Announcing:
Saint Mary's Press winner for the week of December 6, 2010!
Congratulations to April Holliee!

April will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Prayer Book, a a $18.95 value.

Help youth understand the meaning of Christian prayer. Introduce them to traditional and devotional prayers of the Church, as well as to contemporary styles and methods. Assist youth in developing the habit of daily prayer. This all-in-one resource for prayer forms was specially written for teens, in the PRAY IT! STUDY IT! LIVE IT!® model, like The Catholic Youth Bible® and The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth. It is the most expansive prayer book for teens. But The Catholic Youth Prayer Book does more than teach about prayer. It helps teens become prayerful people.

The Catholic Youth Prayer Book
ISBN: 978-0-88489-559-6, paper, 232 pages

Our Lady of Guadalupe: Icon of Justice

The memorial for Our Lady of Guadalupe is December 12. Several years ago I was asked to give a talk to a group of youth about what lessons of faith we can learn from Our Lady of Guadalupe. In reflecting on what to share that could provide new insight for the young people and relate to their lives, I was struck with an insight that provided the direction for my talk. In the Church today, we have numerous "icons" we can look to as guides for living a life that promotes justice. Maximilian Kolbe, Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, and Dorothy Day are a few of the better known members of the community of justice. There is another that we can and should begin looking to: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

One of the most evident ways in which Our Lady of Guadalupe is an icon of justice is the care and sensitivity with which she reached out to the marginalized members of 16th-century Mexican society. In taking on the appearance and speaking in the language of the indigenous, conquered population, she showed that they were valued by God and had a place of honor in the Church. Our Lady of Guadalupe also reminds us of the need and responsibility to lift up those who are oppressed and defeated. As people of faith, we are called to reach out to those who are most in need, be it physically, spiritually, or emotionally. By her example we are reminded that we are to meet people where they are. In terms of justice, this means going where the need is the greatest and not being afraid to take the risk of stepping out of our comfort zone. It is a powerful lesson.

A final lesson we can take from Our Lady of Guadalupe is that of the need for solidarity in our Church. One of the lasting effects of her appearance at Guadalupe was the spread of Christianity in Latin and Central America. To this day, she remains a central image of faith to millions. In terms of justice, she teaches us that everyone is invited to the table of Christ and that, as a goal, we should be working for unity among all the children of God. Whether or not you personally have a relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe, she stands as an icon of justice for all Catholics. For more information about Our Lady of Guadalupe, you can go to http://saints.sqpn.com/our-lady-of-guadalupe/. As we approach the Christmas season, I pray that you and your community are having a blessed Advent and, as always, I pray that God will continue to bless you and your ministry.

Peace,
Steven McGlaun

Click Here for More Information

Pray It! Prayer of Thanks and Mission
(10 minutes)
From Exploring Saints and Feast Days with Young Adolescents

Materials and Preparation
Gather the following items:
- two pieces of poster board
- a small table
- a colorful cloth, such as a Mexican serape or blanket
- a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe
- a candle and matches
- a vase with roses (optional)
- a chime or bell
- masking tape
- two ink pads
- a CD of reflective music
- a CD player
- wet wipes, one for each participant (optional)

Trace an image of a rose onto each piece of poster board. Make the roses as large as possible.

Create a focal point for the prayer area by covering a small table with the cloth and placing the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the candle, and the roses on the table. Set the chime or bell on the table also. Display the poster board roses near the prayer area. Make sure the posters are at a location and height that can be reached by all the participants so that everyone will be able to come forward to put a thumbprint on one of the posters.

Select three participants to lead the "Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer of Gratitude" and make each a copy of resource 1–B. Give them time to practice before the prayer begins.

If you decide to use wipes, assign a few participants to distribute them after making their thumbprints.

