Monday, December 31, 2012
St. Silvester I, Pope and Confessor
St. Silvester, born in Rome on a date unknown to us, was ordained by Pope St. Marcellinus during the peace that preceded the persecutions of Diocletian. He was a young priest when those days of terror began, and witnessed the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, eventually witnessing the triumph of Constantine in the year 312. […]
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Saturday, December 29, 2012
St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr
Thomas Becket, by his contemporaries more commonly called Thomas of London, English chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury under King Henry II, was born December 21, 1118 (the day consecrated to the memory of Saint Thomas the Apostle) in Cheapside, London, to Gilbert Beket of Thierville and Matilda (with a familiar name of Roheise or Rosea) […]
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Friday, December 28, 2012
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
[Station at St. Paul Outside the Walls] Then Herod perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry; and sending killed all the men children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the […]
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
St. John the Evangelist
[Station at St. Mary Major’s] St. John the Evangelist, who is referred to in the Gospel as “the beloved disciple”, was a Galilean, son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother to St. James the Greater, both of whom were fishermen. The two were called by Jesus to be disciples as they were mending their nets […]
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
St. Stephen, First Martyr
[Station at St. Stephen’s on the Coelian Hill] The deacon Stephen, stoned in Jerusalem two years after the death of Christ, has always been the object of very special veneration by the faithful. He is the first martyr. The account in the Acts of the Apostles relating his arrest and the accusations brought against him […]
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Monday, December 24, 2012
Vigil of the Nativity/Nativity of Our Lord
(Reposted from 2010 and revised.) The Vigil of the Nativity is a traditional day of abstinence. From the 1945 Marian Missal: The Station Church [the churches at which it was formerly the custom for the Pope to personally celebrate the principal liturgies on certain important days] for Christmas Eve is at St. Mary Major in […]
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Sunday, December 23, 2012
Fourth Sunday of Advent
[Station at the Twelve Apostles] Whereas the Church during the whole year offers her prayers to God the Father in union with Jesus Christ, during Advent she addresses herself directly to the Word, and not to the Word Incarnate, as is shown by today’s Collect. Only on the Second Sunday does she entreat God the […]
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Friday, December 21, 2012
St. Thomas, Apostle
There is very little about the apostle Thomas in the Gospels; one text calls him the “twin.” Rarely during Jesus’ lifetime does he stand out among his colleagues. There is the instance before the raising of Lazarus, when Jesus was still in Perea and Thomas exclaimed: “Let us also go and die with Him.” Best-known […]
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