In a new Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde(“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.
The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To celebrate the anniversary, Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St Joseph,” beginning on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2020 and extending to the same feast in 2021.
Read more in thearticleposted on the Vatican website
PRAYER:
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
Advent marks a time of spiritual preparation before Christmas
It begins on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 30) and spans four Sundays or four weeks unless Christmas falls early.
The historical origins of Advent are hard to determine with great precision. From its earliest form in the 4th century, Advent has always been similar to Lent, with an emphasis on prayer and fasting.
The Gelasian Sacramentary, traditionally attributed to Pope St. Gelasius I (d. 496), was the first to provide Advent liturgies for five Sundays. Later, Pope St. Gregory I (d. 604) enhanced these liturgies composing prayers, antiphons, readings, and responses. Pope St. Gregory VII (d. 1095) later reduced the number of Sundays in Advent to four. Finally, about the ninth century, the Church designated the first Sunday of Advent as the beginning of the Church’s Liturgical Year.
The Catechism stresses the two-fold meaning of this coming : When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for His second coming (No. 524).
The importance of this season is therefore to focus on the coming of our Lord. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning coming:
We REFLECT BACK and are encouraged to celebrate the anniversary of the Lords first coming into this world. We are invited to ponder more deeply into the great mystery of the incarnation when our Lord humbled Himself, taking on our humanity, and entered our time and space to free us from sin.
We LOOK FORWARD as we recall in the Creed that our Lord will come again to judge the living and the dead and that we must be ready to meet Him.
Our use of the Advent wreathe was inspired by the German Lutherans in the early 1500’s. The wreathe is a circle, which has no beginning or end: In this way, we call to mind how our lives, here and now, participate in the eternity of Gods plan of salvation and how we hope to share eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. The wreathe is made of fresh plant material, because Christ came to give us new life through His passion, death, and resurrection. Three candles are purple (the same colour as the Priest’s vestments in Advent), symbolizing penance, preparation, and sacrifice; the pink candle symbolizes the same but highlights the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, when we rejoice because our preparation is now half-way finished.
The light represents Christ, who entered this world to scatter the darkness of evil and show us the way of righteousness. The progression of lighting candles shows our increasing readiness to meet our Lord. Each family ought to have an Advent wreathe, light it at dinner time, and say the special prayers. This tradition will help each family keep its focus on the true meaning of Christmas. In all, during Advent we strive to fulfil the opening prayer for the Mass of the First Sunday of Advent:
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
Mass in the Extraordinary Form (1962 Missal, Latin)
Daily at 17.00 in the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned.
Priest: Canon Pablo Piaggio Kokot, ICKSP
Please note that as booklets or print outs cannot currently be provided, you might already have the Mass on your mobile. Using the ‘ipieta’ app, choose Trad+ on the calendar, otherwise access www.divinumofficium.com and click on Missale on the top menu.
What is the Extraordinary Form?
It is the Roman Rite Mass in Latin as it grew organically for many centuries and was consolidated and codified at the Council of Trent, therefore, sometimes referred to as the Tridentine Mass. After the start of Mass being offered in the vernacular, in 1970, the traditional Latin Mass continued, with permission, in a few places. St. Pope John Paul II issued his Motu proprio Ecclesia Dei in 1988, encouraging generous provision for celebration of the traditional Latin Mass. Then in 2007, after many requests from the faithful, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the world’s Bishops to offer wider use of this form of the Roman Rite with his 2007 Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontifium.
In the accompanying letter to the document Pope Benedict told the world’s bishops “there is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.” He used the term, the ‘Extraordinary Form’ of the Roman Rite to speak of the old Mass, whilst stating that the new Mass is the ‘Ordinary Form’ of the Roman Rite. Today both Forms of the Mass are offered in numerous Parishes worldwide.
Why in Gibraltar?
In 2018 Bishop Zammit very kindly agreed to the request of a group of faithful who asked him if it would be possible to make provision for the implementation of Summorum Pontificum in Gibraltar. The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest were very happy to assist the Bishop in providing priests to come over, from their apostolates in U.K. and Spain, at first every three months, then monthly, until the March 2020 lockdown. In October 2020 they provided a priest to stay here so that the Latin Mass may be offered daily.
