Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Candace’s Corner

· Make reparations to the Holy Face-Tuesday Devotion

· Pray Day 3 of the Novena for our Pope and Bishops

· Tuesday: Litany of St. Michael the Archangel

· How to celebrate Dec 10^th of December

o You wake up on a day filled with possibilities. Begin by indulging in a cold Lager, celebrating the day dedicated to this beloved drink. Then, honor animals’ rights by exploring volunteer opportunities at a local animal shelter or researching cruelty-free brands.

o Next, channel the Nobel Prize spirit by learning something new. Attend a lecture, read a book by a Nobel laureate, or engage in a deep conversation with a friend. Move on to celebrating Human Rights Day by educating yourself on global human rights issues online or attending a virtual human rights workshop.

o Spend an afternoon organizing your bookshelf using the Dewey Decimal System, creating a sense of order and accomplishment. Reflect on the importance of knowledge organization and the power of libraries. Remember the souls of whales by supporting ocean conservation efforts, watching a documentary on marine life, or writing a poem in honor of these majestic creatures.

o End the day by exploring Thai culture and history to commemorate Constitution Day in Thailand. Cook a Thai dish, learn a few phrases in Thai, or watch a Thai film. Embrace the diversity of global traditions and celebrate the principles of democracy and unity. Cheers to a day filled with learning, reflection, and cultural appreciation.

33 days to Christmas-Start the 33 days to Eucharistic Glory[3]

Want to start a small group? Download our 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory Study Guide

Day 13

On this 13^th day, develop the strength not to yield and maintain purity of mind and body.

Copilot:

Developing the strength to resist temptation and maintain purity of mind and body is a continuous and rewarding journey. Here are some practical steps and spiritual practices to help you stay committed to this path:

Spiritual Practices

Daily Prayer: Start and end your day with prayer, asking for God's strength and guidance to stay pure in thought and action.
Scripture Reading: Reflect on passages that encourage purity and strength. Verses like Philippians 4:13 and Psalm 51:10 can be particularly uplifting.
Confession and Eucharist: Regular participation in the sacraments can provide grace and reinforcement of your commitment to purity.

Practical Steps

Mindfulness and Meditation: Practice mindfulness to become more aware of your thoughts and actions. Meditation can help you focus on positive and pure thoughts.
Accountability Partners: Find a trusted friend or mentor with whom you can share your journey. They can provide support, encouragement, and accountability.
Healthy Boundaries: Set and maintain boundaries that protect your mind and body from negative influences. This might include limiting exposure to certain media or environments.

Lifestyle Habits

Exercise and Nutrition: Maintain a healthy lifestyle through regular exercise and a balanced diet. Physical well-being can positively influence mental and spiritual health.
Hobbies and Interests: Engage in activities and hobbies that uplift you and keep your mind occupied with positive pursuits.

Community Involvement

Faith Community: Be active in your faith community, participating in group prayers, study sessions, and service activities.
Volunteer Work: Serving others can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment, helping you stay focused on positive values.

Example Prayer for Strength and Purity

Here’s a prayer to help you seek strength and purity:

Dear Lord,

Grant me the strength to resist temptation and maintain purity of mind and body. Fill me with Your grace and help me to stay focused on Your will. Guide my thoughts, words, and actions so that they reflect Your holiness. Surround me with supportive friends and mentors who can help me on this journey. May Your presence give me the courage and resolve to live a pure and righteous life.

Amen.

DECEMBER 10 Tuesday of the Second Week in Advent

Loretto (Mary’s House) Human Rights Day

Isaiah, Chapter 40, verse 9:

⁹Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of good news! Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Cry out, do not FEAR! Say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!

Today would be a good day to sing Christmas Carols and if you can go as a group onto a high mountain and sing your hearts out. It has been said that singing is praying twice.

