2014
(VIS) - At 4 p.m. the Pope made a private visit to the Roman parish of St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori to see the living nativity display organised by the faithful of the parish, in which two hundred people participated. The visit was in response to an invitation sent by the parish.
Accompanied by more than three thousand people, the Pope was received by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome, Bishop Guerino Di Tora, and the parish priest Fr. Dario Pompeo Criscuoli. The Holy Father greeted all those present, demonstrating warmth and closeness to the people. He joked with children, held one of the lambs from the Nativity display on his shoulders, and tasted the ricotta cheese made by the parishioners.
According to CNS - (Selection from CNS report by Carol Glatz)
200 people took part in the re-enactment, wearing period costumes and playing the parts of villagers, artisans and street sellers. People lined the sides of the road leading to the church and watched from rooftops and balconies of surrounding buildings. According to Vatican Radio, the pope greeted each of the participants and many of the parishioners who attended. One special guest lay waiting in a small hut: a 2-month-old baby named Francesco, who had been baptized that morning and played the role of Jesus in the pageant. A group of men playing shepherds placed a small lamb on the pope's shoulders, according to the Italian Catholic daily, Avvenire. Children sang a Christmas song and gave the pope a bouquet of red roses. At the end of his visit, the pope talked about the importance of a new year beginning with Jesus, who stays by everyone's side to overcome evil. He asked everyone to pray for children who would be born in 2014 and for all grandparents, who he said are the source of wisdom. The priest who organizes the parish's live Nativity scene each year said he had invited the pope just a few days earlier and the pope had accepted immediately. "The pope was so happy. He told me 'Keep it up. Don't get discouraged.'" (Edited from CNS)
ORTHODOX CHRISTMAS IS CELEBRATED JAN. 7
2014 Christmas Homily of Patriarch Kiril of Russia:
Today, January 7th, Russian Orthodoxy celebrates one of its most important holidays, Christmas, which is also celebrated by the Serbian, Georgian and Jerusalem Churches, and also on the holy peninsula of Mount Athos. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, traditionally wishes a Merry Christmas to the Orthodox believers of Russia and the entire Russian-speaking world.
The Orthodox Church is celebrating Christmas, Patriarch Kirill says. The grandeur and solemnity of the Holiday stem from the fact of the incarnation of God. God becomes man, so a combination of the earthly and the heavenly is inseparable from now on. Today’s secular consciousness has largely mythologized and distorted the image of Christ. He is now seen as an altruist, a holder of obsolete ethics. No more than the Christians’ spiritual leader, at best. But we will never accept the attempted removal of the true evangelical interpretation of Christ as the God-Man from contemporary culture. Jesus Christ is the tuning fork of humanity. Once we lose that model, we will have nothing we could use to counter the powerful challenges of this day and age, the challenges that are basically aimed against the true and traditional concept of man.
It is very important that we continually gaze in the face of Jesus, and check our thoughts and moves against His. We should become inspired by the example of His infinite love for all God’s people, His zealous praying to and serving His Heavenly Father, His modesty and meekness, His intolerance of sin and forbearance with sinners, His courage in suffering the grief and hardships of mortal life, His sincerity and simplicity of communication with friends and His constant and limitless readiness for self-sacrifice. God comes to this world not as a powerful and glorious tsar to have everyone serv
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_07/Patriarch-Kirills-Christmas-Message-5329/e and please Him, but He is instead born humble of heart in a manger to serve people and give His life for their salvation. God tells the world for the first time ever what a true person should be like. Not only did He show this, but He also gave whatever was required for anyone who accepted Christ by faith to become this kind of person.
Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_01_07/Patriarch-Kirills-Christmas-Message-5329/e and please Him, but He is instead born humble of heart in a manger to serve people and give His life for their salvation. God tells the world for the first time ever what a true person should be like. Not only did He show this, but He also gave whatever was required for anyone who accepted Christ by faith to become this kind of person.
The Sacrament of Baptism introduces us to the Church, - the community of faith, and administers the Divine Body and Blood through the Eucharist. The church service reminds us of what Jesus did to ensure our salvation, inspires us by the word of God and the examples set by the Saints. All this is capable of making fundamental changes in each one of us. It is thanks to living in Christ and conforming unto Christ that man can start feeling imparadised when still on the earth, man can start living in compliance with the spirit of God’s love that will rule supreme in their future life. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, the Saviour tells us.
