The Holy FamilyOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassThe Holy Family (The Holy Innocents, Martyrs) The Holy Innocents are the children who were slaughtered at the orders of King Herod, in the hope that by killing every boy born in Bethlehem at the same time as Jesus, he would succeed in killing the new-born King of the Jews.There was nothing about those baby boys that made them deserve death. Look at any one of them, and you can see that he had no chance to do anything, or be anyone, or become anyone. He had done nothing. He had done nothing bad, he had done nothing good. He was born, and then he died, and that was all there was to him. So passive are these babies that some people find it hard to understand how they can share the title of “martyr” with people like St Stephen (the day before yesterday), who insisted on preaching the truth until his hearers stoned him for it, or St Thomas Becket (tomorrow), who insisted on living the truth until his king had him killed because of it. These children did not insist on anything except their mothers’ milk; and unlike Stephen and Thomas, there was no voluntary act of theirs that we can see as making the difference between being martyred and not being martyred.So in our rational human terms these children are a puzzle, and that is one reason why God has inspired the Church to celebrate this very feast – to show us how inadequate our seemingly rational, worldly-wise thoughts are. As he reminds us again and again throughout salvation history, his thoughts are not our thoughts. Babies may not rank high on the scale as far as our human calculus is concerned; but then neither do sparrows, and yet God has told us that God sees and counts every one of those.The Holy Innocents can stand, therefore, for the “unimportant” and “unnecessary” pawns, child and adult alike, that permeate the whole of human history, the ones who can be sacrificed for some greater cause because they “don’t really matter”; the eggs that were broken to make an omelette... or even broken to make nothing at all. There are plenty of them, one way or another. The feast of the Holy Innocents reminds us that in God’s eyes (that is, according to the true value of things), no-one is unimportant, no-one is unnecessary, no-one “doesn’t really matter.” However meaningless their lives and deaths may seem to us, they shine glorious in heaven.On a more personal level, the honour given to the Holy Innocents reminds us that if we suffer or even die for God’s sake, it has value even if we have little or no say in it ourselves. Honouring them effectively honours also the martyrdom of the people these children could have become, and their children’s children as well; and at the same time we can remember the contemporary and continuing massacre of those who die before birth for the convenience of those who have them killed.

Saint John, Apostle, EvangelistOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt John the Evangelist James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were nicknamed by Jesus “the sons of thunder.” John is involved in many of the central events of Jesus’ life, including the Transfiguration, the Crucifixion, and the discovery of the Resurrection. He is “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and the one to whom he confided the care of his mother Mary.He is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles; later he was exiled to the island of Patmos. He is said to have died at Ephesus.He wrote a Gospel, three Epistles, and the Apocalypse. See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Saint Stephen, the first MartyrOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Stephen, the first Martyr Stephen is the first martyr. He was one of the deacons appointed by the Apostles to organize the distribution of food to the poor. He performed many miracles and confounded the Jews in disputation. They fabricated false charges against him. At his trial he preached the risen Christ to them, so they stoned him to death. He prayed for his persecutors as he was dying. One of them, Saul of Tarsus, who was looking after the cloaks of the stone-throwers, was later converted and became the great missionary St Paul.See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

Christmas DayOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassChristmas Day

24 DecemberOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass

23 December, (commemoration of Saint John of Kęty, Priest) Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassO Emmanuel! O Emmánuel, rex et légifer noster, exspectátio géntium et salvátor eárum: veni ad salvándum nos, Dómine Deus noster.“O Immanuel, you are our king and our judge, the One whom the peoples await and their Saviour. O come and save us, Lord our God.”One by one the symbols and prefigurations have passed before our eyes and each one has been set in its context, given its true meaning as a sign pointing to what is about to happen at the invisible turning-point of the history of the world. But the time for signs has passed. The title “Emmanuel” says “God-With-Us”, simply, straightforwardly, literally. We say openly what we want. “Come and save us!” That is all.“The maiden is with child,” says Isaiah, “and will soon give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.”Looking back on the O Antiphons, from the last to the first, they will acquire a familiar ring to speakers of English. We sing them, in that reverse order, in the hymn “O come, O come, Emmanuel”.In Latin, the more cryptically minded can take the first letter of each of the titles given to Jesus, again from last to first, to get E R O C R A S. That is, ero cras, “I will be tomorrow”. It is possible to believe that this is a coincidence or even that there is something undignified about playing with letters in the face of God. On the other hand, in the Eastern Church, acrostics are used as a vital part of the liturgy: they are characteristic in particular of the form of hymn called a kontakion. Perhaps this civilised habit rubbed off, many centuries ago, on the muddy, half-barbarian West. In any case, even the Jews did it: there are several psalms which are a sequence of meditations strung together in alphabetical order. If the earth and stars, the sun and moon, are singing the praises of the Lord, there is surely nothing wrong in making the letters of the alphabet do the same.We have come to the end of the sequence of seven ancient antiphons. It may seem as if the countdown has ended early. After all, tomorrow is only the 24th. But this is a reminder that on truly important days we are still Jews, and the day starts at nightfall of the evening before. The 24th of December has no Vespers. The Vespers of that evening are the First Vespers of Christmas. And in many Christian countries children will be sitting staring out of the window waiting for the first star to appear so that the celebrations can begin.St John of Kęty (1390 - 1473) He was born in Kęty in the diocese of Kraków in 1390. He became a priest and for many years taught at the University of Kraków; later he became parish priest of Olkusz. He taught and researched in both physics and theology and excelled in holiness and in charity towards his neighbour, in which he was an example to his colleagues and pupils. He died in 1473. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

