“YOU MATTER”

A RETREAT GUIDE FOR ADVENT

written by Fr. John Bartunek, LC produced by Coronation
RCSpirituality.org coronationmedia.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Please select a section below or continue on to the next page

1 INTRODUCTION

3 FIRST MEDITATION: God Will Never Give Up on You

Time and Eternity Touch

From Throne to Cradle

You Search Me and You Know Me

9 SECOND MEDITATION: Christ Is Your Light

Life Without Light

God’s Lamps

The Lord Is My Light

14 THIRD MEDITATION: Doing Our Part

Proclaim to All the Nations!

Blessed Mother Teresa Lights a Lamp

Keep the Fire Burning

21 CONFERENCE: The History of Christmas

30 PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION To reinforce your faith in God’s presence, listen once again to the very
God’s Presence & Retreat Overview first sentences of the Universal Catechism of the Catholic Church:

God has something to say to you today. He is with you right now. In fact, God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness
he never stops thinking about you: You really matter to him.   freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this
reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He
Savor that truth, that reality: God, the Creator of the universe, the
calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.
Redeemer of the human family, is thinking about me right now, wanting to
hear the thoughts of my heart, and he has something to say to me. – CCC 1
Take a moment to let that sink in. . . If God is “drawing close” to us “at every time and in every place,” then that
includes now, here. He is right now drawing close to you.

If God is always calling us “to seek him, to know him, to love him with all
our strength,” then that includes right now — right now he is moving within
your heart, stirring you to want to know him better.

And that is what this Retreat Guide will focus on: getting to know God
better, especially getting to know better his personal love for you, as
proven so gloriously in the great mystery of Christmas.

Advent is about preparing our souls to celebrate Christmas worthily, as it

should be celebrated.

Christmas is one of the two days in the liturgical year when every priest
is permitted to celebrate three Masses: at night, at sunrise, and during the
day.

Unfortunately, Christmas is such a busy time that we often don’t get

the chance to ponder the beautiful prayers and readings that the liturgy
assigns to each one of those Masses.

This Retreat Guide will do just that — the three meditations are
dedicated to the prayers and readings of the three Masses.

And in the conference we will take a walk through the history of this
liturgical celebration, going all the way back to the very first centuries of
Christianity.

INTRODUCTION 1
INTRODUCTION
Preparing for the Retreat
Before we start, take a few moments to thank God, in the silence of your
heart, for the opportunity to spend this time with him. And ask him to
grant you the grace during this retreat to believe more deeply than ever
that, in his eyes, you really, really matter.

INTRODUCTION 2
FIRST MEDITATION It comes from one of the things that make Christianity absolutely unique
Time and Eternity Touch in the vast menagerie of world religions. It comes from the shocking
realization that:
One powerful feeling animates the ancient prayers and readings for the
Christmas Mass at Midnight: joyful amazement. God chose to come to our rescue,

The Angels God didn’t give up on us,

The angels are so amazed that they fill the midnight sky with their
God didn’t stay aloof from us in our foolishness, our sinful rebellion,
heavenly glory — they can’t hold back their celebration as they
and our miserable pettiness,
announce their “good news of great joy”!
God himself decided to invade this “land of gloom” (Isaiah 9:1), just for
The Shepherds
our sake,
The shepherds are frozen with amazement as the sky erupts with
angelic celebration. God has not only come into our lives, but, as St. Paul puts it in the
Second Reading, he actually “gave himself for us, to deliver us” (Titus
The Prophet Isaiah
2:14).
The prophet Isaiah, who foresees this amazing moment centuries
before in the First Reading, is so amazed that he pours out a super- You see, we can’t save ourselves.
abundant litany of joyful praise to describe the promised Savior:
“Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” If there’s one thing the history of the world, and the history of each of our
individual lives, tells us, it’s that. Salvation — the deep, existential fulfillment
What is the cause of this joyful amazement that floods Christmas night? we yearn for now and forever — doesn’t come from us, from our efforts
What would you say the cause is? How would you describe it? We to be good enough, from our clever discovery of some kind of secret
need to ask ourselves this question, especially if we find that our own knowledge or technique, or from our lucky encounter with a whimsical
amazement has become dulled over the years. divinity or a winning lottery ticket. No. Salvation comes from God. It
happened on God’s initiative. We didn’t deserve it; we had no right to it;
The amazement comes from something that is quintessentially Christian.
but he did it. That’s what’s so amazing.

FIRST MEDITATION 3
The birth of Jesus Christ is the entrance of eternity into time, of the divine FIRST MEDITATION
into the human; it is God bursting through all the barriers that we put up From Throne to Cradle
to keep him out, sneaking back into our shattered world by becoming
one of us. It is God proving that he really does love us, that we really do This amazing initiative of God is illustrated beautifully in the mosaic above
matter to him after all — each one of us, because this is what love does: it the high altar of one of the first churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin
finds a way. Mary, the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, built in the fifth century.
That’s what the opening antiphon of the Christmas Mass during the night The center of the mosaic decorating the triumphal arch directly above the
— the first of the three Christmas Masses — celebrates when it says: altar depicts a royal, imperial throne. Obviously, it’s the throne of the King
of Heaven. But there’s something funny about this throne: it’s empty. The
King of Heaven has left his heavenly throne; he has traded it in for a much
Let us all rejoice in the Lord, for our Savior has been born in the world.
different seat — a little manger jerry-rigged into a cradle.
Today true peace has come down to us from heaven.
The symbolic meaning of the mosaic takes on special weight inside the
Church of St. Mary Major, because of the special relic kept there.

