The Weekly Francis – 15 December 2013

Pope Francis is having his "Inaugural Mass"? What's happens in this Mass, and why is it important?This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 28 November to 14 December 2013.

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Gaudete Sunday: 11 things to know and share . . .

gaudetesundayThe third Sunday of Advent is known as “Gaudete Sunday.”

In the readings, we hear about miracles associated with the Messianic age, its coming, and what we need to do to prepare.

We also learn about the doubts of John the Baptist, how he dealt with them, and the blessing that makes us even more fortunate than John was.

Here are 11 things to know and share . . .

 

1) Why is the third Sunday of Lent known as Gaudete Sunday?

Its name is taken from the entrance antiphon of the Mass, which is:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.
Indeed, the Lord is near.

This is a quotation from Philippians 4:4-5, and in Latin, the first word of the antiphon is gaudete (Latin, “rejoice”)

 

2) What significance does this have?

Advent is the season of preparing for the arrival of the Lord Jesus (both his first coming and his second coming), and by the third Sunday of Advent, we are most of the way through the season.

Thus it is appropriate to rejoice as we see the goal of the season approaching: “The Lord is near.”

 

3) What is the appropriate liturgical color for this day?

According to the rubrics:

In this mass the color violet or rose is used.

It can thus be either one. It doesn’t have to be rose; it can also be violet.

 

4) What does the first reading say?

KEEP READING.

Why don’t we call bishops “apostles”? (And more!)

microphoneJimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

  • Why don’t we call bishops “apostles” if they’re the successors to the apostles? When did we start having bishops? (2:30)
  • Why did the Catholic Church support the “bad guys” in the Spanish Civil War? (5:00)
  • What can Jimmy recommend to a searching Protestant for understanding the pope and Mary? (12:15)
  • Are there apostles living today? (20:35)
  • Are all churches the same? (22:25)
  • Does the fact that Paul was sent to the Gentiles and Rome disprove the authority of Peter? (30:00)
  • Why do Catholics pray to saints if Jesus is the only Mediator? Can we pray for those who have passed on, and if so, do they have to be canonized saints? (34:35)
  • Does Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees imply sola scriptura? Where do Catholics and Protestants differ on sola scriptura? (44:40)

(Original Airdate: December 5, 2013)

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

What Now?

If you like the information I’ve presented here, you should join my Secret Information Club.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Secret Information Club is a free service that I operate by email.

I send out information on a variety of fascinating topics connected with the Catholic faith.

In fact, the very first thing you’ll get if you sign up is information about what Pope Benedict said about the book of Revelation.

He had a lot of interesting things to say!

If you’d like to find out what they are, just sign up at www.SecretInfoClub.com or use this handy sign-up form:

Just email me at jimmy@secretinfoclub.com if you have any difficulty.

In the meantime, what do you think?

Our Lady of Guadalupe: 6 things to know and share

ourladyofguadalupeDecember 12 is the commemoration of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In the United States, the day is a feast.

Linked to this day is December 9, which is the optional memorial of Juan Diego, to whom she appeared.

Here are 6 things to know and share . . .

 

1) Who was Juan Diego?

More formally known as St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, he lived from 1474 to 1548.

According to the biography of him on the Vatican web site,

Little is known about the life of Juan Diego before his conversion, but tradition and archaelogical and iconographical sources, along with the most important and oldest indigenous document on the event of Guadalupe, “El Nican Mopohua” (written in Náhuatl with Latin characters, 1556, by the Indigenous writer Antonio Valeriano), give some information on the life of the saint and the apparitions.

Juan Diego was born in 1474 with the name “Cuauhtlatoatzin” (“the talking eagle”) in Cuautlitlán, today part of Mexico City, Mexico.

He was a gifted member of the Chichimeca people, one of the more culturally advanced groups living in the Anáhuac Valley.

When he was 50 years old he was baptized by a Franciscan priest, Fr Peter da Gand, one of the first Franciscan missionaries.

 

2) What happened to him so that he is remembered today?

According to the Vatican biography,

On 9 December 1531, when Juan Diego was on his way to morning Mass, the Blessed Mother appeared to him on Tepeyac Hill, the outskirts of what is now Mexico City.

She asked him to go to the Bishop and to request in her name that a shrine be built at Tepeyac, where she promised to pour out her grace upon those who invoked her.

Note that this event took place on December 9th, which has become the memorial of St. Juan Diego.

 

3) What happened next?

KEEP REDING.

The Weekly Francis – 8 December 2013

PopeFrancis-fingerThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 24 November to 7 December 2013.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets

  • “Your sins are great? Just tell the Lord: Forgive me, help me to get up again, change my heart!” @pontifex, 2 December 2013
  • “We are all called to be friends with Jesus. Don’t be afraid to love the Lord.” @pontifex, 2 December 2013
  • “Fifty years ago, Vatican II spoke of communications. Let us listen to, dialogue with, and bring to Christ all those we encounter in life.” @pontifex, 2 December 2013
  • “Holiness doesn’t mean doing extraordinary things, but doing ordinary things with love and faith.” @pontifex, 2 December 2013
  • “The cross is the price of true love. Lord, give us the strength to accept and carry our crosses!” @pontifex, 2 December 2013
  • “Dear young people, put your talents at the service of the Gospel, with creativity and boundless charity.” @pontifex, 2 December 2013

The Immaculate Conception: 8 things to know and share . . .

Dec. 8th is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. What is the Immaculate Conception and how do we celebrate it?

December 8th is ordinarily celebrated as the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, but this year in the U.S., it’s being celebrated on Monday, December 9th.

It celebrates an important point of Catholic teaching, and it is a holy day of obligation.

