proclamation of the birth of christ

The Roman Martyrology for Christmas has a formal annoucement of the birth of Christ. The annoucement, as follows, can be found in the Sacramentary Supplement:

Today, the twenty-fifth day of December,
unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth
and then formed man and woman in his own image.
Several thousand years after the flood,
when God made the rainbow shine forth
as a sign of the covenant.
Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;
thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Eqypt.
Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judgesl
one thousand years from the anointing of David as king;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.
In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the City of Rome.
The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since his conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary
Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

national radio debut

Last night, I made my national radio debut on Sirius’ The Catholic Channel- Channel 159 on your Sirius Satellite Radio- during Paulist Father Dave Dwyer’s Busted Halo nightly broadcast. This is the sister program to the BustedHalo podcast.
It was a brief segment about what was preached during the Sunday homily (to connect with Friday evening’s segment about what readings are lined up for Sunday) and to make a quick plug for the UCC’s homily podcast.
I’ll be updating that after lunch.

we must find him

If Christ is to be for us a savior,
we must find him here, now, and where we are,
in this age of ours;
otherwise, he is no Christ,
no Savior,
no Immanuel, no “God with us.”

- (soon to be Servant of God) Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers

race for the cure in central texas

This week’s newsletter from the Diocese of Austin included the following note:

As a church we wholeheartedly support those who are suffering from breast cancer and other diseases. We wish we could support the “Race for a Cure,” however, it is to be noted that the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the Central Texas area financially supports Planned Parenthood and abortion.

This produces an interesting problem for Catholics. Breast cancer is something that we, of course, want eliminated, but what do we do when a foundation focused on assisting with a cancer cure supports, financially, Planned Parenthood and the killing of innocent children?

celibacy still the rule

The policy of priestly celibacy was not on the table during today’s meeting of Pope Benedict XVI and some of his cardinals. Today’s meeting focused on the impact of the estimated 100,000 priests worldwide who have left active ministry and married.
From the news I’m seeing at this point, there isn’t much to report except the status quo.

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