A pious tradition holds that pieces of the manger Mary used as a cradle
for the baby Jesus were preserved and venerated by the early Christians,
and that eventually some of them made their way to Rome and are still
kept reverently in this very church, under the high altar, under the image of
the empty throne.

From glorious heavenly throne to humble, dirty, earthly manger.

Only God could have done that, and only a God who loves us sinful
humans so much that he will never, never give up on us. We could never
have reached up to heaven’s throne from our earthly mangers in order
to snatch salvation for ourselves. God had to do it; he had to take the
initiative. He did, he still does, and he always will — it’s undeniable proof
that, to him, we matter.

FIRST MEDITATION 4
FIRST MEDITATION
You Search Me and You Know Me

Everything Jesus did in his earthly life was done for all of humanity, and for
each individual person. Everything Jesus did in his earthly life reveals the
pattern of how he acts in the lives of each of his followers. The Catechism
assures us of this:

All Christ’s riches ‘are for every individual and are everybody’s property.’

– CCC 519

Christmas is no exception. Jesus came for each of us on that cold night

in Bethlehem. And every day, Jesus still comes down from his heavenly
throne in order to enter into the Bethlehems of our hearts — through
the Eucharist.

Take a few minutes to let yourself be amazed once again by the staggering
reality of Christmas, present at every Mass.

Savor this unchangeable truth: that God didn’t give up on you, that he
came with his glorious grace, to be your Savior, your Wonder-Counselor,
your God-Hero, your Father-forever.

To give expression to your own joyful amazement, you may want to

include Psalm 96 in your prayer — the Psalm proclaimed during this
Midnight Mass.

If for some reason you find it hard to let that truth sink in, you may want
to turn to Psalm 139 and read it over slowly, prayerfully, letting the Holy
Spirit convince you more than ever that God is always thinking of you,
always with you, always loving you.

FIRST MEDITATION 5
 Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his marvelous deeds.

For great is the LORD and highly to be praised,

to be feared above all gods.
For the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and power go before him;
power and grandeur are in his holy place.

Give to the LORD, you families of nations,

give to the LORD glory and might;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
Bring gifts and enter his courts;
bow down to the LORD, splendid in holiness.
Tremble before him, all the earth;
declare among the nations: The LORD is king.
The world will surely stand fast, never to be shaken.
He rules the peoples with fairness.

Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;

let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them.
Then let all the trees of the forest rejoice
before the LORD who comes,
who comes to govern the earth,
To govern the world with justice
and the peoples with faithfulness.

– Psalm 96
FIRST MEDITATION 6
 (For the leader. A psalm of David.)
LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
You sift through my travels and my rest; with all my ways you are familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.

Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, far too lofty for me to reach.
Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you
are. If I take the wings of dawn and dwell beyond the sea, even there
your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast.

If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light”— You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.
Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works!
light are but one. My very self you know. My bones are not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down;
my days were shaped, before one came to be.

How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands; when I complete
them, still you are with me. When you would destroy the wicked, O God,
the bloodthirsty depart from me! Your foes who conspire a plot against
you are exalted in vain.

Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you?

Those who rise against you, do I not loathe?
With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own.
Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts.
See if there is a wicked path in me; lead me along an ancient path.

– Psalm 139
FIRST MEDITATION 7
FIRST MEDITATION
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion

1 In my relationship with God, have I ever felt the “joyful amazement”

that characterizes this First Mass?

What triggered it and what was it like?

What did I learn from it?

2 How deeply do I feel the need for Jesus to be my Savior?

How do I express that felt need?

What elements in my life tend to dampen that feeling?

3 If I were with Mary and Joseph in the stable-cave at Bethlehem,

what would I say to them?

What would I say to Jesus?

What would they say to me?

FIRST MEDITATION 8
SECOND MEDITATION
Life Without Light

The second Mass that every priest is permitted to celebrate on Christmas

is the Sunrise Mass. But we can only celebrate it if we get up early enough
to do so around dawn. And that’s significant, because the ancient prayers
and readings of this Mass share one common theme: Christ is our light.

The opening prayer of this Mass describes our experience of Christmas as

one of being suffused with light. Here is what the priest prays:

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, as we are bathed in the new radiance
of your incarnate Word, the light of faith, which illumines our minds, may
also shine through in our deeds.

Years after Christ’s birth, in his public life, he will return to this theme of Their pantheons and their myths were sincere but blind efforts to enter
light and claims it as one of his unique and revelatory titles: “I am the light into a relationship with an unknown God.
of the world” (John 8:12).
As St. Paul described it, they were people who could not see God and so
We are so used to this image and this symbolism that we kind of take it ended up simply, and at best, “feeling their way towards him” (Acts 17:27).
for granted. But have you ever thought deeply about light, what it is, what
it does, what it brings? But now Jesus has come to us, and he reveals God, just as turning on a
light in a darkened room reveals everything in the room.
Imagine a world without light. Pitch blackness, all the time. No beautiful
sunsets, no beautiful views, no colors, no images, no photographs of loved And yet, light, in the ancient world and in the Bible, was never only a visual
ones, no conversations looking into a friend’s eyes, no smiles to warm our thing.
hearts. . . How different our lives would be without light! What an impact
light has on every aspect of our lives! Before electricity, the only way you could get light was with fire of some
kind. And fire is always warm. Light always brought illumination, but it also
When Jesus comes into the world to be the light of the world, he is always brought warmth, and life.
claiming to make that much of a difference — but spiritually.
The first thing God created, in fact, was light, and with it, the conditions
Until Jesus came, we didn’t know God. Even the Israelites had a limited for life itself, the warmth of existence. Imagine what life would be like
understanding of God. And the ancient religions had a vague notion that without warmth — there would be no life, no movement, no exchange,
there must be a divine realm, but that’s about it. no building, no growing…

SECOND MEDITATION 9
Spiritually, Jesus, our Light, not only shows us who God is, like a professor SECOND MEDITATION
explaining something on a chalkboard, but he brings God into our lives, God’s Lamps
and our hearts quicken with new life, new hope, new energy, new fire.
Our faith, our acceptance of Jesus and all he reveals, is what opens up our
Jesus tells us that God is love, that God is mercy, that God is interested in lives to receive this new light, with its brightness and its life-giving warmth.
us — and he brings that love, that mercy, that interest into our lives, into Through the centuries, one of the favorite symbols in Christian art for the
our experience. virtue of faith was a woman holding a lit oil lamp.
This is why St. Paul can describe Christmas, in the Second Reading for this In our churches today, we often still use oil lights as sanctuary lamps.
Mass, as the day “when the kindness and generous love of God our savior
appeared” (Titus 3:4). This same symbolism is used during the Easter Vigil Mass, with the lighting
of the Paschal Candle and the passing of that light from person to person
This is why the shepherds leave the little stable-cave at Bethlehem throughout the Church.
“glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”
When we celebrate Mass, we are required by Church law to have living
They had heard and seen, they had experienced, a new creation, a flames, candles or oil lamps, on the altar ­— electric light bulbs don’t count.
new revelation, a wholly new and unimagined manifestation of God’s
commitment to them, of God’s desire to be with them: Emmanuel. The living flame, giving off its illumination and its warmth, burning itself out
in order to give light to those all around it, is still a powerful symbol of
Mass at Dawn celebrates this. It celebrates the Dawn of a new period in Jesus.
the history of the universe — as the Responsorial Psalm puts it: “A light
will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.” And it is also a powerful symbol of what each Christian is called to be. The
prayer over the offerings for this Mass at Dawn expresses it beautifully:

May our offerings be worthy, we pray, O Lord, of the mysteries of the

Nativity this day, that, just as Christ was born a man and also shone forth
as God, so these earthly gifts may confer on us what is divine.

SECOND MEDITATION 10
 When we were baptized, the light of Christ was lit in our souls. SECOND MEDITATION
At confirmation, the lamp was enlarged and strengthened. The Lord Is My Light

Whenever we receive the Eucharist, the light is increased —

­ our lamp When did you first see the light of Christ? When did you first feel the
is refilled with oil. warmth of his presence? Do you remember? When was the darkest
moment of your life so far, and how did Christ invade it with his love?
If we happen to expose the flame to the harsh winds of sin, we come When was the coldest time of your life, and how did Jesus warm it up?
to confession to light it up again. Do you remember?

We have this light: it burns in our souls; it is ours. Jesus is our light, we We need to remember and reflect on our experience of God’s light. We
have him in our hearts, in our minds, in the very core of our being. The need to think about the times when he has guided us through our deserts
only thing that can put it out is sin — and even sin doesn’t have to have with a pillar of fire, just as he did for his Chosen People during the Exodus.
the last word.
If we don’t use our memory to keep our faith bright and strong, we
This is why St. Paul was able to write to the Romans: will become vulnerable to cynicism, discouragement, rationalism, and
frustration — we will forget that we really, really, really matter to God.
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or The Gospel passage for this Mass at Sunrise shows Mary responding to
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?. . . No, in all the visit of the shepherds by keeping “all these things and reflecting on
these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I them in her heart.” She was savoring the amazing depth and breadth of
am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor God’s love for her.
present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Take some time now to do the same.
Jesus our Lord.
Think about your experience — your own, personal, unique
– Romans 8:35-39 experience — of Christ your light.

We matter to God — you matter to God, so much, in fact, that he has Talk to him about it, thank him for it, renew your confidence in the
come to be your light, and nothing can ever change that. power of his unquenchable truth and life to guide, sustain, and inspire
you, always and everywhere.

