How many shopping days left till Christmas? … Thursday, July 18

PORTRAIT OF JOHN XXIII.

A Rosary Meditation … The Third Joyful Mystery, the Nativity. “Mankind is a great, an immense family… This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” – Pope John XXIII. During World War One, on Christmas Eve, across a line of trenches and barbwire, with one side on one side and the other on the other, a group of soldiers began singing a Christmas hymn. The other side joined in. Back and forth they sang. And an unofficial truce was called. For that night the bombs, the gas, the bullets, stopped. Do we really have to wait for Christmas to give one another the gift of peace when God offered us that same gift in the manger and still offers Him daily in the Mass?How many more shopping days till we catch on?

Today …

St. Bruno of Segni

St. Bruno of Segni was a Benedictine bishop, serving as Vatican librarian and cardinal legate. Born in Asti, Italy, in 1049, Bruno became a Benedictine while still young, and in 1079, Pope St. Gregory VII appointed him bishop of Segni. He left that see to reenter the monastic life, becoming the abbot of Monte Cassino. Bruno’s theological work on the Holy Eucharist set the standard for centuries. He was canonized in 1183. His understanding of the Real Presence no doubt served him well spiritually every day of the year, including Christmas.

Christmas, the Nativity, the Third Joyful Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary … “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” Ebenezer Scrooge via Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.