Blog - December 2020 RSS Feed

We usually celebrate the feast of Saint John the Evangelist on December 27. He was the youngest of the Apostles, probably a teenager. Young people are the ones filled with excitement and imagination during this season.

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents. Christmas is filled with joy, but we remember that Jesus was rejected when He came. Today reminds us that people still choose hate over love, death over life.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  December 28, 2020 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Joseph Zwilling 646-794-2997 [email protected] Mercedes Anderson 646-794-2996 [email protected] Statement from Cardinal Dolan on the Covid-19 Relief Bill (New York, NY) Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York , released the following statement today following President Trump’s signing of the Covid-19 relief act.

At Mass this morning, you’ll hear the Annunciation. Are you aware of the beautiful Catholic prayer we have called the Angelus? It’s the narrative of the Annunciation. The Angelus says it all. Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Here’s a little seen image of Mary, our Glorious Mother, located “behind the scenes” at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. As I’ve said, there are really three annunciations in the Gospels: to Zechariah, to Joseph, and the greatest annunciation of all, to our Blessed Mother Mary – and her response, “Be it done unto me according to thy word.”

Saints Joachim and Anne were the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although we celebrate their feast day in July, it’s appropriate to think of them during this Advent season as the grandparents of Jesus.

Pope Francis has declared a special Year of Saint Joseph. That’s good news because we need to give him more attention. He was a man of obedience who found out God’s will and did it.

There are so many characters that light up this Advent season, including Saint Joseph. The Bible always mentions Jacob, Joseph, and Jesus to remind us that Jesus was of the lineage of King David.

As we make lists of those we want to think of this Advent season, here’s one name I want you to remember — Mary. Was there anyone who waited for the coming of Christ as Mary did? We have a few of her feast days coming up and also hear about her in our upcoming Gospels.

Previously I discussed how Jesus comes in history and mystery. Today I want to talk about how Christ comes in majesty. He will come at the end of time as judge of the living and the dead. We think about His coming in majesty a lot in Advent as you can hear in the readings.

On today’s Conversation with Cardinal Dolan show, Father Dave Dwyer and I talk about the Advent season and what we mean when we say there are three comings of Jesus. I also talked about presiding at the funeral Mass of Pat Quinn, the co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

The first coming of Christ was when He came to the world at the first Christmas in Bethlehem. It’s not something we can really “prepare” for because it’s already happened. What Christmas allows us to do is celebrate and rejoice the first coming of Christ in history.