Dec. 3, 2021

December 3, 2021

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Mass to close an unusual Year of St. Joseph 3

‘My life is all about giving back’

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Mexican Catholic tradition recalls the journey of Mary and Joseph before Christ’s birth 10-11

Nigerian student organizes Christmas shoebox drive

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Contact us.....................................4 Español.......................................... 7-9 Events calendar............................4 Our Faith........................................2 Our Parishes............................ 3-6 Scripture readings.......................2 TV & Movies................................. 13 U.S. news.................................14-15 Viewpoints..............................18-19 World news............................. 16-17

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With gratitude, Christ the King High School breaks ground on $6.6M expansion 3

Con devoción y esperanza celebrarán fiesta Guadalupana

St. Nicholas of Myra: The original Santa Claus, and much more

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Our faith 2

catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Pope Francis

God can act in unexpected ways, calling for brave acceptance

S

t. Joseph teaches people to learn to take life as it comes and to accept what God has in mind, Pope Francis said.

Speaking about how Joseph reacted to Mary being pregnant while they were still engaged, the pope explained why St. Joseph “gives us an important lesson: He chooses Mary with ‘his eyes open,’” and “with all the risks” that came with it.

“They had probably cultivated dreams and expectations regarding their life and their future,” he said during his weekly general audience Dec. 1. But then, “out of the blue, God seems to have inserted himself into their lives and, even if at first it was difficult for them, both of them opened their hearts wide to the reality that was placed before them.”

During his audience, Pope Francis continued a series of talks on St. Joseph, reflecting on his role as a just man and husband of Mary, and what he can teach all engaged couples and newlyweds.

St. Joseph was pious and subject to observing the religious laws of the time, which called for stoning a woman accused of adultery or – with later interpretations – a formal repudiation that had civil and criminal consequences for the woman, the pope said. But Joseph’s “love for Mary and his trust in her suggested a way he could remain in observance of the law and save the honor of his bride. He decided to repudiate her in secret, without making noise, without subjecting her to public humiliation.”

“How holy Joseph was,” Pope Francis said. In contrast, “we, as soon as we have a bit of gossip, something scandalous about someone else, we go around talking about it right away!”

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, telling him not to fear taking Mary as his wife and explaining the divine origin of and plan for her Son. God reveals “a greater meaning than His own justice. How important it is for each one of us to cultivate a just life and, at the same time, to always feel the need for God’s help to broaden our horizons and to consider the circumstances of life from an always different, larger perspective.”

By taking this risk, Joseph “gives us this lesson: to take life as it comes. Has God intervened there? I accept it” and seek to follow God’s guidance.

During their engagement, Christian couples are called to witness to this kind of love that “has the courage to move from the logic of falling in love to that of mature love.” Mature love moves from infatuation and imagination to taking “responsibility for one’s life as it comes.”

“Dear brothers and dear sisters, our lives are very often not what we imagine them to be. Especially in loving and affectionate relationships.”

St. Nicholas of Myra: The original Santa Claus, and much more Feast day: Dec. 6 On Dec. 6, the faithful commemorate a bishop in the early Church who was known for generosity and love of children. Born in Lycia in Asia Minor around the late third or fourth century, St. Nicholas of Myra is more than just the inspiration for the modern-day Santa Claus.

As a young man he is said to have made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Egypt to study in the school of the Desert Fathers. On returning some years later he was almost immediately ordained Bishop of Myra, which is now Demre, on the coast of modernday Turkey.

The bishop was imprisoned during the Diocletian persecution and only released when Constantine the Great came to power and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

One of the most famous stories of the generosity of St. Nicholas says that he threw bags of gold through an open window in the house of a poor man to serve as dowry for the man’s daughters, who otherwise would have been sold into slavery.

The gold is said to have landed in the family’s shoes, which were drying near the fire. This is why children leave their shoes out by the door, or hang their stockings by the fireplace in the hopes of receiving a gift on the eve of his feast.

St. Nicholas is associated with Christmas because of the tradition that he had the custom of giving secret gifts to children. It is also conjectured that the saint, who was known to wear red robes and have a long white beard, was culturally converted into the large man with a reindeer-drawn sled full of toys because in German, his name is “San Nikolaus” which almost sounds like “Santa Claus.”

In the East, he is known as St. Nicholas of Myra for the town in which he was bishop.

But in the West he is called St. Nicholas of Bari because, during the Muslim conquest of Turkey in 1087, his relics were taken to Bari by the Italians.

He died on Dec. 6, 343.

St. Nicholas is the patron of children, the wrongly accused, and sailors. His intercession is sought by the shipwrecked, by those in difficult economic circumstances, and for those affected by fires.

— Catholic News Agency

(Above) “The Dowry for the Three Virgins” by Gentile da Fabriano, c. 1425, at the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Rome. Even today young women who wish to get married still come to the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari on Dec. 6 to leave a note to St. Nicholas and put three coins in a box.

(At left) The tomb of St. Nicholas in Bari, Italy, as it appears today. Half of the saint’s relics are kept here, and the other half are at a church in Venice. The saint’s tomb in Bari exudes a clear watery liquid which smells like rose water, called manna (or myrrh), renowned for its healing properties. Clergy at the basilica extract a flask of this “manna of St. Nicholas” each year on Dec. 6 and distribute it to pilgrims.

More online At www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/bishop-of-myra: Download resources for kids and learn more about this real-life bishop and saint, including the story about how he slapped the heretic Arius during the Council of Nicaea

Daily Scripture readings DEC. 5-11

Sunday (Second Sunday of Advent): Baruch 5:1-9, Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11, Luke 3:1-6; Monday (St. Nicholas): Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 5:17-26; Tuesday (St. Ambrose): Isaiah 40:1-11, Matthew 18:12-14; Wednesday (The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary): Genesis 3:9-15, 20, Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12, Luke 1:26-38; Thursday (St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin): Isaiah 41:13-20, Matthew 11:11-15; Friday: Isaiah 48:17-19, Matthew 11:16-19; Saturday (St. Damasus I): Sirach 48:1-4, 9-11, Matthew 17-9a, 10-13

DEC. 12-18

Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent): Zephaniah 3:14-18a, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:10-18; Monday (St. Lucy): Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a, Matthew 21:23-27; Tuesday (St. John of the Cross): Zephaniah 3:1-2, 9-13, Matthew 21:28-32; Wednesday: Isaiah 45:6c-8, 18, 21c-25, Luke 7:18b-23; Thursday: Isaiah 54:1-10, Luke 7:24-30; Friday: Genesis 49:2, 8-10, Matthew 1:1-17; Saturday: Jeremiah 23:5-8, Matthew 1:18-25

DEC. 19-25

Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Advent): Micah 5:1-4a, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:3945; Monday: Isaiah 7:10-14, Luke 1:26-38; Tuesday (St. Peter Canisius): Song of Songs 2:8-14, Luke 1:39-45; Wednesday: 1 Samuel 1:24-28, 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8, Luke 1:46-56; Thursday (St. John of Kanty): Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24, Luke 1:57-66; Friday: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16, Luke 1:67-79; Saturday (The Nativity of the Lord, Christmas): Isaiah 9:16, Titus 2:11-14, Luke 2:1-14

Our parishes

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Mass to close an unusual Year of St. Joseph

SUEANN HOWELL | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter Jugis presided over the groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 30 for the Fulford Athletic & Activity Complex at Christ the King High School in Huntersville.

The 21,800-square-foot facility will enlarge the gymnasium, create locker rooms and provide a full-size stage for performances and assemblies. Participating in the ceremony (from left): Alicia and Adam Bowman, general co-chairs of the capital campaign committee; Dr. Carl Semmler, principal; Bishop Jugis; Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Church in Huntersville and school chaplain; Father Timothy Reid, vicar of education for Catholic Schools, Dr. Gregory Monroe, superintendent of Catholic Schools; and Art and Georgette McMahon, general co-chairs of the capital campaign committee.

With gratitude, Christ the King High breaks ground on $6.6M expansion SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

HUNTERSVILLE — To the delight of hundreds of Christ the King High School students, diocesan and school officials joyfully turned the dirt Nov. 30 at Christ the King High School – kicking off a $6.6 million expansion project for a new athletic and performance facility.

The Fulford Athletic & Activity Complex is the second major expansion in the high school’s 10-year history. The 21,800-squarefoot building will include a full-size court and two cross courts in the gymnasium, expanded seating for more than 720 spectators, men’s and women’s locker rooms for home and visiting teams, and athletic director and trainers’ offices.

The gymnasium will also be home to a full-size stage with stateof-the-art lighting and sound systems for student performances and school-wide events.

Bishop Peter Jugis presided over the groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday, held outside the high school under Carolina blue skies with the whole school community in attendance.

“The work we are beginning today should enliven our faith and make us grateful,” Bishop Jugis said. “We know the familiar words of the psalm: ‘If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor.’ Whenever we look to the interests of our neighbor or the community and serve them, we are in a sense God’s coworkers.”

Gratitude was also the theme of other speakers at the groundbreaking event.

“I am so grateful to all the people who have assisted us to reach this day,” said Dr. Gregory Monroe, Catholic Schools superintendent.

“I have no doubt that this new building, once erected, will be a reflection of the perfection student-athletes seek and will be training grounds for great victories in the years to come. But, more importantly, it will be about the virtue that is cultivated – and the formation that these student-athletes receive in fortitude, tenacity and courage, and in collegiality when they come together in teamwork.”

Christ the King’s principal, Dr. Carl Semmler, added, “This long-awaited project is representative of our CTK community in so many ways. The collaborative work and generosity of so many have led us to this moment.

“The 250 families who pledged and donated to this project include alumni, current and future families of CTK students.

Their generosity has been overwhelming and humbling. We are truly blessed.”

A capital campaign, launched in May 2019, raised more than $3.96 million in local school community pledges. The project is supplemented by $2.64 million in Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools funding. Construction is expected to take 10-12 months.

“We are honored, humbled and grateful and look forward to seeing the impact this new space will have on generations of Crusaders to come,” Semmler said.

Bishop Jugis prayed before he blessed the site with holy water, “Let us pray for God’s help through this celebration, my brothers and sisters, that He will bring this construction to a successful completion and that His protection will keep those who work on it safe from injury.”

Christ the King High School serves families in the growing north Charlotte areas of Lake Norman and Huntersville.

Established in 2011 with an inaugural class of 26 students, the school’s enrollment is now 364 students.

CHARLOTTE — The Year of St. Joseph will conclude next Wednesday, and all are welcome to join in the final event of what has certainly been an unusual celebration.

Bishop Peter Jugis will offer Mass starting at 7 p.m. Dec. 8 at St. Patrick Cathedral, located at 1621 Dilworth Road East in Charlotte.

The Mass will also be livestreamed on the Diocese of Charlotte’s YouTube channel.

The Year of St. Joseph commemorates the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX proclaiming in the 1870 decree “Quemadmodum Deus” that St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, is the patron of the Universal Church, The year kicked off with high hopes on Jan. 1, 2020, with a standing-room-only Mass at the cathedral and a spectacular sacred art light show at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.

However, just as the diocese prepared to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph on March 19, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and all churches across the diocese were suddenly closed for the next several months.

The pandemic precluded any large public celebrations throughout 2020.

Instead, the faithful found ways to celebrate in other ways: the Year of St. Joseph website, a prayer book devoted to St. Joseph, articles in the Catholic News Herald, a 33-day Consecration, and a handful of livestreamed Masses and talks posted to the diocese’s YouTube channel.

The year was extended to coincide with the universal Church’s celebration in 2021, but the ongoing pandemic has continued to dampen celebrations here at home as well as around the world.

Bishop Jugis noted the irony during a May 1, 2020, Mass streamed live outside on the unfinished campus of St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly.

“Why, precisely on the Year of St. Joseph – this year of all years – is this celebration in honor of St. Joseph so subdued? We were ready to go all out to honor St. Joseph in a big way. Could it be that St. Joseph is wanting to tell us something about himself – his humility?” the bishop pondered.

“Could it be that St. Joseph is wanting to tell us, ‘It’s not about me. It’s about Jesus and His mother. Honor them, please.’”

Still, St. Joseph’s humility, love and protection of the Holy Family are examples to follow, the bishop noted. “He loved them, guarded them, protected them and provided for them. He put them first.”

All are welcome to attend the Dec. 8 Mass at the cathedral, which also commemorates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation.

Masks are required to be worn indoors, as per a Mecklenburg County Board of Health mandate, unless specifically exempted.

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor

UPcoming events 4

catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in the following upcoming events: DEC. 8 – 7 P.M. Mass for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the End of the Year of St. Joseph St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte

DEC. 9 – 12 P.M. Diocese of Charlotte Foundation Board Meeting Pastoral Center, Charlotte

DEC. 13 – 12:30 P.M. Advent Lunch with Seminarians Bishop’s Residence, Charlotte

Diocesan calendar of events December 3, 2021

CONFERENCES & TALKS

Volume 31 • NUMBER 5

‘BLACK CATHOLIC SPIRITUALITY – A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE’: A webinar featuring Dr. C. Vanessa White being offered 7-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3. White will discuss how the men and women on the road to sainthood can help us strengthen our spiritual journey. Sponsored by the Diocese of Charlotte African American Affairs Ministry. For information and the webinar link, email Rosheene Adams at rladams@rcdoc.org.

1123 S. CHURCH ST. CHARLOTTE, N.C. 28203-4003 catholicnews@charlottediocese.org

704-370-3333 PUBLISHER: The Most Reverend Peter J. Jugis, Bishop of Charlotte

STAFF EDITOR: Patricia L. Guilfoyle 704-370-3334, plguilfoyle@charlottediocese.org ADVERTISING MANAGER: Kevin Eagan 704-370-3332, keeagan@charlottediocese.org SENIOR REPORTER: SueAnn Howell 704-370-3354, sahowell@charlottediocese.org ONLINE REPORTER: Kimberly Bender 704-808-7341, kdbender@charlottediocese.org HISPANIC COMMUNICATIONS REPORTER: Cesar Hurtado, 704-370-3375, rchurtado@charlottediocese.org GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Tim Faragher 704-370-3331, tpfaragher@charlottediocese.org COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT/CIRCULATION: Erika Robinson, 704-370-3333, catholicnews@ charlottediocese.org

THE CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte 26 times a year.

NEWS: The Catholic News Herald welcomes your news and photos. Please e-mail information, attaching photos in JPG format with a recommended resolution of 150 dpi or higher, to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org. All submitted items become the property of the Catholic News Herald and are subject to reuse, in whole or in part, in print, electronic formats and archives.

ADVERTISING: Reach 165,000 Catholics across western North Carolina! For advertising rates and information, contact Advertising Manager Kevin Eagan at 704-370-3332 or keeagan@charlottediocese.org. The Catholic News Herald reserves the right to reject or cancel advertising for any reason, and does not recommend or guarantee any product, service or benefit claimed by our advertisers.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $15 per year for all registered parishioners of the Diocese of Charlotte and $23 per year for all others.

POSTMASTER: Periodicals class postage (USPC 007-393) paid at Charlotte, N.C. Send address corrections to the Catholic News Herald, 1123 S. Church St., Charlotte, N.C. 28203.

REGIONAL RESPECT LIFE MEETING: 1-2:30 p.m.

Immediately following the noon Mass, Sunday, Dec. 5. Immaculate Conception Church, 208 7th Ave. West, Hendersonville (Meeting Room 1, in the basement of the church). All are invited who have an interest in becoming more involved in pro-life work. The goal is for area parishes’ Respect Life leaders to give updates about pro-life activities and to increase communication and coordination among Catholic pro-life volunteers across the region. Hosted by the Carolina Pro-Life Action Network (C-PLAN) of Western NC, a coalition of parish Respect Life leaders across the area. For details, contact Jack Bride at ashevilleprolifecatholics@gmail.com.

CATHOLIC MEDICAL ETHICS ON SEXUALITY AND FERTILITY: Learn about sexuality and fertility in medicine from a Catholic viewpoint, in the upcoming “Converging Roads” set for Saturday, April 2, 2022, at St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte. Presenters include: Father Matthew Kauth, “Understanding the Church’s Teaching on Sexuality and Fertility: The ‘Why’ Behind the ‘No’”; Dr. Marguerite Duane, MHA, FAAP, ‘The Menstrual Cycle as a Vital Sign”; Father Philip G. Bochanski, “Gender Identity Discordance: Supporting Patients and Families”; Dr. Teresa Farnan, “The Gift of the Human Person: A Christian Anthropology for Understanding Gender and Sexuality”; and more. Continuing education credits offered for health care professionals.

Presented by the St. John Paul II Foundation, the Diocese of Charlotte and Belmont Abbey College. For details, go online to www.forlifeandfamily.org/converging-roads.

ENTERTAINMENT SACRED MUSIC CONCERT FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. Performing at the concert will be the Cathedral Choir, Children’s Choir and High School Choir. The concert will include “Magnificat in G Minor” by Heinrich Biber and works by Victoria, Handel, Michael Haydn and Fauré. Everyone is invited to attend. For details, contact Dr. Gianfranco DeLuca at gdeluca@stpatricks.org.

ESPAÑOL VIGILIA DE LOS DOS CORAZONES: 8 p.m. Viernes, diciembre 3-8 a.m. Sabado, diciembre 4, en la Catedral San Patricio, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. Únase cada primer viernes del mes a una vigilia nocturna para honrar los Corazones de Jesús y María, orar por nuestras familias, ofrecer penitencia por nuestros pecados y pedir por la conversión de nuestra nación. Para inscribirse a una hora de Adoración, visite www.ProLifeCharlotte.org/dos-corazones.

FUNDRAISER HELP CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTRY: Support Catholic Campus Ministry for a chance to win $1,000. Want to win? Buy a raffle ticket in the annual Campus Ministry Raffle. All proceeds go to support the Church’s ministry and outreach to college students across western North Carolina. Individual tickets are $5, or a book of 5 tickets for $20. The drawing for two $1,000 prizes is Thursday, Dec. 16. Tickets must be received by the Diocesan Campus Ministry office by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15, to be eligible. For details, go online to www. catholiconcampus.com/support/raffle. Questions?

Contact Darien Clark, assistant director of Campus Ministry, at dnclark@rcdoc.org.

PRAYER SERVICES & GROUPS ADVENT REFLECTION FOR MEN: 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, at Belmont Abbey Alumni House. All men of the diocese are invited to prepare themselves for Advent with an evening of fellowship and reflection. Dinner included. Father Martin Connor, LC, retreat master, will discuss how to strengthen and gain insight to love Our Lord more deeply this Advent.

9TH ANNUAL RORATE MASS: 6 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1400 Suther Road, Charlotte.

Traditional candlelight Mass in honor of Our Lady, offered by Father Matthew Kauth, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary. For details, call the parish office at 704-549-1607.

ADVENT REFLECTION FOR WOMEN: 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at Belmont Abbey Alumni House. All women of the diocese are invited to prepare themselves for Advent with a morning of fellowship and reflection. Father Martin Connor, LC, retreat master, will discuss how to strengthen and gain insight to love Our Lord more deeply this Advent. The morning program will include Mass with the monks of Belmont Abbey and the opportunity to go to confession.

ADVENT PARISH MISSION: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5 through Tuesday, Dec. 7, St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1400 Suther Road, Charlotte. Led by Father David Miller.

Confessions before and after the mission each night.

Confessions begin at 6 p.m. and the mission sermons start at 6:30 p.m. For details, call the parish office at 704-549-1607.

WORSHIP MUSIC AND ADORATION WITH THE VIGIL PROJECT: 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, St. Therese Church, 217 Brawley School Road, Mooresville. Join this Advent Season for an incredible night of Worship Music and Adoration with The Vigil Project. An evangelistic experience through which members of the community of all ages and at every stage of the spiritual journey are awakened to the beauty of the Advent season and are invited to go deeper. Not familiar with The Vigil Project?

Visit their website at www.TheVigilProject.com for videos and music. All are invited. For details, e-mail Peter O’Donnell, St. Therese Ecumenism Commission Chair, at Podonnell757@hotmail.com.

ADVENT MEDITATION SERVICE: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, St. Therese Church, 217 Brawley School Road, Mooresville. A contemplative prayer service featuring hymns and short meditations from the Song of Songs and the Book of Revelation and writings by St. John of the Cross, St. Therese, St. John Paul II, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Adrienne von Speyr, Father Greg Boyle and others. For details, e-mail Lisa Cash at lcash@ sainttherese.net.

‘AN ADVENT JOURNEY WITH ISAIAH’: All are invited to a special program at St. Gabriel Church on Saturday, Dec. 18, with Father Jason Mitchell. Father Mitchell is a professor of theology and philosophy at Gannon University and he earned his doctorate from the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome. He will explore why Isaiah is called the Fifth Gospel and how it prepares us to celebrate Christ’s first advent in the flesh and His second advent in glory. 9 a.m. Mass in the church, followed by the program at 10 a.m. in the Ministry Center (first floor). St. Gabriel Church is located at 3016 Providence Road in Charlotte.

MARY’S SONS KNEELERS: Parishioners around the Diocese of Charlotte have the opportunity to pray for our two transitional deacons, Deacon Darren Balkey and Deacon Aaron Huber, on the special Mary’s Sons kneelers that they will receive when ordained on June 18, 2022.

For more information about the Mary’s Sons kneelers, go online to www.MarysSons.org. Here is the schedule for the kneelers as they are moved to parishes around the diocese this fall: DEC. 6-13: St. Michael Church, Gastonia DEC. 13-20: St. Mary Help of Christians Church, Shelby DEC. 20-27: Queen of the Apostles Church, Belmont VIGIL OF THE TWO HEARTS: 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3 until 8 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Road East, Charlotte. An overnight vigil is offered twice each month to honor the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and to offer penance and pray for the conversion of our nation. Friday’s Mass celebrant will be Father Francis Raji.

To sign up for Eucharistic Adoration times, go to www. prolifecharlotte.org/two-hearts.

SAFE ENVIRONMENT TRAINING PROTECTING CHILDREN: “Protecting God’s Children” (“Protegiendo a los Niños de Dios”) workshops educate parish volunteers to recognize and prevent child sexual abuse. For details, contact your parish office. To register for online training, go to www.virtus.org. Upcoming workshop: CHARLOTTE: 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 16, St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 1400 Suther Road (English)

IS YOUR PARISH OR SCHOOL hosting a free event open to the public? Deadline for all submissions is 10 days prior to desired publication date. Submit in writing to catholicnews@charlottediocese.org.

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

OUR PARISHESI

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Your donation helps religious orders care for elderly members SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

of Christ. “That really gave me that hope. For them to know the love of God and to know there are people around the world who care, that is important.”

Dr. William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College, notes that Okonne’s life story is remarkable, and his efforts to share the love of God with children around the world reflect who he truly is.

“His name says it all, he is marvelous! Sometimes in scripture, ‘marvelous’ and ‘wonderful’ are interchangeable. He certainly is a work of God. He’s a completely joyful, good person. When you meet him he just uplifts you,” Thierfelder says.

He is delighted that Okonne gets the whole campus involved in the collection efforts. “(His is) a touching story in today’s times. To see this kind of effort of a young person today is remarkable. He is an excellent example to other students.

“The fact that he takes the time to initiate these efforts says a lot about him.”

Okonne is set to graduate in May 2022. He anticipates being selected as one of Belmont Abbey College’s missionaries who will serve on a mission trip working with Native Americans in the western United States after graduation.

After the mission trip, he plans to coach track and field, mentoring students at Gaston Day School.

“My life is all about giving back,” Okonne explains. “I love helping people as much as I can. It means a lot to me, coming from another country and growing up in poverty.”

