Monthly Archives: December 2013

News Briefs, Dec. 11

December 11, 2013 – 5:07 pm

Catholic News Service is the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Read their News Briefs for Dec. 11

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News Briefs, Dec. 9

December 9, 2013 – 8:17 pm

Catholic News Service is the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Read their news briefs for today.

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Reflections for Tuesday of the Second Week of Advent

December 9, 2013 – 3:45 pm

Readings from USCCB

Today’s First Reading from Isaiah contains the passage quoted by St. John the Baptist as we often hear him proclaim during Advent. St. John the Baptist is “the voice” foreseen by Isaiah, the one who “cries out: ‘In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!’ ” This cry is the Church’s ‘battle plan’ for Advent, and St. John is its standard bearer.

Although we know that the “desert” and “wasteland” that St. John refers to are spiritual rather than physical, we might still hesitate to acknowledge that he’s referring to our own souls in all their sinfulness. Isaiah, however, doesn’t let us off the hook. In the verses that follow those quoted by St. John, Isaiah declares in some beautiful poetry just where we stand as fallen children of Adam and Eve. Consider the words he puts on the lips of “the voice” whom he does not identify:

“All flesh is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. So then, the people is the grass. Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever.”

The humility these words evoke from an honest soul is the soil in which God’s Word can take root. But this sinful flesh that is grass will be transformed by the Messiah who offers us His flesh and blood in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. On this holy day of waiting for the Advent of our Messiah, say a prayer of thanksgiving that our LORD does not leave us to our sinfulness, but is sending the word of our God to become flesh for our salvation.

from catholicdioceseofwichita.org

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Angelus Message: Immaculate Conception fruit of God’s love.

December 8, 2013 – 6:09 pm

(Vatican Radio) The Immaculate Conception of Mary is “inscribed in God’s plan; it is the fruit of God’s love which saves the world.” These were Pope Francis’ comments during his weekly Angelus address for the second Sunday of Advent which coincides with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

On this Feast, the Holy Father said, our gaze turns to the “beauty of the Mother of Jesus, our Mother!” It is with great joy, he continued, that the Church contemplates the words of Saint Luke “full of grace” (Lk 1:28). Mary, moreover, guides us as we journey towards Christmas, teaching us “how to live this time of Advent waiting for the Lord.” Pope Francis went on to say that the Immaculate Conception was inscribed in God’s plan; it was the fruit of God’s love whereby the world was saved.

After leading the crowds in Saint Peter’s Square in praying the Angelus, the Pope expressed spiritual closeness to the Church in North America, which is celebrating the 350th anniversary of its first parish: Notre-Dame de Québec.

The Holy Father concluded his Angelus address by wishing everyone a happy feast of Our Lady, and a good lunch.

from Vatican Radio

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Pope venerates Immaculate Conception statue

December 8, 2013 – 6:05 pm

(Vatican Radio) Following a tradition laid out by his predecessors, Pope Francis celebrated the Feast of the Immaculate Conception by travelling to Piazza di Spagna where he venerated the statue named for the Marian Feast.

Read more from Vatican Radio report.

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Reflections for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2013 – 6:01 pm

Readings for the Solemnity from USCCB

Like the Assumption, our celebration of Mary’s Immaculate Conception tells us something very important about humanity—humanity as we were meant to be. Our belief that Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, without original sin, tells us as Catholics that Mary is exactly the type of human being God meant each of us to be: in the words of St. Paul, “God chose us in him[,] before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight, to be full of love.”