To help your conversation with the Lord, you may want to read slowly and
prayerfully Psalm 27.

SECOND MEDITATION 11
 Hear my voice, LORD, when I call;
The LORD is my light and my salvation; have mercy on me and answer me.
whom should I fear? “Come,” says my heart, “seek his face”;
The LORD is my life’s refuge; your face, LORD, do I seek!
of whom should I be afraid?
Do not hide your face from me;
When evildoers come at me do not repel your servant in anger.
to devour my flesh, You are my salvation; do not cast me off;
These my enemies and foes do not forsake me, God my savior!
themselves stumble and fall.
Even if my father and mother forsake me,
Though an army encamp against me, the LORD will take me in.
my heart does not fear;
Though war be waged against me, LORD, show me your way;
even then do I trust. lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek: Do not abandon me to the desire of my foes;
To dwell in the LORD’s house malicious and lying witnesses have risen
all the days of my life, against me.
To gaze on the LORD’s beauty,
to visit his temple.
I believe I shall see the LORD’s goodness
in the land of the living.
For God will hide me in his shelter Wait for the LORD, take courage;
in time of trouble, be stouthearted, wait for the LORD
He will conceal me in the cover of his tent;
and set me high upon a rock. – Psalm 27

Even now my head is held high

above my enemies on every side!
I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and chant praise to the LORD.

SECOND MEDITATION 12
SECOND MEDITATION
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion

1 When have I experienced most dramatically the light of Christ?

When did I most recently experience it? Thank God for that; savor
the memories.

2 If I could see my faith in the form of a candle or an oil lamp, how

bright would it be?

What elements/activities/relationships in my life tend to fill up my

lamp and make it burn more brightly?

What elements tend to drain it? Talk to God about it.

3 Follow Mary’s example and reflect in your heart about past

Christmases — their joys, their sorrows, their graces. Do this in the
company of Mary and conversing with her about those memories.

SECOND MEDITATION 13
THIRD MEDITATION Christmas is for everyone. Because Jesus is for everyone: he is the
Proclaim to All the Nations! universal Savior. In the end, there is only one joy that will last for ever,
only one light that will never go out: Christ’s. Only Jesus is the bridge that
leads us into the joy of communion with the Blessed Trinity and into the
The third Mass of Christmas, the Mass during the day, changes gears a little
indescribable light of God’s glory in heaven. As Jesus explained during his
bit. The first two Masses brought us into the intimacy of the stable-cave
public ministry: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
at Bethlehem. This third Mass expands the horizon of Christmas to every
the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
corner of time and space.
But how is the message of Bethlehem going to reach every human heart?
“All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God,” proclaims
How is God’s Word in Christ going to be spread to every corner of time
the First Reading and the Responsorial Psalm.
and space? Through Christians, through us. We are not just recipients and
And then the Second Reading, from the Letter to the Hebrews, explains beneficiaries of the light of Christ; we are bearers of that light. Our faith
that in times past God spoke partially, in bits and pieces, through the transforms us into living lamps.
prophets, but from now own, he has spoken fully, by the Incarnation of his
St. John makes this clear in the Gospel for this Mass: “But to those who did
Son.
accept him, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12).
And in the Gospel, the high point of the entire three-Mass liturgy, St. John
We are children of God; we share in God’s own life; Christ dwells within
picks up the theme of Christ as the light, and extends it far beyond the
us.
borders of Israel: “The true light,” he writes, “which enlightens everyone,
was coming into the world” (John 1:9).

THIRD MEDITATION 14
Unless we extinguish the light of Christ through sin, we are living flames of
grace extending God’s love and salvation into the world.

Through our words, our actions, and our example, we bring light, warmth,
hope, and life to those around us who are stuck in the cold, dark night of
sin and secularism.

This is why Christ, who called himself the light of the world, also called his
disciples the light of the world:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set
on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light
must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify
your heavenly Father.

– Matthew 5:14-16

This is the essence of our mission as Christians. It is another proof that

we really matter to God — so much that he has made us his partners and
co-workers in the salvation of the world!

THIRD MEDITATION 15
THIRD MEDITATION
Blessed Mother Teresa Lights a Lamp

There is a beautiful story about how Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

spread this light of Christ – you may have heard of it.

Once she was staying with her community of sisters who were working
with the Aborigines in Australia.
While she was there, she visited an elderly man who lived in total isolation,
ignored by everyone. His home was disordered and dirty.
She told him, “Please let me clean your house, wash your clothes and
make your bed.” He answered, “I’m OK like this. Let it be.”
She said, “You will be still better if you allow me to do it.”
He finally agreed. So she was able to clean his house and wash his
clothes.
While she was cleaning, she discovered a beautiful lamp, covered with
dust. It looked like it hadn’t been used in years.
She said to the man, “Don’t you light that lamp? Don’t you ever use it?”
He answered, “No. No one comes to see me. I have no need to light it.
Who would I do it for?”
Mother Teresa asked, “Would you light it every night if the sisters came?”
He replied, “Of course.”
From that day on, the sisters committed themselves to visiting him every
evening.
Mother Teresa left Australia. Two years passed. She had completely
forgotten about that man. Then she received a message from him: “Tell
my friend that the light she lit in my life still continues to shine.”
That’s what it means to be a true Christian: to give, to bless, to reach out,
to simply share with others what we have received from our Lord, to light
– Story adapted from Voices of the Saints by Bert Ghezzi lamps in the dark and dusty corners of this fallen world — just as Christ
did on that cold night in Bethlehem.

