“May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you,
May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”
(Numbers 6:22-27, first reading at Mass on New Years Day)
Archbishop Michael would like to extend new year good wishes and blessings to all for 2014!
“May the Lord bless you and keep you, May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you, May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.” (Numbers 6:22-27, first reading at Mass on New Years Day)
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I welcome you all as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. The place of the family in Christian life needs emphasis now more than ever since the stability and integrity of family life and threatened on every side. Christmas is very much a family time. Most of us will have made contact with our families over the festive season. This is a time when we reflect on virtues which flow from the flesh and blood which ordinary human-beings possess and which are shared most closely in the family circle.
The virtues which are stressed most of all are those of forgiveness and patience. We all make mistakes, sometimes deliberately out of anger or spite, most of the time out of ignorance or impetuosity. We are asked to give others the same chance. Jesus would say – seventy times seven. The fault which children find most difficult to overlook in parents turns out to be impatience. In practising the ordinary family’s virtues of patience and forgiveness we are doing much more than overlooking the faults of others and giving them a second change. We are being introduced to a wonder within them and within all of us together. Our spouses and children, our neighbours and friends are introducing us to God’s presence in our midst. Today we look with gratitude to our own families as a family of believers, a family that consists of the young, the middle aged and the elderly. The young are born into a world that is fragile and uncertain about the future. They need to be nurtured, encouraged, trusted and enabled to find their place in society. They may appear to be suspicious of authority, particularly when authority has failed them. The young respond with enormous generosity to the concrete needs of others. Society needs their idealism and energy. They see in Jesus someone whose love for the poor, the misunderstood and the misinterpreted shines out in exemplary fashion. The young need support to face up to life’s disappointments without losing heart. Society needs those also who are in the prime of life, those who are in a position through their experience to distinguish what is important from what is unimportant. The selfless love of parents to invest the best of themselves in their families is something for which society can find no substitute. Our society needs those whether they are married or single, who have the generosity to listen to the troubled people and provide the supportive shoulder and the listening ear to help them in the long journey. The family is the place where we learn to bring the best out of people while shrugging off negative criticism, bitterness and resentment. Many of us will acknowledge the very significant influence that members of the extended family had on our own upbringing, notably our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Are we in danger of losing something of the value of the extended family today? The elderly are an essential part of the family of God. They remain young at heart and have the openness to greet the future with hope. They have been through the most important university of all, the university of life itself. They have acquired a wisdom that comes from the cut and thrust of daily living, they have met with disappointments and success.They have faith which coped with change both in society and in the Church. Inevitably they are troubled by ageing and illness. They have time to listen to others. We are all too familiar that family life can be beset by dissentions and disorders, and leave much to be desired. Not only are tensions inevitable in families, so also is pain and suffering. At Christmas time, however, we are very conscious of the fact that the last word on human being is that we are loved and that we are free and able to go forward to better things, to begin all over again, to recover our experience of life and take up again the rebuilding of society. This word of hope lies behind all the good wishes we exchange and is the truth of all the gifts we give to each other. Even beneath our irritability, our quarrels, beneath the divisions which sometimes happen over little things, there is the immense desire to communicate to love, to be understood and to be loved. This Christmas perhaps you might make available to the family an ingredient that is ever more pressing and urgent, namely, time. Time to listen, time to learn, time to support and above all time to pray together. Often times when we conjure up a picture of family life we see a happy occasion with family members gathered around the dining room table or before a cosy fire in the family room. This is an ideal picture. But we know that family life can be beset by dissentions and disorders, and leaves much to be desired. What is important to us on this Feast day is that the Feast of the Family does not exclude hardship and strife originating outside the family today. The pressures on family life are enormous. Not only are tensions inevitable in families, so also is suffering and pain. For many families Christmas is a very painful time. The pain of separation from family members who have died can be felt more keenly at this time. The separation whether it be due to death or estrangement or physical distance contributes to the loneliness which we experience. The general mood of celebration at Christmas time can make the pain within some families all the more pronounced. Source: Archdiocese of Tuam Website. Christmas – a time for just children?
