Class 10: Divine Revelation (Part II), Salvation History, & Sacred Tradition

In this episode, Jamie Hickman mentions the Thomistic Institute and their many helpful resources. Of note, the Thomistic Institute shares several videos and full courses unpacking Aquinas's famous Five Ways, which is mentioned in the orange Introduction to Catholicism book on pages 30-33.

https://thomisticinstitute.org/

https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/videos/five-ways-to-prove-god-exists

https://aquinas101.thomisticinstitute.org/courses/aquinass-proofs-for-gods-existence

25 lessons Does God exist? This is one of the great questions, and Thomas Aquinas takes it head on with his famous “Five Ways” or “Five Proofs” for the existence of God. In this course, we will unpack each proof over several short episodes, outlining how they work, adding context, and answering objections. With a little study, you’ll find that Aquinas’ proofs are not only profound, but even life changing.

In this episode, Jamie and the parishioners sing the classic Advent hymn O Come, O Come, Immanuel, which is based on the ancient O Antiphons sung the last week of Advent from 17-23 December each year. We encourage you to sing this and other hymns and canticles in your domestic church as a family. If it's not a tradition already, begin today!

1 O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.

Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
shall come to you, O Israel.

2 O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show
and teach us in its ways to go. Refrain

3 O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe. Refrain

4 O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
unto your own and rescue them!
From depths of hell your people save,
and give them victory o'er the grave. Refrain

5 O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home.
Make safe for us the heavenward road
and bar the way to death's abode. Refrain

6 O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
and bring us comfort from afar!
Dispel the shadows of the night
and turn our darkness into light. Refrain

7 O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be yourself our King of Peace. Refrain

https://hymnary.org/text/o_come_o_come_emmanuel_and_ransom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mason_Neale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_O_Come,_Emmanuel#/media/File:Veni,_veni,_Emmanuel.jpg

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Well, good morning and Galdete rejoice, right? It's such a wonderful special day to have some snow come in. Really glad he made it uh safely to church. I went uh most of my commute, and then it was really the last big turn up the hill coming from Carl Spring, uh getting ready to go into Popkins as that hill shifts to the right near the Port Claire's, and all of a sudden I was skidding a little bit. So uh we give thanks to God. We rejoice in safety this morning. Hopefully, everybody was able to get in safely and then we'll go home safely. Uh, we do care about that. And so we give thanks to God for the little things and the big things. Um, you're like, who is this guy up here? Uh why is he not dressed in black? But at least I do have some, I don't know if you call it rose or pink, but uh of course I'm somewhat dressed like our priest this morning with uh for Galde Sunday or Rejoice Sunday. Um we're in the second to last Sunday to uh to Christmas, we could think about it that way, or the third Sunday of Advent. So really that rejoice echoed uh throughout the liturgy today, and that's what we want to do throughout our whole lives is to give thanks to God and little things. Um just by way of hands. anybody um know where that that line comes from? Gaudete and rejoice? Where uh where do we get that? Yeah, Lucy.

unknown 1:20

It's a song.

