Today’s psalm refrain asks: Teach me your ways, O Lord. Did you know that the psalm is chosen as a response to the first reading? In today’s first reading we hear about the pagan prophet Balaam. The reading is from the Book of Numbers, part of the narrative covering the Hebrew people in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land.
The Amorites, Ammonites, Moabites and Midianites – all feared the Israelites. “Now this horde will devour everything around us as an ox devours the grass of the field.” So they summoned Balaam to curse the Israelites. Balaam sets up his sacrificial altar, prepares everything, raised his arms to begin the curse, but what comes out is a blessing. He tries again, same thing – blessing.
Teach me your ways, O Lord
Even if I am not asking
Teach me your ways, O Lord
Guide me in truth. Teach me you are my Savior. Guide me in humility. Remind me to be compassionate.
Show me the way of salvation
Let me always know the authority by which You do all things that your will be done.
Teach me your ways, O Lord
Even if I am not asking
Recently wrote about forgiveness. I started out the column as a reflection on the readings for Advent sometime do not seem to fit the mood of Christmas coming. But then Advent is a time of waiting and reflecting; and to think about gift giving. Forgiveness is one of the great gifts you can give. The end of the post I mused: “What ‘Christmas gift’ comes along with this life of forgiveness? Lower blood pressure, restful night, sweet dreams, peace, no longer being a victim, uninterrupted prayer, a new experience of God’s love… and so much more. Your gift is waiting right there under the tree, the cross of Christ. Go ahead, open your gift. `Tis always the season.’” 
Yesterday’s psalm refrain was “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness.” From that I asked the personal question, “Do you ever wonder if people think you are gracious, merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness?” 
One of my morning rituals for some time now has been, in the wee hours of the morning before dawn, to pray the morning prayer (lauds) of Office of the Dead. It is one of the prayer cycles for the repose of a soul found in the Divine Office of the Catholic Church, also called the “Liturgy of the Hours.” You can find versions online. The morning prayer consists of Psalm 51; 
There are more than a few Catholics, life-long Catholics, that think this solemnity celebrates the conception of Jesus, immaculately conceived. While all things Marian ultimately point to Jesus, the Immaculate Conception means that Mary from the first moment of her existence was totally free from the influence of that universal sinfulness which touches us all from the time we are born. The reason behind this belief (which is not explicitly contained in Scripture and was only infallibly defined in 1854) has been traditionally offered as only a totally sinless environment was fitting for the Son of God in his becoming a human being. True. Some have offered it was Jesus honoring his mother in fulfillment of the commandments. The Franciscan scholar John Duns Scotus was the first to offer a theological explanation which is the basis of 1854 declaration of the belief as dogma. But I like his final comment in which Scotus basically said: He is God, he could do it, and he did it.
friarmusings 