The Presentation of the Lord

What is refining? What does it mean to refine gold or silver? What else is refined? How are people refined by God?

Were you ever presented in the “temple”? When? Were there elders like Anna and Simeon there? What was their reaction?

What do you think of the idea that a baby can have a great destiny? Are there people around you who are hopeful about your destiny? What are they hoping?
(from CL weekly)

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Following Jesus
Reading I:Isaiah 8:23-9:3 (the Prince of Peace)
Reading II:1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 17 (factions)
Gospel: Matthew 4:12-23 (Jesus in Capernaum)

Key Passage: Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:23)

Adult: To whom could you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ this week with actions rather than words?
Child: What could you do for someone this week that would tell them something about Jesus?
(from: PastoralPlanning.com)

St. Marianne Cope

It is always exciting to find a saint who os from the Americas which is what we have for this day's Saint of the Day:
Today marks the feast day of the newly canonized American saint, Mother Marianne Cope, OSF (1838-1918). St. Marianne Cope emigrated with her family from Germany as an infant and grew up in Utica, NY. She joined the Sisters of St. Francis at the age of twenty-four and later helped to found and operate two regional hospitals in upstate New York. In 1883, she answered the plea of Hawaii's king to operate hospitals and care for the victims of leprosy, traveling to Hawaii with six Franciscan sisters. During the last thirty years of her life, she chose to be exiled on the island of Molokai where she cared for women and children with leprosy. She was a life-long witness to the equal dignity and value of every human being. She brought beauty and order to the lives of these outcasts, and provided them with educational and religious instruction as well as teaching them music and the decorative arts. St. Marianne, help us to see the beauty and value in every human life! (From USCCB 9 Days for Life Novena)

Patron Saints of the Right to Life Movement

Today marks the anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion in the United States, and has lead to the deaths of nearly 55 million children.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has designated today as a National Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Unborn. People of all faiths—including Notre Dame faculty, staff, students, and alumni—are converging on Washington, D.C., to participate in today’s March for Life. Join the bishops and others to pray for an end to abortion with the “9 Days for Life” campaign by going to the USCCB web site and search for "9 Days for Life".

Several saints are patrons for the Right to Life movement. St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of them—he was a Polish Franciscan priest who was imprisoned in 1941 and sent to a concentration camp for speaking out against the Nazis. When a fellow prisoner—a husband and father—was selected for execution in the camp, Maximilian stepped forward to take his place. With nine other prisoners, he was locked in a starvation chamber and eventually euthanized.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is another patron of the Right to Life movement. In 1531, she appeared to Juan Diego, an indigenous Indian living near what is now Mexico City. She appeared to him as an indigenous woman herself, and spoke to him in his native language. She left him a miraculous sign—her image imprinted on his cloak. In the image, she appears with a black band around her waist—a custom symbolizing her pregnancy.

Patron saints of the Right to Life movement, pray for us that we might build a culture of life!

From: http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&sitebuilder=1&pgid=10813

Call to Prayer for Life, Marriage, and Religious Liberty

The U.S. Bishops are encouraging the faithful to pray and fast for the renewal of a culture of life and marriage and for protection of religious liberty. In particular, Catholics are invited to make a pledge to fast and abstain from meat on Fridays. Below are suggested intentions and reflections for the Friday fast.

Intention: We pray that we can continue to serve the poor and needy while living out the fullness of our faith.

Reflection: In his exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium. . . , Pope Francis urges Catholics and non-Catholics alike to serve the poorest among us. As Christians, we are called to serve Christ by serving and caring for our brothers and sisters. We do this every day in our schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations that seek to alleviate the suffering of the vulnerable.

