December 18: O Adonai! - A Brief Word from Ireland

O Adonai, by Abbot Guéranger

  

O SOVEREIGN Lord! O Adonaï come and redeem us, not by Thy power, but by Thy humility. Heretofore, Thou didst show Thyself to Moses Thy servant in the midst of a mysterious flame ; Thou didst give Thy law to Thy people amidst thunder and lightning; now, on the contrary, Thou comest not to terrify, but to save us.

Thy chaste Mother having heard the emperor’s edict, which obliges her and Joseph her spouse to repair to Bethlehem, prepares everything needed for Thy divine Birth. She prepares for Thee, O Sun of justice! the humble swathing-bands, wherewith to cover Thy nakedness, and, protect Thee, the Creator of the world, from the cold, of that midnight hour of Thy Nativity!

Thus it is that Thou wiliest to deliver us from the slavery of our pride, and show man that Thy divine arm is never stronger than when be thinks it powerless and still. Everything is prepared, then, dear Jesus! Thy swathing-bands are ready for Thy infant limbs! Come to Bethlehem, and redeem us from the hands of our enemies. -- Abbott Prosper Louis Paschal Guéranger, O.S.B

O Adonai, et dux domus
Israël, qui Moysi in igne
flamme rubi apparuisti, et
ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in
brachio extento.

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Advent Prayer for December 18


Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we who are weighed down from of old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin may we be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of your Only-Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you.

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APOSTOLIC VISITATION TO TUAM ARCHDIOCESE



In the lobby of the Ard Ri Hotel, Tuam, with assistant Fr. James Conn and, in the background Fr. Eamonn Conway, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Limerick, a native ofTuam (photo: Ray Ryan, Tuam Herald)

Since my arrival on Monday, with my assistant Father James Conn, SJ, of the Pontifical Gregorian University and Boston College, I have been meeting with a wide cross-section of people while conducting the first phase of the Apostolic Visitation mandated by the Holy Father.

Today was to have been a penitential pilgrimage with youth and other interested hikers to the top of Croagh Patrick, a holy mountain of long-standing significance for spiritual life of the local church (e.g. in the annual summer pilgrim walk some 20,000-plus climbers will ascend to the peak with Archbishop Michael Neary) [cf. http://www.tuamarchdiocese.org/]. 

Heavy snow that began Thursday evening made the ascent too treacherous, so the walk was called off until March when Father Conn and I will return for the second part of the Visitation.