News - December 2024 RSS Feed

Following the closing of the La Salette Shrine in New Hampshire, Fr. Harlow, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish and past Cathedral rector, is asking Our Lady of La Salette for drug addiction healing at First Saturday Masses at his St. Johnsbury church. Fr. Harlow invites parishioners to send him names of addicts or communities afflicted by drug use, drug overdoses, and drug sales. All names will be kept secret and not mentioned at these Masses, but Father will pray for them to Our Lady. Please email names to [email protected]. Father asks that no one send money for this cause. The Enfield, NH shrine dedicated to the 1846 appearance in France of the Blessed Mother to French children, is giving its property back to the Shakers who donated it to the missionaries in 1927.

This devotion grew popular after Our Lady of Fatima spoke of it during her appearances to the shepherd children in that small Portuguese town in 1917. The Blessed Mother asked us to perform these devotions as reparation for sins against her Immaculate Heart and for the conversion of Russia: go to Confession within eight days before the First Saturday; attend Mass and receive Holy Communion; pray five decades of the Rosary; meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes. The Mother of God promised her help at the penitent’s death if these promises were kept.

First Friday devotions date from long ago, and center on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the seventeenth century, Our Lord asked French nun, now Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to honor His Sacred Heart on nine consecutive first Fridays, by attending Holy Mass and receiving Holy Communion. Jesus said, “I promise you in the excessive mercy of my Heart that its all-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on nine first Fridays of consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they will not die under my displeasure or without receiving their sacraments, my divine Heart making itself their assured refuge at the last moment."

Masses for the Holy Day are: Tuesday, December 31 - 4:00 PM in the upstairs church; Wednesday, January 1 - 10 AM in the upstairs church. The 12:05 PM Mass is cancelled.

A procession around the outside of the Cathedral will precede the 10:00 AM Mass. Bishop McDermott will celebrate this Mass marking the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Masses on Christmas Eve, December 24 are at 4:00 PM, and a night Mass at 9:00 PM. Christmas Day, Mass is at 10:00 AM. All Masses are in the upper church.

Our Advent wreath is complete today, with all four candles lit, just as the light of Christ is near to breaking in on us later this week when Christmas Day dawns. This week, Nature seems to observe this momentous change with the Winter Solstice, when daylight hours will begin to grow. As John the Baptist observed, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Our final preparations begin and excitement builds as we await the Savior’s birth. Our readings foretell the Savior's birth, and bid him "come," as we are to come to do the will of God. The Gospel recounts the Visitation story.

Envelopes for your Christmas flower donations and flower remembrances are available at the entrance to the church. Please drop the envelopes in the collection basket at weekend Masses or mail them to the parish office: 113 Elmwood Avenue, Burlington, VT 05401. Please try to return envelopes by the weekend of December 14, 15 to allow time to add remembrance names to the Christmas Remembrance Board, to be displayed at the church entrance.

Today we begin the joyful and penitential journey to the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior, Christmas. Advent means “coming,” and marks the start of the new liturgical year. We may set up and light the first purple candle on an Advent wreath. We may start making, collecting, and hanging our first ornaments on a Jesse tree. We open the first window of our Advent calendar. We may choose our Christkindl, the person to whom we will be like the Christ Child this Advent, secretly doing or making something kind for this recipient each day or every week in Advent - a prayer, Mass intention, rosary, leaving a holy card or medal, making a treat or gift, doing a chore. Readings at this Sunday’s Mass encourage us to watch for and wait for Lord. The priest wears purple or violet vestments during this season, similar to Lent. Church decorations are simple except for the big Advent wreath with its greenery, ribbons, and four candles. Sunday readings are from Year C in the three-year cycle. We will hear Luke's Gospel. His symbol is the winged ox.

Today we lay aside purple and penitence to rejoice on Gaudete or Joy Sunday. We are nearing the end of our journey to the Savior’s birth. The priest may wear rose colored vestments and we light the rose candle on our Advent wreath. More light, more anticipating joy. We continue to prepare, cleaning our souls, our hearts, our homes, making ready for the holy babe who is on his way to Bethlehem. Our readings invite us to rejoice: "Shout for joy!", "Sing praise to the Lord!", ""Have no anxiety at all". The Gospel recounts the Baptist telling the crowds what to do to lead a holy life but he dampens their anticipation that he is the Messiah: "one mightier than I is coming."

Several priests will hear Confessions in the lower chapel beginning at 3:00 PM. This service allows penitents an extra opportunity to receive the sacrament of Penance during the busy Christmas preparation time, and a chance to add to their Advent devotions.

It is with a true sense of humbleness and sincerity that I thank you for the overwhelming generosity you showed for our Thanksgiving/Christmas program this year. Parishioners and others from area communities donated $17,720. With this, we gave to needy families, in the form of food cards, a total of $9,100 which fed 136 families including 184 children and 307 adults. May God bless you abundantly for your caring and goodness. Any money left over from our Thanksgiving Drive will be added to our Christmas Program providing assistance to the needy. Once, again, thank you, and may you and your loved ones have a holy and blessed Advent and Christmas season. - Deacon Dennis Moore

This feast is transferred from Sunday, December 8 to Monday, December 9, and remains a holy day of obligation. Cathedral Masses are at 12:05 and 5:30 PM.

As we light our second candle in our Advent wreath, we hear hopeful words in the Word of the Lord. “Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery; put on the splendor of glory from God forever”;” we are filled with joy”. I pray always with joy”. In the Gospel, we hear hopeful admonition from John the Baptist: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’”

The steeple bells of the Cathedral of St. Joseph will ring at 2:00 PM Saturday, December 7, joining churches across the U.S. to celebrate the reopening of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris after two years of restoration following a fire April 15, 2019 which closed the cathedral for five years.

On Dec. 3, Giving Tuesday, we ask you to prayerfully consider a donation to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal in support of our Catholic schools, faith formation programs, emergency aid, and so much more which allows the diocese to keep sharing and living the Good News of Jesus Christ with the people of Vermont. Give online at vermontcatholic.org/giveonline, call 802-658-6110 x 1102, or mail a check payable to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, 55 Joy Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403.