{"id":647,"date":"2011-12-25T12:47:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T17:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=647"},"modified":"2011-12-25T12:47:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T17:47:49","slug":"with-abundant-joy-and-great-rejoicing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/with-abundant-joy-and-great-rejoicing\/","title":{"rendered":"With Abundant Joy and Great Rejoicing"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have brought them abundant joy <\/strong>and great rejoicing<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 These are the words spoken by the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading for Christmas Mass During the Night<\/a>.\u00a0 Today we can truly know abundant joy<\/em> and great rejoicing<\/em> for as Isaiah also writes, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the light that now shines upon us.\u00a0 We live in a world that is not perfect.\u00a0 Good things happen but unfortunately bad things also happen.\u00a0 When we experience the bad, we can feel like we live in darkness, a land of gloom but today we have hope.<\/p>\n

What gives us hope?\u00a0 In the second reading for Christmas Mass During the Night<\/a>, Paul writes to Titus, the Grace of God has appeared.\u00a0 <\/em>Today we celebrate the day when the Grace of God was truly made visible for today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus announced to the shepherds by an angel in the\u00a0gospel reading for Christmas Mass During the Night<\/a>, For today in the city of David, a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

And so we have hope.<\/p>\n

We have hope because we have a God who loves us so much as to send His Son into the world to save us.\u00a0 This salvation is open to all.\u00a0 Jesus, as king, was not born in a palace in the presence of greatness.\u00a0 Jesus was born in humble surroundings, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.\u00a0 Who was invited to see the baby Jesus?\u00a0 Not great royalty but shepherds so all might know that Jesus comes not just for the rich and the powerful but for all.\u00a0 Thus Jesus gives us hope.\u00a0 Jesus is the light that shows us the way to the Father.<\/p>\n

People have been waiting for Christmas in anticipation of the presents they will receive, wondering if they will get the gift they really want.\u00a0 Today God gives us the greatest gift ever, a gift beyond imagination<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Today we receive the gift of Jesus.\u00a0 May we have abundant joy and great rejoicing from the hope and love we receive in the gift of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing.\u00a0 These are the words spoken by the Prophet Isaiah in the first reading for Christmas Mass During the Night.\u00a0 Today we can truly know abundant joy and great rejoicing for as Isaiah also writes, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘With Abundant Joy and Great Rejoicing’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62],"tags":[129,92,93],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-ar","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":648,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647\/revisions\/648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}