Tag: Christianity

Moscow, December 8, 2023

L to R: Met. Niphon (Antiochian), Met. Gregory (Russian), Bp. Anthony (Serbian). Photo: mospat.ru     

The Orthodox Church in America’s representation Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr in Moscow celebrated its patronal feast yesterday.

Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk and the clergy of St. Catherine’s were joined by the hierarchs and clergy serving in other representation churches in the Russian capital. Altogether, there were representatives from six Local Churches.

The Liturgy was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Gregory of Voskresensk, the administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate, His Eminence Metropolitan Niphon of Philippopolis, representative of the Patriarch of Antioch to the Patriarch of Moscow, His Grace Bishop Anthony of Moravica, representative of the Patriarch of Serbia to the Patriarch of Moscow, as well as clergy from the Georgian and Czech-Slovak representation churches, and other local clergy, reports the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.

Photo: mospat.ru     

The service was celebrated in Slavonic, English, and Georgian.

Following the Liturgy, two new icons—St. Raphael of Brooklyn and St. Nikolai (Velimirović)—were consecrated for the OCA church. Met. Niphon of the Antiochian Church blessed the icon of St. Raphael with holy water, and Bp. Anthony blessed the icon of St. Nikolai.

The rector of the OCA church Fr. Daniel Andrejuk then read out the greetings from His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington of All America and Canada.

And addressing those present, Met. Gregory of Voskresensk encouraged all to share their Orthodox faith:

Saints aren’t just intercessors to whom we turn in our need when we’re struggling and burdened. Saints are also examples for us to emulate, and our Church, in glorifying a particular saint, points us to this example… Christ calls all of us, dear brothers and sisters, to bear witness to Him, to our Orthodox faith. And each of us, praying to the holy Great Martyr Catherine, should consider this: How can we now, in this specific time, show our testimony of our faith to those who, for various reasons, are still far from Orthodoxy?

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Is. 40:1-5, 9-11 / Ps. 85:9-14 / 2 Pt. 3:8-14 / Mk. 1:1-8

Our God is coming. The time of exile — the long separation of humankind from God due to sin — is about to end. This is the good news proclaimed in this Sunday’s liturgy.

Isaiah in the First Reading promises Israel’s future release and return from captivity and exile. But as the Gospel shows, Israel’s historic deliverance was meant to herald an even greater saving act by God — the coming of Jesus to set Israel and all nations free from bondage to sin, to gather them up and carry them back to God.

God sent an angel before Israel to lead them in their exodus towards the promised land (see Exodus 23:20). And he promised to send a messenger of the covenant, Elijah, to purify the people and turn their hearts to the Father before the day of the Lord (see Malachi 3:1, 23-24).

John the Baptist quotes these, as well as Isaiah’s prophecy, to show that all of Israel’s history looks forward to the revelation of Jesus.

In Jesus, God has filled in the valley that divided sinful humanity from himself. He has reached down from heaven and made his glory to dwell on earth, as we sing in Sunday’s Psalm. He has done all this, not for humanity in the abstract, but for each of us.

The long history of salvation has led us to this Eucharist, in which our God again comes and our salvation is near. And each of us must hear in Sunday’s readings a personal call.

Here is your God, Isaiah says. He has been patient with you, Peter says in the Epistle. Like Jerusalem’s inhabitants in the Gospel, we have to go out to him, repenting our sins, all the laziness and self-indulgence that make our lives a spiritual wasteland.

We have to straighten out our lives, so that everything we do leads us to him. This Sunday at Mass, let us hear the beginning of the Gospel and again commit ourselves to lives of holiness and devotion.

Hermoupolis, Syros, Greece, December 8, 2023

Photo: vimaorthodoxias.gr     

St. Nicholas the Holy Hierarch and Wonderworker is one of the most beloved saints throughout the entire Orthodox world, and every year, his feast is celebrated with great festivity.

On the Greek island, the great saint was especially celebrated yesterday as the patron saint of sailors. The day included the Divine Liturgy and a procession to the port.

