null / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Rome Newsroom, Dec 27, 2022 / 08:50 am (CNA).
On Dec. 26, actors in Greccio, Italy, about 50 miles north of Rome, put on a play telling the story of how St. Francis of Assisi created the first living Nativity sc… […]
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St. Louis, Mo., Dec 27, 2022 / 08:00 am (CNA).
For the second year in a row, we at CNA conducted an informal poll on social media to determine which Christmas carol reigns supreme as our readers’ favorite. To simpli… […]
null / Dima Zel / Shutterstock
St. Louis, Mo., Dec 26, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).
1968 was a turbulent year for America. As the Vietnam War raged and peaceful figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., lost their lives at assassins’ hands, cities acr… […]
Pope Francis waves to the faithful gathered on St. Peter’s Square, Dec. 26, 2022 / Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Dec 26, 2022 / 06:07 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Monday called on Catholics to pray for those who have harmed them — and those persecuted — as he renewed his Christmas call for peace in Ukraine and worldwide.
Speaking to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square after praying the Angelus Dec. 26, the pontiff said: “I renew my wish for peace: peace in families, peace in parishes and religious communities, peace in movements and associations, peace for those war-torn peoples, peace for the dear and martyred Ukraine.”
On the feast of the martyr St. Stephen, the pope said “the martyrs are those most similar to Jesus.”
“Indeed, the word martyr means witness: the martyrs are witnesses, that is, brothers and sisters who, through their lives, show us Jesus, who conquered evil with mercy. And even in our day, martyrs are numerous, more so than in the early times”, Pope Francis said.
“Today let us pray for these persecuted martyr brothers and sisters, who bear witness to Christ. But it will do us good to ask ourselves: do I bear witness to Christ? And how can we improve in this? We can indeed be helped by the figure of Saint Stephen.”
Stephen, the pontiff noted, spoke of Jesus to those he met and was not intimidated even by the threats of his persecutors. “Charity and proclamation, this was Stephen. However, his greatest testimony is yet another: that he knew how to unite charity and proclamation. He left it to us at the point of his death when, following the example of Jesus, he forgave his killers.”
The faithful “can improve our witness through charity towards our brothers and sisters, fidelity to the Word of God, and forgiveness. Charity, Word, forgiveness. It is forgiveness that tells whether we truly practice charity towards others, and if we live the Word of God.”
Playing on the connection between the Italian word for forgiveness — perdono — and the Italian word for a gift — dono — the pope explained that forgiveness is a gift “we give to others because we belong to Jesus, forgiven by him.”
The pontiff added: “Let us ask the newborn Jesus for the newness of a heart capable of forgiveness: we all need a forgiving heart! Let us ask the Lord for this grace: Lord, may I learn to forgive. Let us ask for the strength to pray for those who have hurt us, to pray for those who have harmed us, and to take steps of openness and reconciliation.”
Pope Francis concluded with a prayer to “Mary, Queen of martyrs” to “help us to grow in charity, in love of the Word and in forgiveness.”
null / Credit: Imperial War Museums
St. Louis, Mo., Dec 25, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).
The experience of fighting in “The Great War,” World War I, was marked by brutality and misery on a scale never before seen. The grisly realities of trench warfa… […]
Fresco of the Holy Family in Dobling Carmelite Monastery in Vienna, Austria. The Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family this year on Friday, Dec. 30, 2022. / Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock
Denver, Colo., Dec 25, 2022 / 08:00 am (CNA).
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With a cane in his right hand, 86-year-old Pope Francis delivers his 10th Christmas "Urbi et Orbi" blessing on Dec. 25, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 25, 2022 / 05:00 am (CNA).
In his Christmas Day blessing, Pope Francis pra… […]
The Vatican’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 3, 2022. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Dec 24, 2022 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
What does this night still have to say to our lives? Two thousand years after the birth of Jesus, after so many Chr… […]
Pope Francis offers Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, 2021 / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 24, 2022 / 12:20 pm (CNA).
A manger, the Christ Child’s first resting place, can teach us a lot about the meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said in his Christmas homily.
“In order to rediscover the meaning of Christmas, we need to look to the manger,” he said on Dec. 24.
“Yet why is the manger so important? Because it is the sign, and not by chance, of Christ’s coming into this world,” he said. “It is how he announces his coming. It is the way God is born in history, so that history itself can be reborn.”
Pope Francis celebrated the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord with Mass during the night, held in St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 24.
“The Christmas manger, the first message of the divine Child, tells us that God is with us, he loves us and he seeks us. So take heart,” the pope said. “Do not allow yourself to be overcome by fear, resignation or discouragement. God was born in a manger so that you could be reborn in the very place where you thought you had hit rock bottom. There is no evil, there is no sin, from which Jesus does not want to save you.”
The Christmas Mass, which had around 7,000 people in attendance according to the Vatican, began with the chanting of the traditional Kalenda Proclamation of the Birth of Christ from the Roman Martyrology. A statue of the Baby Jesus, displayed in front of the altar, was then unveiled as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out.
The choir sang the traditional Christmas carols Silent Night, the First Noel, and Adeste Fidelis, among others. The Mass concluded with the traditional Italian carol Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, which means “You come down from the stars.”
In his homily, Pope Francis said God wants to tell us the following message: “If you feel consumed by events, if you are devoured by a sense of guilt and inadequacy, if you hunger for justice, I, your God, am with you. I know what you are experiencing, for I experienced it myself in that manger. I know your weaknesses, your failings and your history. I was born in order to tell you that I am, and always will be, close to you.”
The pope focused on the three places in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke where it mentions the manger.
“First, Mary places Jesus ‘in a manger’ (Lk 2:7); then the angels tell the shepherds about ‘a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger’ (v. 12); and finally, the shepherds, who find ‘the child lying in the manger’ (v. 16),” he said.
Francis explained that by being born in a stable and placed in a manger to sleep, the Son of God showed us that true wealth is found in relationships, not power and money.
“Around the manger there is very little: hay and straw, a few animals, little else. People were warm in the inn, but not here in the coldness of a stable. Yet that is where Jesus was born,” he said. “The manger reminds us that he was surrounded by nothing but love: Mary, Joseph and the shepherds; all poor people, united by affection and amazement, not by wealth and great expectations.”
He said the Church is called to show the same affection toward the poor.
“We are called to be a Church that worships a Jesus who is poor and that serves him in the poor,” he noted, quoting St. Oscar Romero, who said on Jan. 1, 1980: “The Church supports and blesses efforts to change the structures of injustice, and sets down but one condition: that social, economic and political change truly benefit the poor.”
“Certainly, it is not easy to leave the comfortable warmth of worldliness to embrace the stark beauty of the grotto of Bethlehem, but let us remember that it is not truly Christmas without the poor. Without the poor, we can celebrate Christmas, but not the birth of Jesus,” he said.
A variety of fish dishes served on Christmas Eve. / Francesca Pollio Fenton / CNA
Denver, Colo., Dec 24, 2022 / 10:00 am (CNA).
There are numerous Christmas Eve traditions families around the world take part in, whether it’s watching a certain … […]
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