Of his work collecting shoeboxes for children, he says, “I feel so blessed because I know that those receiving this box will feel love and it will remind them that God loves them a lot. Just as God showed me that love, I want to show that same love to other kids around the world.”

CHARLOTTE — The 34th annual Retirement Fund for Religious collection will be taken up in parishes across the Diocese of Charlotte Dec. 11-12.

Coordinated by the U.S. bishops’ National Religious Retirement Office, the national appeal assists hundreds of religious order communities in providing for the ongoing needs of elderly Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests.

The U.S. bishops initiated the collection in 1988 to address the significant lack of retirement funding among U.S. religious orders. Distinct from retired priest collections held in respective dioceses for the care of retired diocesan priests, this annual collection benefits eligible religious orders to help underwrite retirement and health-care expenses for nearly 26,330 aging religious.

The 2020 appeal raised $20.7 million, and this past June, the NRRO distributed $25 million in financial assistance to 321 religious communities across the nation. The Charlotte diocese contributed more than $176,019 to the collection last year.

“While this (2020) amount represents a decrease compared to previous years, we are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support – especially in such difficult times,” said Sister Stephanie Still, PBVM (Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), who serves as the NRRO’s executive director. “For me, these gifts are a beautiful expression of the appreciation U.S. Catholics have for the service and witness of our elderly sisters, brothers and religious order priests.”

The religious order communities that benefit from the NRRO collection combine that funding with their own income and savings to help furnish day-to-day necessities, including medications and nursing care, and the distributions may be applied toward immediate retirement needs or invested for future eldercare expenses.

The retirement-funding deficit is rooted in low salaries and changing demographics. Traditionally, Catholic sisters, brothers and religious order priests – often known collectively as “women and men religious” – engaged in ministry for little to no pay. As a result, many of their religious communities lack adequate retirement savings. Elderly religious are also living longer and, according to NRRO data, outnumber younger, wageearning religious by nearly three to one.

Like many other Americans, religious communities struggle with the ever-rising cost of health care. The total cost of care for religious past age 70 exceeds $1 billion annually. COVID-19 has compounded this already difficult situation.

Through the annual collection, the NRRO helps religious communities address their funding deficits. In addition to direct financial aid, donations make possible resources and services that assist communities in evaluating and preparing for long-term retirement needs.

“As we move forward from this pandemic, remember that all gifts big or small combine to provide generous support for our retired religious,” noted Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese, in an annual appeal letter to the faithful.

“Please consider making a gift and pray for the retired religious who have given us so much and changed so many lives throughout the United States.”

— The USCCB and the National Religious Retirement Office contributed.

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Belmont Abbey College senior Marvellous Okonne (left) and Dave MacNeill of Samaritan’s Purse show off some of the 251 Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes that college staff and students put together Nov. 15.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ROLANDO RIVAS

‘My life is all about giving back’ Nigerian Belmont Abbey College student organizes Operation Christmas Child shoebox drive SUEANN HOWELL SENIOR REPORTER

BELMONT — Belmont Abbey College senior Marvellous Okonne knows what it’s like to receive the gift of hope.

He once received such a gift in the form of an Operation Christmas Child shoebox, when he was growing up in Nigeria.

“I had nothing growing up,” Okonne says, noting that his family was extremely poor, so receiving a shoebox filled with small items made a really big impression on him as a child.

“God showed me love from people I didn’t know. That was really amazing to me! I wanted to share this hope with other children,” he explains.

Over the past three years, Okonne has rallied fellow students at Belmont Abbey College to join him in collecting items and packing shoeboxes to be sent overseas via Operation Christmas Child, an outreach ministry of Samaritan’s Purse which is headquartered in Boone.

Under Okonne’s leadership, in 2019, Belmont Abbey College students packed 150 shoeboxes. Last year during the pandemic, students stepped up to provide even more shoeboxes – 217 total. On Nov. 15, during the national Operation Christmas Child shoebox packing week, 60 students packed a record 251 shoeboxes.

“I’m so glad everything went well and the students had a great time making a difference,” Okonne says.

As a Catholic, he believes by sending children around the world the Christmas shoeboxes, he is sharing the hope

At www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operationchristmas-child: Find out how you can send the hope of Christ with an Operation Christmas Child shoebox

At www.retiredreligious.org: Learn more about the Retirement Fund for Religious collection and who it supports

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catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 OUR PARISHES

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief St. Ann parishioners pray for the dead BELMONT — St. Ann parishioners joined St. Ann’s parochial vicar, Father Brad Jones, in praying for the poor souls in purgatory at Belmont Abbey Cemetery Nov. 7.

The event, organized by the St. Ann Home School Ministry and Charlotte Latin Mass Community, is held annually to enable the faithful to obtain a plenary indulgence for the poor souls, which the Church grants for the entire month of November under specific conditions including visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead.

— Mike FitzGerald, correspondent

Interfaith service for vets held MOORESVILLE — St. Therese Church hosted an Interfaith Prayer Service Nov. 9 for veterans, active military personnel and their families.

The prayer service united Mooresvillearea faith

communities to pray for those who have sacrificed in service to our country. Religious representatives also came from Fieldstone Presbyterian Church, Williamson’s Chapel United Methodist Church, Peninsula Baptist Church, Church of God and The Cove Church.

— Peter O’Donnell and John Lesko

Call for St. George Trek applications The Charlotte Diocese Catholic Committee on Scouting (CDCCOS) invites qualified Catholic youth registered in the programs of the Boy Scouts of America to apply to attend the 2022 St. George Trek at Philmont Scout Ranch, scheduled for July 6-21, 2022.

CDCCOS will pay the $925 St. George Trek program fee for two selected participants. Participants will be responsible for round-trip airfare to Albuquerque, N.M., and for their personal equipment and incidental expenses.

Applications will be accepted through Dec. 31.

Selection will be made on the basis of demonstrated leadership potential, Catholic Scouting religious emblems earned, and involvement in church, school and community activities.

The St. George Trek is a high adventure leadership program for Catholic scouts and Venturing crew members aged 15-18. Designed to develop organizational and relational skills for leadership as well as nourishing scouts’ spirituality, it brings together Catholic high school youth from around the country with priests, religious and seminarians for 11 days of backpacking on the trail including leadership training at a backcountry base camp. It encourages the integration of morality and values, spirituality, faith and Scripture with the responsibilities of Christian leadership and vocation awareness.

For more information, go online to www.nccs-bsa. org/index.php/st-george-trek. For inquiries, email Mike Nielsen at mnielsen@carolina.rr.com.

— Mike Nielsen

Big donation from big-hearted Charlotte parish CHARLOTTE — Members of St. Joseph Vietnamese Church stepped up in a big way last week, donating nearly 5,000 pounds of food to Catholic Charities’ Charlotte food pantry. This is a tradition for the parish right before Thanksgiving every year. “Many of us came here as immigrants and refugees, and now it’s our turn to give back. We are so grateful to do so,” said Father Tri Truong, pastor.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF CHARLOTTE

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December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

Padre Julio Domínguez

El Adviento

H

emos comenzado este nuevo tiempo litúrgico del Adviento. Un tiempo con carácter preparativo en la espera de algo hermoso que está por llegar y, al mismo tiempo penitencial que exige de nosotros el preparar los caminos del Señor.

Como se habrán dado cuenta, ya nuestras iglesias han cambiado en sus ornamentos y vestiduras sagradas al color morado. Eso indica que estamos en este tiempo preparatorio y que toda la Iglesia universal se une para recibir con alegría al Hijo de Dios que viene ahora a nuestros corazones.

El Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica remarca este tiempo especial invitando a todos los cristianos a esperar con alegría y entusiasmo porque “La venida del Hijo de Dios a la tierra es un acontecimiento tan inmenso que Dios quiso prepararlo durante siglos. Al celebrar anualmente la liturgia del Adviento, la Iglesia actualiza esta espera del Mesías: participando en la larga preparación de la primera venida del Salvador, los fieles renuevan el ardiente deseo de su segunda venida” (CIC 522-524).

La palabra “Adviento”, del vocablo latino adventus, significa venida, advenimiento, haciendo referencia a la venida del Señor. Palabra que en la antigüedad se aplicaba especialmente a la llegada de algún personaje importante. En este tiempo, los creyentes en Jesucristo se lo dedicamos a Él en la espera de Su Segunda Venida. Porque no hay nada ni nadie más importante que Él, por ende, no habrá más advenimiento que el suyo.

Es el mismo Señor quien nos concede ahora preparar con alegría el misterio de Su nacimiento, para que Su llegada nos encuentre perseverantes en la oración y proclamando gozosamente Su alabanza.

(Prefacio III Adviento).

Como pueden darse cuenta, la Iglesia celebra en este tiempo un triple Advenimiento del Señor. En primer lugar, el histórico, cuando asumió nuestra misma carne para hacer presente en el mundo la Buena Noticia de Dios. Aquí, en este tiempo antes de Navidad, hacemos una serie de preparativos para recordar ese hermoso momento de la Encarnación del Hijo de Dios.

En segundo lugar, el que se realiza ahora, cada día si nosotros lo queremos, a través de la Eucaristía y de los demás sacramentos, y a través de tantos signos de Su presencia, comenzando por el signo de los hermanos y de los hermanos pobres, como nos recordará la liturgia: “…el mismo que viene a nuestro encuentro en cada hombre y en cada acontecimiento, para que lo recibamos con fe…”; y, finalmente, en tercer lugar, la venida definitiva al final de los tiempos cuando llegue a plenitud el Reino de Dios y nos abra a la vida eterna. Durante este tiempo de Adviento estaremos escuchando muchos textos de la Escritura hablándonos de esta venida, y de la importancia de estar bien preparados.

Distinguimos dos momentos en este camino de Adviento: el que iniciamos el domingo 28 de noviembre y que culminará el 16 de diciembre. Con esto no quiero decir termina ahí, ese día finaliza la primera etapa de este precioso tiempo, este tiempo necesitamos tomarlo con mucha seriedad, tratando de prepararnos ADVIENTO, PASA A LA PÁGINA 12

ARCHIVO | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Con procesiones, Mañanitas, representaciones de las apariciones marianas, cánticos, danzas y Liturgias Eucarísticas, los fieles de la Diócesis de Charlotte esperan celebrar la fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, emperatriz de las Américas

Con devoción y esperanza celebrarán fiesta Guadalupana CÉSAR HURTADO REPORTERO

CHARLOTTE — La comunidad católica de Charlotte se apresta a celebrar la Festividad de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, patrona de las Américas, cuyo día central es el 12 de diciembre, fecha en que tuvo lugar la cuarta y última aparición mariana al indígena San Juan Diego en el cerro Tepeyac.

La imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe se venera especialmente en México con grandísima devoción y los milagros obtenidos por los fieles que rezan a la Virgen Morena son extraordinarios.

Durante los años previos a la pandemia, el Santuario de Guadalupe en la Ciudad de México solía recibir unos 20 millones de peregrinos. Nuestra Señora del Tepeyac es patrona de Filipinas desde 1935 y de toda América desde 1999. La Virgen mestiza, que integra lo indígena y lo español, nos reúne como una sola familia y toma su nombre: Guadalupe, un nombre propio que, según explica José Luis González, diácono de la Diócesis de Guadalajara en México, proviene del vocablo árabe wad-al-hub, que significa “río de amor”.

LA HISTORIA

Un sábado de 1531 a principios de diciembre, un indígena llamado Juan Diego, al llegar junto al cerro llamado Tepeyac, escuchó una voz que lo llamaba por su nombre.

Subió a la cumbre y vio a una Señora de sobrehumana belleza que le pidió le manifestara al obispo su deseo que se construya un templo en su honor en aquel lugar. “Anda y pon en ello todo tu esfuerzo”, le dijo.

El obispo no le creyó. Juan Diego, al encontrarse nuevamente con la Virgen María le explicó lo ocurrido. La Virgen le pidió que fuera nuevamente con el obispo y le repitiera el mensaje. Esta vez el obispo le dijo a Juan Diego que debía decirle a la Señora que le diese alguna señal que probara que era la Madre de Dios.

