DECEMBER 8th, and  the Church celebrates with great solemnity the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

For some time, this honorable title borne by Our Lady,  has been mistakenly  attributed to the conception and birth of Our Lord, when in fact the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary, conceived spotless, free from original sin, by virtue of the foreseen merits of her son Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary was conceived by normal biological means in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, but God acted upon her soul, keeping it “Immaculate”.  The doctrine was dogmatically defined in 1854, by Pope Pius IX. Four years after this Papal proclamation, on the 11th
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PREPARE FOR THE PREPARATION – ADVENT

The King is on his way… When you think of Advent, what do youthink about? Perhaps it’s opening a chocolate Advent calendar every day for 25 days; maybe it’s Christmas shopping or preparing for Christmas guests; or perhaps it makes you think of eating mince pies, drinking mulled wine, and singing Christmas carols. We have a tendency to celebrate the arrival of the King before he’s even come. Imagine a great earthly King came to visit your house and he found that instead of preparing for his visit, you were already celebrating? Or perhaps like Martha, sister of Mary, you
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Miraculous Medal

Time to Wear a Miraculous Medal The Miraculous Medal is a special medal design based on mystical visions of St. Catherine Labouré in the 19th century. It’s a popular devotional item and is associated with miracles and conversions.   1) I am being reminded daily to “listen to my Mother”. Almost 200 years ago Our Blessed Mother instructed Saint Catherine Laboure to “have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around their neck.” Our Blessed Mother also told Catherine, “Now it must be given to the whole world and to every person.” For almost
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LENT US GO ABOVE AND BEYOND

LENT is the season that begins on Ash Wednesday (today) and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. Its duration is 40 days. Jesus, himself, endured 40 days of fast and prayer in the desert prior to His public ministry. We lay people living in the world, we need not take on a monastic fast of bread and water. We can follow the Lenten custom of fasting by “giving something up”. This may include a favourite food, or pastime. We may choose to stop eating between meals, or skip dessert. We return it all to God for forty days, not
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SEE MORE in the Seymour Bill

  How is it that the thoughts or actions of ONE man can propose disruptive and destructive legislature and be taken seriously?  Have the names and actions of men such as Hitler, Stalin or Idi Amin, been forgotten?  These men wrought evil upon their own citizens which had far-reaching effects beyond their own shores.  However, decades later, our memories have dulled and indeed these prominent names of history and their atrocities seem to have faded.  Today, those who seek to do harm (albeit a blindness, for which we should feel pity), are less obvious and so their actions and ideals
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GOOD MORNING … OFFERING

In the Ancient World, sacrifice was essential to religion and a priest was someone who had the right and duty to offer sacrifice. Israel forfeited the office of priesthood after they had sinned by worshiping the Golden Calf in the desert.  After this incident, the priesthood was reserved for the tribe of Levi, whose members had refused to take part in the idolatry.  The Levites were still operating as the Priests in the time of Jesus, offering sacrifices of slaughtered animals, grain, wine and incense.  Supremely important, however, was the first offering of the day.  Once the priests had discerned
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THE CHURCH’S CALENDAR

No-one knows human nature better than the God who created it.  That’s why He fashioned the world to follow certain rhythms. As with our daily secular lives, so too with our Spiritual life.  The cycle of the liturgical year and its great feasts,  are basic rhythms of the Christian’s life of prayer. They commemorate and communicate the mystery of Christ.  They are an invitation to regular prayer and intended to nourish continual prayer. The sacred calendar coincided with the cosmic rhythms.  The feasts in the Old Testament marked not only sacred and historic events, but also seed-time and harvest.  Jesus
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Ho Ho Holy Santa Claus

Everything has an  origin, a history, a past.  So too, does the jolly, whiskered gentleman whose character and purpose – rivaled only perhaps by restaurant giant, McDonalds – is the most universally recognised figure in the Western World. However, not only does history have a habit of  “repeating itself”  but also of “changing form” over the course of time, so that the true identity of someone or something can differ from its original form, becoming similar to a “Chinese Whisper” so that the final telling bears scant resemblance to its origin. In the early USA his name was ‘Kris Kringle’ (from the
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A Beginning and an End…

As Advent approaches, we find our thoughts turning towards the annual  preparatory exercises associated with it but we must also recognise that when one door opens, it has usually been preceded by another door closing.  So it is, that the Church has now ‘closed’ another Liturgical Calendar year and is beginning another. While the approach of Christmas can and should bring peace and hope to our hearts and homes,  we must not forget another aspect of Church thought/teaching, which encourages us to reflect upon the Eschatological elements of the season,   about which we should regularly be mindful.  Eschatology is that part of theology
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Water, Water Everywhere

With two thirds of the earth’s surface covered by water and the human body consisting of 75 percent of it, it is evidently clear that water is one of the prime elements responsible for life on earth…and beyond. We assume our human form in the amniotic sac (bag of waters) in the womb and in the order of nature, birth begins when a mother’s “water breaks”. Literally, from the dawn of time, this ‘elemental gold’ has been present giving life to all creation.  In Genesis we read…”…and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters…” When
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November – Great, Great and more Great.

We find ourselves just past the halfway point of November and this signals that Advent is not too far away. The very first day of this month, found the Church commemorating and celebrating the Great solemnity of All Saints Day, followed on the 2nd by the Great day of remembrance for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  That was not to be the end of the “Greats” for this liturgically colourful month of the Calendar. On the 9th of November, we remembered the dedication of the Latern Basilica, the Mother of all Churches throughout the world. November 10th, we were introduced
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Temples of Stone and Flesh

Never a dull moment in the Catholic Church, always something exciting happening and something to learn about. Today the Church and the liturgy celebrates the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called “Mother and head of all the churches of Rome and the world.” In fact, this basilica was the first to be built after Emperor Constantine’s edict, in 313, granting Christians freedom to practice their religion. The basilica’s dedication was celebrated by Pope Sylvester around 324 and was named Most Holy Savior; only after the 6th century were the names of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist
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Keeping Christ in Christmas

CHRISTMAS CARDS The custom of sending Christmas Cards began in the United Kingdom in 1843, by Sir Henry Cole and his artist friend, John Horsley.  Sir Henry assisted in the introduction of the Penny Post in 1840, which made posting more affordable for the ordinary people.  As printing methods improved, cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers.  By 1870, the price of postage improved even more to a lesser amount of a half penny, furthering the popularity of sending Christmas cards to friends and loved ones.   In light of the many secular traditions taking precedence
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Make a Scene this Christmas

Paragraph CHRISTMAS CRIB “A Child is born to us, a son is given to us” so prophesied Isaiah as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and darkness. For centuries, the fulfilment of that prophecy has been depicted in homes and Churches around the world, in the Christmas Crib or Nativity scene. This tradition began in 1223, in the Italian town of Greccio, where Saint Francis of Assisi, with the help of a local landowner, brought into the hearts and minds of the people, that first Christmas night.  He did this in order to help
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Calling All Souls for Souls

November 2, and another special day in the Church’s calendar.  All Souls Day. Today we remember our loved ones gone from this world to continue a new life in the next.  Throughout the Catholic world today, people will pray for the souls of these family and friends that their souls may be at peace.  The faithful may attend one of the three Masses offered for the deceased in each Catholic Church today.  They are encouraged to visit a cemetery and pray for those buried there, especially for those departed souls who have no-one to offer prayers for them. In many
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