Pope Benedict XVI: The Nativity of Jesus is Real

I wanted to share part of this article from LifeSiteNews:

In a meeting today with children from the group Italian Catholic Action, Pope Benedict XVI said "The birth of Jesus is not a fable, it is a story that really happened, in Bethlehem two thousand years ago." The Pope added, "Faith brings us to recognize in that little Child born of the Virgin Mary, the true Son of God Who, out of love, chose to become man."

"In the face of the little Jesus," said Benedict, "we contemplate the face of God, which is not revealed through force or power, but in weakness and the fragile constitution of a child. This 'Divine Child' .. demonstrates the faithfulness and tenderness of the boundless love with which God surrounds each of us. For this reason we rejoice at Christmas, reliving the same experience as the shepherds of Bethlehem."

"The wonder we feel before the enchantment of Christmas" is, he said, in some way reflected in the birth of all children, "and it invites us to recognize the Infant Jesus in all babies, who are the joy of the Church and the hope of the world."

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O Antiphon for December 21

Above is the chanting of the O Antiphon for today in Latin.

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Book Review: Let God's Light Shine Forth

I was recently sent a copy of "Let God's Light Shine Forth" edited by Robert Moynihan. I was proud to again review a book for Double Day Publishing. This book, however, I had already read back in March 2006. However, I want to finally write a review on the book.

Above all, it was a very good book that was based on Pope Benedict's words. Chapter II composed nearly all of the book and was separated in various areas with subheadings like "Faith" and "Morality". The editor of this book wanted Pope Benedict XVI's words to speak for himself, so all of those pages in Chapter II were the Holy Father's words from his books, homilies, speeches, and letters. I found the book highly informative and saved several intriguing passages on my computer to share them on my blog eventually. It is a great collection of quotations by the Holy Father.

Read an excerpt

Overall, I rank this one 3.5/5.0

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Holy Souls Novena: Day Six

Our Lady, Mother Mary, has said that more souls are released from Purgatory on Christmas than any other day in the year.

This novena was written by Daniel Lord, S.J.

Day 6

Our souls hunger for God with far more intensity than ever a starving body hungers for food. Here in this world we are distracted by the pressure of the life about us. In purgatory there are no distractions. Their eyes are fixed on the closed gates of heaven, the holy souls long for God, yearn for God, hunger and thirst for God. The terms of their sentence ring in their ears: "Thus and thus long shall you remain separated from your joy, until these sins and these misdeeds and these blemishes and these stains have been atoned for."

Balanced against their consuming hunger for God is their certainty that they would not dare enter His Presence with the slightest stain upon them. They almost wish that the fires burned more fiercely and more rapidly so that the pain could be at once more intense and more cleansing.

Imagine then their gratitude for every prayer or good deed by which we help them cleanse their souls and speed them on their way to God. Imagine the leaping with joy with which they welcome any act by which we cut their sentence, shorten their stay in purgatory, and hasten their entrance into heaven.

We can give joy to these holy souls here and now as we say:

The Prayer for the Holy Souls

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed, the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

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Pictures of Tridentine Mass in Connecticut

I found a link on The Inspired Traditionalist to a page with wonderful photos of the 20th Anniversary Mass of the Saint Gregory Society, New Haven, CT on November 12, 2006.

Check here!

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O Antiphon for December 20

Above is the chanting of the O Antiphon for today in Latin.

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Holy Souls Novena: Day Five

Our Lady, Mother Mary, has said that more souls are released from Purgatory on Christmas than any other day in the year.

This novena was written by Daniel Lord, S.J.

Day 5

These in purgatory are the friends of God. These are the souls who will in a short time be glorious and powerful saints in heaven. Their souls are saved. Their crowns are awaiting them. Their thrones are prepared, and their mansions are ready. God loves them deeply, as He loves all those faithful sons and daughters who fought the good fight. Their prayers for others come straight to His throne.

They can no longer pray for themselves; their time to merit is over. They can pray and they do pray for those on earth whom they love. That loving mother in purgatory is interceding for her children.... That devoted father is now more devoted.... Those friends have not forgotten the value of their friendship.... Those relatives are bound to us with ties much closer than blood.

Most of all the holy souls pray for their benefactors. Our slight remembering of them wins for us a great measure of intercession from them. We pray thoughtlessly; they pray with the intensity of souls who are coming ever closer to God. We ask for deliverance for them; they beg God for a thousand blessings for us.

In sheer wisdom and to our own advantage we say:

The Prayer for the Holy Souls

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed, the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

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A Catholic Life is now in Beta!

Finally, "A Catholic Life" has been able to upgrade to Beta Version. Please submit your comments on the conversion.

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O Antiphon for December 19

Above is the chanting of the O Antiphon for today in Latin.

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Holy Souls Novena: Day Four

Our Lady, Mother Mary, has said that more souls are released from Purgatory on Christmas than any other day in the year.

This novena was written by Daniel Lord, S.J.

Day 4

Swiftly the memory even of the dear dead seems to pass from human minds. Memory is like the tears upon a coffin, swiftly evaporated, quickly dried. The rush of the days fills the minds and hands of the living. The press of old associations and the establishment of new friends helps supplant and elbow into the dusty corners of our minds the friends now hidden in God's penitentiary. But these prisoners do not forget us.

In the slow, painful dragging of the days they have time to remember. They are so hungry for God that they have little heart for new companions. They are made sensitive---to memory, to neglect, to hope for deliverance, to the knowledge that those who once cried aloud their love have so swiftly forgotten.

With gratitude do they think of those who do remember them. With sadness they think of those who have so swiftly dropped them. They pray to God, who loves them even in their exile, for the thoughtful and the mindful. They beg that those who have pushed them away for the near and the living will drop into their prison house a thought, a prayer, a good deed in ransom.

Remembering our own dear dead, we pray for them:

The Prayer for the Holy Souls

O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of thy servants and handmaids departed, the remission of all their sins; that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

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