Feast of Holy Innocents - 28 December

Quoted from uCatholic [1]:

Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his wife, his brother and his sister’s two husbands, to name only a few.

Matthew 2:1-18 tells this story: Herod was “greatly troubled” when astrologers from the east came asking the whereabouts of “the newborn king of the Jews,” whose star they had seen. They were told that the Jewish Scriptures named Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born. Herod cunningly told them to report back to him so that he could also “do him homage.” They found Jesus, offered him their gifts and, warned by an angel, avoided Herod on their way home. Jesus escaped to Egypt.

Herod became furious and “ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under.” The horror of the massacre and the devastation of the mothers and fathers led Matthew to quote Jeremiah: ... (Matthew 2:18) ...

Matthew 2:18 from BibleGateway - New International Version [2]:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

    weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

    and refusing to be comforted,

    because they are no more.”[d]

[1] https://ucatholic.com/saints/feast-holy-innocents/

[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A18&version=NIV, footnote [d] refers to Jer. 31:15 (click on Read full chapter link to see it)

Feast Of Saint John The Apostle - 27 December

Quoted from Catholic News Agency [1]:

St. John, the son of Zebedee and brother of St. James the Great, was called to be an Apostle by our Lord in the first year of His public ministry. He became the "beloved disciple" and the only one of the Twelve who did not forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion. He stood faithfully at the cross when Christ made him the guardian of His Mother.

His later life was passed chiefly in Jerusalem and at Ephesus. He founded many churches in Asia Minor, and he wrote many important works, including the fourth Gospel, three Epistles, and the Book of Revelation is also attributed to him. Brought to Rome, tradition relates that he was by order of Emperor Dometian cast into a cauldron of boiling oil but came forth unhurt, and was banished to the island of Pathmos for a year. He lived to an extreme old age, surviving all his fellow apostles, and died in Ephesus about the year 100.

St. John is called the Apostle of Charity, a virtue he had learned from his Divine Master, and which he constantly inculcated by word and example. The "beloved disciple" died at Ephesus, where a stately church was erected over his tomb. It was afterwards converted into a Mohammedan mosque.

John is credited with the authorship of three epistles and one Gospel, although many scholars believe that the final editing of the Gospel was done by others shortly after his death. He is also supposed by many to be the author of the book of Revelation, called the Apocalypse, although this identification is less certain.

[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-the-apostle-671

Feast Of The Nativity Of Our Lord Jesus Christ - December 25

Merry Christmas to all!

The following eight attachments are from Catholic News Agency [1]:

The following three attachments are from The Catholic World Report [2]:

[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252983/photos-the-vatican-s-christmas-tree-lighting-ceremony-illuminates-st-peter-s-square (only eight were selected from the twelve posted, click the arrow to see the rest)

[2] https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/12/03/pope-francis-blesses-nativity-scene-made-by-craftsmen-in-guatemala/

Feast Of Saint Thomas The Apostle - 21 December

Quoted from The Free Dictionary [1]:

The Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, established in the twelfth century, originally fell on December 21, the day of the winter solstice. Folk customs attached to the saint's day, therefore, reflected both the occurrence of the solstice and the closeness of Christmas. Although the Roman Catholic Church has since moved St. Thomas's Day to July 3, some Anglicans preserve the December date. The Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the saint's feast on October 6.

Life and Legends of St. Thomas the Apostle

Jesus selected Thomas as one of his twelve disciples. Although he appears in all four Gospels, he is perhaps best remembered as the apostle who questioned the truth of Jesus' resurrection because he had not seen the risen Jesus with his own eyes (John 20:25). In so doing he earned the nickname "Doubting Thomas." In the Greek used by the writers of the New Testament, his name means "twin."

According to legend, St. Thomas spread the gospel to the East, venturing as far as India in his quest. There he established a Christian community in the southwestern region known then as Malabar, currently part of the state of Kerala. One story claims that Thomas found and baptized the Three Kings (see also Magi). These three then became India's first bishops. Another tale reports that an Indian king commissioned Thomas to build an opulent palace. Instead, the saint took the money entrusted to him for the project and distributed it to the poor. He died a martyr's death and was buried in Mylapore, near the city of Madras.

Artists often depicted the saint kneeling by the side of the risen Christ, verifying Jesus' identity by touching his wounds. Artists have also portrayed him holding a carpenter's rule. In medieval times he was known as the patron saint of architects, masons, and stonecutters. St. Thomas also protects the aged.

