Cycle A - Year I:  

25 December 2016: Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read: John 1:1-18

A blessed Christmas to us all!

Let us proclaim: "Glory to God in the highest!" For today the Almighty gives His greatest gift to us all, the gift of His beloved Son!

The even of the nativity of our Lord is the reason for all the preparations during our Advent pilgrimage, and the nine-day novena Masses or Misa de Aguinaldo. Indeed, let us rejoice and be glad for the Messiah is born!. We are overwhelmed with joy in the hope  that lights up our darkness.

The Gospel reading is the Prologue of the Gospel of John. In this

simple introduction, John summarizes for his audience everything that he wants to convey about Jesus of Nazareth. John expresses the divinity of Christ: He was there in the beginning (that is to say, the beginning before anything else has been begun); in that time Jesus was with God, and He was God; nothing was made without Him because it was all created through Him; in Him is life for all men.

John writes about Jesus as God's creative, life-giving and light-giving word that has come to earth in human form. For Jesus Christ is indeed truly man while remaining truly God.

It is only through Jesus Christ that we can behold the glory of God. Jesus became the partaker of our humanity so that we could also be partakers of His divinity.

We reflect on the significance and importance of the Christmas event in our lives. Today we continue proclaiming anew the wonder of the Incarnation. "The Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our salvation in it. The Son of God... worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin. (Gaudium et Spes).

As we gather together on this Christmas Day to celebrate the Eucharist around the infant Child in Bethlehem, it is my joy to wish everyone of my family and friends a "Blessed and Merry Christmas!"

Let us pray: Almighty God and Father of light, Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night. Open our hearts to receive His life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with His glory and His peace. Amen.

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

Thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!