Our joy today about Jesus Christ’s coming to this world should be specifically manifested in our readiness to celebrate the Holiday by doing a good deed. There’s always someone nearby in need of our assistance or support, such as our next of kin or our neighbours. Above all, the lonely sick people in hospices or hospitals, despondent, burdened with grief and sorrow, and/or earthly woes. Share the Good News of Christmas with them. Let your bright smile, your joy about the Newborn Baby warm up their ice-cold souls. In our prayers, let us recall those who suffered in recent terrorist attacks in Volgograd and Pyatigorsk. We will ask our Lord Jesus Christ to heal the wounds of the injured, alleviate the suffering of the afflicted, and give eternal rest to the souls of the dead. Let the walls of estrangement separating people crumple up on that wonderful day of Christmas. Let these walls be destroyed by the love for Christ and the power of your strenuous love for your neighbours. Merry Christmas to you all, my dear brethren!
FOR GREAT PICTURES OF CHRISTMAS IN RUSSIA FROM 2014
POPE FRANCIS "...MANY FALSE PROPHETS HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD"
Pope Francis took the words “Remain in the Lord,” from the first Reading from the Apostle John, as the starting point for his homily. It is a “counsel for life,” the Pope said, that John repeats “almost obsessively.” The Apostle shows “one of the attitudes of the Christian who wants to remain in the Lord: to understand what’s happening in one’s own heart.” For this reason he warns us, “Do not to trust every spirit, but test the spirits.” It is necessary, the Pope said, to know “the discernment of spirits,” to discern whether something helps us “remain in the Lord or takes us away from Him.” “Our heart,” he added, “always has desires, has cravings, has thoughts.” But “are these from the Lord or do some of these things take us away from the Lord?” That’s why the Apostle John exhorts us to “test” what we think and desire:
“If this goes along the line of the Lord, it will go well, but if not… Test the spirits to see if they really come from God, because many false prophets have come into the world. Prophets or prophecies or suggestions: ‘I want to do this!’ But this does not bring you to the Lord, it leads you away from Him. That’s why vigilance is necessary. The Christian is a man or a woman who knows to keep watch over his or her heart. And many times our heart, and with so many things that come and go, seems a local market: everything, you can find everything there… No! We need to test things - this is from the Lord, and this is not – in order to remain in the Lord.”
What, then, is the criterion to determine if something comes from Christ or from the antichrist? St. John, the Pope said, has a clear “simple” idea: “Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist.” But what does it mean, “to recognize that the Word is come in the flesh?” It means “recognizing the path of Jesus Christ,” recognising the He, “being God, He emptied Himself, He humbled Himself” even to “death on the Cross”:
“That is the path of Jesus Christ: abasement, humility, humiliation as well. If a thought, if a desire takes you along the road of humility and abasement, of service to others, is from Jesus. But if it brings you to the road of sufficiency, of vanity, of pride, along the path of an abstract thought, it is not from Jesus. We think of the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness: all three proposals the demon makes to Jesus are proposals that intended to take Him away from this path, the path of service, of humility, of humiliation, of charity. But the charity accomplished with His life, no? To the three temptations Jesus says no: ‘No, this is not my path!”
The Pope then invited everyone to think about what happens in their own hearts. What do we think and feel, what do we desire, do I examine the spirits? “Do I test what I think, what I want, what I desire - he asked - or do I accept it all” without discernment?
“So many times, our heart is a road, everything passes there… Put it to the test! And do I always choose the things that come from God? Do I know which are the things that come from God? Do I know the true criterion by which to discern my thoughts, my desires? Let us think of this, and let us not forget that the criterion is the Incarnation of the Word. The Word is come in the flesh: this is Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ who was made man, God made man, who lowered Himself, humbled Himself for love, in order to serve all of us. And may the Apostle John grant us this grace to know what is happening in our hearts, and to have the wisdom to discern what is of God and what is not of God.”
