Skip to main content

Advent Series- December 1

Image
By

Advent Series- December 1

 (Note: The series is posted here for parents to share with their children- it was written for a young audience which accounts for its simple style)

The history of the world properly begins with God, our Creator, Who Himself has no beginning.
We have all heard the story of creation; how God created the world out of nothing in 6 days.
It is easy to remember what God created on each day, since the first 3 days and the last 3 days are related:
 
The Bible says, 'In the beginning, God created heaven and earth, And the earth was void and empty."(Gen 1:1-2)
On the first 3 days, God began by giving a form to His creation. 
The next 3 days God spent filling His creation,
Thus;
On Day 1 God created the light---on Day 4 He created the sun, moon and stars to shine with that light
On Day 2 God created the sky and separated the waters above from the waters below--Day 5 He filled them with the birds and fish
On Day 3 God created the land---Day 6 He filled the land with animals and man
On Day 6 God made the first man and woman; our first parents Adam and Eve.
We are all descendants of Adam and Eve.
God gave Adam and Eve everything to make them happy. His greatest gift to them was sanctifying grace; His own life in their souls. If they were faithful to God, God planned that they would have a happy life here on earth, followed by eternal happiness in Heaven.
God gave only one command for Adam and Eve to obey, and they did not remain faithful.
We all know what happened....the devil tempted Eve and she ate of the forbidden fruit, then she convinced Adam to do the same.
 
There are many lessons to be learned from the sin of Adam and Eve;
 
1)We learn the importance of keeping busy and avoiding the occasions of sin
2) We learn the importance of saying no to temptations right away (don't dialogue with the devil!)
3) We learn the importance of not becoming attached to ourselves and the things of this world- Eve disobeyed because she wanted to become like God, knowing good and evil.....how often does the sin of pride lead us to look at things we should not!
4) The importance of not giving in to the pressure of companions- Adam gave in to the pleadings of Eve and dragged the whole human race with him.
 
During Advent we make sacrifices in order to detach ourselves from the things of this world, so that we can grow closer to God.
By this we show God that we choose Him before ourselves.
We do not make sacrifices in order to be miserable, but rather to prepare ourselves for the best kind of happiness.....eternal happiness!
After their sin, Adam and Eve lost God's special gifts. They had to leave the garden of Eden. They had to suffer and eventually they would die.
The worst thing that happened (even worse than suffering and death) was that they lost God's life in their souls. The gates of heaven were closed.
God did not leave them totally hopeless, however. He promised to send a Savior, Who would come to make up for sin and reopen the gates of heaven.
This promise that God made is called the "Protoevangelium" or "first message"
In Genesis 3:15, God foretells the coming of Jesus and Mary when he told the devil, "I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."
It is interesting to note that when Our Lord spoke to Mary, He called her, "Woman"....because she is "The Woman" foretold in Genesis 3:15.
 
The whole Old Testament has as its central idea, the coming of the Savior, Who would restore the old friendship between God and man.
God foretells the Woman and her Seed crushing the head of Satan ....and we will see in the Old Testament, there is quite alot of head crushing going on! (and alot of women who do it, too!)
And each time it is a foreshadowing of our Redemption.
Everything in the Old Testament leads up to the sacrifice of Our Lord on the cross.
It is at that very moment we see the Woman and her Seed crushing the head of Satan on the hill of Golgotha, which means, "Place of the Skull"
We are in for some interesting days ahead!
From the creation of Adam to the coming of Our Lord there is about 4000 years.
The 4 weeks of Advent symbolizes these 4000 years of waiting for the Savior to come.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comparision of the Tridentine, Cranmer and Novus Ordo Masses