SPEAKER_04 1:21

It is a song, yeah, you're right. Absolutely. Uh some of the best things in life we turn musical, we turn it into songs so we can internalize it, memorize it, and really live it out. Uh some of our favorite songs, right, that just get stuck in our head. Um this one in particular, we're coming from Paul's letter to the Philippians. And if we recall, Paul is writing from prison, and yet he is telling us to rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say again, uh rejoice. And so even in uh life's dark moments, right, and we all have them, uh we are called by Paul, and God is speaking through Paul to rejoice always. So I want to kind of set the tone right there that we are uh in a good mood this morning, and we want to maintain not just a mood, but like a lifestyle, a way of living that is joyful. Um so as I said, I'm not one of the priests, but my name is Jamie Hickman. I'm the director of faith formation. So I've been working here since last summer. Uh really love it here and uh excited to be here to teach uh this morning and to walk with you in a joyful way. Um so last week, if I remember, I was not here, but I listened to the recording that just came out. Uh I think Father O'Hare was speaking on the five ways uh proofs. Uh, they're not the only five ways that Thomas Aquinas gives us, but really we can know intellectually by the gift of reason without revelation, without faith that God exists. Now, in order to know the persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, that needs to be revealed to us. But we know from Thomas Aquinas and others uh that there are really solid ways, solid foundation for us to stand on that God exists. In order to get that personal relationship, God needs to reveal himself to us so that we get to know him personally and follow him because we trust him and we love him, we know him well. Uh but we can really push away any doubt that there is a God because it just makes sense that there is, in fact, a God, a creator of the universe. Um we're coming from there and we're maintaining chapter two of this book, uh, the orange book, the dedicated series, introduction to Catholicism, a complete course. Um, heavy book, big book, a lot of great wisdom in here. And so we're just moving forward uh over months, only into the you know, scratching the surface of chapter two. Um this is like a three-year program, right? So we're not in any rush. Um and so with that, we we're maintaining um the beginning part, which looks at divine revelation, uh sacred tradition, sacred scripture. So we've got the existence of God already, and our moving towards divine revelation, God opening up his life to us. So I just want to um begin with prayer and and then we'll we'll keep moving forward. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. O wisdom who didst come from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and disposing all things sweetly and mightily, come and teach us the way of prudence. O Adonai and leader of the house of Israel, who didst appear to Moses in the flame of the burning bush, and didst give him the law in Sinai, come and with an outstretched arm redeem us. O root of Jesse, who dost stand for an ensign of the people, before whom kings shall remain silent, and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication, come to deliver us and delay not. O key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, who dost open and no man shutteth, who dost shut and no man openeth, come and lead forth from his prison the captives sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. O dayspring, brightness of eternal light and son of justice, come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. O King of nations, and their desired, the cornerstone, who dost make both one, come and save mankind whom thou didst form out of clay. O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, the desire of all nations and their Savior, come and save us, O Lord our God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alright, does anybody recognize uh those words? Anybody familiar with where those are coming from by chance?

unknown 5:41

Is it a psalm?