Text from Vatican Radio
TODAY'S SAINT : JAN. 7 : ST. RAYMOND OF PENYAFORT
St. Raymond of Penyafort
PRIEST, RELIGIOUS
Feast: January 7
 Information:
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From the bull of his canonization, by Clement VIII in 1601, and his life, written by several Spanish, Italian and French authors. See Fleury, b. 78, n. 55, 64, and chiefly Touron Hommes Illustres de l'Ordre de S. Domin. t. 1, p. I
The house of Pegnafort, or, as it is pronounced, Pennafort, was descended from the counts of Barcelona, and nearly allied to the kings of Aragon. Raymund was born in 1175, at Pennafort, a castle in Catalonia, which in the fifteenth century was changed into a convent of the order of St. Dominick. Such was his rapid progress in his studies, that at the age of twenty he taught philosophy at Barcelona, which he did gratis, and with so great reputation, that he began then to be consulted by the ablest masters. His principal care was to instil into his scholars the most perfect maxims of a solid piety and devotion, to compose all differences among the citizens, and to relieve the distressed. He was about thirty years of age when he went to Bologna, in Italy, to perfect himself in the study of the canon and civil law, commenced Doctor in that faculty, and taught with the same disinterestedness and charity as he had done in his own country. In 1219 Berengarius, bishop of Barcelona, who had been at Rome, took Raymund home with him, to the great regret of the university and senate of Bologna; and, not content with giving him a canonry in his church, made him his archdeacon, grand vicar, and official. He was a perfect model to the clergy, by his innocence, zeal, devotion, and boundless liberalities to the poor, whom he called his creditors. In 1222 he took the religious habit of St. Dominick at Barcelona, eight months after the death of the holy founder, and in the forty-seventh year of his age. No person was ever seen among the young novices more humble, more obedient, or more fervent. To imitate the obedience of a Man-God, who reduced himself to a state of subjection to his own creatures, to teach us the dangers and deep wound of self-will, and to point out to us the remedy, the saint would depend absolutely on the lights of his director in all things. And it was upon the most perfect self-denial that he laid the foundation of that high sanctity which he made the object of his most earnest desires. The grace of prayer perfected the work which mortification had begun. In a spirit of compunction he begged of his superiors that they would enjoin him some severe penance, to expiate the vain satisfaction and complacency which he said he had sometimes taken in teaching. They indeed imposed on him a penance, but not such a one as he expected. It was to write a collection of cases of conscience for the instruction and conveniency of confessors and moralists. This produced his Sum the first work of that kind. Had his method and decisions been better followed by some later authors of the like works, the holy maxims of Christian morality had been treated with more respect by some moderns than they have been, to our grief and confusion.
Raymund joined to the exercises of his solitude the functions of an apostolical life, by laboring without intermission in preaching, instructing, hearing confessions with wonderful fruit, and converting heretics, Jews, and Moors Among his penitents were James, king of Aragon, and St. Peter Nolasco, with whom he concerted the foundation of the Order of the B. Virgin of mercy for the redemption of captives. James, the young king of Aragon had married Eleonora of Castile within the prohibited degrees, without a dispensation. A legate was sent by pope Gregory IX. to examine and judge the case. In a council of bishops of the two kingdoms, held at Tar rayon, he declared the marriage null, but that their son Don Alphonso should be reputed lawfully born, and heir to his father's crown. The king had taken his confessor with him to the council, and the cardinal legate was so charmed with his talents and virtue, that he associated him in his legation and gave him a commission to preach the holy war against the Moors. The servant of God acquitted himself of that function with so much prudence, zeal, and charity, that he sowed the seeds of the total overthrow of those infidels in Spain. His labors were no less successful in the reformation of the manners of the Christians detained in servitude under the Moors which were extremely corrupted by their long slavery or commerce with these infidels. Raymund showed them, by words full of heavenly unction and fire, that, to triumph over their bodily, they must first conquer their spiritual enemies, and subdue sin in themselves, which made God their enemy. Inculcating these and the like spiritual lessons, he ran over Catalonia, Aragon, Castile, and other countries. So general a change was wrought hereby in the manners of the people, as seemed incredible to all but those who were witnesses of it. By their conversion the anger of God was appeased, and the arms of the faithful became terrible to their enemies. The kings of Castile and Leon freed many places from the Moorish yoke. Don James, king of Aragon, drove them out of the islands of Majorca and Minorca, and soon after, in 1237, out of the whole kingdom of Valentia. Pope Gregory IX. having called St. Raymund to Rome in 1230, nominated him his chaplain, (which was the title of the Auditor of the causes of the apostolic palace,) as also grand penitentiary. He made him likewise his own confessarius, and in difficult affairs came to no decision but by his advice. The saint still reserved himself for the poor, and was so solicitous for them that his Holiness called him their father. He enjoined the pope, for a penance, to receive, hear, and expedite immediately all petitions presented by them. The pope, who was well versed in the canon law, ordered the saint to gather into one body all the scattered decree of popes and councils, since the collection made by Gratian in 1150. Raymund compiled this work in three years, in five books, commonly called the Decretals, which the same pope Gregory confirmed in 1234. It is looked upon as the best finished part of the body of the canon law; on which account the canonists have usually chosen it for the texts of their comments. In 1235, the pope named St. Raymund to the archbishopric of Tarragon, the capital of Aragon: the humble religious man was not able to avert the storm, as he called it, by tears and entreaties; but at length fell sick through anxiety and fear. To restore him to his health, his Holiness was obliged to consent to excuse him, but required that he should recommend a proper person. The saint named a pious and learned canon of Gironne. He refused other dignities with the like constancy.
