2015
#PopeFrancis “Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee” #NewYear's Eve Vespers - Video - Text
(Vatican Radio) “How meaningful it is to be gathered together to give praise to the Lord at the end of the year!”
Those were the words of Pope Francis as he celebrated First Vespers for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God in St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening.
Listen to Christopher Wells' report:
The liturgy at the conclusion of the civil year included the singing of the Te Deum, the Church’s solemn hymn of praise and thanksgiving.
“The Church on so many occasions feels the joy and the duty of lifting up her song to God with these words of praise,” the Pope said in his homily. In particular, the final words of the hymn – “Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee” – have a special resonance during this Jubilee Year of Mercy.
The Te Deum, he continued, also helps us see the works of God in history and in our own lives, and gives us hope for the new year that lies before us.
Today, Pope Francis said, “our eyes need to focus on the particular signs God has given us, to see His merciful love first-hand.” The Holy Father recalled scenes of violence and death that marked the previous year, the untold suffering of many innocent people, the plight of refugees forced to leave their homes, of the homeless, and the hungry. But he also noted the many acts of kindness, love, and solidarity that often go unnoticed, but which should not be obscured by “the arrogance of evil.” “The good always wins,” the Pope said, “even if at times it can appear weak and hidden.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily with a few words for the people of the local church of Rome, inviting Romans to “go beyond the difficulties of the present moment,” and never miss the opportunity to be “privileged interpreters of faith, welcome, fraternity, and peace.” (Image share Google Images)
Gain a Plenary Indulgence on New Year's Eve - #PlenaryIndulgence
The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum 26 indicates that we can gain plenary indulgences on the 31 December. (Video Below)
A plenary indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who, recite or sing the Te Deum
Under the usual conditions, a plenary indulgence can be gained:
1. Sacramental confession within eight days
2. A prescribed good work (for Dec. 31 the recital of the Te Deum)
3. Sacramental Holy Communion within eight days.
4. Prayers for the intentions of the Roman Pope (usually 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and 1 Glory Be)
5. Detestation of venial sin
TE DEUM PRAYER in Latin and English
| Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. | O God, we praise Thee: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. |
| Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. | Everlasting Father, all the earth doth worship Thee. |
| Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi Caeli et universae Potestates; | To Thee all the Angels, the Heavens and all the Powers, |
| Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: | all the Cherubim and Seraphim, unceasingly proclaim: |
| Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. | Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts! |
| Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae. | Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of Thy glory. |
| Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, | The glorious choir of the Apostles, |
| Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus, | the wonderful company of Prophets, |
| Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. | the white-robed army of Martyrs, praise Thee. |
| Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia, | Holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee: |
| Patrem immensae maiestatis: | the Father of infinite Majesty; |
| Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium; | Thy adorable, true and only Son; |
| Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum. | and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. |
| Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. | O Christ, Thou art the King of glory! |
| Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius. | Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. |
| Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum. | Thou, having taken it upon Thyself to deliver man, didst not disdain the Virgin's womb. |
| Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. | Thou overcame the sting of death and hast opened to believers the Kingdom of Heaven. |
| Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris. | Thou sitest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father. |
| Iudex crederis esse venturus. | We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge. |
| Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. | We beseech Thee, therefore, to help Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood. |
| Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. | Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in everlasting glory. |
| V. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae. | V. Save Thy people, O Lord, and bless Thine inheritance! |
| R. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. | R. Govern them, and raise them up forever. |
| V. Per singulos dies benedicimus te. | V. Every day we thank Thee. |
| R. Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. | R. And we praise Thy Name forever, yea, forever and ever. |
| V. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. | V. O Lord, deign to keep us from sin this day. |
| R. Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. | R. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us. |
| V. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. | V. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, for we have hoped in Thee. |
| R. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum. | R. O Lord, in Thee I have hoped; let me never be put to shame. |
#Adeste Fideles sung by #Franciscan Friar Alessandro - Amazing Performance to SHARE
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Thurs. December 31, 2015
The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas
Lectionary: 204
Reading 11 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 you do not know the truth
but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.
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 you do not know the truth
but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth.
Responsorial PsalmPS 96:1-2, 11-12, 13
R. (11a) Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
The LORD comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name;
announce his salvation, day after day.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult before the LORD.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
The LORD comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice!
AlleluiaJN 1:14A, 12A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us.
To those who accepted him
he gave power to become the children of God.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelJN 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.
#PopeFrancis “Christian life is a journey, it is a joyful journey: sing, then, for this.” Text- Video
The motto of the Congress this year is Cantate spem vestram! “Sing out your hope!” – a theme on which Pope Francis reflected extensively in unscripted remarks to the choristers on Thursday morning. “Christian life is a journey,” said Pope Francis, “it is a joyful journey: sing, then, for this.” The Holy Father offered his remarks in response to a series of questions from a select few of the more than 4 thousand participants, questions that ranged from whether Pope Francis ever gets angry, to what he wanted to be when he grew up. “When I was a boy,” said Pope Francis in answer to the second question, “I thought about becoming a butcher,” explaining that he always enjoyed to see the butchers about their trade in their market stalls in the Buenos Aires of his childhood.