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Ask if it's a psalm? It's not a psalm, but there's a lot of uh scripture built into there. Uh so it's not directly coming out of the Bible, but it's based on the Bible. Yes. Oantiphons, absolutely. So the first word there was O. Um, and anybody know familiar with the Oantiphons, maybe when when might we be saying them or even singing them? Because they are meant to be sung. But I won't I won't hurt you with my voice this morning. Um, yeah. So they start the 17th. That'll be the first time we we start singing or speaking the uh the Oantiphons, and they're prayed at night or at evening prayer, Vespers. So we can think of the Magnificat, uh, the Blessed Mother, Our Lady, she says, My soul rejoices in God, my Savior, right? So again, with that rejoice, that is Mary's being, right? That's just who she is, is a joyful woman. And why not, right? She's been chosen by God, uh conceived immaculately, no harm from sin, but still lives in the midst of a dark world, right? Before Christ came and he is the light of the world, she lived a difficult life, even though she was preserved from sin. Uh so she sets the tone for all of us that even in our dark moments, we rejoice. But there's that o, right? And we can you can think of like a heavenly melody with with it, uh again, I'm not gonna do it, but with um beginning that O, uh setting the tone for us, really opening our hearts to uh to those images of scripture. All right, so uh mentioned that it's Galdete Sunday. We uh we've uh read the Oantiphons that are gonna begin this week. And one of the reasons that I mentioned that, uh, who's familiar here with the kids' bulletin by chance? Yeah, it's a wonderful part we got here in the parish. Of course, it's across the country, and I'm sure international too, but um it's a great resource. So I I mentioned that I work in the uh the office, you know, almost across across the parking lot, really, and uh with Faith Formation. And so Sandra Reyes, I'm sure you all know her well. Um she's we work side by side together, and she pointed this out a couple weeks ago. I was like, oh, this is beautiful. So she gave it to me, I think, on December 1st, that Monday, and she was like, maybe we could give this to the uh the kids for catechism on Wednesday night. I was like, oh yeah. Um so I looked at December 2nd, and the the recommendation or the activity was to thank God for your parents, right? And so I was like oh man, I gotta text my parents and tell them I'm thanking God for them. And um, you know, I got some thankfully positive responses from my parents. And uh so then, but I saw for because I was already scheduled to teach today, on Tuesday, the 16th, the recommended like family activity is to sing an Advent hymn, right? So uh this is an ancient hymn, these O Antiphons, and the Magnifica has been prayed really since Mary spoke it a couple thousand years ago. Um so some of our hymns, they've been passed on from generation to generation because of the truth. They still ring true uh centuries and centuries later, right? That's that's the beauty of our faith. It maintains as it's passed on. Um so as I mentioned, so we're gonna go through uh three topics today divine revelation, salvation history, and sacred tradition. So I wanna uh maybe pause for a second, let you ask yourself silently, uh, could you define these terms if if you needed to? Uh would you be able to define divine revelation, salvation history, uh sacred tradition? And even though they're familiar words, divine, we've all heard divine before revelation, but could you give a like a real definition, uh maybe without repeating the word within it? And just pause and think to yourself, could you, and if you've got something to write it on, um maybe write out your possible definition? Just take take a minute or so to think through that. Divine revelation, salvation history, and uh sacred tradition. You don't, it's not essential, but it can be a helpful tool to like maybe spot check. Am I getting this right? And so, of course, we've got um on page 33 of the book, what divine revelation is, and then right below that in blue, salvation history, and the next page over on page 34 in blue, sacred tradition. And as you know, there are um study questions at the end of the chapter, and there's a glossary at the end of the chapter that gives some basic definitions. So maybe just take a second, are we on track? Is this some of this might be completely obvious? For others, it's it's maybe less familiar. And so to try to get on the same page, um maybe we can come up with some some basic definitions of the terms and we can move forward so that we're operating with the same terminology. Okay, yes, ma'am. Extra books uh there in beyond towards the uh the entrance of the gym, is that right? So just through those doors? Would someone be willing to uh raise their hand, offer some definitions for us? Divine revelation, salvation history, sacred tradition. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Divine revelation is uh the way God has the word revealed because that's an evident that it doesn't even how God has shown himself and told us about himself in uh in various forms.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Absolutely. I love that you said um told us about, we can think of speaking, right? And our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the word, right? So the first, I don't want to call it a revelation, but the first manifestation in a sense of God is within himself, right? Within the Trinity, the Father speaks his own understanding of himself, his own knowledge of himself, and that becomes an actual person, right? With outside of time, so it's not like there's a time when Jesus was not. We know from the uh the prologue of John's gospel, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, right? So we're not suggesting Jesus is not God or he's created by God, but but the word you speak, hopefully, right? We think first and then we reveal what's on our mind, right? Um and that can be a struggle in life, but it's no struggle for God. He perfectly reveals who the love of the Father through the Son, and then ultimately through the incarnation. Uh so absolutely, the speaking, um, the manifesting, the the showing forth of who God is, that is the divine revelation. And to zoom in on revelation, we can think of unveiling, right? To uh to reveal to us is to unveil, pull back the curtain so that we know what's beyond it. Um and you can think inside the church maybe of some holy things that are veiled. Maybe the tabernacle is veiled, or the altar has a veil over it, right? So, not because what's beyond that is uh needs to be hidden, uh as if it's like, you know, sweep that under the rug, right? But more because it's so special, it's obvious. We want to get to know what's there. And we have veils for our heads, exactly. So uh a lot of women will cover their heads inside church, and it's a beautiful thing because you know that woman understands she is sacred, right? It's uh it's an understanding of the dignity of the woman. And you can also think the the priest sometimes will wear a beretta, right? Or the the uh the bishop will wear a mitre, not because he thinks, you know, I've got to hide how dumb I am with my head, right? Uh but really there's some hopefully some wonderful knowledge that the uh the priests and the bishops have received in their formation and in their prayer life that then they can reveal to us uh through the spoken word, through preaching. And uh so many ways we can we can consider revelation the the showing forth of the glory of God. Um okay, so we've got divine revelation, great, great definition. Thank you, Nicole. Uh how about sacred uh history or salvation history? Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

The body, death, resurrection of the Son, how we do it.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