Here are 8 things you need to know about the teaching and the way we celebrate it.

 

1. Who does the Immaculate Conception refer to?

There’s a popular idea that it refers to Jesus’ conception by the Virgin Mary.

It doesn’t.

Instead, it refers to the special way in which the Virgin Mary herself was conceived.

This conception was not virginal. (That is, she had a human father as well as a human mother.) But it was special and unique in another way. . . .

 

2. What is the Immaculate Conception?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it this way:

490 To become the mother of the Saviour, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace”.  In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace.

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. 

 

3. Does this mean Mary never sinned?

Yes. Because of the way redemption was applied to Mary at the moment of her conception, she not only was protected from contracting original sin but also personal sin. The Catechism explains:

493 The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God “the All-Holy” (Panagia), and celebrate her as “free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature”.  By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long. “Let it be done to me according to your word. . .”

 

4. Does this mean Mary didn’t need Jesus to die on the Cross for her?

KEEP READI

2nd Sunday of Advent: 9 things to know and share

winnowThis Sunday’s readings take us from Old Testament prophecies of the future Messiah to the union of Jew and Gentile in God’s kingdom.

They also bring us to the herald of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the mysterious image of Jesus’ “winnowing fan.”

Here are 9 things to know and share . . .

 

1) What does the first reading this Sunday say?

The first reading is Isaiah 11:1-10 (you can read it here).

This reading contains the famous Messianic prophesy which begins:

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

It continues by describing how the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him.

The passage stresses that the “shoot” (a future king of the line of David) will judge righteously. It also uses language that will be applied to Jesus in the New Testament, stating:

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Then comes the famous passage:

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The prophecy concludes:

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain;

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

2) What does this mean?

This prophecy may have had an initial fulfillment in the days after it was first given, in Isaiah’s time. If so then, like many prophecies, it has another, greater fulfillment, which is in the Messiah.

The text depicts the ideal king—the Messiah—who will come as a shoot or branch from the stump of Jesse. That is, he will belong to the line of King David, the son of Jesse.

The Hebrew word for “branch” is netser, and this is part of the background to Matthew’s statement that “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matt. 2:23), playing on the similarity in sound between netser and nazoraios (an inhabitant of Nazareth).

The language this passage uses to describe how the Spirit of the Lord rests upon the king was later used by the Church to describe the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Endowed with the Spirit as he is, the Messiah will be the ideal king. He will have powerful authority (“he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth”), but he will use his kingly authority wisely and in the service of justice (“and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked”).

He will not oppress his people. Far from it! Rather, he will inaugurate an era of peace and justice such that it can be depicted as reconciling predators and prey, so that “they will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.”

This will lead to knowledge of the true God spreading all over the world “as the waters cover the sea” and in that day the Messiah—the root of Jesse—shall be a beacon to all peoples, who will turn to him and inquire of him and his wisdom.

These prophecies are fulfilled, in an anticipatory way, with the first advent of the Messiah and the spread of the Christian faith, and they will be definitively fulfilled with the second advent and the eternal order.

 

3) What does the responsorial Psalm for this Sunday say?

KEEP READING.

How do the non-canonical gospels compare to the biblical ones (and more!)

microphoneJimmy appears on Catholic Answers Live in this episode of the podcast and answers these questions:

  • What does Jimmy think of the pope’s new apostolic exhortation? (2:35)
  • Why do the early Church Fathers know best? Why are they authoritative? (6:15)
  • Is there evidence that the apostolic Fathers carried over the deposit of faith? (9:00)
  • Did the Reformers educate the people, whereas the Catholic Church deprived people of knowledge? (14:45)
  • Is it okay to lie the way Rahab did? (22:05)
  • Does the existence of non-canonical Gospels diminish the authority of the ones in the Bible? (27:35)
  • Were the four canonical gospels established at the Council of Carthage? (32:40)
  • What resources review Catholic books and movies in light of Catholic teaching? (34:30)
  • Can people do things pleasing to God before they know Jesus? (40:05)
  • Do conceptions have to occur through a sexual act? (48:40)
  • Is it morally permissible to contribute to a fund that your job requires you to permit to if it’s pro-abotion? (51:45)

(Original Airdate: November 26, 2013)

 

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE EPISODE.

Or use the player below at JimmyAkin.com . . .

St. Ambrose: Strangest Life Story Ever? (8 things to know and share)

St_AmbroseSt. Ambrose’s memorial is December 7th.

He was one of the four original doctors of the Church, and he baptized St. Augustine.

He also had perhaps the strangest life story of any of the Church Fathers!

Here are 8 things to know and share . . .

 

1) Who was St. Ambrose?

St. Ambrose of Milan was born around A.D. 338 and died in 397.

He was the bishop of Milan, Italy.

 

2) What makes is his life story so strange?

Originally, he was a government official, he became bishop in a most extraordinary way.

After the death of the local bishop, the Catholics and Arians got into a vehement conflict about who should be the new bishop.

Ambrose was trying to keep the peace and settle the two groups down when someone—allegedly a small boy—began chanting “Ambrose, bishop!”

Soon the two groups began chanting together that Ambrose should be the new bishop.

(The Arians, apparently, felt that although Ambrose was Catholic in belief he would be a kinder bishop than they otherwise would likely get.)

This set of circumstances is extraordinary enough, but what’s even more extraordinary is that Ambrose wasn’t even a Christian yet. He was an unbaptized catechumen!
3) Can it get any stranger?

Yes it can!

KEEP READING!

The Weekly Francis – 1 December 2013

pope-francisThis version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 16 November to 30 November 2013.

Angelus

Apostolic Exhortations

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

Papal Tweets