Did You Know? Each year, the President declares January 16th to be Religious Freedom Day. . . , which commemorates the landmark adoption in 1786 of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, drafted by Thomas Jefferson. The goal of this day is to promote and protect religious expression and to "observe this day through appropriate events and activities in homes, schools, and places of worship."

from: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/call-to-prayer-friday-fast-intentions-and-reflections.cfm

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, year A

Jesus, the Son of God
Reading I:Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 (the servant of the Lord)
Reading II: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 (greeting to the church)
Gospel: John 1:29-34 (John’s testimony to Jesus)

Key Passage: [John said,] “I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” (John 1:31)

Adult: We witness to Christ as John did, by living lives full of generosity, forgiveness, and mercy toward others. When do you find it most difficult to do this?
Child: Who has surprised you by doing something kind for you when you did not expect it?
(from: PastoralPlanning.com)

Call to Prayer Friday Fast and Intentions

For all victims of violence: that they may receive consolation from the divine Father, who showers love on every person.

Reflection: Peace is the fruit of a society bound together in solidarity with each other and rooted in full dependence on God the Father. Loving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ saves us from the indifference prevailing in our culture. There are no “disposable lives.”*

As Pope Francis recentlyremarked. . . during the World Day of Peace, “Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are all relational beings.” This relational dimension of our human nature finds its full expression when we all embrace “a common Father.”* In this way we can understand that belonging to each other as “sons and daughters in the Son”* not only cultivates a society of peace but also comforts and sustains a society troubled by violence. We can rest with the awareness that because we are loved beyond measure, we are capable of loving beyond the confines of a violent culture.

Did You Know? January 1, 2014 marked the 47th World Day of Peace.

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/call-to-prayer-friday-fast-intentions-and-reflections.cfm

Baptism of the Lord, Year A

Faithful service

Reading I: Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7 (the servant of the Lord)
Reading II: Acts 10:34-38 (Peter’s discourse)
Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17 (the baptism of Jesus)

Key Passage: Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)

Adult: How does your own baptism provide you with a “call to serve others?” In what ways do you serve?

Child: When has the Holy Spirit helped you treat someone fairly?
(from PastoralPlanning.com)

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, January 3

Today’s feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus is another way for the Church to call our attention to Jesus’ identity, and to encourage us to call upon him.

When Gabriel visited Mary, the angel told her, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Similarly, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and explained Mary’s virgin conception. “You are to name him Jesus,” the angel told Joseph, “because he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus’ name literally means “savior.” St. Paul writes to the Philippians that “God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

St. Bernard of Clairvoux was a great promoter of devotion to the holy name of Jesus. “To speak of it brings to the mind all that the name stands for,” he wrote. “To call on it calms and soothes the heart.”

There are many other references to the power of Jesus’ name in Scriptures. In the Acts of the Apostles, the name of Jesus healed the lame and brought the dead back to life. The holy name is a protection from the devil, who has been conquered by Jesus on the cross and fears his name. We conclude all of our prayers as a Church by praying in the name of Jesus Christ, for he promised that “whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 16:23).

The emblem or monogram of the holy name of Jesus—the initials IHS—is seen in many places on campus, including on the pedestal of the Statue of the Sacred Heart in front of the Dome. In the Middle Ages, Jesus’ name was written as “Ihesus,” so the monogram IHS contains the (combined) first and last letters of this name. The Jesuits have this monogram as the emblem of their order—it can be seen in this image of St. Ignatius of Loyola from the Basilica.

On this feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, let every knee bend and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

(From:http://faith.nd.edu/s/1210/faith/interior.aspx?sid=1210&gid=609&pgid=17524&cid=34738&ecid=34738&crid=0&calpgid=10817&calcid=24284)

Epiphany Year A

A gift for all people

Reading I: Isaiah 60:1-6 (glory of the new Zion)
Reading II: Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6 (commission to preach God’s plan)
Gospel: Matthew 2:1-12 (the visit of the magi)

Key Passage: In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, “Where is the Child: who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” (Matthew 2:1–2)

Adult: The Magi were strangers from another land. How do you welcome immigrants and strangers in the name of Christ?
Child: What could you do to be like a star and lead someone to know about Jesus?
(from: PastoralPlanning.com)