Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

The infancy that God’s majesty did not disdain reached mature manhood through his advance in years. Then, when the triumph of his passion and resurrection were completed, all the actions of his lowly state, which he adopted for love of us, became a thing of the past. Nevertheless, the feast of his nativity renews for us Jesus’ first moments, born of the Virgin Mary, and when we adore the birth of the Savior we find we are celebrating the origin of our own life. For the birth of Christ is the source of life for all Christian people and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body. True, each individual who is called takes his place in his own proper order and the Church’s offspring appear at different periods of time. But just as the entire body of the faithful, born in the font of baptism, is crucified with Christ in his passion, raised again in his resurrection, and placed at the Father’s right hand in his ascension, so they are born with him in his nativity. Any believer, from any part of the world, who is born again in Christ, having abandoned the sinful ways retained from his first beginnings, becomes a new person through his second birth. No longer does he belong to his father’s ancestry according to the flesh but to our Savior’s race. For he became Son of man that we might become sons of God.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Saint Paul wrote these words: “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation” (2Cor 5,17)… But tell me, which of these is the more amazing: to witness the skies, or other created elements, being renewed, or to see someone passing from malice to virtue and renouncing error to cleave to truth? For this is precisely what Paul called “a new creation”… Those, in fact, who have put their faith in Christ have laid down the burden of their sins as one lays aside a worn garment. When set free from error they are lit up by the Sun of Justice (Mal 3,20) like someone putting on a bright, new garment, a royal robe… ““the old order has passed away; behold, new things have come” (ibid.)… God’s grace has broken in; it has remade and restored our souls, it has transformed them… Now, have you noticed how the Lord daily accomplishes this new creation? For often enough people spent their whole lives in the pleasures of this world. Moreover, they worshiped creatures, taking them to be gods. Who but our Lord, then, could have persuaded them suddenly to raise themselves up to so high a degree of virtue, from then on despising all those idols and worshiping the creator of the world, putting their faith in him far above everything in this life?… So I call on all of you – those who were baptized before as well as those who are coming now to receive this grace from the Lord – to listen to this exhortation of the apostle’s: “the old order has passed away; behold, new things have come”. Let us forget all about our past; let us reform our lives like citizens called to a new life. In all we say and do, let us consider the dignity of him who dwells within us.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

With what meaning do we suppose the words, “to put it under a bushel basket” were said? To express concealment simply, or that the bushel basket has a special signification? The putting the lamp under the bushel basket means the preferring bodily ease and enjoyment to the duty of preaching the Gospel, and hiding the light of good teaching under temporal gratification. The bushel basket aptly denotes the things of the body, whether because our reward shall be measured out to us, [2 Cor 5:10] as each one shall receive the things done in the body; or because worldly goods which pertain to the body come and go within a certain measure of time, which is signified by the basket, whereas things eternal and spiritual are contained within no such limit. He places his lamp upon a stand, who subdues his body to the ministry of the word, setting the preaching of the truth highest, and subjecting the body beneath it. For the body itself serves to make doctrine shine more clear, while the voice and other motions of the body in good works serve to recommend it to them that learn. Christ Himself has lighted this lamp, when He filled the earthen vessel of human nature with the fire of His Divinity, which He would not either hide from them that believe, nor put under a bushel that is shut up under the measure of the Law, or confine within the limits of any one oration. It is not absurd if any one will understand the house to be the Church. Or, the house may be the world itself, according to what He said above, Ye are the light of the world. And therefore it follows, “and they shall glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Had He said, only “That they may see your good works,” He would have seemed to have set up as an end in itself the praises of men; but by adding, “and glorify your Father”, he teaches that we should not seek as an end to please men with our good works, but referring all to the glory of God, therefore seek to please men, that God may be glorified.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“The word of God is living and effective, more piercing than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). What greatness of power, what wealth of wisdom in the Word of God is shown by these words of the Apostle to those that seek Christ, who is himself the word, the power, and the wisdom of God. In the beginning, this word was with God, coeternal with him; in his time he was revealed to the prophets, proclaimed by them, and received humbly in the faith of his believing people. We have, therefore, the word in the Father, the word in the mouth, and the word in the heart. The word in the mouth is the expression of the word that is in the Father and also the expression of the word that is in the heart of man. The word in the heart of man is either the understanding of the word or faith in the word or the love of the word when the word is either understood or believed or loved. When these three are united in one heart so that the word of God is at one and the same time understood, believed and loved, then Christ, who is the word of the Father (…) dwells in the heart by faith. And with wonderful condescension he who is God in the heart of the Father descends even to the heart of men (…). This Word of God (…) is living, and the Father granted to him that he should have life in himself as the Father has life in himself (Jn 5:26). On this account he is not only living, but life; as he says of himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).Because he is life, he lives in such a way that he is able to give life, for “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (Jn 5,:1).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Now the reign of life has come and the power of death overturned. Another birth has appeared together with another life, another way of being, a transformation of our very nature. This birth is not the result of “the will of man nor the desire of the flesh, but of God” (Jn 1,13)… “This is the day the Lord has made” (Ps 118[117],24). It’s a very different day from those in the beginning because on this day God creates a new heaven and a new earth, as the prophet says (Is 65,17). Which heaven? The firmament of faith in Christ. Which earth ? A true heart, as the Lord says: earth that is saturated with the rain that falls on it and that brings forth an abundant harvest (Lk 8,15). In this creation the sun equals the pure life; the stars are the virtues; the air is transparent behaviour; the sea is the rich depths of wisdom and knowledge; the grass and herbage are God’s solid doctrine and teachings where the flock – that is, the people of God – finds pasture; the fruit-bearing trees are the practice of the commandments. On this day true man was created, made in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1,27). Is this not an entire world that is begun for your sake in “the day the Lord has made” ?… The greatest privilege of this day of grace is that it has destroyed the sufferings of death and given birth to the firstborn from the dead (Col 1,18)…, he who says: “I am going to your Father and to my Father, to my God and to your God” (Jn 20,17). O what excellent, what good news! He who for our sakes became like us to make us his brothers and sisters, carries his own humanity to the Father so as to bear all humankind along with him.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team