Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

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Let us celebrate the new year with our Blessed Mother! Parish Masses schedule (Dec 31 & Jan 1) for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is available here: http://bit.ly/39rczNK

“At the beginning of the year, let us implore from Mary the grace to be amazed at the God of surprises. Let us renew the amazement we felt when faith was first born in us. The Mother of God helps us: the Mother who gave birth to the Lord, now presents us, reborn, to the Lord. She is a mother who generates in her children the amazement of faith, because faith is an encounter… Without amazement, life becomes dull and routine, and so it is with faith.” ~ Pope Francis, homily for Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, 1/1/19. #CatholicYYC#IamBlessed
Taken from the Facebook page of Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

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Way too many of us come into the Feast of the Holy Family with memories or current experiences of less than holy families. If you’re here today with mostly positive experiences with your family, then take a moment or two to thank God for that gift. If there are unhealed wounds from your past or current hurts in your family, we can pause to be grateful our faith teaches us that our family relationships should be places we are loved, cherished and protected from harm. God offers us perfect love and adoption into His family and wants to heal our wounds, past and present. God desires for us to follow Him and grow in love so we can pass on a legacy of love to our children and future generations. May we be images of the exhortation in the reading from Colossians: clothed in compassion, kindness, meekness, and patience, forgiving and loving our way into God’s peace, especially in our families and communities. Prayer: For healing and peace in all families, we pray to the Lord. Father, Son and Spirit, you are yourself a family of persons, whose love is a gift for us all. Teach us to love each other in every interaction and moment. Make us practitioners of forgiveness and peace, images of your family that can bring about more love in the world. Amen. Reflection: CCCB #CatholicYYC #IamBlessed #SundayMass

Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord

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“Today, for our sake, the King of Heaven chose to be born of His Virgin Mother, to reclaim lost men for the Heavenly Kingdom. All the angels cry aloud with joy, for God has come Himself to save mankind. Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth.” (Breviary, Vol 1, p.404)

4th Sunday of Advent

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In the first reading, God tells the king Ahaz to ask Him for a sign, and then gets exasperated he won’t ask. So many people in our world are mad at God for not showing up or for being silent, but how many of us are asking for signs? How many more of us refuse to see them or name them when they are given? God is constantly showing up, in a sunrise or a kind word from a neighbour, in nudges of intuition or unexplainable “coincidences” that we write off. Joseph has the most incredible reasons to dismiss Mary, but he believes God who appears as an angel in a dream. This saves Mary and Jesus from being cast out into shame and poverty. What are the signs God has for you? In these last three days before Christmas, be bold enough to ask God for a sign and to believe He will send one. Watch for it with vigilance and do not give up until it comes. If God can send His Son to a manger, angels to the shepherds, a star to the wise men, He can send you a sign of His abundant life for you now. Prayer: For eyes to see the signs God is sending us, we pray to the Lord. God of life, you have offered us all things to be gifts for your glory. Help us to pursue you above all things, and then to use your resources faithfully. May we be good stewards of your gifts, now and for ever. Amen. Reflection: CCCB #CatholicYYC #SundayMass #Advent Taken from the Facebook page of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary

3rd Sunday of Advent

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We all need a Saviour. Some of us don’t want one, so we spend our lives trying to save ourselves, only to discover that life undoes us all at some point. Others of us know we need one, but we want to be saved on our own terms. Jesus came. He died and rose again so we could have new life, but we have to be willing to be rescued, and we have to let God’s timing and terms reign. Our salvation is being worked out in the course of our lives right now. Whatever we are going through, God will use to bring about good. When death, suffering and tragedy surround us, all this is especially hard to believe, let alone appreciate or participate in. But it is the promise. We would do well to pray with the Psalmist wherever we find ourselves today: “Lord, come and save us.” Whatever is happening today, in every moment of our lives, God can work new life. May we believe it, and ask for it.

Let us pray for trust in God’s saving work in every moment and circumstance of our lives, we pray to the Lord.

Saviour, you long to set us free. The waiting is over and you have already worked it out. Help us to live through the moments of our own salvation, in the messy and long ways that you work in this world and the world to come. May we place our own salvation in the manger with you. Amen.

Reflection: CCCB #SundayMass #CatholicYYC

Taken from the Facebook page of Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary