Prayer for the Year of Consecrated Life

O God, throughout the ages you have called women and men to pursue lives of perfect charity through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. During this Year of Consecrated Life, we give you thanks for these courageous witnesses of Faith and models of inspiration. Their pursuit of holy lives teaches us to make a more perfect offering of ourselves to you. Continue to enrich your Church by calling forth sons and daughters who, having found the pearl of great price, treasure the Kingdom of Heaven above all things. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.     Amen. 

____________

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR CONSECRATED LIFE CELEBRATION

On Monday, February 2, 2015, the Church celebrates the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.  In the Archdiocese of Toronto, we are blessed to have living and serving among us more than 1,000 religious men and women of over 100 different religious congregations.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us to thank God for the gifts of these religious sisters, brothers and priests and to pray for God’s blessing upon them in their efforts to faithfully live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.  On Sunday, February 1, 2015 at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Basilica, there will be a special Mass presided by His Eminence, Thomas Cardinal Collins, in celebration of the vocation and witness of these special men and women religious who are such an important part of the life and ministry of the Church in our archdiocese. All are welcome to attend.

Candlemas – February 2nd at 7.00PM

Holy Mass in the Extraordinary form of the Roman rite with the blessing of candles and procession.

This Feast is probably the oldest of the feasts of Our Lady and commemorates her obedience to the Law by going to the Temple 40 days after the Lord’s Birth.  Traditionally this is the end of the Christmas Season.

Prayer For Christian Unity

Heavenly Father, we come to you, the Font of Life,                            

to ask  that you fill your Church with Living Water to quench our thirst on the quest for 

Christian Unity.

Let our hearts be filled with the gift of your Son's love for us.       

 May we find in your Church the living and abiding presence of your love and work together 

to bring about the desire of your Son Our Lord Jesus Christ when he prayed "that all may be one.

May the Spirit never lay dormant within us but sustain us on the path of life. This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

One God, now and forever.  Amen

Saint Joseph Vaz

    Saint Joseph Vaz, CO, the first saint of Goan origin was born on the 21 of April 1651 and died on the 16 January 1711 in Kandy (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka), was an Oratorian priest and missionary in Ceylon (today's Sri Lanka). In 1676, he was ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Goa, António Brandão, S.O.Cist. Soon after his ordination, he started going barefoot to live like the poor and acquired a reputation as a popular preacher and confessor. He opened a Latin school in Sancoale for prospective seminarians. In 1677 he consecrated himself as a "slave of Mary", sealing it with a document known as the "Deed of Bondage".

    Hearing of the distressful situation of the Catholics of Ceylon who reportedly had no priests for many years, Vaz desired to go to their rescue. But instead he was named Superior of the Canara Mission, a post which he occupied for three years. In 1686, Vaz obtained permission to give up this office and to proceed to Ceylon. He stopped in the Keladi Kingdom in 1686–1687 for a few months on his way to Ceylon, where helped by his companions, he attended to the spiritual needs of the local Christians. Disguised as a mendicant, he reached the port of Tuticorin on Easter Sunday 1687.

    Vaz entered Ceylon during the Dutch occupation, when Calvinism had been imposed as the official religion, after taking over from the Portuguese. He travelled throughout the island bringing the Eucharist and the sacraments to clandestine groups of Catholics. Later in his mission, he found shelter in the Kingdom of Kandy where he was able to work freely. By the time of his death, Vaz had managed to rebuild the Catholic Church on the island.

    As a result of his labors, Vaz is known as the Apostle of Ceylon. On 21 January 1995, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Colombo.

He will be canonized on 14 January 2015

by Pope Francis in Sri Lanka.

The Epiphany of the Lord

    We joyfully celebrate his manifestation to the peoples of the entire world, represented by the Magi who came from the East to render homage to the King of the Jews. From its initial appearance, therefore, the light of Christ began to attract to himself the people "with whom he is pleased", of every tongue, people and culture. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that moves hearts and minds to seek truth, beauty, justice, peace. It is "men and women are on a journey of discovery which is humanly unstoppable - a search for the truth and a search for a person to whom they might entrust themselves". Men and women of every generation need on their pilgrim journey to be directed: what star can we therefore follow?

    After coming to rest "over the place where the child was", the purpose of the star that guided the Magi ended, but its spiritual light is always present in the Word of the Gospel, which is still able today to guide every person to Jesus. This same Word, which is none other than the reflection of Christ, true man and true God, is authoritatively echoed by the Church for every well-disposed heart. The Church too, therefore, carries out the mission of the star for humanity. But something of the sort could be said of each Christian, called to illuminate the path of the brethren by word and example of life. How important it is that we Christians are faithful to our vocation! Every authentic believer is always travelling his own personal itinerary of faith, and at the same time, with the little light that he carries within himself, can and must be a help to those alongside him, and even help the one for whom finding the way that leads to Christ is difficult.         ~ BENEDICT XVI January 6, 2008