Make merry!

“Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice.  Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life.  The fear of Death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.  No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing.” 

~ St Leo the Great, Pope

 

 

 

"(At Mass) we really go to Bethlehem and we find there not a memory, not a picture, but the divine Infant Himself. ...And see how the Eucharist began at Bethlehem.  He was even then the EMMANUAL, "God with us", Who was come to dwell among His people. On the first Christmas Day He began to live in our midst; the Eucharist perpetuates His Presence.  At Bethlehem the Word was made flesh...

We even find there the inauguration of Eucharistic worship in its chief form, adoration. Mary and Joseph were the first adorers of the Word Incarnate...The shepherds and Magi also adored Him in union with Mary and Joseph. ...A new era was beginning... The Eucharist completes the restoration begun in the Crib.

Make merry therefore on this beautiful day, on which the sun of the Eucharist is rising.  Let your gratitude never separate the Crib from the Altar, the Word made Flesh from the God-Man made Bread of Life in the Most Blessed Sacrament."   

 Excerpts from the writings of St Peter Julian Eymard

"Raise Your tiny hand, divine Child,

and bless these young friends of Yours,

bless the children of all the earth."

 

Pope Bl John Paul II