De regreso, Juan Diego halló a María y le narró los hechos. La Virgen le mandó que volviese al día siguiente para darle la señal. Al día siguiente, Juan Diego no pudo retornar pues su tío Juan Bernardino moría y

necesitaba buscarle un sacerdote. De pronto, María salió a su encuentro y le preguntó a dónde iba. Avergonzado le explicó lo que ocurría. La Virgen dijo a Juan Diego que no se preocupara, que su tío ya estaba sano. Entonces el indígena le pidió la señal para el obispo. María le dijo que subiera a la cumbre del cerro donde halló rosas de Castilla frescas y poniéndose la tilma, cortó cuantas pudo y se las llevó al obispo.

Una vez ante Monseñor Zumarraga, Juan Diego desplegó su manta, cayeron al suelo las rosas y en la tilma estaba pintada con lo que hoy se conoce como la imagen de la Virgen de Guadalupe.

CELEBRACIONES LOCALES

En San John Neumann en Charlotte se celebrará el domingo 12 de diciembre desde las 12:30 p.m. con Rosario y serenata, para celebrar una Misa a la 1 de la tarde, seguida de un compartir.

En Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia en Winston Salem, la fiesta se celebrará el sábado 11 con Misa a las 7 de la tarde y Mañanitas hasta medianoche.

En Santa María en Greensboro, el programa iniciará el sábado 11 con Rosario a las 10 p.m., Misa a las 11 y Las Mañanitas con Mariachi hasta la 1 a.m. del domingo.

La jornada reinicia a las 2 de la tarde con danzas, representación de las apariciones y Misa a las 4.

En Santiago el Mayor en Concord, habrá procesión con banda, representaciones, bailables y Mañanitas después de la Misa de 7:30 de la noche.

Nuestra Señora de los Caminos en Thomasville, llevará a cabo sus celebraciones después de su Misa dominical de las 2 de la tarde.

San Miguel en Gastonia celebrará el domingo 12 una procesión a las 10 a.m., Misa a las 11 seguida de cánticos, danzas y compartir en el gimnasio de su escuela.

Santa Teresa en Mooresville tendrá un Rosario a las 6 p.m. del sábado 11, seguido de una Misa y procesión a las 7.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en Charlotte, celebrará a lo grande la fiesta de su santa patrona. Inicia el sábado 11 a las 6 p.m. con Misa, seguida de Rosario, Apariciones, GUADALUPANA, PASA A LA PÁGINA 12

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catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Contágiate del espíritu de la Navidad CÉSAR HURTADO REPORTERO

CHARLOTTE — Hay algunos lugares que deben ser visitados para sentir el verdadero espíritu de la Navidad en esta temporada de fiestas, cuando recordamos la llegada al mundo de nuestro Redentor.

Nacimientos y luces navideñas parecen encandilar a todos. Grandes y chicos quedamos maravillados ante un hermoso árbol o figuras con cientos, miles de bombillos fulgurantes que alternan sus colores dibujando renos, hombres de nieve, guirnaldas, ángeles, nacimientos o belenes y muchas otras siluetas de imágenes representativas de la Navidad.

Para poder apreciar los más bellos arreglos no es necesario viajar muy lejos, pues dentro de nuestro propio estado tenemos algunas de las más espectaculares muestras de nacimientos y luces navideñas.

LA BIBLIOTECA BILLY GRAHAM

La Biblioteca Billy Graham, museo y biblioteca que documenta el ministerio del evangelista Billy Graham y abrió al público el 5 de junio de 2007, es en verdad un oasis donde la palabra Navidad toma su verdadero significado.

Al arribar con su automóvil lo primero que verá son los hermosos jardines decorados con luces navideñas. Más adelante hallará una serie de coches jalados por caballos en los que podrá dar un paseo por los alrededores del lugar.

Coros entonan villancicos, mientras que, por un verdaderamente módico precio, se le ofrece tomar un café o chocolate bien caliente para mitigar el frío de la noche.

En un amplio sector del jardín, la representación en vivo del nacimiento de Jesús nos espera. Jesús, José y María, acompañados de numerosos pastorcillos, desafían el frío con vestimentas muy reales que nos transportan a Oriente, 2021 años atrás, cuando una estrella que brillaba en el firmamento anunció a la humanidad que el Salvador había nacido.

Aproveche la visita guiada ‘Un viaje de fe’ para conocer de cerca la vida de Billy Graham. Desde su establo, la vaca Bessie le contará detalles de la infancia del predicador. En las puertas del edificio central podrá disfrutar de uno de los más hermosos árboles de navidad que ha visto en su vida. Este es un punto obligado para tomar la foto familiar del recuerdo.

La exposición navideña permanecerá hasta el 23 de diciembre. Puede visitarla de lunes a jueves de 5 a 9 de la noche, y los viernes y sábados de 5 a 10 p.m.

La biblioteca se encuentra ubicada en 4330 Westmont Dr, Charlotte, N.C. 28217. Imagen Billy Graham Library.

JARDÍN BOTÁNICO DANIEL STOWE

Visitar el Jardín Botánico Daniel Stowe en Belmont es una experiencia inolvidable. Situado en las orillas del lago Wylie, ocupa 380 acres de tierra en los que se ubican hermosos jardines, preciosas fuentes en las que el agua baila en el aire, un gran pabellón de visitantes, tienda de regalos y varias millas de caminos que nos ofrecen la maravillosa oportunidad de reconectarnos con la madre naturaleza. En diciembre, añádale la decoración especial que anualmente esta organización prepara por la temporada festiva.

Las luces navideñas del Jardín Botánico Daniel Stowe

iniciaron en 2005 y se han convertido en una tradición de Gastonia y Belmont. Pueden ser visitadas hasta el 2 de enero de jueves a domingo de 5 a 9 de la tarde. La admisión tiene un valor de $14.95, $12.95 y $7.95 para adultos, adultos mayores y niños de 2 a 12 años respectivamente. Los menores de 2 años no pagan entrada.

El jardín se encuentra ubicado en 6500 South New Hope Rd. Belmont, N.C. 28212. Imagen Facebook Daniel Stowe.

MCADENVILLE, LA CIUDAD DE LA NAVIDAD

Desde 1956 esta pequeña ciudad a pocas millas al sur de Charlotte ha ganado una gran reputación en todo el país, adquiriendo el sobrenombre de ‘Christmas Town USA’ y atrayendo más de 300 mil autos que recorren sus calles en menos de 30 días.

La ceremonia inaugural tuvo lugar el 1 de diciembre a las 5 de la tarde en The Plaza de The Pharr Family YMCA, al costado de la Iglesia Bautista.

Las luces se encienden diariamente de 5:30 a 10 de la noche desde el 1 hasta el 26 de diciembre. La ruta es de aproximadamente 1.3 millas de extensión, durante los fines de semana puede tomar alrededor de 30-45 minutos para conducir su coche por todo el recorrido, pero la mayoría de días de semana con toda seguridad le tomará menos tiempo.

Le recomendamos llegar temprano, poco antes de las 5:30 de la tarde, estacionar su coche en los espacios autorizados y, bien abrigado, realizar el recorrido a pie. Tenga a mano su teléfono celular para tomar fotografías.

A McAdenville se llega por la I-85 salidas 22 y 23, y la autopista 74. El ingreso es gratuito. Solo debe seguir las señales de indicación o las órdenes de la Policía. La imagen es cortesía de Steve Rankin.

Apóstoles de la Palabra tuvieron encuentro regional SERGIO LÓPEZ CORRESPONSAL

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THOMASVILLE — El pasado sábado 27 de noviembre, la Iglesia Nuestra Señora de los Caminos, acogió el Primer Encuentro de Evangelización del movimiento eclesial Apóstoles de la Palabra, organizado con la finalidad de concientizar y alentar a los grupos que ya trabajan en la evangelización, así como también para conocerse y convivir.

Los participantes fueron recibidos por el Reverendo Gabriel Carvajal, párroco, quien les dirigió unas palabras de apoyo.

Guillermo Pérez, director de la región 2, que comprende los estados de Luisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Carolina del Sur, Carolina del Norte, Tennessee y Kentucky, resaltó la importancia de este primer encuentro pues al “poder compartir nuestras experiencias de misión”, se puede “alentar a otros grupos que quizás estén teniendo retos más difíciles”.

También destacó la formación de un grupo de matrimonios, “que acabamos de comenzar”, ya que “es muy importante el área de los matrimonios o Pastoral Familiar”.

Pérez, feligrés de la parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe en Charlotte, aclaró que el movimiento aún no tiene presencia en los 9 estados señalados anteriormente, pero ya se ha extendido en cinco de ellos. “Una de mis tareas con la directiva regional es fundar grupos en los distintos estados y parroquias de la región, según los párrocos nos lo permitan, así como las circunstancias personales de los misioneros”, añadió.

La junta regional está compuesta por

Resalio Martínez, de las parroquias Nuestra Señora de los Caminos y Nuestra Señora de las Américas en Biscoe; Jesús López, secretario y coordinador en el vicariato de Charlotte; Amílcar Alvarado, subdirector, en Atlanta; Juan Cruz, coordinador en la Diócesis de Raleigh; y Martín Avendaño, coordinador en Florida.

El Padre Gabriel Carvajal-Salazar es el director espiritual de los Apóstoles de la Palabra en la Diócesis de Charlotte.

“Su responsabilidad es guiarnos, cuidar nuestra vida espiritual, aconsejarnos así como fomentar la formación y la unidad entre nosotros”, dijo Pérez.

Si alguna persona está interesada en participar en el movimiento o presentarlo en su parroquia escriba a Guillermo Pérez a willperz@live.com.

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Santa María, Inmaculada Madre de Dios Cada 8 de diciembre, la Iglesia celebra el dogma de fe que nos revela que, por la gracia de Dios, la Virgen María fue preservada del pecado desde el momento de su concepción, es decir desde el instante en

particular abundancia de gracia, es un estado sobrenatural en el que el alma está unida con el mismo Dios. María como la Mujer esperada en el Protoevangelio (Génesis 3, 15) se mantiene en enemistad con la serpiente porque está llena de gracia.

Las devociones a la Inmaculada Virgen María son numerosas, y entre sus devotos destacan santos como San Francisco de Asís y San Agustín. Además la devoción a la Concepción Inmaculada de María fue llevada a toda la Iglesia de Occidente por el Papa Sixto IV, en 1483.

¿QUÉ ES LA INMACULADA CONCEPCIÓN? El Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica describe que: “Para ser la Madre del Salvador, María fue ‘dotada por Dios con dones a la medida de una misión tan importante’. El ángel Gabriel en el momento de la anunciación la saluda como ‘llena de gracia’.

En efecto, para poder dar el asentimiento libre de su fe al anuncio de su vocación era preciso que ella estuviese totalmente conducida por la gracia de Dios” (490).

¿MARÍA NUNCA PECÓ?

Debido a la forma de redención que se aplicó a María en el momento de su concepción, ella no solo fue protegida del pecado original, sino también del pecado personal.

El catecismo explica, en el ‘La Inmaculada Concepción’, óleo sobre lienzo de Pedro Pablo Rubens numeral 493, que los padres (Siegen, Westfalia, 1577-Amberes, Bélgica, 1640) Imagen cortesía del de la tradición oriental llaman Museo del Prado, Madrid, España. a la Madre de Dios “la Toda Santa” (Panaghia), la celebran “como inmune de toda mancha que María comenzó la vida humana. de pecado y como plasmada y hecha una El 8 de diciembre de 1854, en su bula nueva criatura por el Espíritu Santo”. Por Ineffabilis Deus, el Papa Pío IX proclamó la gracia de Dios, María ha permanecido este dogma: “...declaramos, proclamamos pura de todo pecado personal a lo largo de y definimos que la doctrina que sostiene toda su vida. que la beatísima Virgen María fue preservada inmune de toda mancha de PARALELO ENTRE MARÍA Y EVA la culpa original en el primer instante Adán y Eva fueron creados inmaculados, de su concepción por singular gracia y sin pecado original o su mancha. Ambos privilegio de Dios omnipotente, en atención cayeron en desgracia y a través de ellos la a los méritos de Cristo Jesús Salvador del humanidad estaba destinada a pecar. género humano, está revelada por Dios y Cristo y María fueron también debe ser por tanto firme y constantemente concebidos inmaculados. Ambos creída por todos los fieles…” (Pío IX, Bula permanecieron fieles y a través de ellos la Ineffabilis Deus, 8 de diciembre de 1854). humanidad fue redimida del pecado.