The season of advent is all about recognizing that our God has come as a gentle child on Christmas day and his delight is in us. One of my favorite representations of the Lords delight with us is a statue of Joseph and the baby Jesus. Jesus and Joseph are playing. Joseph is slightly bent with the baby Jesus giggling crawling over the back of Joseph and peeking over his shoulder looking at his face in peek a boo fashion and delight is all over both of their faces. How can we fear when we have a God who loves us so! In times of tribulation when we feel courage being drained from our souls let us remember the courage of blessed Saint Joseph reflecting on his courage, strength and of course gentleness with our Lord Jesus. In times of trouble let us call on the aid of St. Joseph reflecting on this portion of the litany of Saint Joseph[1].

”St. Joseph, Renowned offspring of David, Light of Patriarchs, Spouse of the Mother of God, Chaste guardian of the Virgin, Foster father of the Son of God, Diligent protector of Christ, Head of the Holy Family, Joseph most just, Joseph most chaste, Joseph most prudent, Joseph most strong, Joseph most obedient, Joseph most faithful, Mirror of patience, Lover of poverty, Model of artisans, Glory of home life, Guardian of virgins, Pillar of families, Solace of the wretched, Hope of the sick, Patron of the dying, Terror of demons, Protector of Holy Church. Pray for Us!”

Our Lady of Loretto[2]

The shrine of Our Lady of Loreto is located on the Adriatic coast of Italy, three hours from Rome. It is the third-largest shrine to Mary in Europe, next to Lourdes and Fatima. The ministry of the shrine is the hospitality shown to pilgrims especially through the sacrament of penance.

· The title "Our Lady of Loreto" is associated with the Holy House of Loreto in Italy, the house of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, miraculously transported by the angels from Palestine to Europe.

· The house of the Holy Family in Nazareth has always been the object of Christian veneration. Shortly after 313, St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, built a basilica over this holy abode. The Saracens invaded the Holy Land in 1090, plundering and destroying Christian shrines, including Constantine’s basilica. Under the ruble, the Holy House was found intact.

· During the twelfth century, another basilica was built to protect the holy dwelling. In 1219 or 1220 St. Francis of Assisi visited the Holy House in Nazareth. So did King St. Louis IX of France, when he was leading a crusade to liberate the Holy Land.

· In 1263, when the Muslims overpowered the crusaders, the basilica was again destroyed but, once more, the Holy House was found intact.

· When the crusaders were completely driven out of the Holy Land in 1291, the Holy House disappeared.

· On May 10, 1291, a parish priest, Fr. Alexander Georgevich in the town of Tersatto, Dalmatia, (present-day Croatia) noticed the sudden appearance of a small building resting on a plot of land. Puzzled, he prayed about it, and in a dream saw the Blessed Virgin Mary, who explained that the structure was the house of the Holy Family, brought there by the power of God.

· In 1294, with the Moslem invasion of Albania, the house disappeared again. According to the testimony of shepherds, it was seen on December 10 of that year born aloft by angels over the Adriatic Sea. This time the Holy House came to rest in a wooded area four miles from Recanati, Italy. As the news spread fast, thousands flocked there, and many miracles took place at the site.

· Due to contrary circumstances, twice again the house was moved, finally coming to rest in the town of Loreto, Italy, its present location.

· As miracles continued to occur in connection with pilgrimages to the house, deputations were sent to Nazareth to determine its origins in 1292, in 1296, and in 1524. All three declared that the measurements of the house corresponded to the visible foundations of the house of Nazareth.

· In 1871 at the suggestion of Cardinal Bartolini, Professor Ratti of the University of Rome was given mortar and stones from the house at Loreto, and similar materials from houses in Nazareth. Ignorant of which was which, Prof. Ratti ascertained that the composition of the material from the house of Loreto while not original to Italy was identical to that of the material from Nazareth.

· Other striking facts about the house in Loreto are that it has no foundations. The walls rest on a plot that was part field and part road, a sure indication that it was not built there but placed there. The style of the house of Loreto is not Italian but Eastern. And the original door was on the long side of the house, indicating that it was a dwelling and not a church.

· Today a great basilica houses the dwelling of the holiest of families. From 1330, practically all the Popes have considered Loreto the greatest shrine of Christendom. Bulls in favor of the shrine were issued by Pope Sixtus IV in 1491 and by Julius II in 1507. While the miracle of the translation of the house is not a matter of faith, Innocent XII, in the seventeenth century, appointed a special Mass for the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House. Numerous saints have visited the house-relic.