We associate Christmas with homecoming, as we return to our roots by sea, air, road and rail. Some say “it is a time for children” and in a sense they are right, after all isn’t the child in the crib at the very centre of Christmas. But isn’t there something of a child within each one of us though we are adults. Christmas – Past and Present Tonight we focus in two directions. Firstly, on that Christmas night over 2,000 years ago and over 2,000 miles away. Bethlehem was five miles south of Jerusalem, the religious capital of the time. The country was occupied by foreign powers. People were vulnerable, they had experienced war, famine and exile. While they had read of the promises of the Prophet Isaiah who had announced that there would be light, the promises of God were painfully slow in being realised. But on this first Christmas night the most significant intervention of all time occurred with the birth of a vulnerable baby in a stable because there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn. Christmas today All of that is history, but it has enormous and earth shattering implications for us today. That is why when we look to the first Christmas we must also look in another direction – to our world today. God Present in Our World Today Are we any different from the people around Bethlehem? We may not be ruled by a foreign power, yet our people have tasted poverty, famine and exile in different forms over the years. Our world has had its share of darkness. The 3rd Millennium which began with such hope and joy soon experienced darkness, conflict, evil, exploitation and tension, personal interests were allowed to dominate with no concern for the common good of others. This Christmas story tells of the Saviour of the World, Christ the Lord being born, as a helpless baby in a Bethlehem stable, to poor and unimportant people like Mary and Joseph. This plan of God illustrates that Jesus came to share the lot of people who were humble and poor. This stirs up great hope in all of us, showing that Jesus has taken upon himself the limitations of our human lives. It means that God will always be present in our world and especially in circumstances that are humble and unfavourable in our lives. God is always with us, Emmanuel, always sharing our lives and accompanying us on our journey. Jesus Christ – A light in the Darkness The Christmas story underlines the fact that Jesus Christ, the Word of God shines in our darkness; he wants to make his home with us. The question is how do we respond. God will not force himself upon anyone. We are reminded that he came to his own people, but they did not receive him. Where do we stand? The light still shines in our darkness, whether that darkness be broken relationships, serious illness, the death of a dear one. Homecoming I referred to the homecoming, which is always associated with Christmas as we endeavour to return to our roots with family and friends. Will there be a homecoming for God this Christmas? He wants to come and be with us. It is up to each one of us to decide whether God will find a home in our hearts this Christmas, or will we be like the inn-keepers declaring that there is no room. Blessing and Christmas Greeting May this Christmas be filled with the light of love-giving and love received, reflecting in our lives the love of God who has entered our story in the birth of his son Jesus Christ. A very happy Christmas to all and every grace and blessing for the new year, 2014! The Santa Maria in Navicella church, also called "Chiesa Nuova ', located between the Vatican and central Rome, the Pontifical Choir of the Sistine Chapel was held on Saturday December 14, a Christmas concert, which began with Gregorian chant and concluded with the Adestes Fidelis, in a version that adds a part of the British version, which came into the repertoire of the choir after the 'Sistine' sang with the Anglican Westminster Abby in London.
After the event, Monsignor Guido Marini, papal master of ceremonies addressed a few words to those present and the choir led by the Salesian Bishop Massimo Palombella, and thanked him not only for the concert that night but also for the work during the year celebrations liturgical Pope. "Christmas is just singing party, but the party of a particular song, because it is the party song of the angels. A song whose beauty is inaccessible and unattainable, because the angels are singing with angelic voices and sing well because no one can reach them. But also because all sing following the will of God, "the Pope of ceremonies. And turning to the choir added: "You have this great grace, this great task of being somehow echo the song of the Angels in the liturgy and for this we thank them." And nuance with this thought: "In the meantime we know that we can not sing with our voices as the Sistine Chapel and even less as the angels of Christmas, but we can with our lives in some way glorify and to the extent that our life is in tune with the Lord, our life becomes a song of glory. " "What this year I wish you is just this: that after having participated in this event and have gone with the thought to the grotto of Bethlehem, the angels singing help us remember that our life is true to the extent that it becomes a song and always adhere to the will of God, "he said. "For the most beautiful desire we can make to who sings - Archbishop Marini said - not only this experience of singing can proceed in time, but above all that their lives can be a song." After the ceremony, questioned by ZENIT about the importance of families to endeavor to assemble the crib, but also to organize some song for baby Jesus, Monsignor Marini stated: "I think it's important, because the tradition of the crib, and was born in the heart and mind of San Francisco was just the desire to return touchable sensitive and somehow the mystery of Christmas. In a way also very popular and therefore understandable to all. believe that, therefore, keep the tradition alive, consolidate, nourish, to be very important for you to really be familiar with the heart of the mystery of Christmas. " "And at the same time - concluded the Pope of ceremonies - the Christmas song in families, in this dimension of popular singing, it is important because it is a reflection of the angelic singing and especially at Christmas our life should be a song and is the extent to which they adhere to God child ago. " There are some in the world today - and even in the Church - who seek to position Pope Francis and Pope Benedict against one another (good Francis vs 'bad' Benedict).