[1] https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/St.+Thomas%27s+Day#:~:text=The%20Feast%20of%20St.%20Thomas%20the%20Apostle%2C%20established,of%20the%20solstice%20and%20the%20closeness%20of%20Christmas., bold italics original.

Our Lady Of Guadalupe Feast Day - 12 December

Quoted from catholicsandcultures.org [1]:

Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe are found today in churches and other settings all over the globe, but nowhere is she as revered as in Mexico, where she is a powerful—at times seemingly the most powerful—Catholic, cultural, and national symbol.1 Her image is seen all over: on tiles at the front doors of houses; in pictures and statues in living rooms and bedrooms; in places of honor in the stores and markets; on bracelets, necklaces, holy cards, and tattoos.  

December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, is celebrated in parishes and neighborhoods throughout the country with Masses and dancing and celebration, but the biggest celebration takes place at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a site said to be visited by 20 million pilgrims a year. During her feast and the week leading up to it, streets are closed to vehicles for a wide distance around the huge shrine property, and pilgrims stream into the site. At night they camp out in streets and parks, even in the rear of the basilica’s plaza. 

The story of Guadalupe’s appearance to a Nahuatl man, in 1531, shortly after the Spanish conquest, and her promise that she is his mother and would take care of the people, has a powerful hold over Mexican culture. Though Mexican culture, including Mexican Catholic culture, is undoubtedly more multifaceted than any one devotion can capture or embody, what one young man from Hidalgo at the feast said is important: “if people want to learn about Mexican culture, they should come here, this time of year, and they will learn because they will live the feast. She is part of the roots of Mexico.”2

[1] https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/feasts-holy-days/our-lady-guadalupe-mexico, the quoted passage has two footnotes, please visit the link to read them.  It also has a YouTube video there.

Feast Of San Juan Diego - 9 December

Quoted from Catholic News Agency [1]:

On Dec. 9, Roman Catholics celebrate St. Juan Diego, the indigenous Mexican Catholic convert whose encounter with the Virgin Mary began the Church's devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In 1474, 50 years before receiving the name Juan Diego at his baptism, a boy named Cuauhtlatoatzin -- “singing eagle” -- was born in the Anahuac Valley of present-day Mexico. Though raised according to the Aztec pagan religion and culture, he showed an unusual and mystical sense of life even before hearing the Gospel from Franciscan missionaries.

In 1524, Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife converted and entered the Catholic Church. The farmer now known as Juan Diego was committed to his faith, often walking long distances to receive religious instruction. In December of 1531, he would be the recipient of a world-changing miracle.

On Dec. [8], Juan Diego was hurrying to Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But the woman he was heading to church to celebrate came to him instead.

In the native Aztec dialect, the radiant woman announced herself as the “ever-perfect holy Mary, who has the honor to be the mother of the true God.”

“I am your compassionate Mother, yours and that of all the people that live together in this land,” she continued, “and also of all the other various lineages of men.”

She asked Juan Diego to make a request of the local bishop. “I want very much that they build my sacred little house here” -- a house dedicated to her son Jesus Christ, on the site of a former pagan temple, that would “show him” to all Mexicans and “exalt him” throughout the world.

She was asking a great deal of a native farmer. Not surprisingly, his bold request met with skepticism from Bishop Juan de Zumárraga. But Juan Diego said he would produce proof of the apparition, after he finished tending to his uncle whose death seemed imminent.

Making his way to church on Dec. 12, to summon a priest for his uncle, Juan Diego again encountered the Blessed Virgin. She promised to cure his uncle and give him a sign to display for the bishop. On the hill where they had first met he would find roses and other flowers, though it was winter.

Doing as she asked, he found the flowers and brought them back to her. The Virgin Mary then placed the flowers inside his tilma, the traditional cloak-like garment he had been wearing. She told him not to unwrap the tilma containing the flowers until he had reached the bishop.

When he did, Bishop Zumárraga had his own encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe – through the image of her that he found miraculously imprinted on the flower-filled tilma. The Mexico City basilica that now houses the tilma has become, by some estimates, the world's most-visited Catholic shrine.

The miracle that brought the Gospel to millions of Mexicans also served to deepen Juan Diego's own spiritual life. For many years after the experience, he lived a solitary life of prayer and work in a hermitage near the church where the image was first displayed. Pilgrims had already begun flocking to the site by the time he died on Dec. 9, 1548, the 17th anniversary of the first apparition.