In answer to the first, he said, “Yes, but I don’t bite,” and warned against letting what is a normal and inevitable human reaction to injustice or even irksome behavior in others, not become a habit. “Anger is poison,” he said, “it poisons your soul,” if too long or too often indulged. The third of Pope Francis’ young interlocutors asked him also whether the world will always be as we see it on the nightly news, which often seems full of nothing but bad, sad and even tragic stories. “This struggle between the devil and God,” answered Pope Francis, “will continue until the end of days.”
He went on to say, “We all have inside each of us a battlefield – inside each of us there is a struggle between good and evil: we have graces and temptations, and we need to talk with the parish priest and with our catechists about these things, in order to understand them well.” Still, there are many bright spots. “There are many good things in the world,” he said, “and I wonder: why aren’t these good things publicized?” When we watch television, then, “think of the many, many people – so many holy people – who give their whole lives in order to help others,” in deed and in prayer – laity, priests and religious alike. After a brief choral interlude, Pope Francis offered his blessing and best wishes for the New Year, and said, “We’ll see you tomorrow in St. Peter’s Basilica – it will be a pleasure.” (Image Share Google Images)
Free New Year's #Recipe by Maria Von Trapp of the Sound of Music
Sylvester Punch
NEW YEAR'S EVE PUNCH BY MARIA VON TRAPP
Sylvester Punch
(In Austria the last day of the year is dedicated to the Holy Pope, St. Sylvester, who baptized Constantine the Great, thereby bringing about the dawning not only of the New Year but of a new era; for this reason, the night before the New Year is called "Sylvesterabend" (Eve of St. Sylvester).Ingredients:
Red burgundy (count one bottle for six people)
Equal amount of hot tea
12 cloves
rind of 1 lemon
2 tbsp. sugar to each bottle of wine
2 cinnamon sticks to each bottle of wine
Pour the liquid into an enamel pot, add the cloves, the thinly pared rind
of 1 lemon, the sugar, and the cinnamon. Heat over a low flame but do not
allow to boil. At the last moment add the tea. Serve hot.
If there are many children and very young people, it is good to know
different fruit punch combinations. Here is a basic recipe, with
variations:
1/2 cup lemon juice grated rind of 1 lemon
1 cup orange juice 1 qt. water
grated rind of 1/2 orange 1 cup sugar
Cook sugar and water for five minutes. Cool. Add juices and the grated
rind and any of the following combinations:
(1) 1 cup grated pineapple, 1 qt. ginger ale.
(2) 1 qt. strained, sweetened strawberry juice, 1 qt. raspberry juice, 2
qts. ginger ale.
(3) 1 glass currant jelly dissolved in 1 cup hot water. Cook, chill, and
add 1/4 cup mint, finely minced.
(4) 1 qt. cider, 1 qt. grape juice, 1 qt. soda water.
It is great fun to try out new variations every year. One starts with
lemonade or orangeade and soon the children will go on to pineapple-ade,
raspberry-ade....In our family we have something called "Hedwig-ade"
because it is Hedwig's own secret.
Source: Maria Augusta Trapp
Music Arranged by Franz Wasner Illustrations by Rosemary Trapp and Nikolaus E. Wolff LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NO. M[55]-1016 Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York.
Saint December 31 : St. Sylvester : #Pope
December 31
Died:
31 December 335 at Rome, Italy
Patron of:
Feroleto Antico, Italy
Saint Sylvester I, also spelled Silvester (born , Rome [Italy]—died 335, Rome; Western feast day December 31, Eastern feast day January 2), pope from 314 to 335, whose long pontificate saw the beginnings of the Christian Roman Empire. A presbyter when elected to succeed Pope St. Miltiades (Melchiades), Sylvester was consecrated on Jan. 31, 314. The most important event of his reign was the Council of Nicaea (May 325), which condemned the Alexandrian Christian priest Arius, founder of Arianism, a heretical doctrine teaching that the Son was neither equal with God the Father nor eternal. While the Roman emperor Constantine I the Great favoured Christianity and was a major controller of its ecclesiastical affairs, neither he nor his immediate successors gave any official recognition to papal primacy over the church. Thus, it was a rare and significant exception when Sylvester was accorded a preeminent role in the Arian crisis. Although invited, he did not attend the Council of Nicaea personally but was represented by two legates, who were treated with great honour and respect yet did not preside at the debates. According to subsequent legend, Sylvester converted and baptized Constantine, who was the first Roman emperor to become a Christian, and miraculously cured him of leprosy, for which the emperor allegedly gave him the Donatio Constantini (Donation of Constantine), a grant of spiritual supremacy over the Eastern patriarchates and over all matters of faith and worship as well as temporal dominion over Rome and the entire Western world. The Donation is now universally admitted to be an 8th-century forgery, but it was important in the development of the medieval theory of church and state. Sylvester is believed to have built at the Cemetery of St. Priscilla on the Via Salaria a church, where he was buried. His relics were transferred in 762 by Pope St. Paul I to the Church of San Silvestro in Capite, now the national church of English Catholics in Rome. Text source Britannica
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