Welcome to our December Newsletter. Below you will find what's happening this month. If you have any questions about anything you read here, please just respond to this email or you can use the color boxes throughout that will take you to different sources for more information.
Our website also has a calendar on the home page where you can find a quick glance at all that is happening at our parish. Check it out!

It is a devotion, also known as the Christmas Anticipation Prayer, that starts on the feast day of St Andrew the Apostle, November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve – December 24. It consists in reciting the prayer found below 15 times each day of the novena period. Its exact origin is unknown, but it is believed to have begun in Ireland during the 19th century. This is a very meditative prayer that brings about graces, increases our awareness of the real focus of Christmas and prepares us spiritually for His coming.

Novena

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

Recite the above prayer 15 times a day from November 30 to December 24

 

Advent is a perfect time to prepare your heart for the coming of Christ. One way to do that is to take advantage of the Sacrament of Confession. At Holy Family, we offer confessions most weekday mornings at 8:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 4:00 p.m. In addition to these regular times, during Advent there are multiple chances for reconciliation at different churches though out our deanery. These are all at 6:30 p.m. and have multiple priests in attendance to serve all of the people. The one at Holy Family will be Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. Please take advantage of this sacred opportunity to receive the mercy of God and feel His love for you. 

On December 8, we honor Mary, our Mother. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic feast celebrating Mary's conception without sin. Even though this feast day occurs in the liturgical season of Advent, which prepares for the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne.

The Immaculate Conception should not be confused with the perpetual virginity of Mary or the virgin birth of Jesus.  It refers to the conception of Mary, by her mother, St. Anne.  It is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception.  Although the belief was widely held since the early Church, and often debated by medieval theologians, it was not formally proclaimed until December 8, 1854, by Pope Pius IX in his Papa Bull Ineffabilis Deus.

Because the Sundays of Advent take precedent over Immaculate Conception, this year December 8, 2024, falls on a Sunday during Advent.  Hence, the Solemnity’s date must be transferred to the following Monday (December 9). As a result, the observance of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patronal Feast Day of the United States of America, will be transferred to Monday, December 9, 2024.

In recent years, when December 8 fell on a Sunday, it was the practice in our country to indicate that the obligation to attend Mass does not transfer with the liturgical observance. In fact, many of our liturgical calendars, and even our Ordo, state that it is "not a holy day of obligation this year."  However, we have been informed by the Vatican Dicastery for Legislative Texts that this solemnity “must be observed as a day of obligation on the day to which it is transferred.” 

Therefore, as is our practice at HFCC, there will be a Vigil Mass on Sunday, December 8 at 6:30 PM and on Monday, December 9, 2024, there will be a mass at 12:15 pm and 6:30 pm.  

Patroness of the Americas and the Unborn

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.  On the American continent, Marian devotion is frequently centered around the figure of our Blessed Mother as she appeared in December of 1531 to the native American Saint Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill in the area of modern-day Mexico City. Our Blessed Mother actually appeared four times to Saint Juan Diego and once to his dying elderly uncle, Juan Bernardino.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a devote Catholic of no particular prominence in local society or the Catholic church.  He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City.

On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was on his way to church to participate in the Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and in the catechetical instruction which would follow. As he reached Tepeyac Hill, he heard beautiful music and a beautiful voice calling out his name. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. Our Blessed Mother appeared to him as the “woman clothed with the sun” of the Book of Revelation, pregnant with the Child Jesus. She instructed Juan Diego to go to the house of Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and to request that a chapel be built in her honor on Tepeyac Hill so that she might show the infinite majesty and mercy of God to all His children of America.

Juan Diego went to the Bishop’s house at which he was received with great respect but also with hesitation regarding his story of the apparition and of our Blessed Mother’s request. The Bishop, who was praying and working to bring together the Native Americans and the Spanish conquerors and settlers, requested time to consider the matter.

On Juan Diego’s return home, the Blessed Mother appeared to him for the second time. Disappointed that he had failed in his mission, he asked Our Lady of Guadalupe to send a more esteemed messenger to the Bishop, so that he would believe the message. Our Blessed Mother instructed Juan Diego to return to the Bishop with her request. The third apparition took place on December 10. Juan Diego had gone to the Bishop for a second time. The Bishop responded by asking for a sign so that he might believe the Blessed Mother’s request. On his way home, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, and he told her of the Bishop’s request of a sign. Our Lady promised to provide the sign for the Bishop when Juan Diego would return to her on the next day.

Juan Diego missed his appointment with Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 11 because he was looking after his uncle Juan Bernardino who was gravely ill. On December 12, he was hurrying to bring a priest to administer the sacraments to his uncle who was dying. He took a different route in order to avoid another encounter with the Blessed Mother, embarrassed that he had missed the appointment on December 11 and not wanting to be delayed in seeking spiritual help for his uncle.

Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to him nonetheless, the fourth time, assuring him that his uncle was already cured and instructing him to gather flowers on the top of the hill as a sign to take to the Bishop. Juan Diego trusted Our Lady and found on the top of the frozen and barren hill the most beautiful flowers. He gathered them and Our Blessed Mother arranged them in his cloak, or tilma as it was called. Juan Diego then hurried to the Bishop’s house where this fourth apparition reached its fullness. When he opened his tilma to show the flowers to the Bishop, Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared depicted on the tilma. The Bishop immediately understood the truth of Juan Diego’s message from the Blessed Mother and hastened to have the chapel built on Tepeyac Hill.

The fifth apparition took place in the little home in which Juan Diego was living with his uncle. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Bernardino and cured him of his fatal illness.