Because of the tender mercy of our God the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in the darkenss and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace Luke 1 78-79 nbsp In his famous Spirit-inspired hymn Zachary praises God first for sending a savior to His P

I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder when he opens no one shall shut when he shuts no one shall open nbsp Isaiah 22 22 nbsp The word of God through Isaiah promised a nbsp king nbsp to replace a nbsp monarch who ruled Israel badly nbsp The nbsp Christian tradition

The blog Messy Jesus Business has a post on Advent and our Christmas habits called the disturbing poor baby Jesus by Sister Julia Walsh FSPA Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration Here is an excerpt I am even more disturbed when I read the Christmas story in the bible and let it challenge

Among all the grand titles we ascribe to Jesus perhaps root of Jesse is the least remarkable nbsp This title however serves to underline the humanness of Jesus he is born as one of many descendants in a history of generations of human beings nbsp As such root of Jesse forms part of that

Lord is the title given Jesus in the second antiphon nbsp before Christmas nbsp There are a number of times Jesus is called Lord in the Gospels and the New Testament nbsp Some scholars would like to read this title as honorific without reference to divinity and at times the title is used this

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp It is instructive to compare the reading from St Paul and the reading from St Matthew nbsp St Paul in Romans tersely describes the coming of Jesus his Son descended from David according to the flesh nbsp As for today s Gospel nbsp St Matthew tells nbsp gives