This is utter rubbish and the most gross distortion of the Truth. Pope Benedict, our beloved Holy Father Emeritus, continues to live out his priestly ministry every day, in retirement, offering Daily Mass and praying for the whole world. He is a gentle pastor and a contemplative scholar. The 'world' didn't/doesn't 'get' Pope Benedict XVI. The present Holy Father, Pope Francis is an amazing gift of the Holy Spirit in his ministry to the Universal Church as a worthy successor to Benedict - both of them with their own unique gifts - at the service of the People of God. We should thank God for them both; and for Blessed John Paul II and all the great Popes chosen by God to lead His people, especially in the war-torn 20th century. God promised His people: "I will give them shepherds after my own heart" (Jeremiah 3:15). Questionnaire to participate in survey in advance of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Background to the survey is available on the Vatican Website
Download or click on the link below in order to participate in the survey on the family.
Please return your responses to in hard copy to Archbishop’s House, Tuam, Co. Galway or e-mail to [email protected] by December 15th, 2013
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis delivered the homily at Mass on Sunday to mark the Solemnity of Christ the King and close the Year of Faith proclaimed by his predecessor, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. Below, please find the official English translation of Pope Francis' prepared remarks. Today’s solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the liturgical year, also marks the conclusion of the Year of Faith opened by Pope Benedict XVI, to whom our thoughts now turn with affection and gratitude. By this providential initiative, he gave us an opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the journey of faith begun on the day of our Baptism, which made us children of God and brothers and sisters in the Church. A journey which has as its ultimate end our full encounter with God, and throughout which the Holy Spirit purifies us, lifts us up and sanctifies us, so that we may enter into the happiness for which our hearts long. I offer a cordial greeting to the Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches present. The exchange of peace which I will share with them is above all a sign of the appreciation of the Bishop of Rome for these communities which have confessed the name of Christ with exemplary faithfulness, often at a high price. With this gesture, through them, I would like to reach all those Christians living in the Holy Land, in Syria and in the entire East, and obtain for them the gift of peace and concord.
The Scripture readings proclaimed to us have as their common theme the centrality of Christ. Christ as the centre of creation, the centre of his people and the centre of history. 1. The apostle Paul, in the second reading, taken from the letter to the Colossians, offers us a profound vision of the centrality of Jesus. He presents Christ to us as the first-born of all creation: in him, through him and for him all things were created. He is the centre of all things, he is the beginning. God has given him the fullness, the totality, so that in him all things might be reconciled (cf. Col 1:12-20). This image enables to see that Jesus is the centre of creation; and so the attitude demanded of us as true believers is that of recognizing and accepting in our lives the centrality of Jesus Christ, in our thoughts, in our words and in our works. When this centre is lost, when it is replaced by something else, only harm can result for everything around us and for ourselves. 2. Besides being the centre of creation, Christ is the centre of the people of God. We see this in the first reading which describes the time when the tribes of Israel came to look for David and anointed him king of Israel before the Lord (cf. 2 Sam 5:1-3). In searching for an ideal king, the people were seeking God himself: a God who would be close to them, who would accompany them on their journey, who would be a brother to them. Christ, the descendant of King David, is the “brother” around whom God’s people come together. It is he who cares for his people, for all of us, even at the price of his life. In him we are all one; united with him, we share a single journey, a single destiny. 3. Finally, Christ is the centre of the history of the human race and of every man and woman. To him we can bring the joys and the hopes, the sorrows and troubles which are part of our lives. When Jesus is the centre, light shines even amid the darkest times of our lives; he gives us hope, as he does to the good thief in today’s Gospel. While all the others treat Jesus with disdain – “If you are the Christ, the Messiah King, save yourself by coming down from the cross!” – the thief who went astray in his life but now repents, clinging to the crucified Jesus, begs him: “Remember me, when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). And Jesus promises him: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43). Jesus speaks only a word of forgiveness, not of condemnation; whenever anyone finds the courage to ask for this forgiveness, the Lord does not let such a petition go unheard. Jesus’ promise to the good thief gives us great hope: it tells us that God’s grace is always greater than the prayer which sought it. The Lord always grants more than what he has been asked: you ask him to remember you, and he brings you into his Kingdom! Let us ask the Lord to remember us, in the certainty that by his mercy we will be able to share his glory in paradise. Amen! John Paul II Eucharistic Center dedication set for Dec. 8, with guest Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke11/23/2013 HANCEVILLE, Alabama - Cardinal Raymond Burke, former archbishop of St. Louis, will officiate Mass on Dec. 8 to dedicate the new John Paul II Eucharistic Center on the grounds of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville.
The noon service will be broadcast worldwide on EWTN Global Catholic Network, founded by Mother Angelica, 90, who lives at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville. Burke was archbishop of St. Louis from 2003-2008 and currently serves in Rome as the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church after the pope. The Mass will be held in the chapel at the shrine, adjoining the monastery, and will be followed by a procession to the Eucharistic Center. The center will not open to the public until spring of 2014. Named in honor of Pope John Paul II, the center is dedicated to celebrating the importance of the Eucharist for Christians. |