By
+ JMJ I downloaded the comparison that was linked in the previous article on the mass (here) . ... a very good reference! P^3 From: Whispers of Restoration (available at this link) . CHARTING LITURGICAL CHANGE Comparing the 1962 Ordinary of the Roman Mass to changes made during the Anglican Schism; Compared in turn to changes adopted in the creation of Pope Paul VI’s Mass in 1969 The chart on the reverse is a concise comparison of certain ritual differences between three historical rites for the celebration of the Catholic Mass Vetus Ordo: “Old Order,” the Roman Rite of Mass as contained in the 1962 Missal, often referred to as the “Traditional Latin Mass.”The Ordinary of this Mass is that of Pope St. Pius V (1570) following the Council of Trent (1545-63), hence the occasional moniker “Tridentine Mass.” However, Trent only consolidated and codified the Roman Rite already in use at that time; its essential form dates to Pope St. Gregory the Great (+604), in whose time the R...
Post a Comment
Read more

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

By
Shining the light of Church Teaching on the doctrinal positions of the SSPX and the Resistance. Principles are guides used to aid in decision making.  It stands to reason that bad principles will lead to bad decisions. The recent interactions between Rome and the SSPX has challenged a number of closely held cultural assumptions of people in both sides of the disagreement. This has resulted in cultural skirmishes in both Rome and the SSPX. Since it is the smaller of the two, the skirmishes have been more evident within the SSPX.  The cultural fault-line that Bishop Fellay crossed appears to be linked to two points of Catholic Doctrine: Ecclesiology and Obedience.  The cultural difference of view points is strong enough that it has resulted in the expulsion of a number of members.  It should also be noted that some other priests expelled since the beginning of the latest interactions (starting in 2000) held the same view points and have joined with the l...
8 comments
Read more

If Pope Francis is bad - what about Pope St. John Paul II et al?

By
+ JMJ So here we are on the apparent cusp of yet another post conciliar Papal canonization. This time we have Pope's John-Paul I and Paul VI canonizations to 'look forward' to. This follows, obviously, on the heels of Pope St. John Paul II's canonization? So the first question that I usually encounter is: How is it possible, keeping in mind the doctrine on infallibility of canonizations (note doctrine not dogma), that Pope St. John Paul II is a Saint? First, what does it mean???  According to the doctrine of dogmatic facts - it is the universal opinion of Theologians that canonizations are infallible.  It means that they enjoy the beatific vision.  ... that's it.  That is the doctrine and it is at the level of universal opinion of theologians.  It is called a 'dogmatic fact'. That they made mistakes is obvious.  That the miracles seem to not be very miraculous is also a bit of an issue. Here's something to consider: The rush that surrou...
16 comments
Read more

Spiritual Journey Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre - Extracts

By
+ JMJ I have posted these two chapters to provide context for the quote of: It is, therefore, a strict duty for every priest wanting to remain Catholic to separate himself from this Conciliar Church for as long as it does not rediscover the Tradition of the Church and of the Catholic Faith. P^3 Courtesy of SSPX.ca Chapter II The Perfections of God We ought to remember during this entire contemplation of God that we must apply all that is said of God to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God. We cannot separate Jesus Christ from God. We cannot separate the Christian religion from Jesus Christ, Who is God, and we must affirm and believe that only the Catholic religion is the Christian religion. These affirmations have, as a result, inescapable conclusions that no ecclesiastic authority can contest: outside of Jesus Christ and the Catholic religion, that is, outsi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dogmas of the Catholic Faith (de fide) - Expanded Listing: Answer for Reader

By
 + JMJ  A reader asked the following question in the 2015 version of the article on the Dogmas of the Catholic Faith (link) : 117: "In the state of fallen nature it is morally impossible for man without Supernatural Revelation, to know easily, with absolute certainty and without admixture of error, all religious and moral truths of the natural order." Where can you find this in the documents of the Church? ( Link to comment )  Here's the reference from Ott: The citation that Ott provided was Denzinger 1786 and the source document is Dogmatic Consitution Concerning the Faith from the First Vatican Council (Papal Encyclicals - link) : Chapter 2 On Revelation, Article 3: It is indeed thanks to this divine revelation , that those matters concerning God, which are not of themselves beyond the scope of human reason, can, even in the present state of the human race, be known by everyone, without difficulty, with firm certitude and with no intermingling of error. Here's ...
Post a Comment
Read more