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January 8 2020 Wednesday after Epiphany Reading 1 1 JN 4:11-18 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him...

Christ is born! Glorify him! Christos Gennatai! Doxasate! Christos razhdayetsya! Slavite yoho! Christus natus est! Glorificate Eum!

January 7 2020 Tuesday after Epiphany Reading 1 1 JN 4:7-10 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Responsorial Psalm PS 72:1-2,...

January 6 2020 Monday After Epiphany Reading 1 1 JN 3:22–4:6 Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong...

January 5 2020 The Epiphany of the Lord Reading 1 1 is 60:1-6 Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. Raise your eyes and look about; they all gather and come to you: your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.Then you shall be radiant at what you...

“Increasing in Wisdom” (Luke 2:40-52) When Jesus was an infant, he was presented in the temple at 40 days old. From that point on, we know nothing of the life of Jesus, until he began his public ministry at the age of 30--except for two incidents: One is the visit of the wise men and the flight to Egypt, when Jesus was less than two. The only other incident we have from Jesus’ childhood is when he was twelve. It’s the Gospel reading you just heard, the story usually called “The Boy Jesus in the Temple.” It’s the story of...

January 4 2020 Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious Reading 1 1 Jn 3:7-10 Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the Devil...

January 3 2020 Christmas Weekday Reading 1 1 JN 2:29–3:6 If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see...

January 2 2020 Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church Reading 1 1 JN 2:22-28 Beloved: Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this...

Lincoln Center was feeling it.

January 1 2020 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Reading 1 NM 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them." Responsorial Psalm PS 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R. (2a) May God bless us...

The Christmas story celebrated each year by millions worldwide tells of an unwed teenager who becomes pregnant – after she responds “yes” to a life that redeems all of humanity. But that isn’t stopping some media outlets from deeming the holiday season appropriate to promote abortion, which says “no” to life, instead. On December 23, Rewire.News published an opinion piece with the headline, “All I Want for Christmas Is for Texans to Be Able to Afford Their Abortions.” Women’s centers and even the ACLU of Texas shared the story on Twitter. In the piece, OB/GYN activist and Physicians for Reproductive...

December 31 2019 The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas Reading 1 1 Jn 2:18-21 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because...

The church bells rang in Khartoum on Wednesday as Sudan marked Christmas as a public holiday for the first time in 10 years. Thousands of Sudanese Christians celebrated in the streets of the capital, where they were joined by activists sending a message of co-existence, as well elsewhere in the country, including rebel strongholds in the southern Nuba mountains. The holiday was announced by Sudan's civilian cabinet, which has spoken about improving religious equality after decades of rule that sidelined minorities. “This time is special, not like previous years," Simon Kunda, a 16-year-old student from the Nuba Mountains, told Middle...

The 'Jesus was a refugee' trope is tired and inaccurate. It's time for leftist politicians to stop exploiting Christmas by making false arguments about history.To profane a holy day, politicize it. Politicians’ profanity du jour is to exploit Christmas by making false arguments about immigration policy. Yet their rhetoric unintentionally supports the opposite points from what these politicians intend. Consider Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. On Christmas day, he said, “[D]ivinity on earth … came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee.” Today I join millions around the...

December 30 2019 The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas Reading 1 1 Jn 2:12-17 I am writing to you, children,because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men,because you have conquered the Evil One. I write to you, children,because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,because you are strong and the word of God remains in you,and you have...

December 29 2019 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as long as...

Away in a Manger: St Francis and the NativityFr. William Saunders As we learn each week from the saints, one must wonder, “How did the saints celebrate Christmas?” One of the best examples whose celebration lives on in our own is St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). Thomas of Celano, one of the first biographers of St. Francis, wrote, “More than any other feast, he celebrated Christmas with an indescribable joy. He said that this was the feast of feasts, for on this day God became a little child and sucked milk like all human children. Francis embraced with great tenderness...

“The One That Got Away” (Matthew 2:13-23) Christmas is a joyous, happy holiday. At this time of year, we celebrate the “good news of great joy,” that to us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. With the angels who give glory to God in the highest, with the shepherds who return glorifying and praising God, with the wise men who rejoice exceedingly with great joy, we too join in the joy of Christmas. Yes, Christmas is a joyous, happy holiday. That is true within the church. But perhaps even more so, it’s true in the culture around...

A woman from Africa dropped a truth bomb on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s pandering Kwanzaa post, letting the Democratic presidential candidate know the real reason to celebrate in December. Warren turned to Twitter on Thursday to let everyone know that she and her husband, Bruce Mann, wished all Kwanzaa revelers a happy holiday. “Bruce and I are wishing a very happy Kwanzaa to everyone celebrating this week,” the Massachusetts senator said. Although Kwanzaa in part celebrates African heritage, the very continent it celebrates does not observe the holiday. Obianuju Ekeocha, a Nigerian-born conservative and outspoken advocate for the pro-life movement, responded...