1. Gather the participants in the prayer area. Share that in the closing prayer, the group will pray in thanksgiving for Mary and for others who inspire our faith. The prayer also calls us to offer ourselves as inspirations for others.
2. Provide an overview of the participants’ involvement in the prayer. Explain that during the prayer, each person will be invited to state aloud the names of three people they identified as making an imprint on them. Simultaneously, each person in the group will say one of his or her names immediately after the chime is sounded. This process happens three times over. Consider practicing this with the participants so they are prepared.

3. Begin the prayer by lighting the candle. Invite the group to join in singing "Deo Gratias" (Peter Rubalcava, Spirit and Song, OCP Publications), "Now Thank We All Our God" (Martin Rinkart, Gather Comprehensive, GIA Publications), or another familiar song that celebrates faith, gratitude, or Mary.

4. Lead the opening prayer with these or similar words:

Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, your appearance to the humble peasant Juan Diego inspired a deep devotion to God among the people of the Americas and beyond. Today we give thanks for your faithfulness to God and God’s people. We look to you as a model disciple. May we learn from your example and from the example of the modern-day disciples in our lives. We offer this prayer to God with your help. Amen.

5. Invite the readers forward to pray the "Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer of Gratitude." Make sure the chime or bell is available for the readers.

6. Conclude the prayer of gratitude and transition into the next movement of the prayer with these or similar words:

We honor Mary and the saints among us through our words and also through our actions. Just as the modern disciples have made an imprint on our lives, we make an impact on others’ lives. Our loving actions and faith-filled living spread God’s message.

Our Lady of Guadalupe used roses to unveil her image on Juan’s cloak. Today I invite you to make your mark on the rose symbol. Take this time to come forward silently and place your thumbprint on the roses as a sign of your desire to spread God’s message through your words and actions.

Have two adult leaders begin the procession to model the thumb printing. Make sure the ink pads are near the posters and accessible to all. Play reflective music during this procession. If you are using wipes, have the volunteer participants distribute them as each participant finishes making his or her imprint.

7. Conclude the service by offering a closing prayer in these or similar words:

God our Father, thank you for the gift of Mary, who is a witness of faith for us. When you call to us, may we listen with attentive ears and an open heart as Mary did. Give us the strength to trust in you above all else. May we honor you by our faith-filled living, and may our lives inspire faith in others. We ask this with the help of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Amen.

8. Sing a closing song such as "Go Make a Difference" (Steve Angrisano and Tom Tomaszek, Spirit and Song, OCP Publications), "Alabaré" (Manuel José Alonso and José Pagán, Gather Comprehensive, GIA Publications), or another song of praise and mission.

Third Sunday of Advent
December 12, 2010
Matthew 11:2-11

Opening Prayer
Jesus, we know your true identity is that of the Christ, the Messiah. Open our eyes to your healing presence today. Help us to recognize that you continue to make the blind see and the deaf hear, you enable the lame to walk, and raise the dead to new life. Amen.

Context Connection
John the Baptist sends his disciples to Jesus because he is unable to go himself. John has been arrested by Herod Antipas and imprisoned in the fortress at Machaerus. (See map 6 in The Catholic Youth Bible®, sector 4-C.) We are first informed of John's arrest in chapter 4 of Matthew (verse 12). John instructs his disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"(11:3). John wants to know if Jesus really is the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus gives an interesting response: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them" (11:4-5). These acts of healing, which Jesus performs, are recorded in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew and foretold in Isaiah 29:19, 35:5-6, and 61:1. Jesus gives this answer to John's disciples, and they take it back to John in prison.

Then Jesus addresses the crowd that is gathered around him--many who may have been followers of John but since John's imprisonment now follow Jesus. Jesus asks them, "What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?"(11:7). He suggests that they did not go out to see a reed blowing in the wind nor a person dressed in fine clothes but that the crowd went out into the wilderness to see a great prophet, John the Baptist. John was an unbending prophet, no reed blowing in the wind. He was a person who clearly understood the call for repentance and living a life of values consistent with the law of God. John dressed as a prophet. His clothes were basic and without refinement--in contrast to the fine garments of the members of the court of Herod Antipas.