María es la “llena de gracia”, del griego Jesús es por tanto el nuevo Adán y María “kecharitomene” que significa una la nueva Eva.

Lecturas Diarias 5-11 DICIEMBRE

Domingo: Baruc 5:1-9, Filipenses 1:4-6, 8-11, Lucas 3:1-6; Lunes: Isaías 35:1-10, Lucas 5:17-26; Martes (San Ambrosio): Isaías 40:111, Mateo 18:12-14; Miércoles (Inmaculada Concepción): Génesis 3:9-15, 20, Efesios 1:36, 11-12, Lucas 1:26-38; Jueves: Isaías 41:1320, Mateo11:11-15; Viernes: Isaías 48:17-19, Mateo 11:16-19; Sábado: Eclesiástico 48:1-4, 9-11, Mateo 17:10-13

12-18 DICIEMBRE

Domingo: Sofonías 3:14-18, Filipenses 4:4-7, Lucas 3:10-18; Lunes (Santa Lucía): Números 24:2-7, 15-17, Mateo 21:23-27;

Martes (San Juan de la Cruz): Sofonías 3:1-2, 9-13, Mateo 21:28-32; Miércoles: Isaías 45:6-8, 18, 21-25, Lucas 7:19-23, Jueves: Isaías 54:1-10, Lucas 3:4,6; Viernes: Génesis 49:2, 8-10, Mateo 1:1-17; Sábado: Jeremías 23:5-8, Mateo 1:18-24

19-25 DICIEMBRE

Domingo: Miqueas 5:1-4a, Hebreos 10:510, Lucas 1:39-45; Lunes: Isaías 7:10-14, Lucas 1:26-38; Martes: Cantar 2:8-14, Lucas 1:39-45; Miércoles: 1 Samuel 1:24-28, Lucas 1:46-56; Jueves: Malaquías 3:1-4, 23-24, Lucas 1:57-66; Viernes: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8-12, 14, 16, Lucas 1:67-79; Sábado: Isaías 52:7-10, Hebreos 1:1-6, Juan 1:1-18

El catecismo señala en el numeral 494 que “Ella, en efecto, como dice San Ireneo, ‘por su obediencia fue causa de la salvación propia y de la de todo el género humano’.

Por eso, no pocos padres antiguos, en su predicación, coincidieron con él en afirmar ‘el nudo de la desobediencia de Eva lo desató la obediencia de María. Lo que ató la virgen Eva por su falta de fe lo desató la Virgen María por su fe’. Comparándola con Eva, llaman a María ‘Madre de los vivientes’ y afirman con mayor frecuencia: ‘la muerte vino por Eva, la vida por María’”.

MARÍA, ÍCONO DE NUESTRO DESTINO

Aquellos que mueren en la amistad con Dios y así para ir al Cielo serán liberados de todo pecado y mancha de pecado.

Seremos así todos vueltos “inmaculados” si permanecemos fieles a Dios.

Incluso en esta vida, Dios nos purifica y prepara en santidad y, si morimos en su amistad pero imperfectamente purificados, Él nos purificará en el purgatorio y nos volverá inmaculados. Al dar a María esta gracia desde el primer momento de su concepción, Dios nos muestra una imagen de nuestro propio destino. Él nos muestra que esto es posible para los seres humanos a través de su gracia.

En palabras de San Juan Pablo II, podemos decir que “María, al lado de su Hijo, es la imagen más perfecta de la libertad y de la liberación de la humanidad y del cosmos. La Iglesia debe mirar hacia ella, Madre y Modelo, para comprender en su integridad el sentido de su misión”.

“Fijemos, por tanto, nuestra mirada en María, ícono de la Iglesia peregrina en el

desierto de la historia, pero orientada a la meta gloriosa de la Jerusalén celestial, donde resplandecerá como Esposa del Cordero, Cristo Señor”.

— Condensado de Aciprensa

Oración a María Inmaculada Una vez más estamos aquí para rendirte homenaje a los pies de esta columna, desde la cual tú velas con amor sobre Roma y sobre el mundo entero, desde que, hace ya ciento cincuenta años, el beato Pío IX proclamó como verdad de la fe católica, tu preservación de toda mancha de pecado, en previsión de la muerte y resurrección de tu Hijo Jesucristo.

Virgen Inmaculada, tu intacta belleza espiritual es para nosotros una fuente viva de confianza y de esperanza.

Tenerte como Madre, Virgen Santa, nos reafirma en el camino de la vida como prenda de eterna salvación.

Por eso a ti, oh María, confiadamente recurrimos.

Ayúdanos a construir un mundo donde la vida del hombre sea siempre amada y defendida, toda forma de violencia rechazada, la paz buscada tenazmente por todos.

Virgen Inmaculada, concédenos celebrar y adorar con renovado y ardiente amor el santo misterio del Cuerpo y Sangre de Cristo.

Con premura materna, Virgen María, guía siempre nuestros pasos por los senderos del bien.

Amén.

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iiiDecember 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com

FROM TH

Celebrate Las Posadas Mexican Catholic tradition recalls the journey of Mary and Joseph before Christ’s birth SUEANN HOWELL AND CÉSAR HURTADO CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

C

elebrate the holy seasons of Advent and Christmas with a beautiful Mexican tradition known as “Las Posadas,” or “The Inns.” Part Christmas pageant and part Christmas novena, it is a faith-filled, entertaining way to gather with loved ones, recall the journey of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, and prepare your heart for the birth of Our Savior.

At its heart, Las Posadas is a nine-day novena that starts Thursday, Dec. 16, and runs through Dec. 24. It typically involves family, friends and communities coming together each evening to remember the Holy Family’s journey from Nazareth and their search to find a room in Bethlehem.

Participants begin with prayer and re-enact the Holy Family’s journey, sometimes with children dressed as Joseph and Mary arriving at the door of the host’s home. Singing carols and sharing refreshments are also important components of each evening’s gatherings.

The celebration has been a Mexican tradition for more than 400 years. It began as a way for Spanish missionaries – specifically,

the Augustinian friars of San Agustin de Acolman, near Mexico City – to teach the story of Christ’s birth by reinventing some native pagan practices. In 1586, Friar Diego de Soria, the Augustinian prior, obtained a papal bull from Pope Sixtus V to celebrate what was called “Misas de Aguinaldo” or “Christmas bonus Masses” between Dec. 16 and 24.

By the 18th century, Las Posadas gained popularity and were enriched by joyful songs and other elements such as piñatas, fireworks and dancing.

Las Posadas were typical of the so-called New Spain, but they soon spread to other regions of the Americas. And there are now similar traditions elsewhere in the Church – for example, Filipinos celebrate Simbang Gabi, Puerto Ricans celebrate Misa de Aguinaldo, Cubans have Parrandas, and Colombians pray the Novena de Aguinaldos.

The way of celebrating Las Posadas has changed over time, and customs from different cultures and generations have been added. But the occasion has always been characterized by prayer, songs, food and hospitality. This year, why not incorporate this delightful tradition into your Advent preparations to receive the “Niño Dios” at Christmas?

More online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Find recipes, downloadable song lyrics in English and Spanish, and more resources to help your family organize your own Las Posadas

How to do it Each Las Posadas celebration has three components: prayer and the caminata, food and a piñata:

(Clockwise, from above) A Nativity scene with Christmas lights. Children dressed as Mary and Joseph take part in a local Las Posadas celebration. Children smash a traditional star-shaped piñata in a pre-Posada

Prayer and Caminata Las Posadas begins with prayer – such as reciting the rosary – and then continues with a “caminata” or procession, a re-enactment of Joseph and Mary’s search for a room.

What you need: n Three homes designated as “inns,” or three doors that open to the outside n Two people dressed as Mary and Joseph (usually children), or a picture of the Holy Family n Musical instruments such as a guitar, tambourines or maracas n Printed lyrics of the Las Posadas Song, “Pedir Posada,” and other Christmas carols n A rosary and one person to lead everyone in prayer n Candles and sparklers n Refreshments (details follow) n Piñata, blindfold and stick

First, everyone gathers to pray the rosary, usually around a Nativity scene or set. Some Las Posadas celebrations include singing a Christmas carol after each decade of the rosary.

Then participants divide into two groups for the procession or “caminata” which will go from house to house or door to door. One group stays inside each house or behind each

door, while the other group takes part in the procession outside.

The head of the procession carries a candle.

Pilgrims can carry images of the Holy Family or two people may play the parts of Mary (María) and Joseph (José), with others dressed as angels and shepherds. Give each person a candle and, if age appropriate, a few sparklers. The candles are lit during the procession, and the sparklers are lit at the end, just before dinner.

The procession is accompanied by musicians, with everyone singing carols such as the Las Posadas Song, “Pedir Posada.”

At each of the first two houses or doors, the pilgrims (“Peregrinos”) approach and sing the Las Posadas Song. The inside groups respond with their section of the verses, but do not open the door. Then, the outside group moves to the third door singing, and the inside group finally opens the door.

At the end of the caminata, everyone sings Christmas carols, children break open starshaped piñatas and everyone gathers for a feast.

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December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.comiii

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FILE | CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD; WIKIPEDIA; SHUTTERSTOCK

party in Mexico City. Children at a local Las Posadas celebration receive aguinaldos, small bags with sweets, ncluding candy and cookies.

freshments

here are three traditional food elements for Posadas: fruit, candy and dinner. sually, bags of fruit are passed around le guests wait for dinner. Traditional bags ude one orange, one mandarin, a piece ugar cane (candy canes make a good

substitute), two or three tejocotes (Mexican hawthorne), one guava and a good helping of roasted peanuts in shells.

Dinner usually consists of traditional Mexican antojitos (“little cravings”), usually street snacks or appetizers such as tacos, tamales, enchiladas, pozole, etc.

The traditional beverage to serve is Mexican ponche – a hot, spiced beverage made with fruit, water and sugar. Other options are Mexican hot chocolate, lime or pumpkin atole, and chapurrado, especially if you serve tamales.

After dinner, the host comes out with a basket of aguinaldos – small bags with sweets, including candy and cookies – to give each guest.

Piñata The piñata actually originated with Las Posadas. The first piñata shape was a sevenpointed shining star, representing the star that led the Wise Men to adore the Christ Child.

The seven points represent the seven deadly sins. Being blindfolded represents faith, and the stick represents virtue. Beating the piñata represents the overcoming of sin, and the treats inside represent the glory of God falling down upon us.

Sing the irresistible earworm “Dale, dale, dale” (“Hit, Hit, Hit It”) as each person takes

their crack at the piñata. This song has two practical purposes. First, it enables everyone to have fun and participate, even when you are not hitting the piñata yourself. Plus, the song’s length sets the perfect time limit for each person’s turn before passing the stick on to the next in line.

Some Las Posadas gatherings feature two piñatas – one for smaller children and one for the older children, one for girls and one for boys, or simply two to make sure everybody gets a hit in before the piñatas are split open.

After the caminata, dinner and piñatas, participants gather around to talk, eat more candy and mingle until late in the evening.

Then everybody goes home and gets ready for the next Las Posadas celebration at another’s house the following day!

You can do all nine days of Las Posadas celebrations, you can do just a few, or you can host one big potluck. Either way, have fun customizing this beloved Mexican tradition for your family this holy season.

— www.mamalatinatips.com, Wikipedia

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catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

All Saints Catholic School All Saints Catholic School (grades PreK-8), a culturally diverse, regional school located in the Northside of Richmond, Virginia, seeks dynamic and highly qualified candidates for the position of principal beginning with the 2022-2023 school year.

The successful candidate: • will be committed to fostering and maintaining a Catholic environment that is an authentic expression of Catholic faith, with the goal of producing faithful graduates where everything done in and through the school expresses love for and obedience to Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church; • will have a working knowledge of the Church’s teachings regarding Catholic identity and the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools; and, • will possess a demonstrated commitment to academic excellence, with an emphasis on innovative learning skills, teaching methods, and curricula.

Responsibilities will include: • establishing a tone that enables the spiritual growth of students, faculty, and the entire school community; • working collaboratively with the Pastor, the School Advisory Board, faculty, and parents to foster a learning environment deeply rooted in the Church’s teaching on Catholic identity, where Christ’s principles guide every dimension of the school’s life and activity; • assessing and overseeing the school’s academic programs and faculty effectiveness; • communicating effectively with students, families and the community; • representing the school in the parish community and greater community; and, • overseeing non-academic matters including, but not limited to, enrollment management, planning, budgets, development, and marketing.

The successful candidate will: • be a practicing Catholic; • possess a master’s degree in Education Administration and Supervision or a related field and five years teaching and/or administrative experience.

• hold a Virginia license in Administration and Supervision or be eligible to pursue; and, • possess excellent organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills.

Salary: Competitive and commensurate with experience.

An introductory letter summarizing the candidate’s qualifications, a resume, and a completed Diocesan application should be sent to Principal Search Committee at allsaintsprincipalsearch@richmonddiocese.org.

Review of applications will begin immediately and are due February 1, 2022. The new principal is expected to begin no later than July 1, 2022.

For more information about All Saints Catholic School, visit https://www.allsaintsric.org/

GUADALUPANA VIENE DE LA PÁGINA 7

Desfile de Banderas, Misa a las 9, Mañanitas, danzas y cantos hasta las 2 de la mañana. Cierran la jornada el domingo 12 de 4 a 6 de la mañana con Mañanitas a cargo del Mariachi Guadalupano.

En San Juan Bautista de la Salle en N. Wilkesboro, la Misa se celebrará el sábado 11 a las 11 p.m. seguida de Mañanitas.

En Santa Francisca de Roma en Sparta, habrá Mañanitas el domingo 12 a las 5 p.m. y Misa a las 6.

En Jefferson, los fieles de San Francisco de Asís festejarán con Misa y procesión el sábado 11 a las 7:30 p.m.

En Santa Elizabeth en Boone desarrollan la Novena Guadalupana diariamente desde el 3 de diciembre a las 7 de la tarde.

El sábado 11 tendrán Misa seguida de Las Mañanitas.

Las parroquias Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles en Marion y San Francisco de Asís en Lenoir celebrarán a la Morenita del Tepeyac el sábado 11 con sendas Misas a las 7 de la tarde. En cambio, la parroquia San José en Newton posterga su celebración hasta el 17 de diciembre a las 7 de la tarde.

En Shelby, la Iglesia María Auxiliadora inició su Novena el 3 de diciembre.

El sábado 11 a las 7 p.m. se celebrará Misa, seguida de un festejo en el salón parroquial. El domingo, a las 6 a.m.,

ADVIENTO VIENE DE LA PÁGINA 7

al máximo espiritualmente a través de un buen examen de conciencia, una buena confesión, ayunos, obras de caridad, cambio de actitudes, perdonando, etc.

Podemos también tomar estos días sin perder el sentido espiritual para preparar nuestras casas, adornarlas, poner signos que inspiren el entusiasmo y la alegría. Hoy más que nunca, necesitamos recordarle al mundo que Cristo sigue vivo y que nosotros creemos en Él, por lo tanto un signo externo fuera de casa es muy necesario.

El segundo momento inicia exactamente el 17 de diciembre, y no hay nunca ningún cambio, y culminará el 24 de diciembre antes de la Misa vespertina de la vigilia.

Esta parte del Adviento es un tanto diferente porque la Iglesia nos invita a preparar con alegría el misterio de Su nacimiento de una forma más directa, podría decirse que se habla un poco más claro de la Navidad.

Nosotros como comunidad Hispana tenemos la riqueza de las tradiciones navideñas, como serían las posadas.

Que nuestras posadas se conviertan en momentos de evangelización en los cuales llevemos el misterio de Jesús, José y María a las casas. Ojalá que podamos

Mañanitas a la Virgen y desayuno En la parroquia San Juan Bautista en Waynesville, la Novena inició el 3 de diciembre a las 7 p.m. El domingo 12 habrá Mañanitas a las 5 a.m. y Misa, seguida de procesión, a la 1 p.m.

El domingo 12 a las 7 p.m. procesión y compartir en la Iglesia Santa María en Sylva. La Novena se realiza diariamente a la misma hora.

En San Francisco de Asís en Franklin, el sábado 11 habrá un compartir y Mañanitas a las 7 p.m. El domingo, procesión al término de la Misa, danzas aztecas, compartir y coro infantil.

La parroquia Santo Redentor en Andrews concluirá su Novena con Misa el sábado 11. El domingo tendrá Las Mañanitas y Adoración a las 5 de la mañana.

En Nuestra Señora de las Montañas en Highlands, la comunidad lleva a cabo una Novena a las 7 de la tarde. El sábado 11 concluirá con Las Mañanitas y compartir.

En Hamlet, la Iglesia San Santiago celebrará el sábado 11 dos misas, a las 8 y 10 p.m. Ambas con Mañanitas, coros y compartir.

La Iglesia San Marcos en Huntersville celebrará el sábado 11 con Misa a las 6 a.m., seguida de un compartir a las 7:30.

San Felipe Apóstol en Statesville tendrá Misa el domingo a las 12:30 p.m.

San Francisco de Asís en Mocksville tendrá procesión, Rosario y Mañanitas el sábado desde las 10:00 p.m.

Sagrado Corazón en Salisbury festeja el domingo 12 con procesión y Misa a la 1 p.m.

llevarlo a las casas de aquellos que se han olvidado de Cristo. Allí demos testimonio de nuestra fe, recemos con devoción el Rosario, la novena de Navidad, hablemos de las bendiciones que nos trajo el Hijo de Dios, sobre todo la redención de nuestros pecados. Y finalmente concluyamos con el tradicional ágape, es decir con los abrazos de alegría y el compartir las piñatas, dulces, merienda y todo lo que sabemos hacer, siempre recordando que el fundamento de nuestra alegría está en la venida del Señor.

El secreto del Adviento está en unir la liturgia con la historia y la celebración con la vida. Para hacer vida el Adviento se necesita la perspectiva larga de la esperanza en el proyecto global, en el plan de Dios desde su revelación en la historia con sus grandes intervenciones, como lo sería su Encarnación y sus manifestaciones más pequeñas, más cercanas de cada día, pero sobre todo la venida personal del Hijo de Dios que quiso vivir en nuestro mundo: Jesús de Nazaret, celebrado como un recién nacido en la Navidad que se acerca.

Felicidades en este tiempo y recordemos: Estar preparados, porque no sabemos cuándo vendrá nuestro Señor en su segunda venida. Que encuentre nuestros corazones preparados y llenos de alegría ante su venida.

EL PADRE JULIO DOMÍNGUEZ es el Vicario Episcopal del Ministerio Hispano de la Diócesis de Charlotte.

Mix

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest movie reviews: catholicnewsherald.com

In theaters

Amid colorful visuals and catchy songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the script, penned by Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush (both of whom co-directed with Byron Howard), delivers worthy messages about community service, cooperation and family reconciliation. Yet, while the sequestered setting includes a Catholic church whose amiable, briefly glimpsed priest is shown to be a local leader, the strong emphasis on magic, including divination, together with the dangers through which the protagonist passes, may be a source of concern for the parents of impressionable youngsters.

Nonscriptural beliefs and practices, characters in peril.

CNS: A-II (adults and adolescents): MPAA: PG

‘House of Gucci’

‘Encanto’ Vivacious animated musical about a teen girl (voice of Stephanie Beatriz) living in an enchanted enclave in Colombia who is the sole member of her family not to have received a supernatural talent on her fifth birthday. As she, her strong-willed grandmother (voice of María Cecilia Botero) and protective parents (voices of Angie Cepeda and Wilmer Valderrama) continue to wrestle with this decade-old misfortune, a dark vision of the whole clan’s doom granted years before to the lass’ uncle, seems on the verge of fulfillment.

Despite its tragic ending, for most of its running time this fact-based dynastic saga, fueled by tumultuous emotions, has the feel of a high-end soap opera. Lady Gaga plays a middle-class woman who marries into the titular fashion family. Her unambitious new husband (Adam Driver), a law student, would rather steer clear both of the clan’s business empire and of its tangled relationships. But she has other ideas, and together they become caught up in the shifting alliances and rivalries among her imperious father-in-law (Jeremy Irons), his bon vivant brother and business partner (Al Pacino) and the latter’s eccentric, harebrained son (Jared Leto). Glossy and well-acted, but marred by an unnecessarily explicit liaison between the two principals in the lead-up to their wedding, director Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Sara Gay Forden’s 2001 book “The House of Gucci” is a hothouse affair that may prove a guilty pleasure for those grown-ups willing to overlook its fleeting detour into offensiveness. A couple of milder oaths, frequent rough and occasional crude and crass language.

CNS: L (limited adult audience); MPAA: R

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On TV n Friday, Dec.3, 4:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Saints and Heroes: Saint Francis Xavier.” An amazing story of the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier as he tries to win souls for Christ in Japan.

Animated. n Saturday, Dec. 4, 10:15 a.m. (EWTN) “Saint Henry de Osso.” The life of St. Henry De Osso through pictures, music and narration, encouraging your little ones to follow his example by living and loving as Jesus did. Animated. n Saturday, Dec. 4, 2 p.m. (EWTN) “Saint Francis Xavier and the Church in Japan.” An EWTN original documentary presenting the history of the Catholic Church in Japan and the missionary work of St. Francis Xavier. n Saturday, Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m. (EWTN) “Advent Maranatha.” Advent is the season of preparation, and Maranatha signals the coming of our Lord at Christmas. Get ready to receive Him by turning away from sin and proactively pursuing good deeds. We have a living hope in Jesus. n Sunday, Dec. 5, 6 a.m. (EWTN) “Angelus with Pope Francis.” Pope Francis leads the world in the recitation of the Angelus, live from Rome.

n Friday, Dec. 10, 5 p.m. (EWTN) “They Might be Saints: Bishop Frederic Baraga.” Trekking across Michigan’s wilderness earned him the nickname “the Snowshoe Priest,” but his heroic virtue bringing the Gospel to Native Americans and immigrant miners may earn Bishop Frederic Baraga sainthood. n Saturday, Dec. 11, 2 p.m. (EWTN) “Guadalupe: The Miracle and the Message.” Jim Caviezel narrates the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe, from the miraculous apparition to the relevance her message still holds for Catholics today. n Saturday, Dec. 11, 8 p.m. (EWTN) “1531 – A Story that is Not Finished Yet.” See what really happened before and after the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe as told through the actual testimonies of St. Juan Diego, Bishop Zumárraga and the people who witnessed the miraculous image. n Sunday, Dec. 12, 12 p.m. (EWTN) “Holy Mass on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.” Live from Rome, Pope Francis celebrates the Holy Mass honoring the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patroness of Mexico and the Americas, and protector of unborn children.

Our nation 14

catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Justices seem willing to allow Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban CAROL ZIMMERMANN CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.

Luke 2:14

This Advent and Christmas set your heart and mind on the things above!

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Take 20% percent off all Advent and Christmas items.