Metropolitan Dorotheos of Syros and clergy of Syros celebrated the Divine Liturgy yesterday in the historic cathedral of St. Nicholas in Hermoupolis. The service was attended by local representatives of the navy, coast guard, and merchant marines, and a number of other public representatives, reports the Vima Orthodoxias.

In his homily, the Metropolitan spoke of St. Nicholas a whole man who had found peace with God and his fellow man through his meekness and charity and his battle against the passions.

At the end of the service, Met. Dorotheos awarded the medal of the Metropolis, the Golden Cross of St. Methodios, to the Commander of the ship Blue Star Paros, Stavros Voudouris, who on September 18, at the port of Tinos, selflessly saved an elderly woman from certain drowning, who had been swept into the sea by strong winds.

Following the service, a public procession with an icon and a fragment of the relics of St. Nicholas was held, carried on the shoulders of students of the Merchant Marine Academy of Syros and men of the Coast Guard, flanked by a detachment of the Naval War Base of Syros, and others.

In the town square, a prayer was offered for the sailors, workers in the ship repair facilities, shipowners, and crews of the ships.

Following the procession, “escorted” by sea by dozens of boats that paid respects to their patron saint in various ways, with maneuvers, whistles, and jets of water, Met. Dorotheos offered a memorial prayer for those who have drowned at sea.

The procession then returned to the church.

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On December 8, the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception. On this day, we recognize that Mary was conceived free from original sin. She received this extraordinary privilege because she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, and at the very moment of her conception, she was given the gift of salvation. 

The Church holds Mary up as a model for all humanity in her holiness and purity, and in her willingness to accept God’s plan for her life. Her words “Let it be done unto me according to thy Word” give us the response we must make when God calls us in our own lives.

Let Us Fast in EarnestThus, let us begin on these fasting days to give ourselves to an intent study of fasting and prayer; and let us, at the same time, begin to fast and pray indeed.

” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/1: Let us Fast in Earnest
The Meaning and Significance of FastingFasting is a necessary means for success in the spiritual life and for attaining salvation; for fasting—depriving the flesh of excessive food and drink—weakens the force of sensual drives.” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/2: The Meaning and Significance of Fasting
Accustoming Ourselves to FastingTo make our disposition towards fasting firm, we have to accustom ourselves to fasting slowly, carefully, not all at once, but gradually—little by little.” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/3: Accustoming Ourselves to Fasting
Spiritual FastingLet the mind fast, not permitting empty and bad thoughts; let the heart fast, refraining from sinful feelings; let our will fast, directing all our desires and intentions to the one thing needful…” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/4: Spiritual Fasting
What is Prayer?A great prayerful power is at work in the prayers of the Holy Fathers, and whoever enters into them with all his attention and zeal will certainly taste of this prayerful power to the extent that his state of mind converges with the content of the prayer.”>Part 2/1: On Prayer. What is Prayer?

Photo: p-lebed.ru     

Holy Hierarch St. Dimitry of RostovSoon Dimitry was called to perform a different labor. There was a need to assemble a collection of the Lives of the Saints. Metropolitan Makary had long since begun the task of collecting the Lives of Saints from various sources and assembling them in his great volumes of the Menaion.

“>St. Dmitry of Rostov teaches:

Prayer is the turning of the mind and thoughts to God. To pray means to stand before God with your mind and steadily gaze upon Him with your thought, and converse with Him with reverent fear and hope. Thus, if you want to pray, gather all your thoughts, lay aside all external, earthly cares, and present your mind to God and gaze upon Him.

It follows from this that before you begin to pray and read your prayer rule, stand a little, or walk a bit—sober up your mind, distancing it from all earthly affairs and objects, and think: Who are you—who is desiring to pray, and who is He to Whom you want to pray? And arouse a corresponding disposition of self-abasement and a sense of standing before God penetrated with reverent awe in your soul. For this, you have to envision as vividly as possible the boundless greatness of the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, and all-seeing God, for Whom Heaven is His throne and Earth His footstool—envision as vividly as though He were standing before you, looking at you, and listening to you.