THIRD MEDITATION 16
THIRD MEDITATION These gifts expressed the wise men’s love and faith. And they can
Keep the Fire Burning symbolize three doors that we should always try to keep open to God, so
that his grace can keep nourishing our hearts.
But we can’t be true Christians if Christ’s light isn’t burning strong in our
Gold
own hearts. And it’s so easy to let the flame burn low, to lose our spiritual
The first gift. Material things, wealth, possessions, good looks, success. . .
energy, to get tired, frazzled, frustrated. It’s easy to become weighed down
by the cares of the world. When that happens, we stop responding to In our world, it is so easy to put too much emphasis on these, to lean
God’s action in our lives. We become like those mentioned in the Gospel too much on them, to idolize them. If we have a lot of them, we can
for this Mass, those who belonged to Christ, but didn’t receive him: “He become overly attached to them. If we don’t have enough of them,
came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (John we can become obsessed with worry or with envy. Either way, how
1:11). we deal with material things can end up being a closed door that
keeps out God’s grace.
God is always coming into our lives, to strengthen our hope, to inspire
us, to guide us – because we matter to him! But we are not always as Incense
open and docile to him as we could be. What can we do to keep the fire The second gift was incense, the sweet-smelling symbol of prayer –
burning in our own hearts? the second door. Incense rises towards the sky, just as prayer lifts our
minds and hearts to God. Daily prayer keeps us tuned into God’s
This is a beautiful question to ask ourselves during Advent, when we are
wavelength. But a healthy prayer life requires commitment.
called to “prepare a way for the Lord” (Mark 1:3).  To help reflect on this,
you may want to look ahead a little bit to Epiphany and think about the We have to fight to make and follow-through on that
three gifts that the Magi brought to the baby Jesus. commitment.

We have to fight to make the time.

We have to fight to live in such a way that our prayer time can be
a real heart-to-heart meeting with the Lord.

As St. Faustina Kowalksa said, “In order to hear the voice of God, one
has to have silence in one’s soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy
silence but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God.”

THIRD MEDITATION 17
 Myrrh
The third gift was myrrh, the valuable spice used to embalm the dead,
a symbol of death and suffering — a preview of the Cross — the
third door.

When we flee our crosses, we flee God.

When we try to carry them on our own, they crush us.

God permits suffering in our lives in order to draw us closer to

himself — but we have to let him do so; we have to exercise our faith;
we have to unite our crosses to Christ’s cross.

You matter to God; by giving you another Christmas he is reminding you

of that — powerfully.

God wants to be your light, and he wants you to have the joy that comes
from sharing that light.

Advent is a season to savor that truth, and to allow God’s grace extra
room to purify, revitalize, and renew your faith.

Take some time now to do some savoring, and to ask God what he wants
you to do to get ready for Christmas.

When your retreat time is over, you may want to finish by offering your
heart once more to God through praying the original “Christmas Carol”
— The Gloria.

THIRD MEDITATION 18
 Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to people of good will.

We praise you, 
we bless you, 
we adore you, 
we glorify you, 
we give you thanks for your great glory, 
Lord God, heavenly King, 
O God, almighty Father. 

Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son,

Lord God, Lamb of God,
Son of the Father,
you take away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us;
you take away the sins of the world, 
receive our prayer;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father,
have mercy on us.

For you alone are the Holy One,

you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, 
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

– The Gloria

THIRD MEDITATION 19
THIRD MEDITATION
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion

1 How deeply do I feel the Christian call to spread Christ’s light, to

be a messenger of Christ’s light?

2 Who has been a messenger of Christ’s light for me, and how did
they do it? Thank God for those influences, and learn from them.

3 How would God like me to give better attention to the “gold,

incense, and myrrh” in my life during this Advent?

THIRD MEDITATION 20
CONFERENCE CONFERENCE
The History of Christmas Winter Solstice. . . Transfigured
So far we have been meditating on the truths about Christmas. Now we When we talk about the date for Christmas we have to ask two questions.
are going to shift gears and talk about the origin of the liturgy, what we
can learn from it, and reflect a little bit on the history of the Church. Why did the date for Christmas get settled so late in history?

The conference is directed more towards the mind and not so much Why was December 25th chosen?
towards the heart, but in the end it will have repercussions on our hearts. Why did it take 300 years for the date of Christmas to be settled?
The conference covers three different topics. In the 300s, the liturgy began to formalize: the details of the liturgy became
solid, became fixed, and became universal throughout the Church.
Firstly, we will talk about where the date for Christmas came from.
Persecutions
Secondly, we are going to talk about the heart of the liturgical For the first two-and-a-half to three centuries of Christianity, the Church
celebration itself. Why do we celebrate three Masses? When did that was persecuted; it wasn’t permitted to worship in public. Bishops and
start? How did that get going? communities throughout the Roman Empire followed a very basic liturgical
schedule. The basic liturgical year was built around Easter and Passion
And then, thirdly, we will finish up by briefly showing where the Week, but the rest of the memorials of the saints, the rest of the feasts,
Season of Advent came from, where it came out of history, and how it and the rest of the traditions developed in different ways and in different
entered into the tradition of the Church. parts of the Empire.

CONFERENCE 21
This resulted in different liturgical traditions developing, all built around the same core. In the east, you had the Syro-Antiochene tradition, and in Eygpt the
Alexandrian tradition which led to the Coptic Church and the Ethiopian liturgy. Then up in Constantinople, present-day Istanbul, you had the Byzantine
liturgy develop. In Italy you had the Roman liturgy. In northern Italy you had the Ambrosian liturgy, you had the Gallican liturgy in France, and the
Mozarabic liturgy in Spain. So, all throughout the Roman Empire you had different liturgical traditions developing, changing and adapting to local customs,
but all with the same core of the Mass and the core of the liturgical year — Easter and the Passion.

CONFERENCE 22
Once the period of persecution ended after A.D. 313, Christians were
finally allowed to worship publicly, to worship freely, and no longer had
to worry about a wave of new persecutions. Due to this time of peace,
these liturgical traditions began to be formalized. The Church could start
putting together liturgical books and liturgical vestments, as they didn’t
have to worry about the Roman police coming to apprehend them at any
moment. This enabled the liturgy to take on a formal appearance, and the
traditions to begin to solidify.

Heresies
Another factor in the formalization of the liturgy was heresies.

There were heresies regarding the nature of Christ: was he truly God
and truly man, or just a demi-god? There were even heresies regarding
the Trinity itself: was the Holy Spirit fully divine? These types of questions
started to be asked and dealt with by theologians in this period.

As a result of this, different groups of priests would adjust the prayers

of the liturgy in order to support their particular viewpoint on a given
doctrinal question.

This caused the Church to formalize the prayers of the liturgy so that they
were universally orthodox.

Conclusion
Why did we get the dates only in the 300s? Because the liturgical year and
the liturgical forms were being developed and solidified during that period.

CONFERENCE 23
Why December 25th? In the 4th century, when Christianity was free to worship in public, there
Two different traditions emerged during the first few centuries of the also began to be more communication between the churches in the east
Church about which day to celebrate the Birth of Our Lord. In the and the churches in the west. So the feasts of the Birth of Our Lord on
east, near the Eastern Churches, there was a strong pagan tradition of the 25th, and the Manifestation of Our Lord on January 6th started to
celebrating the winter solstice on January 6th. In the west, ever since become related and the Christmas season started forming.  
the days of Emperor Aurelian, there was an emphasis on the worship of
the sun and the sun god throughout the whole empire, and as a result, Now I want to pause for a minute, because this is something that some
they celebrated the winter solstice on December 25th. Their solstice critics of the Church say shows that Christianity was just an outgrowth
celebration celebrated the rebirth of the invincible sun, the unconquerable of pagan religion. Not true! This actually teaches us that the Church
sun ­— the sun god itself. The commonality here between these two reached out and met people where they were. Christians could relate to
dates in east and west was the pagan recognition or celebration of the the truths of the Catholic Faith, of Christian Revelation, to the shadows of
winter solstice. Later, more elaborate theological interpretations became religious intuition that were present in the pagan religions.
associated with these dates. For instance, Epiphane, was a religious term of the pagan religions
The solstice is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere, after which which meant a manifestation of a god, or a king, or a ruler. It meant
the days begin to get longer. So the winter solstice is really a festival of the day when that king or ruler was born, or exalted, or the day a
light, a recognition of this natural rhythm of the light of the sun increasing king or ruler came to visit a particular city with all his royal pomp and
again in the middle of the winter. circumstance.  This was also a word that was used for the annual feast of
particular pagan gods when it was believed that a god would enter into
When the Church was spreading in these centuries, it had to meet people the temple where the people were. Epiphane was the entering in, the
where they were. The Church wanted to celebrate the birth of the true making present, the being present of this important divine figure.
Son of God, the true light of the world, the true son of justice — which
are all biblical terms for Jesus — so, the Church began to celebrate the
birth of our Lord as our light and our sun. They did this on the very same
days when pagans used to celebrate the winter solstice; this was a way to
evangelize the pagan peoples. Celebrating the solstice was only a shadow
of the truth, but Christmas was the Truth: the true Son of Justice, the True
Light of the World. So, the Church began to celebrate Christ’s birth on
these traditional days. In the east, January 6th became a day to celebrate
what they called Epiphane, or “the manifestation,” and December 25th, in
the west, became the day when they celebrated the Birth of the Lord:
the Natalis.