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THE CATHOLIC SHOPPE At Belmont Abbey College “That in all things God be Glorified”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the Supreme Court’s first major abortion case in decades – which examines Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy – the majority of justices during oral arguments Dec. 1 seemed willing to let that ban stay in place. But it was unclear if they would take this further and overturn Roe. While the justices considered the state law and the possible ramifications of supporting it or not, people on both sides of the issue were on the steps of the Supreme Court revealing the divide on this issue by what they were shouting or with their placard messages calling abortion murder or an essential right.

At several points during oral arguments on Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts continued to bring the focus back to the question at hand: the 15-week ban on abortions in Mississippi, which was struck down by a federal District Court in Mississippi in 2018 and upheld a year later by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

A 15-week ban is not a “dramatic departure from viability,” Roberts said.

The point of viability – when a fetus is able to survive on its own – was key to the discussion because the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that states cannot restrict abortion before 24 weeks or when a fetus is said to be able to survive on its own.

Roberts seemed hesitant to take this further, asking if the court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, if it also would be asked to reconsider several other cases that people could say have been wrongly decided.

And that discussion of previous court decisions, the use of “stare decisis” came up frequently. The term, which literally means to stand by things decided, was used in reference to previous abortion cases but also several other cases with some justices pointing out that precedence should not always be a deciding factor and that some cases did need to be overturned.

Justice Stephen Breyer indicated the court was treading on contested ground and was concerned that its decision could be seen as merely political.

But as the arguments continued, more reflection seemed to be on the issue of abortion itself and the possibility of bringing the issue “back to the people,” as Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart suggested.

Stewart stressed that Roe and Casey court decisions “haunt our country” and “have no home in our history or traditions.”

Roe v. Wade is the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Casey v. Planned Parenthood is the 1992 decision that

CNS | JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS

Pro-life activists and other supporters protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington Dec. 1, ahead of the court hearing oral arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an appeal from Mississippi to keep its ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. affirmed Roe and also stressed that a state regulation on abortion could not impose an “undue burden” on a woman “seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh emphasized the court was being forced to “pick sides” on a contentious issue and questioned why the court had to be the arbiter here.

“The Constitution is neither pro-life nor pro-choice,” he said, noting that it “leaves the issue to the people to resolve in the democratic process.”

Justice Clarence Thomas asked what those opposed to the state ban thought was the constitutional right to an abortion, and Justice Samuel Alito spoke of the fetus having “an interest in having a life.”

Julie Rikelman, of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who represented the Jackson Women’s Health Organization in its challenge of Mississippi’s abortion law, said keeping the law in place would cause “profound damage to women’s liberty, equality and the rule of law.”

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar went on to argue that overturning the court’s previous abortion rulings would have “severe and swift” effects causing abortion restrictions in other states.

If the court sides with Mississippi, it would be the first time the court would allow an abortion ban before the point of

viability and could lay the groundwork for other abortion restrictions that other states could follow.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a court brief supporting Mississippi, stressed that abortion is not a right created by the Constitution and called it “inherently different from other types of personal decisions to which this court has accorded constitutional protection.”

Referring to the court’s major abortion decisions, the brief warned that if the Supreme Court “continues to treat abortion as a constitutional issue,” it will face more questions in the future about “what sorts of abortion regulations are permissible.”

Just as the arguments started, the USCCB issued a statement from Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, which said: “We pray that the court will do the right thing and allow states to once again limit or prohibit abortion and in doing so protect millions of unborn children and their mothers from this painful, life-destroying act.”

A ruling in the case is expected in July.

Follow the issue online At www.catholicnewsherald.com: Read more about the Supreme Court case from a Catholic viewpoint

Local pro-life prayer campaign held CHARLOTTE — Catholics across the Diocese of Charlotte joined a public pro-life “White Rose Witness” Dec. 1, organized by the diocese’s Respect Life Office to coincide with the U.S. Supreme Court hearing.

People wore an image of a white rose for the day, fasted and prayed the rosary. More than a dozen churches offered special Masses and periods of Eucharistic Adoration – all in a concentrated effort of prayer and public witness.

St. Michael Parish in Gastonia was among those that took part, offering Mass, praying the rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and Adoration.

Father Lucas Rossi, pastor, noted, “It’s important that we participate both as a parish and to do so publicly, which is why the White Rose initiative is powerful. It’s essential that we take a more active role both prayerfully

and publicly to defend the unborn and all human beings’ God-given dignity.”

Father Peter Ascik, pastor of St. Mary Church in Shelby and one of the organizers of the “White Rose Witness” campaign, led a bilingual rosary Nov. 30 through a Facebook video. He noted, “This is a very important time to speak up for the right to life, which St. John Paul II called ‘the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights’ (“Christifidelis Laici,” 38). We wish to show that our nation would welcome a ruling affirming the right of the states to protect human life before birth.”

— Catholic News Herald

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

For the latest news 24/7: catholicnewsherald.com

In Brief Congress urged to pass Conscience Protection Act for health care workers WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., has urged Congress to pass the Conscience Protection Act. It would amend the Public Health Service Act to prohibit government discrimination against health care providers who, on serious moral or religious grounds, strongly object to participating in medical procedures, namely abortion. Harris, a Catholic physician, reintroduced the measure Nov. 19 and is one of 100 Republican lawmakers who support the bill. Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, endorsed the measure. According to Harris, the bill is needed because of various actions by the Biden administration, including its dismissal earlier this year of a government suit against a Vermont hospital for violating nurses’ objections, on morals ground, to participating in abortion.

HHS rescinds rule protecting faith-based foster care, adoption WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Nov. 18 rescinded a Trump administration rule that ensured faith-based social service agencies that provide adoption and foster care would continue receiving federal funding for services that follow their religious beliefs. Opponents of the rule modification, put in place early this year in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s term, said it allowed agencies to use religion to discriminate against potential foster parents.

But U.S. bishops praised the rule when it was

implemented, saying it allowed faith-based social service providers “to continue partnering with the government to assist children in need.”

In acting on the rule, HHS specifically rescinded waivers that allowed child welfare agencies in South Carolina, Texas and Michigan to not place children with same-sex couples in accordance with their religious belief in traditional marriage between one man and one woman. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said the Trump-era rule was “a blanket use of religious exemptions against any person or blank checks to allow discrimination against any persons, importantly including LGBTQ+ persons in taxpayer-funded programs.”

Teacher fired by Catholic school wins appeal to continue lawsuit WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 23 that an Indiana trial court “committed reversible error” when it dismissed a former teacher’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis earlier this year. The unanimous decision by the appellate court’s panel allows the initial lawsuit filed by the teacher, fired from a Catholic school, to move forward. The case involves Joshua PayneElliott, a former world language and social studies teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis who was fired in June 2019. PayneElliott claimed the Indianapolis Archdiocese illegally interfered with his contract with the school where he had been teaching for 13 years by mandating that all Catholic schools in the archdiocese enforce a morality clause that did not permit employees to be in same-sex marriages. Payne-Elliott married Layton PayneElliott, a teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, also in Indianapolis, in 2017. Indiana’s Marion County Superior Court dismissed the lawsuit against the Indianapolis Archdiocese in May, which the former teacher appealed. The archdiocese had asked a lower court to dismiss the suit when it was initially filed, saying it went against the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.

— Catholic News Service

Please pray for the following priests who died during the month of December: Bishop William G. Curlin – 2017 Abbot Jude Cleary, OSB – 2005 Abbot Walter Coggin, OSB – 1999 Rev. Cuthbert Allen, OSB – 1977 Rev. Boniface Bauer, OSB – 1974 Rev. Jerome Dollard, OSB – 1985 Rev. Michael J. Hoban – 1995 Rev. George Kloster – 2019 Rev. Matthew Leonard – 2019 Rev. Thomas McAvoy – 1978 Rev. Joseph McCarthy – 2001 Rev. Francis Scheurich – 1975 Rev. Msgr. Francis M. Smith – 1983 Rev. Vincent M. Stokes – 1979 Rev. John Joseph Tuller – 2013 Rev. Philip Tierney, OSB – 1971 Rev. Aloysius Wachter, OSB – 1977 Rev. Msgr. Thomas R. Walsh - 2016

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catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Catholic, Orthodox must make their communion visible, pope says

Pope: Advent during pandemic remains a season of compassion

CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

VATICAN CITY — Catholics and Orthodox Christians must increasingly work together where they can, Pope Francis told Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

“The full unity for which we yearn is, of course, a gift from God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. May our Lord help us to be ready to embrace this gift through prayer, interior conversion and openness to seeking and offering pardon,” he said in the written message to the Orthodox patriarch.

“Beloved brother in Christ, along the path toward full communion between our churches, we are sustained by the intercession of the holy brothers Peter and Andrew, our patron saints,” he wrote in the message released by the Vatican Nov. 30.

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, delivered the message to the patriarch in Istanbul Nov. 30 during services to mark the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, the patriarchate’s patron saint.

The cardinal led a Vatican delegation to Istanbul to take part in the Divine Liturgy presided over by the patriarch.

Pope Francis told the patriarch, “It was a source of joy for me that during your recent visit to Rome we were able not only to share our concerns regarding the present and future of our world but also to express our shared commitment to addressing issues of crucial significance for our whole human family, including the care of creation, the education of future generations, dialogue among the different religious traditions and the pursuit of peace.”

This way, as pastors with their churches, they strengthen a “profound bond that already unites us, since our common responsibility in the face of current

CAROL GLATZ CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

CNS | PAUL HARING

Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople embrace during a prayer service in the patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul in this Nov. 29, 2014, file photo. The pope sent a message to Patriarch Bartholomew on the feast of St. Andrew, patron saint of the church of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. challenges flows from our shared faith” in God the father, his son and the Holy Spirit, “who harmonizes differences without abolishing them,” the pope wrote.

“United in this faith, let us seek with determination to make visible our communion,” he wrote.

Even though there are still “theological

and ecclesiological questions at the heart of the work of our ongoing theological dialogue, it is my hope that Catholics and Orthodox may increasingly work together in those areas in which it is not only possible, but indeed imperative that we do so,” the pope wrote.

The pope and the patriarch send delegations to each other’s churches each year for the celebrations of their patron saints’ feast days: the Vatican’s June 29 celebration of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul and the Orthodox patriarchate’s Nov. 30 celebration of the feast of St. Andrew.

VATICAN CITY — With Advent coming during an ongoing pandemic, Christians are called to hold on to hope and foster a season of compassion and tenderness, Pope Francis said.

During Advent this year, too, “its lights will be dimmed by the consequences of the pandemic, which still weighs heavily on our time,” he said Nov. 22. “All the more reason why we are called to question ourselves and not to lose hope.”

“The feast of the birth of Christ is not out of tune with the trial we are going through because it is the quintessential feast of compassion, the feast of tenderness. Its beauty is humble and full of human warmth,” the pope said during an audience with organizers and participants in a Christmas music contest. The contest was proposed and promoted by the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis and Don Bosco Valdocco Missions association, based in Turin.

The contest invited people between the ages of 16 and 35 to produce new songs inspired by Christmas and its values: life, love, peace and light, according to the initiative’s website. The best three pieces in lyrics, music and interpretation will be performed during the 2021 edition of the annual Christmas concert at the Vatican.

The pope thanked the groups who came up with the idea for the contest.

“The beauty of Christmas shines through in the sharing of small gestures of genuine love. It is not alienating, it is not superficial, it is not evasive,” he said.

He quoted what St. Paul VI told artists during Advent in 1965: “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.” It must not be the false beauty “made of appearances and earthly riches, which are hollow and a generator of emptiness.” It must be the real beauty “of a God made flesh, the one of faces – the beauty of faces, the beauty of stories” and the beauty of “creatures that make up our common home.”

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In Brief Pope: Discrimination against people with disabilities must end VATICAN CITY — The Church must be a home for all, especially for people with disabilities who continue to face discrimination in the world and in the Church, Pope Francis said. In a message for the Dec. 3 celebration of the U.N.’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the pope said although Church teaching is clear, too many people with disabilities lack spiritual care, which is “the worst form of discrimination.”