Who are the ICKSP?
The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest is a Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right whose goal is the honour of God and the sanctification of priests in the service of the Church and souls. Its specific aim is missionary: to spread the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ in all spheres of human life. Learn more at: www.icksp.org.uk
NOVEMBER is traditionally the month when Catholics everywhere remember those who have gone to God.
NOVEMBER is traditionally the month when Catholics everywhere remember those who have gone to God.
Our Faith teaches that through their lifetime journey, every person has a moral freedom to choose, with three possible ultimate outcomes:
we attain beatitude, which expresses the joy and peace of being eternally with God in Heaven;
that journey had not completely resulted, at the time of their departure from this life, in the total conversion and renewal of the person and so, by an act of sheer Divine compassion, they are held in God’s love and ‘purified’ of their defects, so as to enter eventually into Heaven, where no imperfection can coexist;
or, they freely and willingly, as witnessed by their moral actions on earth, reject God and are therefore destined for Hell. God accepts that this is their sovereign decision and so, Hell is where those who wish to have no relationship, nothing to do with God, will go. For the damned, there is no possible alternative afterwards. It is an eternal state.
The Church has always taught us to pray for those who have gone to eternity. Even in the late Old Testament book of Maccabees (2 Maccabees 12:38-46), prayers and alms were offered for the souls of the dead by those who thought “well and religiously concerning the resurrection.” It was believed that “they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them” and that “it is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” We know that a defiled soul cannot enter into Heaven. We are all in need of grace to come into the perfection of charity. We cannot enter Heaven if we have not been completely cleansed of sin and all punishment due to sin, c.f. Catechism of the Catholic Church 1031 and 1472.
Purgatory is not eternal. Its duration depends upon the particular judgment each have received from Christ. By Divine Mercy, they have not merited hell, because in their lives, they honoured God and developed their relationship with him, despite any limitations and failures. It is difficult to speak in terms of earthly time, since Purgatory is a temporary state, not a place as such. It is therefore not bound by space and time in the same way we are, but it is connected; and certainly it is connected with the definitive Second Coming of the Son of Man at the end of time, when Purgatory will also cease to exist.
The Church has always taught that we can pray for the dead and assist them in their purification. We can shorten therefore their time in Purgatory, because our prayers of love supplicate for them before the Mercy of God. The most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is THE WAY to help the dead in Purgatory, because it is the Altar of hope and consolation for us all. That is why it is a most honourable act of charity to have a Priest offer a Mass for the Dead, or as an intention for a given Mass offered for a dearly departed person. Please be aware that sometimes people confuse offering a Mass themselves in person, as in going specially to one for someone or having in mind some intention of our own, and the actual application of the Mass by the Priest for the specific intention requested as he does so in persona Christi.
The ancient practice of Indulgences is also to be recommended for the Faithful Departed. You can read more on this in the Catechism, paragraphs 1471 to 1479.
From the Secretary of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre in Gibraltar:
Covid-19 has severely affected many people around the world. Among those seriously affected people are our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Holy Land. It is urgent to support Christian families who have lost their employment due to the collapse of pilgrimages and tourism and the impossibility to daily commute into Israel for work.
The Latin Patriarchate looks after 38 schools with over 15,000 students and 1,300 teachers. Moreso, over 10,000 families, are struggling to pay bills. It is because of this that Cardinal Filoni (Grandmaster of the KHS), is asking Catholics, to please support his efforts in raising funds for the Christians in Palestine and Jordan [You can read his message by clicking here: LETTER]
Please consider donating towards the worthy cause of helping Christians in need. If you can please, send your donation to:
Bank: Gibraltar International Bank
Account Name: RCC/KHS
Account No.: 00812023
Sort Code: 60-83-14
For payment by cheque:
Cheque made out to: RCC/KHS
Address: Mario M Hook
25 Witham’s Road
Gibraltar GX11 1AA
Furthermore, if you could consider a monthly donation, for the next three to five months, it would greatly be appreciated.
Thank you, and God love you for your kindness.
Christopher Joseph Cortés KHS
Secretary – Gibraltar Lieutenancy
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