CONFERENCE 24
 CONFERENCE
The Three Masses

Jerusalem
We have records of a pilgrim who traveled to Jerusalem in the 4th
century. She writes how on Christmas they celebrated three different
prayer services.

The bishop and all the people would go first of all to Bethlehem to
celebrate Mass during the night, and then from Bethlehem they would
make their way back to Jerusalem, and as they entered the city they had
a prayer service while the sun was coming up; as dawn was approaching
they would gather in prayer. They then continued in procession, and then
as full daylight dawned they would celebrate another Mass right over the
empty tomb at the Church of the Resurrection.

They would start in the place where Jesus was born, follow to the place
In the Second Reading for the night Mass, the reading from the Letter where Jesus offered his life for the world, and finish with a glorious
of St. Paul to Titus, this word epiphane is used in the Greek of the New celebration of the Mass in the place where Christ rose from the dead.
Testament in two places. In Titus chapter 2:11-14, Paul tells us that the
grace of God has appeared — t­he Greek word: epiphane; the Latin: So there were three services in Jerusalem already well-established in the
aparuit. The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to 300s, possibly going back to the times of the Apostles or soon thereafter.
reject godless ways and worldly desires, and to live temperately, justly and
devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the
glory of our Great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ (for “appearance”
St. Paul uses epiphaneia! Adventus in Latin).

Here we have the wisdom of the Church, taking a term and a reality that
the pagans understood, and baptizing it: transforming it into a word that
can help reveal the truth of Christ himself.

Conclusion
The dates of December 25th and January 6th were chosen because they
were in some ways related to the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice
and to the concept of the coming of the light and the manifestation of the
great royal and divine figure of the gods.

CONFERENCE 25
Rome
In Rome, what we find in the 4th century is a celebration of the Die
Natalis of Christ, the birthday of Christ. We find it being celebrated during
the day in St. Peter’s Basilica. But in the 5th century, some relics of the crib
from Bethlehem were brought to Rome and were housed in one of the
first churches in the west that was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
the church of St. Mary Major.  Popular piety encouraged the celebration
of the Mass at night, right over those relics, in St. Mary Major. There was
also a tradition in honor of the Byzantine officials who lived in Rome, the
Byzantines who had a different liturgical tradition, whose parish church
was the church of St. Anastasia. This church was located in the midst
of the city, so the Pope himself, in order to honor these men, would go
to St. Anastasia and celebrate another Mass there. So, the sequence of
Christmas celebrations would begin at night at the church of St. Mary
Major, followed by a procession to the church of St. Anastasia to celebrate
Mass for the Byzantine officials, culminating in a grand procession to St.
Peter’s Basilica itself for the celebration of the Mass during the day.

Conclusion
So here we have a liturgical tradition emerging out of history. The
tradition of having three Masses on Christmas comes out of practical
considerations and the living faith of the people. That’s the lesson: the
liturgy is an expression of the Church’s love and worship of Christ, it
develops under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but it’s something alive.
We contribute to it, we live it, it’s active, it’s not just a textbook thing.
So the tradition of all priests being able to celebrate three Masses on
Christmas comes out of the living faith in Jerusalem and then throughout
the ancient world in Rome, and it stayed with us.

We know the liturgy developed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, so
there’s meaning to these three Masses, and I would say most especially
there’s a theological meaning and a spiritual meaning. Let’s look at the
theological meaning first.

CONFERENCE 26
CONFERENCE
The Meaning of the Three Christmas Masses

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, there are three Masses on Christmas

because, in a theological sense, there are three births of Christ.

Birth into Eternity

The first birth of Christ is his birth in eternity. Jesus is the Son of God
the Father from all eternity. So in a certain sense, his birth in eternity
is imitated or celebrated by the first Mass at night.

Birth into Time

The second birth of Jesus was into time in Bethlehem, into the Roman
Empire: into the history of the world as we know it.
Conclusion
Birth into Individual Souls This is the heart of the liturgical ceremony: these three Masses, emerging
Then there is the third Mass, the third birth, the birth of Jesus in every from the reality of living the liturgy, the gritty reality of faith, as it grew
individual soul at baptism. This birth is also symbolized by baptismal under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the first Christian centuries. This
candles being lit from the Paschal Candle at baptisms. tradition has taken on a meaning, a theological meaning and a spiritual
meaning that we can all reflect on and benefit from.
So the three births of Christ are symbolized and reflected by the ancient
tradition of having three Masses on Christmas.

That’s the theological meaning, but there’s also a spiritual meaning for each
one of us as we live our spiritual lives. There is kind of a parallel, as we’re
born in a certain sense three times as well. Before time began God was
already thinking of us, loving us, and knowing us.  He actually says this in
the scriptures. Before you were born I knew you, before you were formed in
your mother’s womb I knew you (cf. Jer 1:5). This is the first birth, the birth
outside of time. And then God himself governs the circumstances of our
birth in time, he’s the one who decides what country I’m going to be born
in, what culture, what period, what situation. So we have our birth in time,
our second birth, the second Mass. And then at the end of our life, when
we die, if we die in friendship with Christ, we are born into eternal life, and
so we’re born back into eternity. In a sense, the full light of day symbolizes
when we see God face to face, this is somewhat reflected in the third
Mass of Christmas.