God revealed His name to Holy Prophet and God-seer MosesThe Holy Prophet and God-Seer Moses was of the tribe of Levi, the son of Abram and Jochabed (Exodus 6:20). His life is described in the Bible (Exodus 2 through Deuteronomy 34:12).

“>Moses—the ever-existing and living One, and Moses fell down before Him in great fear and trembling. God said to Abraham: “I am God almighty, always and everywhere existing; walk before me and be blameless,” and Abraham confessed himself as dust and ashes before Him. Venerable Isaiah beheld the Lord on the throne high and exalted, surrounded by archangels and angels, in unapproachable light, and confessed himself an accursed sinner. King David was so attuned that he saw God on his right hand, and he called himself a worm, not a man. These are examples of how to envision God and attune yourself when preparing for prayer!

Then, preparing yourself for prayer, you need to: a) clear your conscience of all impure and sinful thoughts; b) gather yourself and concentrate all your thoughts on God; c) especially eliminate all enmity towards your Who is Our Neighbor?Love of neighbor is a clear test of our Christian life. But in order to understand what the love of our neighbor is, it would be good to first clarify who in fact is our neighbor?

“>neighbor, envy, and malice. Prayer itself must be said not otherwise than in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with undoubting faith and hope of receiving what you entreat, with deep humility, from a sincere disposition.

We must know that the subject of our prayers should be what is pleasing to God and holy, such as: glorifying the name of God, our salvation and that of our neighbors, and from among temporal goods, only what is essentially necessary for us and our neighbors. Moreover, we must be constant in prayer, even if sometimes we don’t receive what we ask for a long time. Finally, also know that standing before an icon and making prostrations is not prayer, but only an accessory of prayer; reciting prayers from memory, or from a book, or listening to them is not yet prayer, but only an instrument of prayer, or a means of discovering and arousing it. Prayer itself is, as we have said, the emergence of reverent feelings towards God in our heart one after another: self-abasement, devotion, gratitude, praise, supplication, contrition, submission to the will of God, zealously falling before Him, and others. With these thoughts and feelings, begin your prayers.

Amen.

To be continued…

In an authentic example of synodality, the American bishops, gathered at the Council of Baltimore in May 1846, asked that Our Lady be declared the patroness of the United States of America under her title of the Immaculate Conception. 

Their petition would bind our republic with an old theological controversy that had divided some of Catholicism’s greatest minds.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux was unsure about the dogma, so was St. Thomas Aquinas. The Dominican Order — including the popes elected from among its friars — didn’t share the enthusiasm that Franciscans, Jesuits, and the Spanish Empire had for the belief in the Immaculate Conception, which had long enjoyed popular devotion despite its unofficial status. 

For centuries, elegant works of art celebrated Mary’s privilege, while eloquent sermons praised and defended it. Popes had forbidden debate on the question of Mary’s conception for centuries until Blessed Pope Pius IX, after an extraordinary effort of consultation (or synodality, again?) pronounced it an infallible dogma in a solemn and dramatic ceremony on Dec. 8, 1854.

In his papal bull, “Ineffabilis Deus” (“God Ineffable”), Pius explained that his own personal fasting, as well as both private and public prayer by the whole Church, had led to him to declare: “The doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”

The dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception appeared against a dramatic backdrop.

Almost immediately upon becoming pope, Pius had been confronted with the political turbulence sweeping Europe, then the interruption of the First Vatican Council, and even being taken prisoner in the Vatican.

The Church herself was undergoing a series of controversies involving the legitimacy of new popular devotions like the Miraculous Medal and political upheaval in the papal court.

And yet, as deserving as it is of our celebration and gratitude, appreciation for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception feels a bit underwhelming in our country.

One reason is that many Catholics do not know what the Immaculate Conception means, being easily confused with Christ’s miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary. 

There is a famous poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti that I liked in my wild youth, “Christ Climbed Down.” He contrasts the figure of the Lord with all the fakery and commercialization of Christmas, including the description of Santa Claus as a “fat hand-shaking stranger in a red flannel suit with a fake white beard” who bears “Humble Gifts from Saks Fifth Avenue.”

