The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God is celebrated on January 1st, the final day of the Christmas octave and a Holy Day of Obligation. For more about this day, please click on the image. Peace be with you!
December 25th is the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the greatest Christian holy day after Easter. “Christ Mass” is the Eucharistic feast celebrating the birth of Christ, the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in the womb of the Virgin Mary, who came to suffer and die on a cross to save us from our sins. For more about this day, please click on the image. Peace be with you!
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin, that twist in our nature that makes our will tend not to follow what it knows to be right. It was this grace that enabled Mary to give a true and considered “Yes” to the request, conveyed by the Angel Gabriel, that she should consent to be the mother of the incarnate God. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was almost universally believed over the centuries but was only formally defined as a doctrine of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1854. For more about this day, please click on the image. Peace be with you!
On this last Sunday of the liturgical year, we celebrate Christ the King (The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe). The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of man's thinking and living and organizes his life as if God did not exist. The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ's royalty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations. For more about this day, please click on the image. Peace be with you!
The Catholic belief in The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a hard saying, no doubt. Yet, it's no harder a saying as was said by Jesus himself as he begins his colloquy with his disciples in the synagogue at Capernaum (see Jn 6:30). This teaching, the Catholic Church defends as the definitive and apostolic origins of the Eucharist, points to the Eucharist (from the Greek for "thanksgiving") as the "source and summit of the Christian life". For a beautiful summation of the scandal of such a saying - and the recognition of how hard it is to believe - enjoy this brief writing from Fr. Richard Veras of Saint Joseph's Seminary; and for a Catholic answer addressing common Evangelical Fundamentalist challenges to the Catholic understanding of the Real Presence, please also see more of this post by clicking on the image. Peace be with you!
