Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

The Christmas feast renews for us the holy infancy of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary. And as we adore the birthday of the Savior we find that we are celebrating our own beginnings. For the birth of Christ is the origin of the people of Christ, and the birthday of the head us the birthday of the body. But, in the treasury of the Lord’s generosity what can we more suitable to honour the present feast than the peace first proclaimed by the angels’ chorus at the Lord’s nativity? (Lk 2,14) Peace it is that gives birth to the sons of God. Peace is nurse of love, the mother of unity, the repose of the blessed, and our eternal home. The real work and special blessing of peace is to join to God those whom it sets apart from this world. Let those, then, “who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God,” (Jn 1,13) offer to the Father the oneness of heart of peace-loving souls. Let all the members of adoption come together in the: first-born of the new creation, who “came to do not his own will but the will of him who sent him” (Jn 6,38). The grace of the Father has not adopted as his heirs those who art divided among themselves and at odds with each other, but those who are one in mind and heart. Remodeled according to the one image (cf. Heb 1,3; Gn 1,27), they should have a spirit in conformity with it. The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace. As the apostle Paul says, “He, Christ, is our peace” (Eph 2,14).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Where does this jealousy lead?… The crime committed today shows us. Fear of a rival to his earthly kingdom fills Herod with anxiety; he plots to suppress “the newborn King” (Mt 2:2), the eternal King; he fights against his Creator and puts innocent children to death… As for those children, what fault had they committed? Their tongues were dumb, their eyes had seen nothing, their ears heard nothing, their hands done nothing. They accepted death who had not known life. ( … ) Christ reads the future and knows the secrets of the heart; he weighs our thoughts and probes our intentions (cf. Ps 138[139]): why did he forsake them? ( … ) Why did the newborn heavenly King abandon these companions in innocence, forget the sentinels watching around his crib to such an extent that the foe who wanted to get at the King ravaged his whole army? My brethren Christ did not forsake his soldiers but covered them with honor by allowing them to conquer before they had lived and to carry away the prize without a fight. ( … ) He wanted them to possess heaven rather than earth. ( … ) He sent them before him as his heralds. He did not abandon them but saved those who went on ahead. He did not forget them. ( … ) Blessed are they who have exchanged their travail for repose, their pains for ease, their suffering for joy. They are alive! Yes, they are alive; they live indeed who have undergone death for Christ’s sake. ( … ) Happy the tears their mothers shed for these infants: they have won them the grace of baptism. ( … ) May he who deigned to rest in a stable be pleased to lead us also to the heavenly pastures.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

There are some persons who think they are not loved because they cannot be promoted, and who allege that they are despised, if they are not entrusted with responsibilities and offices. We know that as a result of this type of thinking no small discord has sprung up among those who were considered friends, so that estrangement followed upon indignation, and railings upon estrangement (…). Let no one say that he is held in contempt for the reason that he is not promoted, since the Lord Jesus pre­ferred Peter to John in this respect; nor did he, on that account, lessen his affection for John, because he had given Peter the leadership. To Peter he commended his Church; to John, his most beloved Mother (Jn 19:27). To Peter he gave the keys of his kingdom (Mt 16:19); to John he revealed the secrets of his heart (Jn 13:25). Peter, therefore, was the more exalted; John, the more secure. Although Peter was established in power, nevertheless when Jesus said, “One of you will betray me,” (Jn 13:21) he was afraid and trembled along with the rest; but John, leaning on the bosom of his Master, was made the bolder, and at a nod from Peter asked who the traitor was. Peter, therefore, was exposed to action, John was reserved for love, according to the words of Christ: “So will I have him remain till I come.” Thus Christ gave us the example that we might do in like manner.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Brethren, let us celebrate today the coming of our King, let us go before him since he is also our God… Let us lift up our hearts to God and not quench our spirits, let us light our lamps with joy and change the clothing of our souls. Let us take palms in our hands like victors and, like the common people, acclaim him with the crowd. With the children let us sing with a childlike heart: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”… On this very day he enters Jerusalem; the cross is made ready once more, Adam’s bond is obliterated; once more paradise is opened and the thief is taken in; once more the Church makes festival… He is not coming accompanied by the invisible powers of heaven and legions of angels; nor is he seated on a throne lifted high and raised up, overshadowed by the wings of seraphim, with a chariot of fire and beings with numerous eyes, making everything shake with terrifying displays and the sound of trumpets. He comes concealed in human nature. It is a coming of goodness, not justice; of pardon, not reprisal. He appears, not in his Father’s glory but in his mother’s humility. Zechariah, the prophet, foretold this coming in former times; he summoned all creation to rejoice…: “Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion!” It was the very word the Archangel Gabriel had declared to the Virgin: “Rejoice!…”, the same message, too, that our Savior announced to the holy women after his resurrection: “Rejoice”… “Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king is coming to you; a just savior is he, meek and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass”… What does that mean? He does not come in splendor like every other king. He comes in the condition of a servant, of a loving bridegroom, a most gentle lamb, a dewdrop on the fleece, a sheep led to the slaughter, an innocent lamb taken to sacrifice… Today the children of the Hebrews run before him, offering their olive branches to him who is merciful and, with joy, welcoming death’s conqueror with palms. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

God on earth, God amongst men! It is no longer the God who gives out his law with lightning and thunder, at the sound of the trumpet, on the mountain wrapped in smoke (Ex 19,18), but he is the one who converses gently and kindly, in a human body, with his kin brothers. God in our flesh!… How did the light come into all? How can the divinity be present in flesh? Just as fire comes into iron,…by spreading. Without changing place or nature, fire may convey to iron its energy. And by doing so it does not lose its strength, nor is it diminished, but it completely fills the iron with which it conveys. In the same way God, the Word who “made his dwelling among us”, did not quit himself; the Word that became flesh did not undergo changes, the heavens were not deprived of the one who contained them… Enter fully into this mystery: God has come into flesh in order to kill the death that was hidden in it. As drugs cure us once they are assimilated by our body, as the darkness of a house is dispersed once the light comes in, in the same way, the death that kept us in his power has been destroyed by the coming of our God. As the ice, which is formed during the night, melts in the day with the heat of the sunrays, in the same way, death reigned till the coming of Christ. But when the Sun of justice rose, death was swallowed up in victory (1Cor 15,54); it could not stand the presence of the real life… Let us sing glory to God with the shepherds, let us dance together with the angels, “for this day in David’s city a Savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2,11)…Let us celebrate the salvation of the world, the day of birth of humanity.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team