Christmas basics

Here is a list of some of the basic words, images, facts, and practices of Advent and Christmas.

*the word "Christmas" is a combination of two words "Christ" and "Mass."

*the word "Nativity" is often used at this time of year.  It means "birth" and refers to the Birth of Jesus.

*the word "incarnation" is used to describe the fundamental Christian belief that the Son of God (the second Person of the Trinity) became a man. John's Gospel begins with a beautiful prologue that tells us that "the Word became flesh."

*Advent is the preparation period before Christmas.  We prepare for the coming of Jesus 1) in time, 2) at the end of time, and 3) into our hearts here and now.

*the four Sundays of Advent are marked by an Advent Wreath.  It is common in the United States to have three purple candles and one pink candle.  The pink candle is lit on the 3rd Sunday of Advent. The 3rd Sunday of Advent is sometimes called Gaudete Sunday which means "rejoice" Sunday.

*Jesus (a form of the name Joshua) means "savior."

*Messiah is a Hebrew title meaning "anointed one."  The Greek title for "anointed one" is CHRIST.  It is NOT Jesus' last name.

*a commonly used title for Jesus during Advent is "emmanuel."  This means God-with-us in Hebrew.

*the stories about the birth of Jesus are found in two Gospels - Matthew and Luke. These are sometimes called the "infancy narratives." We encourage you to read the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke.

*in ancient Nativity icons, like the one above, Mary is often shown with three stars on her clothing (her two shoulders and her head). These stars symbolize her perpetual virginity. She was, by God's grace, a virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus.

*the Eucharist figures in the stories of Jesus' birth.  He was born in Bethlehem which means "house of bread;" He was placed in a manger which is the feeding place for cattle.  He is our Bread of Life.

*a 14 point silver star now marks the spot where Jesus was believed to have been born.  It is in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The number 14 is "David's number."  That is why 14 is mentioned so often in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel.

*the swaddling clothes of Jesus at the beginning of His earthly life are meant to prefigure His burial garments at the end of His earthly life.

*the Bible never says how many Magi visited Jesus and Mary. Traditionally, since three gifts are mentioned in Matthew's Gospel, three Magi are shown in art. They were later given the names Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Catholics will sometimes mark their doorways on the Feast of the Epiphany (when the visit of the Magi is celebrated) with the year and the Magi initials.  Here's an example:  20+C+M+B+15.

*Although the Feast of the Epiphany is now celebrated on a Sunday in the Christmas Season, formerly it was fixed on 6 January.  From Christmas to Epiphany was called the "Twelve Days of Christmas."

*the Gospels do not call the Magi "kings."  The notion of calling them "kings" comes from Psalm 72:10.

*gold symbolizes the kingship of Jesus, frankincense symbolizes the divinity of Jesus, and myrrh symbolizes the death of Jesus.

*to show that the Magi represent all people coming to Christ, artists and creche figurines often show the Magi as men of different races. Another way of showing this "universality" is to show one magus with a long beard (old), one with a short beard (middle aged) and one without a beard (young).

Children's Pageant at St. Benedict's
Christmas Eve, 2014

*since the time of St. Francis of Assisi, we often combine the two Gospel stories (Matthew and Luke) into a creche scene.  Sometimes these creche scenes are live ("Living Nativity Scenes"), with children playing the roles of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, etc.  Note, for example, that only Luke's Gospel mentions shepherds and only Matthew's Gospel mentions the Magi.

*often, many types of animals are included in creche scenes; however, two animals are symbolically important and should never be absent from a creche scene - the ox and the donkey.  They are included because of a prophetic verse in the Book of Isaiah (1:3): The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

*the Christmas Season ends at the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Bible Study / Scripture Study - St. Benedict's

BIBLE STUDY:

St. Benedict's offers a number of Bible Studies. 

Are you looking for meaning in the scriptures? Do you open the Bible and wonder what God is saying to the world, to you? Do you feel it is time to do something more as a Catholic other than going to Mass? Come to Bible Study! We are a small group who meet weekly for an hour to study the Bible and we WELCOME new members.

Here is a link to the New American Bible which is the translation we use during our liturgies - http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/index.shtml

Here is a brief history of our Monday evening Bible Study:
The group was started by then seminarian Richard Cilano during the first summer he was with us in 2003. He is now a priest in our Diocese. He had two classes at the time, a morning group and evening group. He asked for input and those attending wanted to go book by book starting with Genesis.

When he had to return to the seminary, he asked CArol Mathner to take over when he found out out that she had received a MAT (1997) from Christ the King Seminary. Carol directed the evening group and has ever since!. He encouraged the morning group to join us but only 1 person did (and she is still with us).

The Collegeville Commentary is used as a resource for the classes. Although it was not very good for the Psalms so a Hebrew commentary from the Jewish Center is also used. It works great. It is amazing to see how 1 or 2 words could change a meaning!

We started out with about six members. Five have always stayed. People come and go. Some would join for a year, then illness, a painting class , moving to care for a parent.. what ever life gave people, would stop coming. Some came once or twice, said they enjoined it but didn't come back.

The prologue of The Catechism of the Catholic Church says God "calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him" and the way to hand on faith is through "Catechesis..and education in faith of children,young adults and adults". For four of our members, this is the 2nd -3rd -4th Bible group they belonged to in their lifetime. They thirst for God's love and they know to find it in the scripture. It is this thirst which has them devoted to coming together weekly all these years. As we are in the now [July 2011] in the middle of the New Testament they have expressed concern as to what will come when we finish Revelations.

In the hour we gather (and is exactly an hour) we read a passage. Carol points out historical, sometimes archeological, theological facts on the passage. Since we are in the synoptic gospels, Luke is compared to Matthew and Mark. Anyone can comment, with any background they know of, which may get a conversation going. Conversation also may involve how the passage affects us today. May not always happens and Carol does all the teaching! It all depends upon how the Spirit moves us.
We would love to have you study the Sacred Scriptures with us.

If you are interested, send us an email at Rectory@saintbenedicts.com or call us at 834-1041.
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