For the recovery of his health he returned to his native country, and was received with as much joy as if the safety of the whole kingdom. and of every particular person, had depended on his presence. Being restored again to his dear solitude at Barcelona, he continued his former exercises of contemplation, preaching, and administering the sacrament of penance. Except on Sundays, he never took more than one very small refection in the day. Amidst honors and applause he was ever little in his own eyes: he appeared in the schools like a scholar, and in his convent begged the superior to instruct him in the rules of religious perfection, with the humility and docility of a novice. Whether he sung the divine praises with his brethren, or prayed alone in his cell, or some corner of the church, ho poured forth an abundance of tears; and often was not able to contain within himself the ardor of his soul. His mildness and sweetness were unalterable. The incredible number of conversions of which he was the instrument, is known only to Him who, by his grace, was the author of them. He was employed frequently in most important commissions, both by the holy see and by the king. But he was thunderstruck by the arrival of four deputies from the general chapter of his order at Bologna, in 1238, with the news that he was chosen third general, Jordan of Saxony being lately dead. He wept and entreated, but at length acquiesced in obedience. He made the visitation of his order on foot, without discontinuing any of his penitential austerities, or rather exercises. He instilled into his spiritual children a love of regularity, solitude, mortification, prayer, sacred studies, and the apostolical functions, especially preaching. He reduced the constitutions of his order into a clearer method, with notes on the doubtful passages. This his code of rules was approved in three general chapters. In one held at Paris in 1239, he procured the establishment of this regulation, that a voluntary demission of a superior, founded upon just reasons, should be accepted. This he contrived in his own favor; for, to the extreme regret of the order, he in the year following resigned the generalship, which he had held only two years. He alleged for his reason his age of sixty-five years. Rejoicing to see himself again a private religious man, he applied himself with fresh vigor to the exercises and functions of an apostolical life, especially the conversion of the Saracens. Having this end in view he engaged St. Thomas to write his work 'Against the Gentiles;' procured the Arabic and Hebrew tongues to be taught in several convents of his order; and erected convents, one at Tunis, and another at Murcia, among the Moors. In 1256, he wrote to his general that ten thousand Saracens had received baptism. King James took him into the island of Majorca. The saint embraced that opportunity of cultivating that infant church. This prince was an accomplished soldier and statesman, and a sincere lover of religion, but his great qualities were sullied by a base passion for women. He received the admonitions of the saint with respect, and promised amendment of life, and a faithful compliance with the saint's injunctions in every particular; but without effect. St. Raymund, upon discovering that he entertained a lady at his court with whom he was suspected to have criminal conversation, made the strongest instances to have her dismissed, which the king promised should be done, but postponed the execution. The saint, dissatisfied with the delay, begged leave to retire to his convent at Barcelona. The king not only refused him leave, but threatened to punish with death any person that should undertake to convey him out of the island. The saint, full of confidence in God, said to his companion, "A king of the earth endeavors to deprive us of the means of retiring; but the King of heaven will supply them." He then walked boldly to the waters, spread his cloak upon them, tied up one corner of it to a staff for a sail, and having made the sign of the cross, stepped upon it without fear, while his timorous companion stood trembling and wondering on the shore. On this new kind of vessel the saint was wafted with such rapidity, that in six hours he reached the harbor of Barcelona, sixty leagues distant from Majorca. Those who saw him arrive in this manner met him with acclamations. But he, gathering up his cloak dry, put it on, stole through the crowd, and entered his monastery. A chapel and a tower, built on the place where he landed, have transmitted the memory of this miracle to posterity. This relation is taken from the bull of his canonization, and the earliest historians of his life. The king became a sincere convert, and governed his conscience, and even his kingdoms, by the advice of St. Raymund from that time till the death of the saint. The holy man prepared himself for his passage to eternity, by employing days and nights in penance and prayer. During his last illness, Alphonsus, king of Castile, with his queen, sons, and brother; and James, king of Aragon, with his court, visited him, and received his last benediction. He armed himself with the last sacraments; and, in languishing sighs of divine love, gave up his soul to God, on the 6th of January, in the year 1275, and the hundredth of his age. The two kings, with all the princes and princesses of their royal families, honored his funeral with their presence: but his tomb was rendered far more illustrious by miracles. Several are recorded in the bull of his canonization, published by Clement VIII. in 1601. Bollandus has filled fifteen pages in folio with an account of them. His office is fixed by Clement X. to the 23d of January.