Yes, uh 100%. That is uh that is the fullness of revelation, right? Jesus Christ is the fullness. There's nothing beyond that. In fact, we think of the Bible, the written word of God, but there's even more, right? If if we were to write down everything Jesus did or said or thought, the world couldn't contain the pages, right? Yeah. So so that's that's a wonderful answer, and it's right on target. Um, but it obviously doesn't begin there. Uh He is the fullness, the the culmination of the history, and we're all living on odomini, right? In the year of our Lord, now it's 2025, it's just about to be 2026. So we're living in the moment of Christ within his time, but there was a time before Christ was incarnate, right? There was always the word in the beginning. From the beginning, there was the word, but then there had to be something from the creator. There was nothing, right? Out of nothing, ex nihilo, but we can think there's a beginning moment of creation. So we go to the beginning of the Bible, in the beginning, right? God created the heavens and the earth, right? So all the way from the beginning of the book of the Bible through Revelation at the end or the apocalypse, right? The final book of the written Bible, um, that is our salvation history. So we're even looking beyond, not beyond Christ as if he's uh forgotten about, but beyond his time here on earth, to his time in heaven, because he's already in heaven uh revealing his his love of mankind to the Father.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Does salvation history um start with creation or an eternity past?

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Okay, uh terrific question. So that's where I wanted to go with John first, because they both begin in the beginning. Uh so there's two senses of the word beginning. Uh we as Catholics like that both and concept, right? So it's not an either or, it's uh it's how do you want to approach this question? And uh obviously there are some excluded answers that that are not appropriate, but in general, there's so many right answers. There's not just one right answer. So so for our purposes, we're gonna say it begins with the creator before he begins creating. So God is is the really starting point of salvation history because he is the savior. But he doesn't need to save himself, so you know we really need to think, well, what's the salvation part for, right? Now, what about the word salvation itself? What does that word maybe evoke? What what comes to mind? That unfortunately it's it's far um undervalued, it's not taught enough. And so, just real quickly, um, you're right, the Adamic or the covenant between God and Adam and Eve, of course, but we we zoom in on the Adamic uh for Adam, and so one holy family, right? Once you got a couple, you got a family, and then maybe expand. So that's where we can think of Jesus telling us where two or more are gathered, right? That's a family. God is always in the midst of a family, um, hopefully praying together, right, in our domestic church. So uh they of course have kids, Adam and Eve have kids. So our first covenant, that family, one holy family between Adam and God, and then that moves on to uh Noah, the Noahic um covenant, and um, so we're gonna expand one holy couple, one holy family. And so um, so Noah and then Abraham, Moses, David, the Davidic covenant, ultimately we we look to the um the covenant with Christ and his people, the church, right? So we're we're within that covenant, and St. Paul tells us that it's a great mystery, right? That that um the marriage between Christ and his bride, the church, is is so wonderful that our marriage, right, between me and my wife, between your spuses, right, that is a covenant as well that points, it's a sacrament that points at the the covenant that Christ has with the church. And we're that body, right? We're the church. So the uh the sign of that covenant, do you do you know that sign? We know the sign, for instance, of um of the covenant between God and Noah is the rainbow, right? And the bow, uh not so much like uh like a bow tie, right? But we can think of the bow and arrow, right? It's a it's a weapon of war, and God hangs up his bow and says, I'm done with that battle, right? I have I've defeated death, and we're pointing forward, right? We can think of the uh the flood not so much as harming people as opposed to wiping clean, right? Starting at fresh, starting new, and God is done with the annihilation, he's ready to begin again in peace after war. So that that bow in the sky is a sign of peace for us, that God wants peace. Um, what is our sign, what's the sign of the covenant for Christ and the church? The cross? Uh in a way, yes. Um, but we experienced the cross today in a way that we didn't experience it a couple thousand years ago, right? So what's our experience today of the cross? The mass, uh, sorry, where was that?

SPEAKER_03 21:22

The sacrifice of the mass.

