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“Preparation and Praise for Our Coming King” (Luke 19:28-40) Today is the First Sunday in Advent. That means it’s also the first Sunday in a whole new church year. So I say to you today: Happy new year! And you say to me: “Happy” new year?? How can you say it’s “happy,” Pastor? Really? Well, I suppose you have a point. There’s a lot going on that isn’t very happy. I mean, look at the news: Inflation is at its highest rate in thirty years. Gas prices are through the roof. On Friday, the stock market took a huge dive;...

Advent, from the Latin advenio, which means “coming,” is a time that calls us to prepare for the Lord’s coming. It is a season of preparation and joyful expectation as we await the birth of the Savior. It is also a season that reminds us to wait with hopeful anticipation for the time when Christ will come again in power and glory at the close of the age. The First Sunday in Advent ushers in the beginning of a new church year. The Scripture texts for each of the four Sundays in Advent exhort us to remain alert and faithful...

Our Mother of Perpetual HelpPainted in tempera on hard nutwood, 21 inches by 17, the original picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is one of many copies of the famed Hodeguitria of St. Luke. (The Hodeguitria, reputedly painted by St. Luke, was venerated for centuries at Constantinople as a miraculous icon. It was destroyed by the Turks in the year 1453.) This particular image, however, is THE ONE COPY singled out – by Our Lady herself – for special heavenly favors. You may see it today enshrined above the high altar at the Redemptorist Church of San Alfonso,...

December 24 2020 Thursday in the Fourth Week of Advent - Mass in the Morning St. Stephens Basilica – Budapest, Hungary 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...

December 23 2020 Memorial of St. John Cantius, priest St. John Cantius church, Kraków, Poland Lectionary 199Reading 1 MAL 3:1-4, 23-24 Thus says the Lord GOD: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek, And 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...

December 22 2020 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent Cathedral of the Incarnation, Nashville, Tennessee Lectionary 198Reading 1 1 SM 1:24-28 In those days,Hannah brought Samuel with her,along with a three-year-old bull,an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh. After the boy’s father had sacrificed the young bull,Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:“Pardon, my lord!As you live, my lord,I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request. Now I, in turn, give...

December 21 2020 Memorial of Saint Peter Canisius, priest and doctor of the Church St Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church ,Kokkamangalam, Kerala, India Lectionary 197Reading 1 SG 2:8-14 Hark! my lover–here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices. My lover speaks; he says to me, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! “For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the...

December 20, 2020Fourth Sunday of Advent Basilique Notre-Dame – Montreal, Canada 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:...

“The Handmaid’s Tale” (Luke 1:26-38) I’ve never seen the program, but I have heard about a television series called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The premise of the show is that there is a tyrannical, theocratic government that is oppressing women. Of course, the religious people are portrayed as evil. The women that they are oppressing and enslaving are called “handmaids.” Well, the American Left have seized upon this, and in some of their marches, their women dress in the handmaids’ costumes as a way of protesting how religious people in our country are oppressing women. However, in the Holy Gospel for...

December 19 2020 Saturday of the Third Week of Advent Basilica of the Holy Blood, Bruges, Belgium By Matt Hopkins - originally posted to Flickr as Chapel on One End, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6866911 Lectionary 195Reading 1 JGS 13:2-7, 24-25A There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children. An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Though you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son. Now, then, be careful...

December 18 2020 Friday of the Third Week of Advent St Patrick's Cathedral, NYC, USA Lectionary 194Reading 1 JER 23:5-8 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name they give him: “The LORD our justice.”Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD, when they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives, who brought the...

December 17 2020 Thursday of the Third Week of Advent Sekiguchi Catholic Church, St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo, Japan Reading 1 GN 49:2, 8-10 Jacob called his sons and said to them: “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob, listen to Israel, your father.“You, Judah, shall your brothers praise –your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah, like a lion’s whelp, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches like a lion recumbent, the king of beasts–who would dare rouse him? The scepter shall never depart from Judah, or...

“The Genealogy of Jesus Christ: From the Deportation to the Christ” (Matthew 1:1, 12-17)During this Advent season, we are preparing to meet and greet our coming king. The king is coming--to us, for us--coming at Christmas, coming at the end of time, coming now into our midst through Word and Sacrament. So we prepare to meet him--in repentance, in faith, in holy joy. That’s what Advent is all about. But this king we are preparing to meet--this king who comes to us--this is a lowly king. Lowly, not high. Lowly, humble, coming in a way you might not expect. Our...

December 16 2020 Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent St Mary Magdalene Church, Brighton, UK Lectionary 189Reading 1 IS 45:6C-8, 18, 21C-25 I am the LORD, there is no other; I form the light, and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the LORD, do all these things. Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the LORD, have created this.For thus says the LORD, The creator of the heavens, who is...

The “Donald Trump/Mike Pence Prayer Vigil” and “Pray for our American Heroes" Prayer Thread have Combined to Form the AMERICA PRAYER VIGIL Prayer Thread! Join with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for our PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. 'And this is the Confidence that we have in Him, that, if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Heareth us.' 1 John 5:14 Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind.

December 15 2020 Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent Christ the King, Above the entrance door to the Westminster Cathedral, London, UK Lectionary 188Reading 1 ZEP 3:1-2, 9-13Thus says the LORD: Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no voice, accepts no correction; In the LORD she has not trusted, to her God she has not drawn near.For then I will change and purify the lips of the peoples, That they all may call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one accord; From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia and...

December 14 2020 Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, priest and doctor of the Church Altar of Westminster Cathedral, London, UK Lectionary 187Reading 1 NM 24:2-7, 15-17A When Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped, tribe by tribe, the spirit of God came upon him, and he gave voice to his oracle:The utterance of Balaam, son of Beor, the utterance of a man whose eye is true, The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, Of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured, and with eyes unveiled: How goodly...

December 13 2020 Third Sunday of Advent Altar of St. Anthony's shrine, Boston, USA Lectionary 8Reading 1 IS 61:1-2A, 10-11The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of...

“The Year of the Lord’s Favor” (Isaiah 61:1-4, 10-11) We’re coming to the end of this year, and what a year it has been! 2020--a year that will live in infamy! Our country has had a very tough year: Covid-19, economic shutdowns and lockdowns, people losing their jobs, people losing their businesses, people losing their lives. We had rioting in the streets, looting and burning, and governors and mayors letting it happen. We had a tense election season, with the results very much in dispute. What a year it has been! Those “year in review” retrospectives you’ll see at the...

December 12 2020 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Altar of St. Stanislaus Kostka church, Żoliborz, Warsaw, Poland Lectionary 690 AReading 1 ZEC 2:14-17Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD. Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day, and they shall be his people, and he will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. The LORD will possess Judah as his portion in the holy land, and he will again choose Jerusalem. Silence, all mankind, in the...