Blessed John Paul II beatified St. Juan Diego in 1990, and canonized him in 2002.

More on San Juan Diego's tilma can be read here:

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/science-sees-what-mary-saw-from-juan-diegos-tilma.html

[1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-juan-diego-409

Solemnity Of The Immaculate Conception Of The Blessed Virgin Mary - 8 December

Quoted from Franciscan Media [1]:

A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the 11th century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the 18th century it became a feast of the universal Church. It is now recognized as a solemnity.

In 1854, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless—either at her conception or throughout her life. This is one of the Church teachings that arose more from the piety of the faithful than from the insights of brilliant theologians. Even such champions of Mary as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas could not see theological justification for this teaching.

Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology. They pointed out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleansed from original sin after birth. In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset.

[1] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/immaculate-conception-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary

Saint Francis Xavier Feast Day - 3 December

Quoted from Jesuits [1]:

Xavier was born in Navarre, Spain, on April 7, 1506. After completing studies in Spain, he traveled to Paris in 1525 at age 19, where he entered the Collège de Sainte-Barbe and befriended Peter Faber and Ignatius Loyola. Ignatius soon won the confidence of the two men, and both Faber and Xavier offered themselves to the formation of the Society of Jesus. Four others (James Lainez, Alfonso Salmerón, Nicholas Bobadilla and Simón Rodrigues) joined them, and the seven professed vows of poverty and chastity in Montmartre on Aug. 15, 1534.

After completing his studies in Paris and teaching there for some time, Xavier left the city with his companions in 1536, traveling to Venice, where he attended to the sick in hospitals. On June 24, 1537, he was ordained with Ignatius. The following year Xavier went to Rome, where he met with Ignatius and his companions during the spring of 1539 to prepare for the definitive foundation of the Society of Jesus in 1540.

Xavier was next appointed by John III, the King of Portugal, to evangelize the people of the East Indies. In April 1541, he sailed to India on a dangerous voyage, landing at Goa in May 1542. He spent the first five months preaching and ministering to the sick. He would go through the streets ringing a bell, inviting children to hear the word of God and explaining the catechism to them.

In October 1542, he journeyed to the pearl fisheries on the southern coast, aiming to restore Christianity. Although introduced years before, Christianity had nearly disappeared there due to a lack of priests. He devoted almost three years to preaching to the people of Western India, converting many. He endured many hardships, including persecution at the hands of some of the kings in the country and some by Portuguese soldiers.

In the spring of 1545, Xavier traveled to Malacca in Malaysia, and in January 1546, to the Molucca Islands, where the Portuguese had some settlements. For a year and a half he preached the Gospel to the inhabitants. By July 1547, he had returned to Malacca, where he met a Japanese man named Anjiro and learned about Japan, inspiring him to spread Christianity there. However, the Society demanded his presence at Goa. During the six years that Xavier had been working elsewhere, other Jesuit missionaries had arrived at Goa, and in 1548, Xavier sent them across India, where he had established missions, to preserve and continue his work. He also established a novitiate and house of studies.

Xavier finally embarked for Japan in June 1549 with Father Cosme de Torres, a Spanish priest; Brother Juan Fernández; and Anjiro, who had been baptized at Goa and given the name Pablo de Santa Fe. They landed in Japan in August, and the entire first year was devoted to learning the Japanese language, with the help of Pablo de Santa Fe. Xavier began preaching and made some converts, but the Japanese monks had him banished from the city. He left Kagoshima in August 1550 to preach elsewhere in central and southern Japan.

After working about two and a half years in the country, he left the mission to Fr. de Torres and Br. Fernández, returning to Goa in 1552. Xavier then turned his thoughts to China and began planning an expedition there.

During his stay in Japan, Xavier had heard much about the Chinese and saw it as a great opportunity to spread the Gospel. He left Goa in April 1552, arriving in autumn at the small island of Shangchuan, off the coast of China. Before reaching the mainland, however, he became ill and died on the island on Dec. 3, 1552.

He completed a staggering amount of missionary work in just 10 years — May 1542 to December 1552 — earning him the titles “Apostle of the Indies” and “Apostle of Japan.” He was canonized with St. Ignatius in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV and named the patron saint of all foreign missions by Pope Pius X.

[1] https://www.jesuits.org/stories/the-feast-of-st-francis-xavier-sj/