This is what our belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception says about her: that she was full of love. We do not believe that Mary is a goddess, or even super-human. The Blessed Virgin Mary is simply human, what each of us who is human is called to be: “holy and blameless in God’s sight, full of love.” That’s how St. Gabriel salutes Mary in the Gospel: “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”

God the Father wanted the best possible mother for His Son, and so granted the grace to Mary which would make her, for Jesus, a mother who would physically and spiritually give nothing to her Son but the “fullness of love” which God means all of us humans to have. And because Mary is the Mother of Jesus, she is our mother as well. She is the Immaculate Conception, through whom Jesus entered the world, through whom each of us is healed, if we accept in faith the gift of healing God wants to give us. In this season of Advent, as we come before this altar, we meditate on the fact that this God’s gift of the Immaculate Conception has made Mary, for each of us, not only the Mother of the Church, but the model for each of us of what it means to accept Christ into our lives

from catholidioceseofwichita.org

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Commentary

December 7, 2013 – 2:58 pm

Here is an insightful piece by Dr. Jeff Mirus of catholicculture.org

EVANGELIZING: ONE WORD AT A TIME

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Group preparing giant birthday card for Pope Francis

December 7, 2013 – 2:46 pm

Steubenville, Ohio, December 06, 2013 (Zenit.org)

Pope Francis’ 77th birthday is Dec. 17 and the group Catholic to the Max will be shipping to Rome a giant birthday card for the occasion.

The Pope’s birthday card was at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis at the end of November, where it was signed by thousands of Catholic youth.

The birthday card then returned to Steubenville, Ohio, hometown of Catholic to the Max and Franciscan University of Steubenville, where it has been made available for additional signings at various traveling locations.

Gifts

The Pope’s birthday card features several pages where signers can agree to a specific gift, such as “I prayed a Rosary for you,” or “I served the poor on your behalf.”

Digital signatures will be taken at at the web site up until the shipping date (Dec. 9). On the day the card is shipped to Rome, all digital signatures will be printed out and attached to the card.

The card features an oversize print of Pope Francis’ special Marian devotion, “Mary, Undoer of Knots.”

You can add your name to the card at http://www.popefrancisbirthdaycard.com

from zenit.org

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News Briefs, Dec. 6

December 7, 2013 – 2:34 pm

Catholic News Service is the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Read their News Briefs for Friday, Dec. 6

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Reflections for the Second Sunday of Advent

December 7, 2013 – 2:31 pm

Sunday’s Readings from USCCB

If the world—in all its unfairness, injustice and evil—doesn’t make sense, neither does the response to it that God the Father gives. Why did God send His Son from Heaven to earth, where He knew that there would be men like King Herod, Pontius Pilate, and Judas Iscariot? God did this, and He still does so today, because He is the God of the unexpected.

God chooses to love the unlovable. That is His nature: God is love. He does not love in the way that we love. He loves in a way that we cannot. He loves eternally, and boldly. He does not love you if you do something for Him first. He does not love you until you forget to thank Him, and then stop loving. He does not love you until you offend Him by your sins, and then stop loving you.

If this sounds too good to be true, we should reflect on the reason that God sent His Son down to earth. There’s only one reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and that was to die on Calvary. The meaning of Jesus’ birth, was his death. The baby was born in order to crush the serpent.

Of course, because God gave us free will, we can folds our arms across our chest, say “No thank you” to God, and turn our back on this Gift. Often that’s what we do. But the choice is always there before us. That’s why every year, we hear the cry of John the Baptizer, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” The way, the road that the Lord wants to travel, is the path into the human heart, into which He wants to pour His merciful and forgiving love. But if we block God’s way, He will indeed stop, and go no further.

But if we do open a way—a channel—into our hearts, God will pour into our hearts the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: the gifts of wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and piety. Through these we can grow in the image of Christ, and offer ourselves on a daily basis the way that Christ did for all eternity on Calvary.

Advent is a time to “prepare the way for the Lord”, a time to raise our expectations of ourselves and of God: to commit ourselves to daily prayer and Scripture reading, to participating in weekday Mass, and the Sacrament of Confession. Yet no matter how little we offer ourselves to God, He loves us: continually, and boldly, because His love is mysterious and unexpected.

from catholicdioceseofwichita.org

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