· As pilgrims enter the small precinct, they read on the threshold, “Hic Verbum caro factum est” – “Here the Word became flesh”. Above the altar inside the holy house is an ancient statue of Our Lady holding the Infant Jesus, known as Our Lady of Loreto.

Things to Do

Why is Our Lady of Loreto connected with aviation? Read these two articles, Did angels really carry the Holy House of Mary to Loreto, Italy? at Catholic News Agency and Our Lady of Loreto and Aviation from "All About Mary" at the University of Dayton.
Find out the connection the University of Notre Dame has with Our Lady of Loreto.
Visit the website of Sanctuary of the Holy House of Loreto.
Here is further reading about the Basilica of the Holy House (Basilica della Santa Casa)
The Litany of Loreto originated from this Shrine. Read about the Litany of Loreto in Context.
See The Illustrated Litany of Loreto for visual meditation on the Litany of Loreto.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART TWO: THE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERY

SECTION TWO-THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH

CHAPTER ONE-THE SACRAMENTS OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION

Article 3-THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

II. What is This Sacrament Called?

Day 181

1328 The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it. It is called: Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. the Greek words eucharistein and eulogein recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim - especially during a meal - God's works: creation, redemption, and sanctification.

1329 The Lord's Supper, because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem.
The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meat when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread, above all at the Last Supper. It is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; by doing so they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form but one body in him.
The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is celebrated amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the Church.

1330 The memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection.
The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice of Christ the Savior and includes the Church's offering. the terms holy sacrifice of the Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice, pure and holy sacrifice are also used, since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.
The Holy and Divine Liturgy, because the Church's whole liturgy finds its center and most intense expression in the celebration of this sacrament; in the same sense we also call its celebration the Sacred Mysteries. We speak of the Most Blessed Sacrament because it is the Sacrament of Sacraments. the Eucharistic species reserved in the tabernacle are designated by this same name.

1331 Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body. We also call it: the holy things (ta hagia; sancta) - the first meaning of the phrase "communion of saints" in the Apostles' Creed - the bread of angels, bread from heaven, medicine of immortality, viaticum....

1332 Holy Mass (Missa), because the liturgy in which the mystery of salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives.

Human Rights Day[4]

Human Rights Day commemorates the day on which the United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), a document drafted by representatives from all regions of the world, which outlined fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The Declaration contains 30 articles that touch on rights to freedom, justice, peace, dignity, education and health care, amongst other rights. On December 10, 1948, the United Nations proclaimed the UDHR in an effort to help define equal rights that all humans on the planet deserve and can help the world achieve lasting freedom, justice and peace. Human Rights Day was officially declared by the United Nations in 1950. It is celebrated on December 10th each year and is marked by speeches and activities designed to bring attention to the issues surrounding the most pressing Human Rights issues worldwide.

Human Rights Day Facts & Quotes

· The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was one of their first declarations and came about after the atrocities perpetrated upon humans during World War II were brought to light.

· Over the past decade, armed conflict has killed 2 million children, disabled another 4-5 million, left 12 million homeless and orphaned another million.

· Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. - Abraham Lincoln

· America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense... human rights invented America. - Jimmy Carter

· I have cherished the ideal a democratic and free society... it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, who was imprisoned from 1964-1990.

Human Rights Day Top Events and Things to Do

· Educate yourself on current human rights fights such as genocide by terrorist groups, slavery and trafficking and child labor around the world.

· Get involved with a local human rights organization.

· Watch a documentary about human rights issues and violations. Some recommendations: Invisible Children (2006), Girl Rising (2013) and Nefarious (2011).

· The U.S. is not the only country to recognize the importance of religious liberty. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights--a foundational document for international law, created by representatives from all over the world--recognizes this basic human right in Article 18: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”. Clearly, the framers of this document relied on human reason and saw the need for governments to recognize this civil right.[5]

Jesse Tree[6]

Jesse Tree Scriptures (The Symbols Are Only Suggestions)