As a combination Christmas and birthday give, I bought for myself the full set of
The Liturgical Year (15 volumes) by Dom Proper Gueranger. What a treasure
trove of wisdom and instruction! I have read through much of his commentary on
the feasts following Christmas, and am finding my investment quite worthwhile
already.
For today’s feast of the
Circumcision, Dom Gueranger makes note of the epistle, which is from the letter
to Titus:
Dearly beloved: The grace of God our Savior has appeared to
all men, instructing us, in order that, rejecting ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we may live temperately and justly and piously in this world; looking
for the blessed hope and glorious coming of our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and
cleanse for Himself an acceptable people, pursuing good works. These things
speak and exhort, in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Titus 2:11-14)
Here is Gueranger’s expounds on
this passage, giving a New Year’s message to us!
These counsels of our great Apostle, who warns the faithful
of the obligation they are under of making a good use of the present life, are
most appropriate to the first day of January, which is now the beginning of the
new civil year. Let us, therefore, renounce all worldly desires; let us live
soberly, justly, and piously, and permit nothing to distract us from the
expectation of that blessedness, which is our hope. The great God and Savior
Jesus Christ, Who shows Himself to us in these days of His mercy in order to
instruct us, will come to us in a second manner in order to give us our reward.
The beginning of a new year tells us plainly enough that this Last Day is fast
approaching; let us cleanse ourselves from all iniquity, and become a people
acceptable to our Redeemer, a people doing good works.
I thought that was a very good
thought for the first day of the 2017.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.