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Homily #101228 ( 10min) Play – In today’s homily Fr. Angelo links the slaughter of the Holy Innocents by Herod 2000 years ago to the slaughter of innocent children in their mother’s wombs by abortion today.
Ave Maria!
Mass: The Holy Innocents, Martyrs – Form: EF, Ex Ore Infantium
Readings:
1st: rev 14:1-5
Gsp: mat 2:13-18

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MaryCast Specials #98 ( 10min) Play – In this episode Dr. Mark Miravalle asks us to stand up and defend the Church and Pope Benedict in this time of eve increasing attacks. He uses the example of the misconceptions and misreporting over his comments in the interview in the recent book, “Light of the World”.

To ask questions regarding Mary, email Dr Mark Miravalle: marycast@airmaria.com

Ave Maria!

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What CHILD is this? What’s Christmas?

via Gloria.tv: What CHILD is this? What’s Christmas?.

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December 27, 2010. ROME REPORTS has listed the ten most important news stories from the Vatican in 2010, with its short and long term impacts.

In tenth place is the establishment of a Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. It is the Pope’s reply to the decline in numbers of Christians in Europe and North America. He has also called a synod on the theme for the year 2012. (LINK HERE)

via ROME REPORTS TV News Agency.

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Homily #101226 ( 24min) Play – In today’s homily Fr. Angelo explains why the Feast of the Holy Family was instituted and talks about how the family is under attack in today’s world. “love makes a family”
Ave Maria!
Mass: Holy Family – Feast – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: sir 3:2-6, 12-14
Resp: psa 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
2nd: col 3:12-21
Gsp: mat 2:13-15, 19-23

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Homily #101227 ( 06min) Play – The Christmas Octave continues and Fr Angelo talks about the significance of the Feast we celebrate today.
Ave Maria!
Mass: St. John, Apostle and Evangelist – Form: EF, In Medio Ecclesiae
Readings:
1st: sir 15:1-6
Gsp: joh 21:19-24

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On this Solemnity of the Holy Family which is also the name feast day of Fr Stefano Manelli (St. Stephen the Martyr) Fr Ignatius (who attended the ceremony of the official opening of the cause of Fr Stefano’s parents) gives the following clarification:

Yes, the cause for Beatification and Canonization is officially open, meaning they are Servants of God.  I was told that all of the information regarding establishing their heroic virtue has already been gathered and now submitted to the judgment of the 6 person panel – 2 monsignors, 1 priest and 3 laity.  Their causes are considered separately, since holiness, in the final analysis, is a personal venture.

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Ave Maria Meditations

 O Jesus, how I love to contemplate You as a Child, in the poor house at Nazareth, with Mary and Joseph! Your simple, humble life was just like that of any other child of Your age. You, the splendor of the Father, did not wish anything to distinguish You from the children of men; You, uncreated wisdom, wished to learn from Mary and Joseph, Your creatures, the ordinary little details of life.  Joseph showed You how to handle his tools and You watched Him attentively, You learned and You obeyed. Mary taught You holy hymns and recounted tales from the Sacred Scriptures ; You listened to her like a humble disciple, You who are the one true Teacher, You who are Truth itself. No one, neither Your relatives nor Your fellow townspeople, knew who You really were. Everyone believed You to be the carpenter’s son and paid no more attention to You than they would have paid to an ordinary apprentice. 

Only Mary and Joseph knew; they knew by divine revelation that You were the Son of the Most High, the Savior of the world, and yet they knew it more by faith than by experience. Your ordinary way of life concealed Your majesty and divinity from them so completely that when, without their knowledge, You remained among the doctors in the Temple, they could not understand the reason for Your unusual behavior. 

That incident, however, was an isolated one; immediately afterward, You wished to return to the hiddenness of Your most humble life. You went back with them, and were subject to them. And this, day by day, until You were thirty years old.

O most sweet Jesus, grant that I may imitate, at least to some degree, Your infinite humility! You, the Creator, were obedient to Your creatures. Teach me to bow my proud head and willingly obey my superiors. You came down from heaven to earth. Give me the grace to humble myself, to come down, once and for all, from the pedestal of my pride! How can I bear the sight of Your humility and self-effacement, O my God and my Creator, when I, who am nothingness and sin, use the gifts I have received to set myself above others, to prefer myself even to my superiors?

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene  (Divine Intimacy)

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Fi News #95 – Fr Stefano M Manelli ( 03min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Mass offered by Father Stefano in the ordinary form of the Mass, an example of hermeneutics of continuity.

Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli was born in Fiume/Rijeka (Hrvatska), Italy on May 1, 1933. His parents were Servant of God Settimio Manelli and Servant of God Licia Gualandris, spiritual children of St. Pio of Pietrelcina. He was the sixth of the twenty-one children.

