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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
It’s certainly appropriate that we celebrate the Holy Family today, just a few days after Christmas. This feast helps to underscore that Jesus came to live among us in a very ordinary way: by taking flesh and becoming one of us, even to being part of a family. So we look on the manger scenes…
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The Nativity of the Lord: Mass During the Night and Mass During the Day
Sometimes I wrestle with the question of what is the greatest feast of the Church year. Easter comes to mind, and probably Good Friday, because it is through the events those feasts commemorate that we were saved from our sins and the possibility of eternal life in the Kingdom of God became real for us. …
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The Nativity of the Lord: Vigil Mass
Amias and Eliana were innkeepers. The had a little place with a few rooms in the town of Bethlehem, just south of Jerusalem. They weren’t really all that well-to-do, because not many people ever came to Bethlehem. They would get some guests every now and then when people from Egypt were making their way up…
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Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent: O Emmanuel
Today’s Liturgy has us on the edge of our seats. As tomorrow’s night turns to day, our salvation will be closer at hand than ever. Our Savior Jesus Christ, the Promised One of all the ages, will be incarnate among us as one like ourselves. “And suddenly there will come to the temple, the LORD…
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The Fourth Sunday of Advent – Make Some Room!
What has captured my imagination as I’ve prayed this Advent is how we have been given this wonderful gift. This gift eclipses anything we’ll ever be given, anything we will ever earn, anything that will ever cross our meandering path in life. Today, the readings call that gift Emmanuel – God with us. I think…
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Advent Penance Service
Today’s readings: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44 In these late days of Advent, we pray the “O Antiphons.” These antiphons are the various titles of Jesus as found in Scripture. Today’s antiphon is “O Root of Jesse” and it is found as the antiphon for the Canticle of Mary in Evening Prayer: “O Flower…
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Thursday of the Third Week of Advent: O Root of Jesse
Today’s readings In these late days of Advent, we pray the “O Antiphons.” These antiphons are the various titles of Jesus as found in Scripture. Today’s antiphon is “O Root of Jesse” and it is found as the antiphon for the Canticle of Mary in Evening PRayer: “O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been…
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Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent: O Wisdom
Today’s readings That was quite a list of names, wasn’t it? Forty-two generations of the pilgrim people Israel led by some real characters. Some of them were heroic like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah and to some extent David and Solomon. But some of them were pretty wicked, especially Manasseh, whose wickedness in shedding innocent…
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Monday of the Third Week of Advent
Today’s readings The whole progression of Advent is one that has always captured my imagination. I see Advent as a kind of dawning of a new day. Just as the day doesn’t come all at once, so Advent progresses and we see the coming of Jesus ever more gradually as we participate in each day’s…
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The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Blessed Pope Pius IX instituted the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8, 1854, when he proclaimed as truth the dogma that our Lady was conceived free from the stain of original sin. This had been a traditional belief since about the eighth century, and had been celebrated as…
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