From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 18 - Feast of Mary's Expectation   
    (Council of Toledo, 656)    Our Lady's Expectation   
      
   The origin of this festival goes back to the bishops of the 10th Council of   
   Toledo, in 656. These prelates believed that the traditional custom of   
   celebrating the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin on March   
   25th   
   was disadvantageous, seeing that this joyous solemnity usually fell on a   
   date   
   when the Church is concerned with the sorrows of the Passion of Christ. They   
   issued that from that moment onwards, the Church of Spain would celebrate a   
   solemn feast, with octave, in memory of the Annunciation, and to prepare for   
   the   
   great solemnity of the Nativity.   
      
   At a later date the Church of Spain felt the need to return to the practice   
   of   
   the Roman Catholic Church, which solemnizes on March 25th, as a forever   
   sacred   
   day, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Incarnation of the   
   Son   
   of God. However, popular devotion was so strong for the feast on December   
   18th   
   that a vestige was retained so that the faithful could celebrate the Mother   
   of   
   God in the days prior to the nativity of her Son. A new feast was named   
   under   
   the title of the Blessed Virgin Mary's Expectation.   
      
      
   December 18 - The Expectation of Our Lady   
   (654) assigned at the Tenth Council of Toledo in 656   
      
   Mary in the Midst of Israel's Waiting (IX) "We have been healed by his   
   bruises"   
   (Is 53:5)   
      
   The mystery of the Messiah thickens in some prophecies that evoke his   
   self-abasement and his suffering, in contrast to the promises of glory and   
   kingship. How would the Blessed Virgin have understood what was written   
   about   
   the Lord's "servant" (Is 42:1), who must first "restore the tribes of Jacob   
   and   
   bring back the survivors of Israel" (Is 49:6)?   
      
   "He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with   
   grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we   
   didn't   
   respect him (Is 53:3). "Surely he has borne our infirmities, and carried our   
   diseases; yet we esteemed him stricken, struck by God, and afflicted" (Is   
   53:4).   
   "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our   
   iniquities;   
   the chastisement that brings us peace was on him; and we have been healed by   
   his   
   bruises" (Is 53:5).   
      
   "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is 53:6). "By the   
   knowledge   
   of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their   
   iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he   
   shall   
   divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death,   
   and   
   was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bore the sin of many, and made   
   intercession for the transgressors" (Is 53:11-12).   
      
   "A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing in on me as if to   
   hack   
   off my hands and my feet. I can count every one of my bones, while they look   
   on   
   and gloat; they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing   
   (Ps   
   22:16-18). And: "They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall   
   mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for   
   him,   
   as one grieves for his firstborn" (Zech 12:10-12).   
      
   Mary must have trembled before these awful prospects.   
      
   "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there be any   
   sorrow   
   like my sorrow" (Lam 1:12).   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Excerpt from Dom Guéranger   
   (1805 - 1875), Liturgical Year - Dec. 18th (Année Liturgique)   
      
   "O valiant warriors of Christ! Do not cast away your everlasting crowns of   
   victory because of the tears of your relatives.   
      
   Do not remove your feet from the necks of your enemies who lie prostrate   
   before   
   you, lest they regain their strength and attack you more fiercely than   
   before.   
   Raise your banner high over every earthly attachment.   
      
   If those whom you see weeping knew that there is another life where there is   
   neither sickness nor death, where there is unceasing gladness and everything   
   is   
   beautiful, then assuredly they would wish to enter it with you.   
      
   Anyone who fears to exchange this brief earthly life for the unending joys   
   of   
   the heavenly Kingdom is foolish indeed.   
      
   For he who rejects eternity wastes the brief time of his existence, and will   
   be   
   delivered to everlasting torment in Hades."   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks   
   about reforming himself.   
   --St. Peter of Alcantara   
      
   Bible Quotes:   
   And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth   
   the   
   will of God, abideth for ever.   (1 John 2:17)   
      
   Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals   
   come:   
   but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.  (Mat 18:7)   
      
      
   <><><><>   
   Prayer for Help   
      
   Lord Jesus, You see my extreme poverty and destitution,   
   You see my frail nature surrounded with so many crafty,   
   powerful enemies, both exterior and interior placed amid   
   many perils and countless evils both temporal and spiritual,   
   from which only You, in Your great mercy, can rescue me.   
   For this reason, I call upon You, for You know that we   
   cannot obtain the least thing that is good, either for body or   
   soul, except from You, the Father of mercy and of   
   consolation, the source and giver of all good gifts. You know   
   that we cannot rid ourselves of the least thing that is evil,   
   unless You in Your clemency put it far from us.   
      
   Filled with hope and confidence in Your sweet Heart, I cry to   
   the Eternal Father: Behold O Father, I have within my heart   
   the sweet Heart of Your dear Son; I offer to You this Heart   
   not that it may accuse me, but plead for me, not cry for   
   vengeance, but for pardon. What can You refuse to this   
   Heart? Nothing assuredly, either to Him or to me, when I   
   ask for His sake. Deliver me, therefore I pray from all my   
   foes and the ills of this life. Help me in my necessities.   
   Grant me grace to end my life by a holy and happy death. -   
   Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)