He received his first communion from Padre Pio himself in 1938

He entered (more…)

I was at the midnight Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica last night with the Holy Father.  I noticed during Communion a priest was giving Communion only on the tongue, then I saw another priest doing the same.  Fra Jerome, who has been to other Papal ceremonies in the past 2yrs. said this is something new.  Also new is that each priest carrying a ciborium was accompanied by a man dressed in a suit carrying a candle, very nice.

There are rumors going around that a new document is coming out in January that will establish ad orientem as the norm for the Novus Ordo, as well as Communion on the tongue.  I stress “rumor” but last night’s Communion procedure has me thinking maybe it’s true.

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We are greatly honored to announce that Raymond Cardinal Burke who was just raised to the Cardinalate on November 20th and is a good friend of the community will be celebrating a Pontifical High Mass at our friary on Via Boccea in Rome, Italy tomorrow, the 26th at 5:30pm in celebration of Fr. Stefano’s Feast Day.  This is our philosophy house for our seminarians studying for the priesthood. Deo Gratias!

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December 25, 2010. ‘May the birth of the Prince of Peace remind the world where its true happiness lies; and may your hearts be filled with hope and joy, for the Saviour has been born for us,’ said the Pope during his Christmas speech, the Urbi et Orbi message. The Pope also denounced the situation of Christians in China and asked God to ‘inspire political and religious leaders to be committed to full respect for the religious freedom of all’.

via ROME REPORTS TV News Agency.

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Ave Maria Meditations

[Jesus speaks:] I was born, born for you, in a cave, in December, in the cold, homeless, in the middle of a winter’s night, in the unheard-of poverty of the extremely poor, in solitude, in an abandonment unique in this world.

What, my children, do I want you to learn from my birth? To believe in my love, to believe that I have loved you until now. To hope in me, who have loved you so dearly. I want to teach you to despise the world, which was so unimportant to me. I want to teach you poverty, lowliness, soli­tude, humility, penance. I want to teach you to love me, for I was not content with giving myself to the world in the Incarnation, sanctifying it invisibly in the visitation; no, that did not satisfy my love. From the moment of my birth onward, I showed myself to you, giving myself wholly to you, putting myself in your hands. From then on, you could touch me, hear me, possess me, serve me, console me. Love me now; I am so close to you.

In my unimaginable goodness, I did not merely give myself to you at my birth for a few hours or years: I am still in your hands, and shall be henceforth until the end of the world. Think of the unending good fortune I brought you in my birth: the ability to serve me – to serve me by serving the Church, to serve me by serving your neighbor, to serve me myself, living there near you in the tabernacle. Not only can you serve me, you can also console me …  

How happy you should be to be able to console me at every moment of your lives! By becoming so small, so gentle a child, I was crying out to you: Have trust! Come close to me! Do not be afraid of me, come to me, give me what children need: loving embraces. Do not be afraid, do not be so frightened in the presence of such a gentle baby, smiling at you and holding out his arms to you. He is your God, but he is all smiles and gentleness. Do not be afraid.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

The Lord Jesus took compassion on us in order that He might call us to Himself and not scare us away. He comes as someone gentle, someone humble.

St. Ambrose

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Ave Maria!
This is a great explanation of how the dating of Christmas is based on the date of the Incarnation in Mary’s womb and the birth of John the Baptist not on some acquiescence to paganism as is so often claimed.
From Locuta Est:
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As we approach the Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord, periodicals both secular and religious attempt the task of explaining the dating of Christmas. It never ceases to amaze me how even when theories have been sufficiently debunked they continue to persist in popular myth. The myth is that placing the birth of Jesus on December 25 was a Christian response to a pagan Roman festival honoring the “unconquered sun god.”

In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger argues against the thesis of the pagan festival. “The claim used to be made that December 25 developed in opposition to the Mithras myth, or as a Christian response to the cult of the unconquered sun promoted by Roman emperors in the third century in their efforts to establish a new imperial religion. However, these old theories can no longer be sustained. The decisive factor was the connection of creation and Cross, of creation and Christ’s conception” (Ratzinger, 108).

via Roma locuta est: The Dating of Christmas.

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Homily #101225s ( 18min) Play – On this day when we celebrate the birth of our dear Savior, Fr. Dominic preaches the Gospel message of the coming of Christ that is so well put in the broadest historical sense by St John the Evangelist. Father focuses on the mysterious truth of this coming. Mysterious because the most glorious all-mighty God comes to us as such a humble baby, laid in a manger, but nevertheless the stupendous truth that captures the eminent mercy and love or our God. This mercy and love is so fitting to God’s greatness that it silences all objections to this mystery.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Nativity of the Lord (Day) – Solemnity – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: isa 52:7-10
Resp: psa 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6
2nd: heb 1:1-6
Gsp: joh 1:1-18

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