Free Republic

A Meditation On the “Bloody Octave” of ChristmasBy: Msgr. Charles Pope We are in the midst of the Christmas Octave and we might sentimentally think that its features would be delightful pleasant, Gospels of joy and promise. And yet it is an Octave filled with blood as we shall see.What is an Octave? But first, there may be some of you who wonder what is meant by and “Octave.” An Octave is a period of eight days wherein a feast of the Church is celebrated for that whole period as though it were all the same day. In the...

Will the Real January 1st Please Stand Up? A Homily for New Years By: Msgr. Charles PopeThis feast day, of January 1, is a very complex tapestry, both culturally in liturgically. Perhaps we can use the second reading by St. Paul to the Galatians as a way to weave through some of the many details. We can look at it in three parts.I. The Chronology of our celebration. The text from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians says, When the fullness of time had come…Most people, both in the wider culture and in the Church are going about today...

December 26, 2003 Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr Psalm: Friday 2 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading I Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-59 Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven...