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December 9 2020 Memorial of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin St. Peter's Church, Bandra, Mumbai, India Lectionary 183Reading 1 Is 40:25-31To whom can you liken me as an equal?says the Holy One.Lift up your eyes on highand see who has created these things:He leads out their army and numbers them,calling them all by name.By his great might and the strength of his powernot one of them is missing!Why, O Jacob, do you say,and declare, O Israel,“My way is hidden from the LORD,and my right is disregarded by my God”?Do you not knowor have you not heard?The LORD is the eternal God,creator...

December 8 2020 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church of the immacultate conceptio nof Mary, Lublin Lectionary 689Reading 1 GN 3:9-15, 20After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you...

December 7 2020 Memorial of Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Basilica of St Ambrose, Milan Lectionary 181Reading 1 IS 35:1-10The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song. The glory of Lebanon will be given to them, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here...

December 5 2020 First Saturday of Advent St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral – New York City, NY Reading 1 IS 30:19-21, 23-26Thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: O people of Zion, who dwell in Jerusalem, no more will you weep; He will be gracious to you when you cry out, as soon as he hears he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread you need and the water for which you thirst. No longer will your Teacher hide himself, but with your own eyes you shall see your Teacher, While from behind, a...

December 6 2020 Second Sunday of Advent Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Wrocław, Poland Lectionary 5Reading 1 IS 40:1-5, 9-11Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low;...

“Messengers Marking Out the Messiah” (Mark 1:1-8) In centuries past, in lands where there were kings, when the king was about to go visit various parts of his realm, messengers would be sent out, heralds, to go ahead to each town and announce the soon arrival of that mighty monarch. “The king is coming! Everybody get ready! The king is on his way!” And the people would know what to do. They would clean up any trash littering their town. If there were potholes in the roads, those would get filled in. Got to have everything in order for the...

December 4 2020 Memorial of Saint John of Damascus, priest, religious, doctor of the Church Church of St. John of Damascus, in Syria Lectionary 179Reading 1 IS 29:17-24 Thus says the Lord GOD:But a very little while,and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard,and the orchard be regarded as a forest!On that day the deaf shall hearthe words of a book;And out of gloom and darkness,the eyes of the blind shall see.The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD,and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.For the tyrant will be no moreand the arrogant will have gone;All...

December 3 2020 Memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, Priest The Basilica of Bom Jesu where St. Francis Xavier's body rests. Note - this church is older than the Taj Mahal!By Errol Fernandes - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59414530 - alter of the basilica of bom Jesu in Goa, India Lectionary 178Reading 1 IS 26:1-6 On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah:“A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us. Open up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith. A nation of...

“The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: From Abraham to David” (Matthew 1:1-6a) I am interested in family histories and genealogies. My own, for example. I am a direct descendant of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, one of the first Swedish settlers in America back in 1640 and one of the founders of the colony New Sweden along the east coast. Peter Rambo’s name, by the way, was the inspiration for the movie character Rambo. My maternal grandmother was Grace Rambo Clark, and, through that Clark connection, I am related to William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and governor of Missouri. So...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN 5:14 Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

December 2 2020 First Wednesday of Advent Lectionary 177Reading 1 IS 25:6-10AOn this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples A feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines. On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.On that day it will be said: “Behold our God,...

First Tuesday of Advent Lectionary 176Reading 1 IS 11:1-10On that day, A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He...

November 29 2020 First Sunday of Advent Sunday of the Thirty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary 2 Reading 1 IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7 You, LORD, are our father,our redeemer you are named forever.Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?Return for the sake of your servants,the tribes of your heritage.Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,with the mountains quaking before you,while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,such as they had not heard of from of old.No ear has ever heard, no eye...

O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.This hymn, originally in Latin, takes us back over 1,200 years to monastic life in the 8th- or 9th-century. Seven days before Christmas Eve monasteries would sing the “O antiphons” in anticipation of Christmas Eve when the eighth antiphon, “O Virgo virginum” (“O Virgin of virgins”) would be sung before and after Mary’s canticle, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55). The Latin metrical form of the hymn was composed as early as the...

Advent is a time we prepare for the coming of Christ and Christmas, but it is also a time to contemplate the Last Things, or eschatology. All of us will come before the judgment seat of Christ at the end of our lives. The powerful imagery of Advent reminds us to re-focus our lives on holiness. Make a plan ahead of time to spend a few minutes meditating on the Scripture readings for the Sundays in Advent. We must ask God to use His Word in order to deepen our understanding. We all need God to help us with continued...

“Reserved for a King” (Mark 11:1-10) Happy New Year! No, I’m not time-traveling ahead to January 1. But it is a new year today. A new church year, that is. Because today is the First Sunday in Advent, and thus the start of a new church year. And every year on the First Sunday in Advent, we have as the Gospel reading an account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Which seems a little odd, doesn’t it? Here we are in Advent, the season leading up to Christmas, and we get a reading for the start of Holy...

December 24 2019 Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Advent - Mass in the Morning Reading 1 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16 When King David was settled in his palace,and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,he said to Nathan the prophet,"Here I am living in a house of cedar,while the ark of God dwells in a tent!" Nathan answered the king,"Go, do whatever you have in mind,for the LORD is with you." But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD:Should you build...

Posted on December 22, 2019December 21, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope A Late Advent Message From the Lord The Prophet Isaiah, by Lorenzo Monaco (1405-10) As the end of Advent approaches, the Office of Readings features some final admonitions from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. On the one hand they console; on the other, they challenge us to remain firm.Isaiah addressed a people in exile who still awaited the first coming of the Lord. Today, these texts speak to us in difficult times when, exiled from Heaven, we await His magnificent Second Coming.LetÂ’s look at these admonitions from...

December 23 2019 Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent Reading 1 Mal 3:1-4, 23-24 Thus says the Lord GOD:Lo, I am sending my messengerto prepare the way before me;And suddenly there will come to the templethe LORD whom you seek,1And the messenger of the covenant whom you desire.Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.But who will endure the day of his coming?And who can stand when he appears?For he is like the refiner's fire,or like the fuller's lye.He will sit refining and purifying silver,and he will purify the sons of Levi,Refining them like gold or like...

Posted on December 21, 2019December 21, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Crisis At Christmas - A Homily for the 4th Sunday of Advent TodayÂ’s Gospel gives us some background for the Christmas feast that we need to take to heart. It speaks to us of a crisis at Christmas.We tend to sentimentalize the Christmas story as we think of the baby Jesus in the manger. It is not absolutely wrong to be sentimental, but we must also be prayerfully sober about how difficult that first Christmas was, and about the heroic virtue required of Mary and Joseph in order...