The saints first learned in solitude to die to the world and themselves, to put on the spirit of Christ, and ground themselves in a habit of recollection and a relish only for heavenly things, before they entered upon the exterior functions even of a spiritual ministry. Amidst these weighty employments, not content with reserving always the time and means of frequent retirement for conversing with God and themselves, in their exterior functions by raising their minds to heaven with holy sighs and desires, they made all their actions in some measure an uninterrupted prayer and exercise of divine love and praise. St. Bonaventure reckons it among the general exercises of every religious or spiritual men, "that he keep his mind always raised, at least virtually, to God: hence, whensoever a servant of God has been distracted from attending to him for ever so short a space, he grieves and is afflicted, as if he was fallen into some misfortune, by having been deprived of the presence of such a friend who never forgets us. Seeing that our supreme felicity and glory consists in the eternal vision of God, the constant remembrance of him is a kind of imitation of that happy state: this the reward, that the virtue which entitles us to it. Till we are admitted to his presence, let us in our exile always bear him in mind: every one will behold him in heaven with so much the greater joy, and so much the more perfectly, as he shall more assiduously and more devoutly have remembered him on earth. Nor is it only in our repose, but also in the midst of our employments, that we ought to have him present to our minds, in imitation of the holy angels, who, when they are sent to attend on us, so acquit themselves of the functions of this exterior ministry as never to be drawn from their interior attention to God. As much as the heavens exceed the earth, so much larger is the field of spiritual meditation than that of all terrestrial concerns."
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SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/R/straymondofpenyafort.asp#ixzz1ioTmtnhW
POPE REFORMS MONSIGNOR HONORS TO THOSE 65 AND OLDER
(Vatican Radio) The Secretariat of State of the Holy See on Tuesday issued a statement explaining the change in practice Pope Francis has instituted regarding the granting of the title of Monsignor. By circular letter sent to the world’s Nunciatures, the Secretariat of State has informed Bishops’ conferences that, in the world’s Dioceses, the only ecclesiastical title henceforth to be conferred shall be “Chaplain of His Holiness”, to which the appellation, “Monsignor”, shall correspond. The title shall be conferred only upon priests who have reached the age of 65.The circular further clarifies that the use of the title, Monsignor, in connection with certain major offices – where this is a cultural practice – (eg . Bishop , the Vicar General of the Diocese, inter alia) remains unchanged. With regard to the Roman Curia, no change has been made either in the titles or in the use of the appellation, Monsignor, these being connected to the offices entrusted, and to the service performed.
The rule has no retroactive effect . Those, who received a title in the past, keep it.
SHARED from Vatican Radio website
CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS TODAY WITHOUT VIOLENCE
ASIA NEWS REPORT: In Cairo and throughout Egypt army and police control access to the churches. For the first time since Nasser a President visits the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of Abasseya . Tawadros II : The birth of Jesus "brings hope, courage and a new life".
Cairo ( AsiaNews) - The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox celebrated Christmas in the hope of a "new life" brought by the birth of Jesus and in fear of attacks by Islamic extremists. Last night, thousands of people attended the traditional vigil in the cathedral of Abasseya (Cairo ) , presided over by Patriarch Tawadros II.
After yesterday's clashes between police and the Muslim Brotherhood claimed the lives of 13 people and the arrest of some terrorists who were preparing a series of attacks against Christian churches, the army stepped up security measures compared to previous years. In Cairo, the streets around the religious buildings were closed and the police checked the influx of faithful with checkpoints and metal detectors.