The poem is acidly satirical about bourgeois Xmas, not leaving out “Midnight Mass matinees.”  Its conclusion is heterodox (as can be expected) but still has a power to it, despite a howling theological error:

Christ Climbed Down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary’s womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody’s anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest
of Second Comings.

Of course, my friends at the public high school I attended could not appreciate my problem with the theology of the “Immaculate Reconception.”

But as a priest, unfortunately, I have met many Catholics who did not know that our national patronal feast is about St. Anne’s natural conception of Mary — not Jesus’ conception in the womb of his mother. Ignorance abounds and continues to grow, a sad consequence of a catechetical catastrophe years in the making.

But beyond misunderstandings, the dogma itself is not an easy one to believe. Protestant polemics about the supposed nonscriptural basis of the teaching don’t help, nor does its somewhat abstract nature: You can imagine Mary’s assumption into heaven easier than her preservation from Original Sin.

That is why I was so pleased to recently encounter Father Louis Bouyer’s remarks about how the Immaculate Conception dogma should resonate with the Calvinist tradition of the absolute sovereignty of God and “sola gratia.”

Bouyer, himself a convert, writes that the Protestants “reproach in this one case of Our Lady, something analogous to what strict Calvinists admit for all the elect — a grace that saves us absolutely independently of ourselves not only without any merit of our own but without any possibility of our cooperation.”

The Protestant claim that our “faith and works” discounts God’s grace is completely absurd in the face of the doctrine which asserts that “Mary is holy, with a supereminent holiness, in virtue of a divine intervention previous to the first instant of her existence” and that thus, salvation “is purely a grace of God.”

Mary’s sinless nature, Bouyer continues, is not so much an “unheard of exception” but rather a “masterpiece of grace” and her Immaculate Conception indicates that “the Catholic idea of grace in general, far from depreciating it by affirming that man can attain Christ to sanctity or simply to merit, presupposes behind all this a pure gift of God, unmerited and unable to be merited.” (Bouyer, “The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism,” Ignatius Press, $20).

Reading this insight from Bouyer gave me more appreciation for the passion that Spanish-speaking Catholics have for the Immaculate Conception, especially in countries like Nicaragua, where it is celebrated for days leading up to the Dec. 8 solemnity.

In El Salvador, a distant echo of the centuries of debate among religious orders is found in a popular devotion to St. Anthony of Padua.

The shrine of “San Antonio del Monte” is a church built in honor of the discovery of a painted image of St. Anthony in a tree. Discovery of images is a familiar trope about holy statues and paintings because it emphasizes the divine inspiration of the object that promoted devotion. Very popular with indigenous in El Salvador for centuries, the devotion to San Antonio del Monte included the attestations of many miracles achieved through his intercession.

An Italian Franciscan friar who worked for years in El Salvador, Hilario Contran, of holy memory, explained to me why, in the image, St. Anthony is wearing a blue habit. Such habits were granted to friars in Spain, in its days of glorious empire, who would swear to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary to the point of shedding blood.

San Antonio del Monte is an Immaculist image, therefore, an icon with a history.

Would many Catholics today be able to swear on their lives that Mary was free from all sin, original and otherwise? Perhaps they would be inspired to take a more serious look at the feast if they would attach it to what C.S. Lewis described as the chivalrous attitude of Catholics to Mary, a combination of respect for maternity and the troubadour’s love of his lady.

The French bishop and theologian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet indicated a tender aspect to the doctrine that might seem so abstract to many. He said that, apart from the articles of the Creed, he did not see anything else that was more assured than Mary’s preservation from sin.

Bossuet asked, “Who could believe that nothing of the supernatural could be discerned in the conception of that princess, that it would be the only element in her life that was not marked by the miraculous?”

The Immaculate Conception deserves a higher place in our personal liturgical pilgrimage in the United States. And the emphasis on the importance of the moment of conception implicit in our national patronal feast can be salutary.

“Ave Maria Purisima,” as the priest traditionally says in Spanish celebrations of confession, “Sin pecado concebida!” replies the penitent. That refrain should echo in our hearts.

