23rd December 2018 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

On this weeks  programme the SS102fm team make a little quiet space in the mayhem of the Christmas madness to allow a kairos moment of calm and stillness with some final reflections on Advent and preparing for Christmas with a focus on St Joseph as well as well as some short reflections via Word on Fire from Bishop Robert Barron. We have our regular reflections on the Sunday gospel, liturgical odds & ends including the saints of the week.

You can listen to the podcast of this weeks full programme HERE.

Reflections

"St Joseph's silence does not express an inner emptiness but, on the contrary, the fullness of the faith he bears in his heart and which guides his every thought and action.

"It is a silence thanks to which Joseph, in unison with Mary, watches over the Word of God, known through the Sacred Scriptures, continuously comparing it with the events of the life of Jesus; a silence woven of constant prayer, a prayer of blessing of the Lord, of the adoration of his holy will and of unreserved entrustment to his providence....

"It is no exaggeration to think that it was precisely from his 'father' Joseph that Jesus learned — at the human level — that steadfast interiority which is a presupposition of authentic justice, the 'superior justice' which he was one day to teach his disciples (cf. Mt 5: 20).

"Let us allow ourselves to be 'filled' with St Joseph's silence! In a world that is often too noisy, that encourages neither recollection nor listening to God's voice, we are in such deep need of it".

Gospel - Luke 1:39-44

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
Centre for Liturgy
Sunday Reflections
English Dominicans

Liturgical odds & ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter week 4

Saints of the Week

December 24th - Adam the Patriarch
December 25th - Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
December 26th - St Stephen
December 27th - St John the Apostle
December 28th - Holy Innocents
December 29th- St Thomas á Beckett
December 30th - Holy Family