According to many of the faithful the authorities' commitment to the safety of Christians has created a different climate than in years past . "Last year we were afraid - Monica explains to Ahram Online - I'm not saying that we could not pray or anything like that. But we fear for the future of Christians. The President [ Morsi ] was turning into a dictator and was only interested in serving his group and Muslims". The woman describes the December 5 visit to the Abasseya Cathedral of the President Mansour Adly as a great gesture. Adly is the first President to do so since the days of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser , who visited the cathedral in 1960.
In his Christmas message, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church pointed to the significance of the visit of the Magi from the east, who offered gifts to the Infant King . For the patriarch these gifts represent human life "characterized by gold, incense and myrrh". "This - he said - means that everyone in his life has golden days, days, days of incense and of myrrh ." Thanking bishops, priests, deacons and lay people for their commitment to the Church, Tawadros said that "the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us hope, courage and a new life".
The vigilant calm of Cairo and the rest of the country, however, was obscured by some attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt . Yesterday at Ezbet Treks in the province of Qena (Upper Egypt), a group of extremists threw stones at Coptic homes and burned one of their stores . The assault was triggered by an argument over the renting of a room. Bishop Kyrillos of Nag Hammadi stresses that the security forces were able to contain the tensions and the Nag Hammadi Police Commissioner Mahmoud Moawad convened a meeting with Muslim villagers to gather information on the facts and arrest the culprits.
SHARED FROM ASIA NEWS IT
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Cairo ( AsiaNews) - The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox celebrated Christmas in the hope of a "new life" brought by the birth of Jesus and in fear of attacks by Islamic extremists. Last night, thousands of people attended the traditional vigil in the cathedral of Abasseya (Cairo ) , presided over by Patriarch Tawadros II.
After yesterday's clashes between police and the Muslim Brotherhood claimed the lives of 13 people and the arrest of some terrorists who were preparing a series of attacks against Christian churches, the army stepped up security measures compared to previous years. In Cairo, the streets around the religious buildings were closed and the police checked the influx of faithful with checkpoints and metal detectors.
According to many of the faithful the authorities' commitment to the safety of Christians has created a different climate than in years past . "Last year we were afraid - Monica explains to Ahram Online - I'm not saying that we could not pray or anything like that. But we fear for the future of Christians. The President [ Morsi ] was turning into a dictator and was only interested in serving his group and Muslims". The woman describes the December 5 visit to the Abasseya Cathedral of the President Mansour Adly as a great gesture. Adly is the first President to do so since the days of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser , who visited the cathedral in 1960.
In his Christmas message, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church pointed to the significance of the visit of the Magi from the east, who offered gifts to the Infant King . For the patriarch these gifts represent human life "characterized by gold, incense and myrrh". "This - he said - means that everyone in his life has golden days, days, days of incense and of myrrh ." Thanking bishops, priests, deacons and lay people for their commitment to the Church, Tawadros said that "the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us hope, courage and a new life".
The vigilant calm of Cairo and the rest of the country, however, was obscured by some attacks against Christians in Upper Egypt . Yesterday at Ezbet Treks in the province of Qena (Upper Egypt), a group of extremists threw stones at Coptic homes and burned one of their stores . The assault was triggered by an argument over the renting of a room. Bishop Kyrillos of Nag Hammadi stresses that the security forces were able to contain the tensions and the Nag Hammadi Police Commissioner Mahmoud Moawad convened a meeting with Muslim villagers to gather information on the facts and arrest the culprits.
SHARED FROM ASIA NEWS IT
TODAY'S MASS ONLINE : TUES. JAN. 7, 2014
Tuesday after Epiphany
Lectionary: 213
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.
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, 3-4, 7-8
R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Gospel MK 6:34-44
When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said,
“This is a deserted place and it is already very late.
Dismiss them so that they can go
to the surrounding farms and villages
and buy themselves something to eat.”
He said to them in reply,
“Give them some food yourselves.”
But they said to him,
“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”
He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”
And when they had found out they said,
“Five loaves and two fish.”
So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass.
The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.
Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven,
he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples
to set before the people;
he also divided the two fish among them all.
They all ate and were satisfied.
And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments
and what was left of the fish.
Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.
2014
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