29 Dec – Fifth Day of the Octave of Christmas; Memorial for St Thomas à Becket, Bishop & Martyr Thomas (1118-1170) was of Norman ancestry. He was educated at Merton Priory, Paris, Bologna, and Auxerre. He was a civil and canon lawyer, a soldier and officer. He was archdeacon of Canterbury, and was a Friend [...]
28 Dec – Fourth Day of the Octave of Christmas; Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martrys The Holy Innocents are the children slaughtered by Herod the Great when he tried to kill the infant Christ. – Patron Saint Index The children died for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourned for the [...]
27 Dec – Third Day of the Octave of Christmas; Feast of St John, Apostle & Evangelist St. John, also known as the “beloved disciple” of Jesus’ was the son of Zebedee and Salome, brother of St. James the Great, and was called one of the Sons of Thunder. Before becoming Jesus’ disciple, he was [...]
26 Dec – Second Day of the Octave of Christmas; Feast of St Stephen, Protomartyr St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr. A deacon and a preacher, all we know of him is related in the Acts of the Apostles. While preaching the gospel in the streets, angry Jews who believed his message to be [...]
25 Dec – Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Mass during the Day) The Word Made Flesh For us the Word of God is no longer the message spoken by prophets, but the messenger of God in person, the eternal Word begotten of the Father before time began. – The Sunday Missal _____________________ Isaiah [...]
25 Dec – Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Mass at Dawn) The First Dawn Of A New Age We celebrate the marvellous events of the first morning of a new world, when the kindness and love of God our Saviour made us hs holy people, the Lord’s Redeemed, his ‘sought-after’, and his ‘city-not-forsaken’. [...]
24 Dec – Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Vigil Mass) Jesus, Son of David God prepared the people of Israel to receive his Son. May we too be ready to welcome him. – The Sunday Missal _____________________ Isaiah 62:1-5 About Zion I will not be silent, about Jerusalem I will not grow weary, [...]
08 Jan _____________________ 1 John 5:14-21 We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything, and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us; and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us, we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him. [...]
07 Jan – Memorial for St Raymond of Penyafort, Priest St. Raymond (1175-1275) was of Aragonian nobility. He was educated at the cathedral school in Barcelona, and became a philosophy teacher at the age of 20. He was a priest. He graduated from law school in Bologna, Italy, and joined the Dominicans in 1218. He [...]
06 Jan _____________________ 1 John 4:19-5:4 We are to love, because God loved us first. Anyone who says, ‘I love God’, and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment that [...]
