mother's womb affords Thee the sweetest adoration and the tenderest love. But, dear Jesus, it is Thine own blessed will that Thou leave this loved abode. Thou hast, O eternal Light, to shine in the midst of this world's darkness, this prison where the captive, whom Thou hast come to deliver, sits in the shadow of death. Open his prison-gates by Thy all-powerful key. And who is the captive, but the human race, the slave of error and vice? Who is the captive , but the heart of man, which is thrall to the very passions it blushes to obey? Oh! come and set at liberty the world Thou hast enriched by Thy grace, and the creatures whom Thou hast made to be Thine own brethren.

ANTIPHON TO THE ANGEL GABRIEL
O Gabriel! the messenger of heaven, who camest unto me through the closed doors, and didst announce the Word unto me: Thou shalt conceive and bear a Son, and he shall be called Emmanuel.

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By: Dom Gueranger Imprimatur 1927

At length, O Son of Jesse! Thou art approaching the city of Thy ancestors. The Ark of the Lord has risen, and journeys, with the God that is in her, to the place of her rest. 'How beautiful are thy steps, O daughter of the Prince,' (Cant. vii. 1.) now that thou art bringing to the cities of Juda their salvation! The angels escort thee, thy faithful Joseph lavishes his love upon thee, heaven delights in thee, and our earth thrills with joy to bear thus upon itself its Creator and its Queen. Go forward, O Mother of God and Mother of men! Speed thee, thou propitiatory that holdest within thee the divine Manna which gives us life! Our hearts are with thee, thou propitiatory that holdest within thee the divine Manna which gives us life! Our hearts are with thee, and count thy steps. Like thy royal ancestor David, 'we will not enter into the dwelling of our house, nor go up into the bed whereon we lie, nor give sleep to our eyes, nor rest to our temples, until we have found a place in our hearts for the Lord whom thou bearest, a tabernacle for this God of Jacob.' (Ps. cxxxi. 3-5.) Come, then, O Root of Jesse! thus hidden in this Ark of purity; Thou wilt soon appear before Thy people as the standard round which all that would conquer must rally. Then their enemies, the kings of the world, will be silenced, and the nations will offer Thee their prayers. Hasten Thy coming, dear Jesus! come and conquer all our enemies, and deliver us.


A RESPONSORY OF ADVENT
(Ambrosian breviary, sixth Sunday of Advent)


R. Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the invisible God: there did he deign to dwell, whom seven thrones cannot hold: * And she bore him as a light weight in her womb. V. The Lord hath given him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end: * And she bore him as a light weight in her womb.

Thought I'd share a quick post with you all about your Christmas preparations. This is such a busy week as I'm sure most of yours are as well. If something seems missing from the blog or printables they will most likely be up after Christmas.

Today I made 12 loaves of quick bread to freeze and give as gifts on Christmas; lemon poppy seed, honey banana walnut and oatmeal cinnamon raisin. We also made some cinnamon ornaments and salt dough ornaments for our tree and to give as gifts or use as gift tags on baskets. 

I should have followed the directions when it said store bought applesauce only on the cinnamon ornaments as they were much to wet and I started adding everything I could think of to thicken them up without them crumbling. Below are a few recipes I found online, just don't use homemade apple sauce ;)

I finally got to use our St. Nicholas miter cookie cutter with these ornaments. We always have too many St. Nicholas treats on his feast day and so the cookies never get made. At last we have a use for them! They could be any bishops miter for that matter.

My goal is to some day have an old world Catholic Christmas tree with cranberry and popcorn garlands, cinnamon, paper mache and other hand made ornaments all feautring our Faith and ideally REAL candles to light it up. Though I know that will never happen, they are much too unsafe with little one. I'd settle to switching our colored lights to white but I don't think the kids would go for that now. We plan on getting our tree this coming Saturday and decorating it on Sunday so we have plenty of time to prep for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

 I look up to those who wait until Christmas eve to put their tree up for the kids to see on Christmas day, like the Von Trapps use to do. The tree was part of the gift in the morning! Some how we have never found the time to do that and the one year I tried I ended up sick on Christmas day from all the work at the wee hours of the night! When do you all put up your tree and what are your favorite decorations?

We are praying you are all having a blessed week preparing for our Saviour's Nativity!

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By: Dom Gueranger Imprimatur 1927


O SOVEREIGN Lord! O Adonai! come and redeem us, not by Thy power, but by Thy humility. Heretofore, Thou didst show Thyself to Moses Thy servant in the midst of a mysterious flame; Thou didst give Thy law to Thy people admist thunder and lightning; now, on the contrary, Thou comest not to terrify, but to save us. Thy chaste Mother having heard the emperor's edict, which obliges her and Joseph her spouse to repair to Bethlehem, prepares everything needed for Thy divine Birth. She prepares for Thee, O Sun of justice! the humble swathing-bands, wherewith to cover Thy nakedness, and protect Thee, the Creator of the world, from the cold of that midnight hour of Thy Nativity! Thus it is that Thou willest to deliver us from the slavery of our pride, and show man that Thy divine arm is never stronger than when he thinks it powerless and still. Everything is prepared, then, dear Jesus! Thy swathing-bands are ready for Thy infant limbs! Come to Bethlehem, and redeem us from the hands of our enemies.