CONFERENCE 27
CONFERENCE
The Emergence of Advent

We’ve looked at the establishment of the date for Christmas, and the
elements that went into that. We looked at the establishment of the
heart of the liturgical celebration, which is the three Masses, the meanings,
where they came from, and what it means for us. Now we are ready
to take a brief look at where the Season of Advent came from, how it
emerged. This evolution happened in six steps.

First in the 300s we had the emergence of the dates for Christmas and
for Epiphany. This created the framework of the Christmas season, which
then began to take on this twelve-day shape. Soon thereafter, there
developed the Octave day, the eighth day after Christmas, which would
be January 1st. The Octave day became a celebration of the Motherhood
of Mary, which is the oldest Marian Feast in the Roman Liturgy. This feast
also commemorated the circumcision of Jesus, because of carry-over from
the Jewish tradition that on the eighth day after being born a boy was
circumcised. So you had the Motherhood of Mary celebrated and exalted
on the feast of our Lord’s circumcision. Following this there developed The early Christians began to prepare for a little more than a week
in Spain and in Gaul (modern day France) in the 400s a tradition of for these great feasts. Then in the 500s in Rome and in Italy you had a
preparing for this Christmas season through a series of ascetical practices development of a liturgical period of preparation. In Spain and Gaul it
starting on December 17th. was ascetical preparation: sacrifice, self-sacrifice, doing penance, preparing
to celebrate these great feasts, and then in the 500s in Rome and in Italy
it was a question of developing liturgical preparation for these feasts —
at first it was a six-week period and then it became a four-week period
right around the year 600.  By the year 600 we have four weeks for
Advent, we have the feast of Christmas, we have the feast of Epiphany,
we have the Octave, the feast of the Motherhood of Mary, so we have
the whole season kind of taking shape. Advent became the second
most intense liturgical season of the year following Lent and Easter. This
development of the Advent season, didn’t occur in the east, which again
shows us that the liturgy is a living thing, the heart and the core is from
God, it’s unchangeable, it’s our worship of God as God wants us to, as
the Holy Spirit developed. But it can change according to the needs and
experiences of faith of the different people and different localities, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit and approval of the Church.

CONFERENCE 28
 Conclusion
That’s the development of the liturgy of Advent and Christmas, and the
biggest lesson that we’ve seen is that the liturgy really is a living thing. The
liturgy is the living worship of the Church, it’s tied into the lives of the
faithful and we’re meant to participate in the liturgy in an active way, in a
living way.

Is “active participation” how you would describe your participation in

the liturgy?

Are you allowing God, who has sanctified all of time, through the
liturgy, to sanctify the time of your life — the days, the weeks, the
months?

Are you living it actively, are you engaging in it, and how could you live
it better?

How could you allow the power of the liturgy to transform your own
use of time?

One of the things that developed pretty early on, was what became a These are questions that I invite you to reflect on as you go through the
favorite symbol for this season — what is called the Etimasia, something personal questionnaire, which will help you reflect on how you live the
you’re already familiar with: the empty throne. The Etimasia is the empty liturgy.
throne of Our Lord, the emperor from heaven who left his throne and
came down to earth. This symbol had a double meaning from very early
times. The throne is empty because Our Lord is coming again. He’s gone
to heaven, but here on earth it’s his vicar who reigns.

So, you had this period of the first four weeks of Advent becoming a
period of ascetical preparation for the coming of Our Lord, the Second
Coming of Our Lord —“Lord, Come Again!”. We’re looking forward
to that because the throne is empty and he’s going to come again. The
second meaning of the throne symbolized the emptying of the throne of
heaven when Jesus became incarnate. The second half of Advent focuses
more and more on the joy of anticipation that Our Lord is going to come
to earth again through the celebration of Christmas and be born into the
Bethlehem of our hearts.

CONFERENCE 29
PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE
1 When I think about the pace of my life, which aspects would I
Living the Liturgy
consider healthy, and which would I consider unhealthy, and why?
The liturgy is a living expression of the Church’s love, reverence, and need
for God. “How alive is my liturgical life?” The following questions may help
you reflect on how you are living the liturgy. 2 What are the three most influential factors in determining how I
use my time?

If I could change one of them, which would I change and why?

3 Liturgy involves the sanctification of time: to what extent do

I allow the liturgical seasons and feasts (including Sundays) to
sanctify my time?

4 Which describes me better and why?

“I fit the Church’s liturgy into my schedule.”

“I build my schedule around the liturgical year.”

5 How would my daily life (attitudes, actions, moods) be different if

I were living the liturgical year more actively and profoundly?

6 In the past, what has helped me most in trying to live the liturgy?

7 What adjustment can I make today in order to live the liturgical

year better?

PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE 30