Jesus affirms the crowd for going into the wilderness to see the prophet: "Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, 'See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you'" (11:9-10). This quote evokes the writings of the prophet Malachi (3:1, 4:5). It compares John to the great prophet Elijah, who was to return to earth as a sign of the coming of the Lord, the Messiah. Jesus acknowledges that John is the greatest of all the prophets, but adds that it is the Son of Man who is the fulfillment of John's message. Jesus is the one who will usher in a new era in salvation history and establish God's Kingdom on earth.

Tradition Connection
The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of John the Baptist in this way: "John is 'Elijah [who] must come.'1 The fire of the Spirit dwells in him and makes him the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit completes the work of '[making] ready a people prepared for the Lord'"2 (paragraph 718).

For Catholics, John is the last of the great prophets of the Old Testament. He is the one who points directly to Jesus and helps us to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. John comes from a long line of prophets beginning with Elijah:
John the Baptist is "more than a prophet."3 In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by Elijah.4 He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the "voice" of the Consoler who is coming.5 As the Spirit of truth will also do, John "came to bear witness to the light."6 (Catechism, paragraph 719).
Matthew helps us recognize Jesus as the Messiah by pointing out Jesus's power to heal. These healings are signs that the prophets, especially Isaiah, said would help us recognize the Messiah when he comes: "By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness, and death,7 Jesus performed messianic signs" (Catechism, paragraph 549). We believe that Jesus's death on the cross and his Resurrection from the dead are final proof that Jesus is the Messiah sent by God the Father: "The kingdom of God will be definitively established through Christ's cross: 'God reigned from the wood'"8 (Catechism, paragraph 550).

Wisdom Connection
Matthew wants Jesus's followers to understand the true identities of John the Baptist and Jesus. John is the one that the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly through the prophet Malachi, speak of as the messenger who will prepare the way before the Lord--the Messiah. John is the last of the great prophets of the Old Testament. He is the one who, through his preaching and baptism, made ready the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah.

As for Jesus, Jesus is the Christ--the Messiah. When John's disciples ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, they do not receive a direct answer. Rather, Jesus tells them to examine what they see and hear about Jesus and then draw their own conclusions. Jesus points John's disciples to Isaiah's vision of a healed and redeemed humanity (35:5-6). This passage, from the first reading for the third Sunday of Advent, serves as proof that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah.

The Messiah comes as a Savior who empowers and strengthens the weak, making them strong so they can live a new life of redemption in God. The Savior comes and brings healing to a world sick with sin.

Acknowledgments
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

The Lord's Prayer is taken from Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. Copyright © 1988 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc., Washington, DC. All rights reserved.

Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. Matthew 17:10-13; cf. Luke 1:78.
2. Luke 1:17.
3. Luke 7:26.
4. Cf. Matthew 11:13-14.
5. John 1:23; cf. Isaiah 40:1-3.
6. John 1:7; cf. John 15:26; 5:35.
7. Cf. John 6:5-15; Luke 19:8; Matthew 11:5.
8. Liturgy of the Hours, Lent, Holy Week, Evening Prayer, Hymn Vexilla Regis: "Regnavit a lingo Deus."

Saint Juan Diego

December 9 is the memorial for Saint Juan Diego.

Canonized in 2002, Saint Juan Diego was a devoted and faithful convert to Catholicism. He was an indigenous member of Mexican society, holding no social or financial status. Every Saturday and Sunday, he would walk a great distance to attend Mass and receive religious instruction. On December 9, 1531, while walking to Mass, the Virgin Mary appeared with a message for him to deliver to the bishop: that there was to be a church built where she stood. When the bishop asked for a sign, the Blessed Virgin again appeared to Juan Diego. She directed him to where he would find roses that he was to gather in his cloak. The Blessed Virgin arranged the roses and again sent Juan Diego to the bishop. When Juan Diego unfolded his cloak before the bishop, the roses fell out and revealed the life-size image of the Blessed Virgin, known as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

For more information on Saint Juan Diego, go to http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-juan-diego/