In our previous schedule for the Keeping Advent Catholic series we were planning on sharing about Christmas Eve today. While we still plan on doing that we are going to wait until later this week or next with a special edition of Keeping it Catholic 'Monday'. As there are a couple of other topics we thought would be more appropriate on this day.

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By: Dom Guearnger Imprimatur 1927

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE GREAT ANTIPHONS
The Church enters to-day on the seven days which precede the Virgil of Christmas, and which are known in the liturgy under the name of the Greater Ferias. The ordinary of the Advent Office becomes more solemn; the antiphons of the psalms, both for Lauds and the Hours of the day, are proper, and allude expressly to the great coming. Every da, at Vespers, is sunga solemn antiphon, consisting of a fervent prayer to the Messias, whom it addresses by one of the titles given Him in the sacred Scriptures.

In the Roman Church, there are seven of these antiphons, one for each of the greater ferias. They are commonly called the O's of Advent, because they all begin with that interjection. In other Churches, during the middle ages, two more were added to these seven; one to our blessed Lady, O Virgo virginum; and the other to the angel Gabriel, O Gabriel; or to St. Thomas the apostle, whose feast comes during the greater ferias; it began O Thoma Didyme. (It is more modern than the O Gabriel; but dating from the thirteenth century, it was almost universally substituted for it.) There were even Churches where twelve great antiphons were sung; that is, besides the nine we have just mentioned, O Rex Pacifice to our Lord, O mundi Domina to our Lady, and O Hierusalem to the city of the people of God.

The canonical Hour of Vespers has been selected as the most appropriate time for this solemn supplication to our Saviour, because, as the Church sings in one of her hymns, it was in the evening of the world (vergente mundi vespers) that the Messias came amongst us. These antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, to show us that the Saviour whome we expect is to come to us by Mary. They are sung twice, once before and once after the canticle, as on double feasts, and this to show their great solemnity. In some Churches it was formerly the practice to sing them thrice; that is, before the canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat. Lastly, these admirable antiphons, which contain the whole pith of the Advent liturgy, are accompanied by a chant replete with melodious gravity, and by ceremonies of great expressiveness, though, in these latter, there is no uniform practice followed. Let us enter into the spirit of the Church; let us reflect on the great day which is coming; that thus we may take our share in these the last and most earnest solicitations of the Church imploring her Spouse to come, to which He at length yields.

The Liturgical Year - Advent Volume
By Dom Guearnger Imprimatur 1927


The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

To-day the Church begins the fast of the Quartuor Tempora, or, as we call it, of Ember Days: it includes also the Friday and Saturday of this same week. This observance is not peculiar to the Advent liturgy; it is one which has been fixed for each of the four seasons of the ecclesiastical year. We may consider it as one of those practices which the Church took from the Synagogue; for the prophet Zacharias speaks of the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months. ( Zach. viii. 19.) Its introduction into the Christian Church would seem to have been made in the apostolic times; such, at least, is the opinion of St. Leo, of St. Isidore of Serville, of Rabanus Maurus, and of several other ancient Christian writers. It is remarkable, on the other hand, that the orientals do not observe this fast.

From the first ages of the Quartuor Tempora were kept in the Roman Church, at the same time of the year as at present. As to the expression, which is not unfrequently used in the early writers, of the three times and not the four, we must remember that in the spring, these days always come in the first week of Lent, a period already consecrated to the most rigorous fasting and abstinence, and that consequently they could add nothing to the penitential exercises of that portion of the year.

The intentions, which the Church has in the fast of the Ember days, are the same as those of the Synagogue; namely, to consecrate to God by penance the four seasons of the year. The Ember days of Advent are known, in ecclesiastical antiquity, as the fast of the tenth month; and St. Leo, in one of his sermons on this fast, of which the Church has inserted a passage in the second nocturne of the third Sunday of Advent, tells us that a special fast was fixed for this time of year, because the fruits of the earth had then all been gathered in, and that it behoved Christians to testify their gratitude to God by a sacrifice of abstinence, thus rendering themselves more worthy to approach to God, the more they were detached from the love of created things. 'For nourishment of virtue. Abstinence is the source of chaste thoughts, of wise resolution,s of the salutary counsel. By voluntary mortifications, the flesh dies to its concupiscences, and the spirit is renewed in virtue. But since fasting alone is not sufficient whereby to secure the soul's salvation, let us add to it works of mercy towards the poor. Let us make that which we retrench from indulgence, serve unto the exercise of virtue. Let the abstinence of him that fasts, become the meal of the poor man.'