“Pick 1,” directs a guide printed in the parish bulletin of St. Joseph Church in York, Pennsylvania. The command in the graphic is listed twice, over two columns: The first lists Mass times for the fourth Sunday of Advent, the second lists Christmas Mass times.

The takeaway: No single Mass fulfills both a Catholic’s Sunday obligation and the Christmas obligation. Because they are different liturgical days — even if they overlap on the calendar — they require attendance at different Masses.

Typically, Mass celebrated at any time on Sunday — including Sunday evening — fulfills Catholics’ obligation to attend Sunday Mass. Same goes for Saturday evening Masses that anticipate Sunday Mass. Likewise, an evening Mass before a holy day of obligation (such as Christmas) also typically satisfies a Catholic’s requirement to attend the holy day Mass.

This year, Christmas Eve is Sunday. So, many Catholics are asking if attending Sunday evening Mass this year can “count” for both.

Canon lawyer Jenna Marie Cooper recently tackled the query in her regular “Question Corner” column for OSV News.

“Because there are two days of obligation — Sunday and Christmas — this means that there are two distinct obligations to speak of. Each separate obligation needs to be fulfilled by attending a separate Mass,” she wrote in her column, published Dec. 4. “That is, you cannot ‘double dip’ by attending a Christmas Eve Mass that happens to be on Sunday and have this one Mass fulfill two obligations.”

That may seem straightforward, but there’s some nuance, Cooper explained.

“Now for the part that can get confusing: Even though you must attend two Masses to fulfill the two obligations, all this means is that you must go to Mass on that calendar day or attend a vigil Mass the evening before. The readings and prayers do not necessarily need to match the day whose obligation you are fulfilling,” she wrote. “So, you could go to a Christmas Vigil Mass on Sunday, Dec. 24, and have it count as your Sunday obligation this year; but if you intend for this to fulfill your Sunday obligation, then you must also attend another Mass on Christmas Day to fulfill your obligation for the holy day.”

“Of course, if you were to attend a vigil Mass on Saturday for Sunday, and then the Christmas Vigil Mass on Sunday (Christmas Eve) for Christmas Day, then you’ve got it all covered,” she said.

A Catholic also could technically attend Mass twice on Sunday, Dec. 24 — once for the Sunday obligation, and again in the evening for the Christmas obligation.

Cooper notes that when Christmas falls on a Sunday — as it did last year, and will again in 2033 — that “Christmas essentially replaces the Sunday liturgically, which means there is only one obligation.”

Regarding the meaning and necessity of a Catholic’s “Sunday obligation,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass.”

It goes on to say, “The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.”

St. John Paul II expounded on the meaning of Sunday (and, by extension, holy days of obligation) and Catholics’ obligation to attend Mass — which is rooted in the Third Commandment to keep holy the Sabbath — in the 1988 apostolic letter “Dies Domini” (“The Lord’s Day”).

He wrote, “When its significance and implications are understood in their entirety, Sunday in a way becomes a synthesis of the Christian life and a condition for living it well. It is clear therefore why the observance of the Lord’s Day is so close to the church’s heart, and why in the church’s discipline it remains a real obligation. Yet more than as a precept, the observance should be seen as a need rising from the depths of Christian life. … The Eucharist is the full realization of the worship which humanity owes to God, and it cannot be compared to any other religious experience.”

Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of Holy Family Parish, the only Roman Catholic church in Gaza, gave an update Dec. 1 on the plight of the Christians in northern Gaza as the Israeli-Hamas war continues and spoke about the significance of Gaza to Christianity in the Holy Land.

Since the conflict began, hundreds of Christians and other Gazan civilians have taken refuge in the parish, which is on the northern end of the Gaza Strip.

Romanelli, who is an Argentine priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and has served at the Gaza parish for over six years, shared his message during a Dec. 1 interview with Father Ibrahim Nino, director of the media office at the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The full interview, which is in Arabic, is available on the patriarchate’s YouTube channel here.

Romanelli said that though there is “great shock and sadness” among the Christians of Gaza, “they have great trust in God’s divine protection.”

As the war broke out in Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, Romanelli said that many people did not know where to go and the Christian community decided to stay, seeking refuge in the parish.

“It was dangerous as bombings were taking place both north and south. They chose to remain where they were, trusting in Jesus, so they truly felt the presence of God.”

Though a small minority in Gaza, the Christian community has been greatly impacted by the war.

On Oct. 23 an Orthodox church neighboring Holy Family Parish was struck by Israeli missiles, resulting in the deaths of 18 people. After the bombing, many more sought refuge in Holy Family Parish. The church is currently sheltering more than 600 people, according to Romanelli.

He said that many in the local community have lost homes and loved ones. Though he was outside Gaza when the war began and has been unable to return, he has kept in constant contact with his flock.

“These are very hard times,” Romanelli said. “Even if they have strong faith, they remain humans and sadness is normal to be experienced; even Our Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, wept.”

He thanked both Pope Francis and the head of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, for their prayers and spiritual closeness to the Church in Gaza. Romanelli shared that during the early days of the conflict, Francis would call him each day.

“The pope called us daily to check on us, despite his also big responsibilities and duties for the Church. And through a simple phone call, he gave us his blessing.”

Despite the suffering, Romanelli said that the faith of the Roman Catholic community in Gaza, which numbers about 135 and includes several priests and religious, has only strengthened.

“The big yearly activities that we are used to holding in our parish and schools will not take place this year,” he said. “But we started to think spiritually … the birth of Jesus is at the center of our celebrations … To hold different spiritual activities for the parishioners to help prepare spiritually for Jesus to be born in our hearts and lives by cleansing the grotto of our hearts and experience the simplicity of a grotto.”

Though the Catholic community in Gaza is small, Romanelli says it is very active and devout. The parish holds two Masses daily, a daily rosary, regular Eucharistic adoration, and hosts multiple ministries for men, women, and children to grow in faith.

According to Romanelli, the Catholic church there also runs three of the five Christian schools in Gaza, which serve both Christian and Muslim students, as well as ministries for the sick and injured.

Even though the war has heavily impacted the community, Romanelli said that many of the parish’s ministries have gone on and the sacraments continue to be offered.

“In regard to the spiritual life, despite all the things we lack, it is still a beautiful, rich, and important life in the parish,” he said. “We try to be one, not only assisting the Christians but also the Muslims [and] to anyone who comes to Gaza, allow them to experience the special presence of the Lord.”

Preserving the presence of Christ in Gaza

Romanelli said that tradition holds that the Holy Family passed through Gaza as they were fleeing to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath and that they passed through again on their way to Nazareth.

Thus, Romanelli said that Holy Family Parish in Gaza has three missions: first, to foster and preserve the presence of Jesus Christ in the area; second, to care for the spiritual life of the people; and third, to testify to the love of Jesus to all.

Now, as hundreds gather at the parish seeking shelter and spiritual solace and the Advent and Christmas seasons commence, Romanelli said that the parish’s mission is especially important.

Romanelli shared an Advent message, addressing Christians not only in Gaza but also throughout the world. He said “we need to return to the pillars of our faith, to read and meditate on the word of God, attend adoration and go to confession.”

He encouraged Christians worldwide to seek out the sacraments and spend time with Christ in the Eucharist this Advent and Christmas season. He also encouraged Christians to make spiritual acts of mercy by visiting and caring for the lonely, sick, and poor.

Romanelli especially encouraged Christians to turn to confession this Advent season. As missiles continue to strike around them, Romanelli said the Christians in Gaza remain focused not on those who can kill the body but instead on what can kill the soul.

“We tend to forget that we need a spiritual healing, we forget that we can die spiritually, but there is a solution for everything, and it’s through confession and repentance,” he said. “In sum, we should renew our spiritual life through confession, penance, and repentance.”

    

In the current year, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of Holy Great Martyr Catherine of AlexandriaIntroducing herself, the saint confessed her faith in the One True God and with wisdom exposed the errors of the pagans. The beauty of the maiden captivated the emperor. In order to convince her and to show the superiority of pagan wisdom, the emperor ordered fifty of the most learned philosophers and rhetoricians of the Empire to dispute with her, but the saint got the better of the wise men, so that they came to believe in Christ themselves.

“>Holy Great Martyr Catherine in the twenty-seventh week after Pentecost. Therefore, I consider it appropriate to draw your attention to the great life of this saint.

Why is she called a Great Martyr? Is it because, as many think, the Holy Church bestows this title on those holy martyrs, men and women, who endured particularly severe and dreadful tortures and the most brutal death for our Lord Jesus Christ? No, not because of that.

St. Catherine was only beheaded by the sword, like tens of thousands of other martyrs, and did not endure unimaginably brutal tortures and sufferings that were the lot of those great sufferers for Christ who did not receive the title of Great Martyr, but only the name of ordinary martyrs. True, for Saint Catherine, the tormentor Emperor Maximinus commanded the horrible punishment of being broken on the wheel, where her body was to be tied to a terrifying wheel rotating over sharp knives, but the Lord’s Angel shattered this diabolical wheel. She was thrown into a dungeon, endured the torment of many days of hunger, after which the holy head of Catherine, who had received from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself the name of His bride, was cut off.

Who then receives the holy name of Great Martyr? Above all, those great Christians about whom our Lord Jesus Christ said: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:19).

Saint Catherine’s fervent faith in Christ and her confession of His Name before all the people served as a saving example for two hundred Roman soldiers and their commander Porphyrius, and even for the wife of Emperor Maximinus, Augusta, who were all beheaded by the sword together with Great Martyr Catherine.

I will give one or two more examples to confirm my thought that the names of the holy Great Martyrs were received by those heroes of spirit who, by their example, taught pagans to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give their lives for Him.

Such were the great martyrs The Holy Great Martyr Demetrios of ThessalonikiKnowing what was awaiting him, Demetrius gave all his goods to his faithful servant Lupus to distribute to the poor, and joyfully awaited his imminent suffering for Christ the Lord.An angel of God appeared to him in prison, saying: ”Peace be to you, O sufferer of Christ; be brave and be strong!”

“>Demetrius of Thessaloniki and Greatmartyr Theodore Stratelates “the General”The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchaita in Asia Minor. He was endowed with many talents, and was handsome in appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the knowledge of Christian truth.”>Theodore Stratelates of Heraclea.

Demetrius was the commander of the great city of Thessaloniki, appointed to this position by Emperor Maximilian with an order to exterminate all Christians of this great city, because the emperor considered Demetrius a pagan. But through his fervent preaching about Christ, Demetrius turned the majority of the inhabitants of Thessaloniki to believe in Him. He did and taught according to the words of Christ and received great reward in heaven for it. He did not suffer terrible torments like Saint Catherine; he was only killed with spears.

Similar to the great martyr Demetrius was the holy great martyr Theodore Stratelates, the ruler of the city of Heraclea, who turned the hearts of not only the inhabitants of Heraclea but also those of his native city, Euchaita to Christ through his preaching about Him. He, too, did and taught others.

Not only did Great Martyr Catherine fulfill this saying of Christ, but also another great commandment of His: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it (Mark 8:35).

What does it mean to save one’s soul? What does it mean to destroy one’s soul?

One’s soul encompasses all desires, aspirations, and achievements of one’s own will. To save one’s soul means to arrange everything in one’s life according to one’s own desires.

Catherine had extraordinarily great opportunities. Her life was arranged as favorably as possible. She was the daughter of the wealthiest prince, exceptionally beautiful, and very intelligent.

At the age of eighteen, she mastered several foreign languages perfectly, and thoroughly studied all the sciences and philosophy of her time. Not only did many wealthy and noble men want to marry her, but even the Roman Emperor Maximinus himself was captivated by her beauty and intelligence when he came to the capital of Egypt, Alexandria, Catherine’s homeland, and desired to marry her. There was a great danger for Catherine to fall in love herself with her own very rich and seemingly most fortunate soul.

But our Lord Jesus, Who is omniscient and deeply knew the depths of her heart, which were as profound as her intellect, saved her from perdition from the temptations of the world through her own mother, a secret Christian, and her mother’s spiritual advisor, an saintly hermit unknown to us.