SPEAKER_04 21:23

Yeah, exactly. The sacrifice of the Mass, uh, which is the sacrifice of Calvary represented to us, not represented to us, but re-presented again uh in an unbloody way, right? So it's not it's not like a horrifying event, it's a very approachable event, but it's an it's an amazing event. It's the sacrifice of God giving himself for our salvation. And so the Eucharist specifically, because the Mass is ultimately the Eucharist. So that's our covenantal sign, just like the rainbow was with Noah from God. The Eucharist is that sign of our salvation, that covenant. Okay, so wonderful. Um, and then finally, sacred. Tradition. What is a sacred tradition? Absolutely. So I've already mentioned Galdeate, rejoice. We're taking scripture, Paul's experience, passing it along, eventually becomes scripture, right? He's just writing a letter from prison at the beginning. He's just thinking about his experience in prison before he even writes it down, right? So God works through all of us in our actual real, in our reality, in our experience, to pass on an important message. None of us are going to have our writings or our thoughts put into the Bible, right? We're done writing the Bible, but we're receiving those important messages from God from before, and they pass along from generation to generation because they're real, right? Because they're true and they're good for us. So rejoice, Galdeate, we mentioned the O antiphons. So that's these are generally speaking liturgical events, right? The Bible is a liturgical instrument or tool. It's primarily meant to be proclaimed for the sake of the people that show up at the Mass. Because what's more important than our covenant with God? And here in the Ono Domini or the year of the Lord, now in the time of Christ, we experience that super important covenant, the Eucharist, in the context of Mass. Right? It's not manna falling from the sky or coming, you know, on the ground, but we experience the Eucharist in the midst of the sacrifice of Mass. And so it's really important that, you know, of course, we're going and we're encouraging our families to go, because that's how we receive that amazing passing on of the gifts of God, the treasures, right? So sacred, of course, holy, set apart. Uh it's not ordinary, it's not, it's not just common. Um, it's dignified, right? It's raised to a for a certain purpose to help us in our salvation. So to go back in time just as slightly, salvation we can think of healing primarily, right? Um healed from our wounds, the wounds that come from our sins and the sins of other people. Uh we can think of being broken and needing to be repaired. So that's the kind of way of looking at salvation. A wound that's healed so that you can move on and it's not holding you back anymore. And so our traditions are treasures of healing that we want to pass on. Like imagine you've got a great remedy or a great recipe for a special meal that just makes you feel great and it's also healthy for you, too, hopefully. Um and uh, but even if it's not like you just do some exercise, right, and then you move on. But um, so we pass these on. They're they're special to us, and there's nothing more incredible than the Eucharist, right? That is the the healing remedy. Um obviously, if we're like a mortal sin, we can't receive it yet, we go to confession first. But if we have venial sins, the Eucharist itself can heal us of those sins, can heal us of those wounds. So we always want to draw close and then pass that on, right? Invite our neighbors, especially our maybe we have maybe we have some family that's fallen away from practicing the faith. We're like, there's a there's a remedy, right, for your troubles. Uh let come come to the church where we rejoice together, not because our life is easy, not because our life is um, you know, simple or uh just full of fun times all the time, but because we've found the truth, the reality that our wounds get healed when we come to this place and we receive God in the Eucharist and we hear His His message of hope. Um so that's that's where I want to look at, or how I want to look at sacred tradition, that it's passing on this amazing resource that we have and never never letting it slip out of our hands. Right? It's a treasure that you gotta guard and protect and then pass on as an inheritance to the next generation. Okay. Um pause from that for a second. Anybody celebrating maybe a birthday today? Anybody here celebrate a birthday? Maybe you're not gonna admit it, I don't know. Um how about an anniversary? Anybody celebrate an anniversary? Okay. Um what let's just say somebody had raised his or her hand and said, yeah, today's my my 50th birthday, or my 75th birthday, or my 25th birthday. What what might we want to do for that person?

unknown 26:21

Sing.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Sing. Okay, and is there a song that we generally know if uh if it were happened to be somebody's birthday? Does our culture tend to say, like, this is an important thing we want to pass on, and it's just natural, right? It's no longer like, hmm, what should we do? Um, it's it's such a given. And I feel like unfortunately, sometimes even though we we think of ourselves, we'll say we're a Christian nation or Judeo-Christian nation, we we've uh forgotten something as basic as like the happy birthday song when it comes to our faith. Some of the basics um are no longer like in the front of our mind as easy resources to celebrate beautiful things. And so uh so I I've got those resources. Um one of the uh one of the sheets, did everybody get the the handouts by chance? Yeah um it's it's gold. I'm gonna I'm gonna pass on to you some gold uh because these are treasures, right? So if you can pull out the gold sheet, do you see that one? Okay, yeah, Nicole, you got that one. Um everybody sees the gold? This is our treasure. You do? Okay, yeah, we've got time. I'm gonna admit to you that I stole this from Wikipedia, so that's why it's got a gold background. Um so it's just printed that way. I didn't uh I didn't do too much work on that one. But this is such an um accessible hymn. I don't think I'm gonna be in any kind of copyright uh problem here. But this is just one translation of a hymn, veni, veni, right? Ummanuel. And uh so we've got what's wonderful here is it's got the Latin and it's also got the English. So it's just one translation. Um but uh of course we're called the Latin Rite or the or the Roman Catholic Church, but we're the Latin Rite. There's a lot of Eastern rites, 20-some Eastern rites, which you can find nearby, right? If you go to McLean, for instance, there's Holy Transfiguration, that's a um, I think it's Greek Catholic Melkite, or it's a very long full title, usually just say Melkite. Uh, and they're fully Catholic, right? But they've got an Eastern approach to doing things. So we've got a Latin approach or a Roman approach to doing things. And yes, sir. Quick question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Are the East Are the whole Eastern rites aligned with the with Rome today?

SPEAKER_04 28:46

Uh almost all of them. Um maybe we could say most of them.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Not the Greek.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Exactly, right.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Greek Catholic.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Yes. If if uh if you maybe um there are some nearby that are Orthodox, and there's some nearby that are, we could call them Catholic, but they're not Roman Catholic. And so yes, they're in full communion with the Pope. Uh a lot of times you go in and there's like an icon of the Pope, or there's um like some have an icon of St. John Paul II just next to another ancient saint. Um whereas if you go to an Orthodox church, they don't have the ones of the Pope, right? Or at least not the current Pope. And um so so there's unfortunately a wound, right? There's a division in the church. So they're fully Christian, all of their sacraments are valid, right? They have holy orders, they have the Eucharist, so they have the amazing remedy, the treasure, uh, but they're not in communion with the Pope. And so there's there's an issue, right? Um brothers fight, and we need someone to step in and say, cut it out, let's get, you know, make peace. And that's what Christ wants. He wants peace and uh for us to get along. But there are treasures in the East as well, and so the rites themselves, for instance, from maybe St. John Chrysostom or St. James, there's different liturgies, St. Basil within the Eastern churches. And the if you were to go to an Orthodox Mass, or it's called Divine Liturgy usually, um, it would look the same as an Eastern Rite Catholic Sunday service, right? Uh so it's hard to see from the rituals, but the right, um they're either in communion or not. But it the the practice of the faith looks almost exactly the same. So the same treasures are being passed on, minus a couple, like the Pope. Um so we've got that sheet. Would would you be willing? Maybe I could step away from the mic and we could sing Ocome Ocum Emanuel. Um because, like I said, that children's um bulletin gives us in a couple days maybe the task, the homework, to sing a hymn. And so we're just gonna practice so that when you have kids, grandkids, cousins, whatever, you know, nieces, nephews over for family events soon, you've got some practice behind you, and uh, and you felt like I had this joyful experience and I want to share that treasure. Um, and I will point out that the the Oantiphons that we heard from Lucy, right? That we prayed the Oantiphons first, they're the inspiration of these lyrics. Okay, so it's basically just a translation from the the old Latin Oantiphons into English, and then changing the music a little bit, so the notes are different, but it's basically the same words. We're asking um the rod of Jesse or the root root of Jesse or the key of David to come into our hearts to heal us. Because even though we've been saved a couple thousand years ago, it's an ongoing process. We're always getting wounded again, and so we need to invite Christ to come and save us. Um I want to point out a couple lines before we begin. Vaini, veini, Emanuel, right? Uh that's obviously come, O come Ocam Emanuel. But it on the right side of the sheet, on the top you see Galde Gal Day, Galdei, right? Galdei Te Sunday. It's coming right out of here. And uh right below that is the translation. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, right? So we're speaking to Israel, and we're the people of God, right? That's what Israel is. So we're telling each other here in this room to rejoice. Um and then we have there's a special one I want to find. It's basically non tardare, which uh is do not delay. So let me see if I can find that one. I might struggle. Plus, there's seven, whereas we only have five in this uh particular hymn. Two verses were added maybe in the 18th or 19th century, so they're more recent add-ons, but but they're from the ancient text. But non tardare, don't delay, right? Don't dilly dally, don't be tardy. Right? We're in a school gym right now, so we can think of tardy, tardare, so that Latin, you know, hopefully if if you were to hear that sung in Latin in a week or two at Christmas time, uh, you're like, oh yeah, tardare, don't be late. Um and all right, so with that, I'm gonna step away from the mic. Maybe we can stand and do our best to uh to sing a little bit. I'm I'm fine with English, uh, but go ahead. You like Latin? I love Latin. I'm going to Latin as later, so Latin. Um but I think just by the hands we'll stick with the English. But here's your invitation. You've got it. Why didn't it take all cheap? So maybe give it a try later on, okay?

