All Happy Families Are Like the Holy Family (Holy Family - Cycle C)

The Gospel reading for this Sunday depicts a scenario that might puzzle us. How could St. Joseph and the Virgin Mary not realize that Jesus had not set out with them from Jerusalem? How could they leave him behind for three days? We might be tempted to think that they grew careless and had a sort of Home Alone moment. But if we look at the cultural context of the passage, we can see that the situation is very understandable.

At the time of Jesus, people often traveled in caravans for protection, just as Joseph and Mary do in the passage. Recall the story of the Good Samaritan, where a traveler journeyed by himself and was beset by robbers. Having a group travel together provided safety. Since the caravan included extended family and acquaintances, Joseph and Mary did not need to be worried if they didn't see Jesus for a while on the trip back home.

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The Day That Changed the Universe

Christmas is a day that changed the whole course of creation. In the beginning, God created a perfect world, with no defect. But through human sin, suffering and death entered the world. Human sin created a wedge between God and humanity, cutting the human race off from the grace of God. But God did abandon humanity in our brokenness. Right after the fall of the human race, God promised the coming of the Savior, who would redeem the fallen world.

The celebration of Christmas has four different Masses, each with its own readings - the Vigil Mass, the Mass During the Night, the Mass at Dawn, and the Mass During the Day. In the Gospel passage for the Vigil Mass, we see the genealogy of Jesus from the time of Abraham. The passage shows the centuries of preparation for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. In fact, the entirety of the Old Testament period is a time of preparation for the coming of Christ. Contemporary Christian readers are often puzzled by some of the contents of the Old Testament. But everything falls into place if we approach those texts through the lens of the New Testament, through the Gospel message of Christ.

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Reclaiming Christmas: Practical Suggestions for the Catholic Celebration of the Christmas Season

Our culture starts celebrating Christmas right after Thanksgiving or even Halloween and stops on December 26 or at most on January 1. But for Catholics, the Christmas season begins at sundown on Christmas Eve, December 24, and is still far from over as the New Year begins. In a previous article, I discussed how we can reclaim the season of Advent from our secular culture. Let us explore here how we can do the same for Christmas.

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The Virgin Mary Has One Goal (Advent IV - Cycle C)

In the Virgin Mary, we see the image of the perfect disciple. Throughout her earthly life, she cooperated completely with God's grace, never falling into sin of any kind. Through the Immaculate Conception, God kept Mary free of all stain of Original Sin. Throughout her whole life she refrained from any sort of personal sin as well, always keeping her will perfectly aligned with God's Will.

When the Archangel Gabriel came to her, Mary was living in humble circumstances, in a tiny village in a region suffering under the cruel yoke of the Roman Empire. But she believed God's words spoken to her by the angel that she would become the Mother of God and that her son would be the long awaited Messiah.

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The Prayer that Brought Me the Most Joy and Peace (Advent III - Cycle C)

In Old Testament history, a long period of preparation transpired before the coming of the Messiah. Many great figures and various events prefigured the deeply yearned-for moment when the Savior would arrive. The last of those great figures was John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, the last in a long line of Old Testament prophetic figures.

All the prophets pointed toward Christ through their preaching and writings, and John, the immediate precursor to the Messiah, spoke of the imminent coming of Christ explicitly, preaching an uncompromising message of repentance. He lived as a holy man in the desert and was sought out by many for spiritual advice. In the Gospel passage for this Sunday, he gives practical suggestions for how to live a holy life. At the core of his message is the principle that we are to make our everyday lives holy, ensuring that everything we do is consistent with God's Commandments.

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What Can We Do? (Advent II - Cycle C)

The ancient history of the people of Israel revolved around two pivotal times of liberation through God's divine intervention. The first one was the Exodus from Egypt. After the Patriarchs of Israel moved to Egypt, the Israelites grew to be numerous and prosperous. The Egyptian Pharaoh became jealous of their success and started to oppress them and, in time, he even wanted to destroy them completely. But God raised up Moses and Aaron to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land.

The Israelites settled in their new homeland and eventually established a prosperous kingdom. But they continually deviated from the Torah, the law God had given them through Moses. They often broke faith with God and worshipped the gods of other nations. In response, God allowed the enemies of Israel to subdue them. The northern lands were conquered by the Assyrians and then, in early 6th century BC, Jerusalem itself was taken by the Babylonians, who destroyed the Temple and carried off the sacred objects. They also deported the leading families of the Israelites to Babylon, thereby ushering in the decades long period known as the Babylonian Captivity.

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Reclaiming Advent: Practical Suggestions for a Catholic Celebration of the Advent Season

Our culture starts to celebrate Christmas at best at midnight after Thanksgiving, but more and more at midnight after Halloween. However, in the Catholic Church, we do not start the Christmas season until the evening of December 24. Instead, we have a four-week preparation time leading up to Christmas called Advent, which begins on the Sunday closest to St. Andrew's Day, celebrated on November 30th. In the Catholic Church, the Christmas season then continues into January, until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In fact, in an older Catholic tradition, Christmas celebrations didn't end until Candlemas, which is February 2.

In this article, we will explore how we can reconnect with the original purpose of the Advent season and how we can reintroduce Advent customs developed in the Catholic Church throughout the centuries, around the world. Let us rediscover how we can celebrate Advent in the Catholic way.

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