22 DecemberOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassO Rex gentium! O Rex géntium et desiderátus eárum, lapísque anguláris, qui facis útraque unum: veni et salva hóminem, quem de limo formásti.“O King of the peoples, whom they long for, the cornerstone, who make the two into one: come and save man, whom you made from clay.”In this, the penultimate of the seven great antiphons to the Magnificat at Vespers which count down the days to Christmas, two new images appear. Jesus is now no longer the king just of Israel, but of all the peoples, who long to be united under his kingship. He is, then, like the stone at the corner of two walls, or (by an ancient and praiseworthy conflation) the keystone which, merely by being there, stops the two sides of an arch from collapsing inwards. These inanimate, even mineral images are appropriate because after all we ourselves are minerals given life by God. As Genesis says, “The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil. He breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus man became a living being.” And Isaiah adds, “We are the clay, you the potter, we are all the work of your hand.”

4th Sunday of AdventOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(O Oriens!) O Oriens,  splendor lucis ætérnæ et sol iustítiæ: veni et illúmina sedéntes in ténebris et umbra mortis.“O Rising Sun, you are the splendour of eternal light and the sun of justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”Yesterday’s antiphon spoke of the people sitting in darkness and shadow and so does today’s, but there is a difference. The light of Christmas is very near. Jesus is nearly here. No longer do we look forward to being led out of our prison: now we look for his light to come and shine into the prison itself, dispelling its darkness.Isaiah sees this future as a present: “The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone.”For five evenings now the Magnificat antiphon at Vespers has been counting down to the birth of Jesus. There are only two evenings left to go.(Saint Peter Canisius, priest, Doctor (1521 - 1597)) He was born in Nijmegen (now in the Netherlands) in 1521. He studied at Cologne and joined the Society of Jesus: he was ordained priest in 1546. He was sent to Germany, where for many years he worked hard to defend and strengthen the Catholic faith both by writing and by preaching. He wrote many books, of which The Catechism is particularly noteworthy. He died at Fribourg in Switzerland in 1597.

20 DecemberOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassO clavis David! O clavis David et sceptrum domus Israel; qui áperis et nemo claudit; claudis et nemo áperit: veni et educ vinctum de domo cárceris, sedéntem in ténebris et umbra mortis.“O key of David and sceptre of Israel, you who open and nobody then can close, who close and nobody then can open: come and lead the captive from prison; free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”The last antiphon celebrated the descent of Jesus from the family of David; today’s antiphon, the middle of the sequence of seven great ‘O Antiphons’ at Vespers, does not recall his descent but looks forward to his royal power, of which David’s was only a shadow and prefiguration.Here is the prophecy spoken by Isaiah: “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. I place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; should he open, no one shall close, should he close, no one shall open. I drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will become a throne of glory for his father’s house.” The prophecy was made not about a king but about a mere Master of the Palace, Eliakim, whose family eventually sank into obscurity. But like so many Old Testament prophecies, this one receives a new lease of life as it is illuminated by the light of the rising Sun.(Blessed Scubilion (1797 - 1867)) Born in France in 1797, Jean-Bernard Rousseau felt the call to share his faith and his knowledge with others. He joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools (the de la Salle Brothers) and was given the name Scubilion. In 1833 he was sent to the Isle of Réunion, where he remained until his death in 1867. In Réunion he was named “the catechist of the slaves” on account of his ministry among them. His memorial is celebrated today, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery on the island.(Saint Fachanan of Kilfenora) He is the patron saint of Kilfenora diocese. Little is known about him but he is associated with the foundation of the first monastic settlement in Kilfenora.

Pope Francis' top diplomats met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on April 19, where the two sides discussed migrants and refugees following months of clashes between U.S. church leaders and the Trump administration over immigration policy and foreign aid.