“Discrimination continues to be all too present at various levels of society; it feeds on prejudice, ignorance and a culture that finds it hard to appreciate the inestimable value of each person,” he wrote. Nevertheless, he said, baptism makes all men and women “full-fledged” members of the Church “so that all of us, without exclusion or discrimination, can say: ‘I am the church!’”

The U.N. theme for the 2021 celebration is “Leadership and participation of persons with disabilities toward an inclusive, accessible and sustainable post-COVID-19 world.”

Churches burned as Myanmar military continues assault YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s military continues to target churches in predominantly Christian regions in the Buddhist-majority country, ignoring appeals by the Church and world leaders.

The latest assault on Christians in Myanmar’s

ethnic regions is not the first time they have been targeted. Ucanews.com reported Christians have borne the brunt of the decades-old civil war and faced persecution at the hands of the military, which ruled for over five decades. Attacks have accelerated since the February military coup. St. Nicholas Church in Thantlang in Myanmar’s Chin state was burned by the military Nov. 27, local media reports said. St. Nicholas was reportedly among dozens of structures to be destroyed, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization.

The latest attack came just days after at least 49 buildings, including a Baptist church, were burned to the ground. Over 300 houses, including four churches, have been destroyed by military arson attacks in the town since September. In the predominantly Christian states of Kayah and Chin, more than 130,000 civilians have been forced to seek refuge in churches, convents and makeshift camps even while the military is targeting priests and pastors, bombing and vandalizing churches, ucanews.com reported.

Pope urges young people to be critical conscience of society VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis told young people that, with Jesus, people can find the courage to swim against the current, to be free and authentic, and to stand up for their dreams and ideals of truth, love, justice and peace. “Be the critical conscience of society. Don’t be afraid to criticize. We need your criticism,” he said. “Be passionate about truth, so that, with your dreams, you can say, ‘My life is not captive to the mindset of the world. I am free, because I reign with Jesus for justice, love and peace!’” Celebrating Mass on the feast of Christ the King Nov. 21, he directed much of his homily to the world’s young people.

This was the first year dioceses celebrated World Youth Day at the local level on the feast of Christ the King rather than Palm Sunday.

— Catholic News Service

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catholicnewsherald.com | December 3, 2021 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD

Bishop Robert Barron

Jesuit Father John Michalowski

Equity, diversity and inclusivity are ‘Behold, the Kingdom of God is among you’ crucial moral values but not absolute W I n the wake of the French Revolution, the triplet of “liberty, equality, fraternity” emerged as a moral compass for the secular society. Something similar has happened today with “equity, diversity, inclusion.” For most pundits and social activists, at least in the West, these three values function as fundamental norms, self-evident moral truths of absolute value that ought to guide our behavior at both the personal and institutional level. But this cannot be right. For whatever plays that determining role must be good in itself, valuable in every and any circumstance, incapable of being positioned by a higher value. Neither equity, diversity nor inclusion enjoy these prerogatives, and this can be shown readily enough.

First, let us consider equity. Fostering equality is indeed a high moral value in the measure that all people are identical in dignity and are equally deserving of respect. This ethical intuition is embedded in the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” It is, accordingly, a moral imperative that all people be considered one and the same before the law and provided, as far as possible, parity of opportunity in the educational, economic and cultural spheres. But equity in all things? Absolutely not.

Many inequalities in human society – differences in intelligence, creativity, skill, courage, energy, etc.

– are naturally given and could be eliminated only through a brutally imposed leveling out. And what follows from these natural inequalities is dramatic inequity in outcome: varying levels of attainment in all arenas of life. To be sure, some of these differences are the result of prejudice and injustice and, when this is the case, strenuous action should be taken to right the wrong. But a blanket imposition of equity in outcome across all of our society would result in a massive violation of justice and would be made possible only by the most totalitarian sort of political arrangement.

Now, let us look at diversity. Arguably the oldest problem in the history of philosophy is that of the one and the many – which is to say, how to think clearly about the relationship between unity and plurality at all levels of existence. I believe it is fair to say that, in the last 40 years or so, we have massively emphasized the “many” side of this matter, celebrating at every opportunity variety, difference and creativity, while tending to demonize unity as oppression.

God knows that the awful totalitarianisms of the 20th century provided ample evidence that unity carries a dark side. And multiformity in cultural expression, in personal style, in modes of thinking, in ethnicity, etc. is wonderful and enriching. So the cultivation of diversity is indeed a moral value. But is it an absolute value? Not at all – and a moment’s reflection makes this plain. When the many is onesidedly emphasized, we lose any sense of the values and practices that ought to unite us.

This is obvious in the stress today on the individual’s right to determine his or her own values and truths, even to the point of dictating one’s own

gender and sexuality. This hyper-valorization of diversity effectively imprisons each of us on our own separate islands of self-regard and gives rise to constant bickering. We loudly demand that our decisions be respected and our stances tolerated, but the ties that bind us to one another are gone.

Finally, let us cast a glance at inclusivity. Of the three, this is probably the one most treasured in the secular culture of today. At all costs, we are told over and again, we should be inclusive. Once again, there is an obvious moral value to this stance. Every one of us has felt the sting of unjust exclusion, that sense of being on the wrong side of an arbitrary social divide, not permitted to belong to the “in” crowd.

That entire classes of people, indeed entire races and ethnic groups, have suffered this indignity is beyond question. Hence the summons to include rather than to exclude, to build bridges rather than walls, is entirely understandable and morally laudable. Nevertheless, inclusion cannot be an absolute value and good.

When a person wants to be included, she wants to become part of a group or a society or an economy or a culture that has a particular form. For example, an immigrant who longs to be welcomed to America wants to participate in an altogether distinctive political society. When someone wants to be included in an Abraham Lincoln society, he seeks entry into a very circumscribed community.

In other words, he or she desires to be included in a collectivity that is, at least to some degree, exclusive!

Absolute or universal inclusivity is operationally a contradiction.

Perhaps this principle can be seen with greatest clarity in regard to the Church. On the one hand, the Church is meant to reach out to everyone – as is suggested symbolically by the sweeping Bernini colonnade outside St. Peter’s Basilica. Yet, at the same time, the Church is a very definite society, with strict rules, expectations and internal structures.

By its nature, therefore, it excludes certain forms of thought and behavior. Cardinal Francis George was once asked whether all are welcome in the Church.

He responded, “Yes, but on Christ’s terms, not their own.” There is a healthy and necessary tension between inclusion and exclusion in any rightly ordered community.

Having shown that none of the three great secular values are in fact of absolute value, are we left in a lurch, forced to accept a kind of moral relativism?

No! The supreme value that positions every other value, the unsurpassable moral good in which all subordinate goods participate, can be clearly named. It is love, which is willing the good of the other as other, which indeed is the very nature and essence of God. Are equity, diversity and inclusivity valuable? Yes, precisely in the measure that they are expressions of love; no, in the measure that they stand athwart love. To grasp this is of crucial importance in the moral conversation that our society must have.

BISHOP ROBERT BARRON is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, online at www.wordonfire.org.

hen asked when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus responds, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20-21).

During my lifetime, I can remember four or so instances where fundamentalist preachers declared that the Kingdom of God would come in a particular year or in the near future. In the 1970s, there was the book “The Late, Great Planet Earth.” As the year 2000 approached, some warned that “Y2K” would mean the collapse of the power grid, the internet and the international banking system, chaos would result, and the Son of Man would come on the clouds of heaven. Of course, that never happened. One preacher even sent out a booklet saying that, although Jesus said, “But of the day or hour, no one knows; neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32), he was sure of the month and the year of the Second Coming. He, too, was wrong. Both the Seventhday Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses were founded on the prediction of Jesus’ imminent coming. And unfortunately, there are some fundamentalist Christians who are hoping for a war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran, for they believe that this will force Jesus Christ to come again and bring about a thousandyear kingdom.

What all of these get wrong is to see the Kingdom of God as a place, a political or national or international entity. As Scripture scholars have pointed out, it is better to translate the Greek as the Reign of God, rather than the Kingdom of God. In fact, this is what we pray for each time we pray the Our Father. We pray: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Where God’s will is lived out is where God’s kingdom has broken into the world. When Jesus says, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is among you,” He is speaking of Himself. Jesus lives out the Father’s will in obedience and shows us what the fullness of humanity is called to look like.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus gives what I like to think of as His inaugural address in the synagogue in Nazareth. He reads from the prophet Isaiah: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’ … He said to them, ‘Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:18-19, 21). Jesus then goes out to begin His work of healing, of freeing the possessed, and restoring lepers to health and community. God’s will is one of mercy, healing, reconciliation, forgiveness and love. Each time we see this happening, we get a glimpse into what the fullness of God’s reign will look like in heaven.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a new commandment: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). As a sign of who we are called to be as His disciples, Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. “The greatest among you must be your servant.” Jesus goes on to speak of the vine and the branches. Will we allow ourselves to root more deeply into Christ and, through the Holy Spirit, bear much fruit? Will we open ourselves to allow Him to live in us, and we in Him? If we do this, then the Kingdom of God will begin to break more fully into a hurting and hungry world. Then glad tidings will be brought to the poor, captives to consumerism and substances will begin to be freed, those blinded by envy, lust and anger will begin to see, and all will work together to create a world acceptable to the Lord. Then truly we can say, “The Reign of God is coming among you.”

JESUIT FATHER JOHN MICHALOWSKI is the parochial vicar of St. Peter Church in Charlotte.

December 3, 2021 | catholicnewsherald.com CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI

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Letter to the Editor

Say ‘yes’ to volunteering “Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.”

Many of us have heard this prayer before. But how often in daily life do we actually hear the Holy Spirit? We may think we are listening, but we get so caught up in our routines that we don’t even realize we have been touched by the Holy Spirit until someone points it out.

After reading the “Volunteer Voice” column in St. Mark Parish’s bulletin one Sunday, I realized I have been touched by the Holy Spirit – numerous times.

It is the Holy Spirit that leads us out of our comfort zone. It leads us to say “yes.”

I once heard that real volunteering is about doing what is needed, not what you want to do. I have certainly found that to be the case for me.

One Sunday while I was at St. John Neumann Church, it was announced that volunteers were needed for RAIN, the Regional Aids Interfaith Network.

This wasn’t what I considered one of my “causes,” but people were needed, so I signed up. To this day, even though I have since moved away and attend a different parish, I am still friends with one of my teammates from RAIN. Another example: One Sunday years ago at St. Mark Parish, one of the ushers asked me if I spoke English and would

be willing to read at Mass, as they didn’t have an English lector for the bilingual liturgy. At first I said no, I would be too nervous. As I went to my seat, I realized I was reacting selfishly; a lector was needed, and I shouldn’t be concerned about being nervous. So I found the usher, volunteered that day and ended up doing readings on numerous Sundays after that.

Now the usher and I talk whenever we see each other at church. So not only did I have the honor of reading Holy Scripture, I made a new friend!

More recently, I joined the Eucharistic Ministry for the Homebound. I used to find the idea of aging a little intimidating.

Since I started going to the local nursing home to bring the residents Holy Communion, I have discovered it is a beautiful (although sometimes difficult) stage on our life’s journey to the Father.

And I have met some people with amazing life stories, including a woman who served in the French Resistance in World War II and who smuggled forged papers to help Jewish residents escape from the Nazis.

So the next time you hear volunteers are needed, sign up! Even if it isn’t a ministry you ever thought you’d be interested in or good at doing, you may surprise yourself.

Listen to the Holy Spirit calling you.

DIANA PATULAK ROSS lives in Charlotte.

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‘The beauty of Christmas shines through in the sharing of small gestures of genuine love. It is not alienating, it is not superficial, it is not evasive.’

Pope Francis

From online story: “Advent during pandemic remains a season of compassion, pope says”

‘We are asked to nurture tomorrow’s hope by healing today’s pain. The hope born of the Gospel has nothing to do with a passive expectation that things may be better tomorrow, but with making God’s promise of salvation concrete today. Today and every day.’

Pope Francis

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