Sundays’ Readings: Jer 1:4-5, 17-19; Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17; 1 Cor 12:31—13:13; Lk 4:21-30
From the Pastor’s Desk ….
TREASURES FROM OUR TRADITION
For the first four centuries or so, there seems not to have been a sense of marriage as a church institution. Christians followed civil law, which kept the wedding in a family setting. Bishops wanted people to be good citizens insofar as possible, and so they recognized the government’s role in marriage. In general, they expected Christians to know that marriage was good, that marriage to other Christians was best, and to take it easy on the wild wedding parties. They agreed that marriage was a divine institution that Christ blessed it especially, and they loved referring to the miracle at the wedding feast of Cana. Still, even when Christianity became the official religion of the empire in 380, marriage remained a family matter.
On wedding days people gathered in the bride’s house, where the father would “give her hand” to her husband, draping a garland of flowers over the couple. There were no official words to say, there was no blessing to be given. Everyone walked in procession to the bride’s new home for the concluding rites and the feast. In the Eastern Empire, it soon became customary to invite a priest or bishop to give a blessing at the meal or the day before. It was a nice thing to do, completely optional, but had a “photo-op” feel to it that was widely emulated. Before long, at least in the East, it looked as if the priest were joining the couple in marriage and blessing the union.
Father Mario Valencia
Del escritorio del Sr. Cura…
TRADICIONES DE NUESTRA FE
En muchos hogares latinos el tiempo de Navidad terminó el día dos de febrero con la levantada del Niño Dios en la fiesta de la Candelaria. Es interesante como el pueblo cristiano tiene un cierto afecto para Jesús en su aspecto de niño. Desde hace siglos con el evangelista Lucas y la virgen María la imaginación cristiana ha ido buscando al Divino Niño en el templo; con san Cristóbal lleva cargando al Niño Dios sobre los hombros mientras cruza el rió de la vida y san Antonio de Lisboa juega con el Niñito Jesús sobre un libro teológico mientras estudia la Palabra de Dios.
Fueron los monjes cistercienses del siglo XII quie-nes primero desarrollaron esta devoción al Niño Jesús. En su afán por conocer mejor al Dios hecho humano entraban por medio de la meditación imaginativa en los cuatro evangelios. Esta meditación es un entrar en la vida de Jesús de tal manera que vives los eventos en tu corazón y desarrollar así una relación afectiva con el Señor. La devoción al Niño Dios debe ser acompañada de la lectio divina.