To be Continued...

The Liturgical Year - Advent Vol.
By: Dom Guearnger Imprimatur 1927

To-Day, again, the Church is full of joy, and the joy is greater than it was. It is true that her Lord has not come; but she feels that He is nearer than before, and therefore she thinks it just to lessen some-what the austerity of this penitential season by the innocent cheerfulness of her sacred rites. And first, this Sunday has had the name of Guadete give to it, from the first word of the Introit; it also is honoured with those impressive exceptions which belong to the fourth Sunday of Lent, called Laetare. The organ is played at the Mass; the vestments are rose-colour; the deacon resumes the dalmatic, and the subdeacon the tunic; and in cathedral churches the bishop assists with the precious mitre. How touching area all these usages, and how admirable this condescension of the Church, wherewith she so beautifully blends together the unalterable strictness of the dogmas of faith and the graceful poetry of the formulae of her liturgy! Let us enter into her spirit, and be glad on this third Sunday of her Advent, because our Lord is now so near unto us. To-morrow we will resume our attitude of servants mourning for the absence of their Lord and waiting for Him; for every delay, however short, is painful and makes love sad.

The Station is kept at the basilica of St. Peter, at the Vatican. This august temple, which contains the tomb of the prince of the apostles, is the home and refuge of all the faithful of the world; it is but natural that it should be chosen to witness both the joy and the sadness of the Church.

The night Office commences with a new Invitatory. The voice of the church no longer invites the faithful to come and adore in fear and trembling the King, our Lord, who is to come. Her language assumes another character; her tone is one of gladness; and now, every day, until the vigil of Christmas, she begins her nocturns with these grand words:

The Lord is now nigh; come, let us adore.

Now let us take the book of the Prophet, and read with the Church:

From the Prophet Isaias Ch. xxvi


In that day shall this canticle be sung in the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength: a Saviour, a wall, and a bulwark shall be set therein. Open ye the gates and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in. The old error is passed away, thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee. You have hoped in the Lord for evermore: in the Lord God mighty for ever. For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust. The foot shall tread it down; the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in. And in the way of thy judgements, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul. My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee.


O holy Roman Church, city of our strength! behold us thy children assembled within thy walls, around the tomb of the fisherman, the prince of the apostles, whose sacred relics protect thee from their earthly shrine, and whose unchanging teaching enlightens thee from heaven,. Yet, O city of strength: it is by the Saviour, who is coming, that thou art strong., He is thy wall, for it is He that encircles, with His tender mercy, all thy children; He is thy bulwark, for it is by Him that thou art invincible, and that all the powers of hell are powerless to prevail against thee. Open wide thy gates, that all nations may enter thee; for thou art mistress of holiness and the guardian of truth. May the old error, which sets itself against the faith, soon disappear, and peace reign over the whole fold! O holy Roman Church! thou hast for ever put thy trust in the Lord; and He, faithful to His promise, has humbled before thee the haughty ones that defied thee, and the proud cities that were against thee. Where now are the Caesars, who boasted that they had drowned thee in thine own blood? where the emperors, who would ravish the inviolate virginity of thy faith? where the heretics, who, during the past centuries of thine existence have assailed every article of thy teaching, and denied what they listed? where the ungrateful princes, who would fain make a slave of thee, who hadst made them what they were? where that empire of Mahomet, which has so many times raged against thee, for that thou, the defenseless State, didst arrest the pride of its conquests? where the reformers, who were bend on giving the world a Christianity, in which thou wast to have no part? where the more modern sophists, in whose philosophy thou wast set down as a system that had been tried, and was a failure, and is now a ruin? and those kings who are acting the tyrant over thee, and those people that will have liberty independently and at the risk of truth, where will they be in another hundred years? Gone and forgotten as the noisy anger of a torrent; whilst thou, O holy Church of rome, built on the immovable rock, wilt be as calm, as young, as unwrinkled as ever. 


Thy path through all the ages of this world's duration, will be right as that of the just man; thou wilt ever be the same unchanging Church, as thou has been during the eighteen hundred years past, whilst everything else under the sun has been but change. Whence this thy stability, but from Him who is very truth and justice? Glory be to Him in thee! Each year, He visits thee; each year, He brings thee new gifts, wherewith thou mayst go happily through thy pilgrimage; and to the end of time, He will visit thee, and renew thee, not only with the power of that look wherewith Peter was renewed, but by filing thee with Himself, as He did the ever glorious Virgin, who is the object of thy most tender love, after that which thou bearest to Jesus Himself. We pray with thee, O Church, our mother, and here is our prayer: 'Come, Lord Jesus! Thy name and Thy remembrance are the desire of our souls: they have desired Thee in the night, yea, and early in the morning have they watched for Thee."