Dearest Mother Mary and Saint Joseph, pray for me that I may have the faith you both lived. When questions arise in my heart, help me to respond generously to God as you did. May I trust in all that God has spoken in imitation of each one of you. Jesus, I trust in You.
The “Year of St Joseph” ended this month on the feast day of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), but we keep our eyes fixed on the foster father of Jesus, Guardian of the Holy Family, given the approach of Christmas. We reflect on his increased mystical presence in the Church. It is remarkable that, in the private revelations about St Joseph, both in the apparitions of Our Lady, as to the mystic and devout saints, Heaven is calling for greater devotion by Catholics to the foster father of Jesus and chaste husband of the Mother of God.
“It is true that someone validly ordained can, for grave reasons, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense [cf Code of Canon Law, cann. 290-293; 1336 # 1 3, 5; 1338 # 2; Council of Trent DS 1774], because the character imprinted by ordination is for ever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently.”
The CFC Global Macau had a 3 in 1 event on Sunday, December 12, 2021 at the CMK Theater.
The following list of Holy Days of Obligation to be observed in the Diocese of Macau (Code of Canon Law c.1246) serves as a reminder to the faithful of their duties to attend Holy Mass on the said days:
The most terrible situation of these children are the homeless in the capital of Ulaanbataar (Ulan Bator) who live in sewage pipes to keep warm. In Mongolia, long winter temperatures can drop to -40C or -30C in the capital; there is nowhere else for the abandoned misfits to get near heat at night.
The Church in Germanophone regions has the tradition of celebrating Rorate Mass during Advent. Rorate means “Drop down” in Latin, and is the first word of the Introit for Votive Mass to Our Lady during Advent. The introit is “Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum.”
The Lord Jesus is present in the past, in the present, and in the future.
Who was the man who became Father Christmas, Santa Claus and why? And why does he have two tombs in dispute?
Contemporary Christian spirituality attempts at avoiding two extremes: “spiritualism” (the individualistic and escapist fuga mundi and contemptus mundi) on one hand, and “activism” (human and social promotion disconnected from prayer and contemplation) on the other.