Assisi at Christmas

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English newspaper 'The Telegraph' has published an article stating that Charles III is a 'better Christian leader' than Pope Leo XIV because Leo mentioned Gaza in his Christmas Day Speech and Charles did not

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Every time that a pope comments on a certain issue, there is a coordinated disinformation campaign against him the next day by boomer slop influencers

It happened under Francis and people went along with it because of their own grievances

Following his Christmas Day comments about Gaza, Pope Leo XIV is being given the same treatment

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'As circumcision was the mark of the Old Law, so persecution would be the mark of the New Law. “For My name’s sake,” He told His Apostles they would be hated. All things around Him speak of His death, for that was the purpose of His coming. The very entrance door over the stable where He was born was marked with blood, as was the threshold of the Jews in Egypt.

Innocent lambs in the Passover bled for Him in centuries past; now innocent children without spot, little human lambs, bled for Him. But God warned the Wise Men not to return to Herod, So they returned to their own country By a different way.

No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way as he came. Baffled in his design to kill the Divine, the enraged tyrant ordered the indiscriminate slaughter of all male children under two years of age. There are more ways than one of practicing birth control'

Fulton Sheen

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'To be near Jesus was the height of happiness, yet it was also both a necessity and a privilege of suffering. We cannot spare the Holy Innocents from the beautiful world of Bethlehem. Next to Mary and joseph, we could take them away least of all. Without them we should read the riddle of the Incarnation wrong, by missing many of its deepest laws.

They are symbols to us of the necessities of nearness to our Lord. They are the living laws of the vicinity of Jesus. Softened through long ages, the mothers' cries and the children's moans come to us almost as a sad strain of music, sweeter than it is sad, sweet even because it is so sad, the moving elegy of Bethlehem'

Frederick William Faber

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Today is the Feast of the Holy Family

One of the most unusual pieces of 20th Century religious art is Harry Clarke's Geneva Window, the first panel of which portrays Saint Brigid of Kildare and the Passion

There are two verses, one from Padraig Pearse's 'The Wayfarer' written while he was awaiting execution for fighting for Irish freedom. It begins with 'The beauty of the world hath made me sad'

The second one is from Lady Gregory's 'The Story Brought by Brigit', a retelling of an old Irish legend connecting Brigid with the Holy Family

The story goes that Brigid gave refuge from Herod to the Holy Family in Ireland, Brigid is referred to as a sort of 'Foster Mother' to Christ and a comforter to Our Lady in her distress.

In the play, she explains how she witnessed Christ's suffering in a vision during prayer:

'It was in a dream or a vision of the night I saw a Young Man having wounds on him. And I knew him to be One I had helped and fostered, and he a Child in his mother's arms. And it was showed me in my dream there would trouble come on him but in the end he would put gladness in the heart of His friends. And it was showed to me that the place where I would find him would be in this country of Judea, a long, long way to the east'

The legend is a testimony to the mystical yet familiar nature with which the Irish viewed not just their saints but the Holy Family themselves

GK Chesterton later commented on this nature of the Irish to see the saintly and divine as their neighbour, as their family even:

‘I heard a story in Ireland years ago about how someone had met in the rocky wastes a beautiful peasant woman carrying a child. And on being asked for hername she answered simply: “I am the Mother of God, and this is Himself, and He is the boy you will all be wanting at the last.” I have never forgotten this phrase, and I remembered it suddenly long afterwards'

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IRELAND

Catholic men gathered in the snow to pray the Rosary in public in Castlederg

This is how it is done 💪 🙏

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GAZA

Loud explosion rattles the windows during the Rosary in Holy Family Church

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'Suggested for you'

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33.5 million people visited Rome for the Holy Year

It added 3.7 Billion euro to the local economy

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Pope Leo XIV will close the Holy Door in Saint Peter's Basilica tomorrow, marking the end of the Jubilee Year

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The Holy Door at Saint Peter's Basilica has been closed by Pope Leo XIV

33 million visitors to Rome and 2 popes later, the Jubilee of Hope comes to an end

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This week marks 7 years since Japanese student Yosuki Sasaki was slaughtered by self proclaimed ISIS fighter Mohammed Morei in Dundalk, Ireland

Morei had arrived into Ireland just hours earlier

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Pope Leo XIV has issued a stirring call to renew Christian civilisation during his Epiphany homily:

'If we do not reduce our churches to monuments, if our communities are homes, if we stand united and resist the flattery and seduction of those in power, then we will be the generation of a new dawn'

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Irish artist Harry Clarke died on January 6th 1931

Clarke is known for his imaginative and beautiful stained glass art that fused Nationalistic, Celtic and Catholic themes with fairy tales and mythology

This is his Epiphany Window

https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2022/1/10/bu0oh3q0yqny8g2roovf9y9pb5tauv

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GAZA

Fr. Yusuf Asad IVE, who has been in Holy Family Church for the last two years, must now leave as Israeli authorities have not renewed his visa

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BREAKING

Pope Leo XIV will reconvene Cardinals for ANOTHER Consistory in June

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