SPEAKER_03 33:59

I told you to be glory. And in the tempness in shell to be spiritual, this year is Christmas, and this will be preaching just to be safe.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

That was pretty good. So I'm trying to emphasize praxis, right? Um I think the opening uh class, the catechism class from Father O'Hare was holiness is something you live out. It's not knowledge. I mean, obviously you need to know uh we want to know who Christ is in order to follow him, right? We want to know who he is in order to trust him and to open our hearts to him, but it's not academic, right? I've I've got I I spent a few years studying theology in DC and then in Rome, and like, you know, so I love books and doing homework and um talking about it, but it's not about talking about it as much as it is about living it. And so music hopefully transforms us in such a way that we want to live it out. Um, and so that that means we've got to be taking in good uh music and and holy things, uh what we look at on our phone or read, you know, we gotta live in the world, not of the world, but we've got to live in the world, so we've got to know the news in order to pray about it, right? In order to give that to God and say, I noticed this thing that needs healing, and then trusting that our Savior will come and heal that. Uh so being aware, right, not bearing our hits, but as much as we can to pull out something beautiful and take that in through our senses, okay, and then to share that gift with other people. So we've got that sheet. Um, two other ones for praxis or for practical living out our faith. Uh, the multicolored sheet, so this is not Joseph's dreamcoat, right? Um it's just some highlighted paper. But uh this is coming from a document from about 15 years ago, Verbum Domini, um, the the Word of the Lord, which was uh the postonodal apostolic exhortation from Pope Benedict in September 30th, 2010, I believe. Um so we're we're hit the 15-year anniversary a couple months ago, and it's good to read relook at things that are from the past, right, and to visit them again and then take them in. So one of the big takeaways from that synod on uh scripture essentially was how do we live that out? And one of the best ways to live scripture is to read it, but not again like an academic book, but as a book that is alive, and so the more we approach it with faith and relationship, then the Bible speaks to us, right? God speaks to us through those words. So Lexio Divina, uh, which is what it says up there, five steps to growing in love of God, because that's the whole point, is to grow in love of God and neighbor. And how do we do that? We need to know who God is, and that's revealed to us uh in history and ultimately written down for us and given on as a gift from the church uh as the Bible, right? So we have access to the Bible more than anyone in history, and yet our knowledge of the Bible, unfortunately, as a culture, right? I'm not saying anybody in the room, but as a culture, we're we're very ignorant of the Bible. We're not stupid, right? The word ignorant just means without knowledge, which means it's accessible. It's very accessible. Let's let's fill ourselves with that knowledge that will transform our lives, and then we can pass that on, what we've received. So these are not the only ways of doing it, but these are questions we want to ask. The first question, uh, these are the bottom, right? So I took them from the highlighted portions above, but at the very bottom, you've got five questions that you can ask throughout the steps of Lexio Divina. So the first one you want to read it, then ask what does it say, right? What does the text actually say? Normal reading skills, right? And then meditatio, the second step, or thinking about it. So if I had um a science book, I could be meditating on that. It just means thinking about what you're reading. That's basically what meditation is. Thinking about what you're taking in. And then oratio to speak, right? An oration. In this case, we're gonna have an oration towards God, right? A speaking time. We're gonna talk to God about what we read and what we were thinking about after we read it. So that's our conversation, that's our prayer to speak with God. And then to contemplate, it doesn't mean to think, right? It doesn't mean to think really hard about I'm contemplating. Uh no, that's the meditation, right? So now we're moving beyond that and it's seeing how God sees it. And how does God see it? He sees it as his beautiful creation. So if you were to observe a sunset, you just look at it and gaze, right? Take it in. And that's what