SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806 EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS: Celebrant Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
December 26th, 2010---Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of our Lord
Epistle: Gal. 4:1-7---Gospel: Lk. 2:33-40
THERE WILL BE NO LATIN MASS FROM DECEMBER 27th THROUGH DECEMBER 31st
Saturday, January 1st is the Octave Day of Christmas. I will be traveling to Gainesville and Ava this weekend. There will be no Latin Mass on January 1st, 2011
Mass schedule December 27th through December 31st
Monday —Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist—--NO LATIN MASS
Tuesday —Holy Innocents, Martyrs--------------NO LATIN MASS
Wednesday -5th Day in the Octave of Christmas---NO LATIN MASS
Thursday —6th Day in the Octave of Christmas---NO LATIN MASS
Friday —7th Day in the Octave of Christmas---NO LATIN MASS
From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope:
Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.
No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.
In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for Himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.
And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to His people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvelous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?
Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Ghost, because in His great love for us He took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins He brought us to life with Christ, so that in Him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.
Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Ghost. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was brought by the blood of Christ.
Sincerely in Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