In a very short time, they managed to reveal to Catherine’s mind and heart the wealth of knowledge of the Son of God, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are immeasurably greater than all the treasures and pleasures of earthly life.

She came to hate and commit to death her self-satisfied life, and saved it by fervently loving Christ and the path He indicates in the Gospel.

Christ Himself loved her and called her His bride.

Let us, sinners, always remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the fulfillment of which the holy Catherine acquired the glorious name of Great Martyr.

Amen.

Telling Syro-Malabar Catholics in India’s Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly that he does not want to see anyone excommunicated, Pope Francis pleaded with the priests and faithful to end their dispute over the way the Eucharist is celebrated.

With some priests calling into question the authenticity of his previous letters and his appointment last August of a special envoy, Pope Francis communicated with members of the archdiocese in a video released Dec. 7 “so no one has any more doubts about what the pope thinks,” he said.

“In the name of the Lord, for the spiritual good of your church, of our church, I ask you to heal this rupture. It is your church; it is our church. Restore communion; remain in the Catholic Church,” the pope said in the video.

Also Dec. 7, the Vatican released a letter from Pope Francis to Cardinal George Alencherry accepting his resignation as head of the archdiocese and as major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

After years of debate about tradition, Latinization and modernization of the liturgy, in 1999 the synod of bishops of the Syro-Malabar church issued uniform rubrics for the celebration of the Eucharist, called the Holy Qurbana by members of the Eastern-rite church. They were trying to end a situation in which some priests faced the altar during the entire liturgy, while others faced the congregation throughout the liturgy. The bishops’ decision was to have the priest face the altar during the eucharistic prayer but face the congregation during the Liturgy of the Word and again after Communion.

Priests in most Syro-Malabar dioceses quickly complied with the bishops’ decision, although dispensations were issued for the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly and a few other territories. The bishops decided to end those dispensations in November 2021.

The Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency, a group of priests, religious and laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly, protested the way the dispensation was revoked and insisted on continuing to celebrate the entire liturgy with the priest facing the congregation as had been the practice since 1970. The group claims to have the support of almost all the priests and faithful of the archdiocese.

The dispute has led to protests, hunger strikes and shoving matches, including inside St. Mary’s Cathedral in Kochi, which led to its closure.

In his video, Pope Francis told Catholics of the archdiocese: “See to it that by Christmas 2023 your archdiocese humbly and faithfully agrees to get in step with the rest of your church, respecting all the directions of your synod.”

Without mentioning specifics, the pope said he knows there are reasons for opposing the synod’s rubrics “that have nothing to do with the celebration of the Eucharist,” and he defined those reasons as “worldly.”

“They do not come from the Holy Spirit,” he said. “And if they don’t come from the Holy Spirit, they come from somewhere else.”

Speaking specifically to the priests, Pope Francis urged them to “remember your ordination and the commitments you assumed,” including the promise of obedience to the bishop.

“Be careful that the devil does not persuade you to turn yourselves into a sect,” he said to all the Syro-Malabar faithful who object to the uniform liturgy.

Describing what happens when a person excommunicates themselves, the pope told them: “Don’t force the competent church authority to acknowledge that you have left the church because you are no longer in communion with your pastors and with the successor of the Apostle Peter, who is called to confirm all the brothers and sisters in the faith and keep them in the unity of the church.”

“With great sadness,” he said, the bishops would have to do so, and “I don’t want to reach that point.”

“May the Eucharist be the model of your unity,” he said. “Do not shatter the Body of Christ, which is the church, lest you eat and drink your condemnation.”

In his letter to Cardinal Alencherry, Pope Francis noted that he had asked to resign in 2019 in an attempt to end some of the tensions and divisions in the archdiocese, but the Syro-Malabar synod of bishops advised the pope not to accept his resignation and he agreed, appointing an apostolic administrator instead.

Now, the pope said, “I consider your resignation not as the conclusion, but the fulfilment of your service. Indeed, this step represents a further witness of fidelity to the Gospel and a new way of serving the church, above all through contemplative and intercessory prayer, as well as by continuing to offer your counsel to the dicasteries of the Roman Curia of which you are a member.”