we can do with our contemplation. To look at what was written, how we thought about it, and we were speaking to God about I don't really get it, and you would just wait back and receive something beautiful from God, maybe like a sunset. Just an analogy, but that's kind of how it works. And then finally, axio or action, right? We want to put in action. God, how can I apply what you've given to me? Because I don't want to just be an academic, I want to be a practitioner, right? I don't want to just be a scholar, I want to be somebody who puts it into my life. I want to be a disciple who actually follows Christ. Because I've gotten to know him now through the scriptures. He's a trustworthy man, right? He's the God of the universe. Now I want to put into action. So that's something on the back. You see the uh blank spaces, so this could be like a journal. Um lots of ways to do it. And that's something you could do as a family activity too, or date night for spouse. Um, and uh, so I just encourage that to become like a regular habit. It's not it's not a requirement, of course, but it's uh it's a wonderful opportunity to do it. Finally, night prayer, uh, because we're just about out of time. Um compliant or night prayer. This is an ancient custom of praying throughout the day, particularly the psalms. So one of the first uh answers, I believe you were saying that the uh you were thinking maybe the Oentiphons or another or Gaudete maybe comes from the Psalms, right? Well, most most of the, in fact, there's no liturgy of the day, no liturgy of the year that doesn't contain something from the Psalms. It's always there, right? Um, so there are psalms that we pray, and then there are gospel canticles throughout the day that we pray as well. The the Benedictus or the words of St. uh Zachary or Zachariah about his son, right? You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the most high. That's prayed at morning prayer, and then evening prayer, we already talk about the Magnificat or Mary's canticle. And then at night prayer, at the end of the day, we have the canticle of Simeon, right? We think of Jesus being presented in the temple 40 days after Christmas, um, 40 being a big number throughout the scriptures. So this man has been living super long, he's ready to go home to heaven, right? But he's waiting for the Messiah to come. And he says, now you can let your servant go in peace. He sees himself as a servant of God. And now he's had eyes on the Christ child who's presented in the temple, and he can go in peace. So these are things you might consider praying uh at night before we go to bed. In particular, it says, protect us, Lord, while we are awake, safeguard us while we sleep, that we may keep watch with Christ and rest in peace. And that's what we all want. We want to be able to rest in peace, have a good night's sleep, wake up afresh the next day and live out our faith again. But a lot of us we can struggle. We have so much stress, so many things going on that we're worried about. So we might not, we might lay our head on our pillow but not fall asleep. So these sorts of prayers can be great for getting the rest that we need to be really joyful Christians. We need more joyful Christians, right? We don't need less. But there's also the prayer on the right side, visita quesimus domine, or visit, we beseech thee, O Lord, this dwelling. That is such a wonderful prayer. You might try to commit it to memory, asking God to be in your house, right? To protect your house, to be with you, uh, especially if you have younger family. Uh maybe pass that on to them. And and then there's some blessings. Finally, on the last, is there's the uh the Marian antiphons that are prayed throughout the year. They're seasonal, so they changed. And right now in Advent, we're praying the Alma Rademptoris Matur. Um, so I'm not gonna sing that for you, but there's so many great recordings that you have access to at your fingertips, right? So reach out. I I encourage you to reach out for some of the sacred music and make it a part of your life. If it already is, share the resources you've already come across and just pass it on, right? Pay it forward. So, with that, um, I think I've said far more than I needed to. We're a little bit over, but I am grateful for your presence today. I'm grateful for your uh willingness to stand up and and sing. And uh I just send you forth. If you're going to mass, please pray for me and my wife. Uh, if you've already been, um safe drive home and uh look forward to doing it again sometime soon. Let's uh let's just pray with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.