SAINT OF THE DAY SATURDAY, 27 DECEMBER, 2025 SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST (c. 6 AD – c. 100 AD) St. John, the Evangelist, who is styled in the Gospel, "the beloved disciple", was a Galilean, son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother to St. James the Greater, both of whom were fishermen. The two were called by Jesus to be disciples as they were mending their nets by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus showed St. John particular instances of kindness and affection above all the rest. He had the happiness to be present with Peter and James at the Transfiguration of Christ, and was permitted to witness His agony in the Garden. He was allowed to rest on Our Savior's bosom at the Last Supper, and to him Jesus confided the care of His holy Mother as He hung dying on the Cross. St. John was the only one of the Apostles who did not forsake the Savior in the hour of His Passion and Death. It seems that St. John remained for a long time in Jerusalem, but that his later years were spent at Ephesus, whence he founded many churches in Asia Minor. St. John wrote his Gospel after the other Evangelists, about sixty-three years after the Ascension of Christ; also three Epistles, and the wonderful and mysterious Book of the Apocalypse or Revelation. He was brought to Rome and, according to tradition, was cast into a caldron of boiling oil by order of Emperor Domitian. Like the Three Children in the fiery furnace of Babylon, he was miraculously preserved unhurt. He was later exiled to the Island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse, but afterwards returned to Ephesus. In his extreme old age he continued to visit the churches of Asia. St. Jerome relates that when age and weakness grew upon him so that he was no longer able to preach to the people, he would be carried to the assembly of the faithful by his disciples, with great difficulty; and every time said to his flock only these words: "My dear children, love one another." St. John died in peace at Ephesus in the third year of Trajan (as seems to be gathered from Eusebius' history of the Saint); that is, the hundredth of the Christian era, or the sixty-sixth from the crucifixion of Christ, St. John then being about ninety-four years old, according to St. Epiphanus. PATRON: Against poison; art dealers; authors; bookbinders; booksellers; burns; compositors; editors; engravers; friendships; lithographers; painters; papermakers; poisoning; printers; publishers; tanners; theologians; typesetters; writers; Asia Minor; Taos, New Mexico; Umbria, Italy; diocese of Cleveland, Ohio; diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. PRAYER: O God, who through the blessed Apostle John have unlocked for us the secrets of your Word, grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvelously brought to our ears. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
John is described as, 'The Disciple that Jesus loved'. This does not of course mean that Christ did not love the other disciples but it does seem to mean John was favourite. Also as a kind of double tap He gave Mary into John's care. Which seems to me to confirm, as you might expect he was favourite of Our Blessed Mother too. I suppose this might put some people off. They might say that since Jesus loves all totally He loves all people the same. But both Jesus and Mary were fully human. In that they loved John the most perhaps because he was the most loveable? I love to watch shows on contemplative convents and monasteries. Because looking at these women it seems to me so many of them are really saints. Even by their vocation shows they are in real sense favourites. Vatican 2 speaks of this when it describes them as bring forth, 'Abundant fruits of holiness'. We can see this with St John he was if you like infatuated with Jesus and Mary they were his all in all. A few weeks ago I watched a Carmelite convent in Iceland of all places. The holiness of these women was awesome especially the Prioress. God's favourites
From the Knock Shrine facebook page: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5) Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. John the Evangelist. St. John appeared at Knock, dressed as a bishop. He held a book of Scriptures in his hand and he appeared to be preaching, though no words could be heard. He stood to the left of Our Lady, slightly turned towards the Lamb on the altar. When you visit Knock Shrine this Christmas, take some time for quiet prayer in the Apparition Chapel.
FEAST OF THE DAY SUNDAY, 28 DECEMBER, 2025 THE HOLY FAMILY Marriage is too often conceived as the sacrament which unites a man and a woman to form a couple. In reality, marriage establishes a family, and its purpose is to increase the number of the elect, through the bodily and spiritual fecundity of the Christian spouses. 1. Every marriage intends children. Although Mary and Joseph were not united in a carnal way, their marriage is a true marriage: an indissoluble, exclusive union, wholly subordinated to the child. Mary and Joseph are united only in order to bring Jesus into the world, to protect and raise him. They have only one child, but he contains the whole of mankind, even as Isaac, an only child, fulfilled the promise made to Abraham of a countless progeny. 2. The purpose of every marriage is to establish a Christian family. The Holy Family observed the religious laws of Israel; it went in pilgrimage to Jerusalem every year with other Jewish families (Lk. 2:41). Jesus saddens and amazes his father and his mother because to their will and company he prefers "to be in his Father's house". Thus it may happen that God's will obliges the family to make disconcerting sacrifices. Yet every Christian family must live in harmony and in prayer, which are the pledges of joy and union. 3. "He remained obedient to them." Jesus was God. And through the fullness of grace Mary stood above Joseph. Nevertheless — if we except the event in the Temple — Joseph remained the head of the family; he took the initiative (as when the Holy Family fled to Egypt), and in Nazareth Jesus obeyed his parents. PRAYER: O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Yes, it could be been due to his position and education, but Sam Shamoun says something interesting on this. He notes that Jesus honoured St. Stephen, the first martyr of His Church, by standing up. In the Creed it says that He sits at the right hand of the Father. Sam says that in honouring St. Stephen, Jesus responded by converting St. Paul, a miracle by any stretch. So it may have been a singular grace that Saul was preserved from participating in the stoning and a sign of his upcoming conversion.
I noticed in the Scripture reading at Mass for the Feast that it talks of Paul being young specifically. So that maybe a reason that he was too young to stoning, that only adults were allowed to do so.
By chance I happened to listen to Bishop Barron give a homily this morning and he mentioned the persecution of the Holy Family and the Flight into Egypt. He also referred to the red dragon who pursued the woman with child into the wilderness. The Woman and the Dragon 12 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. 4 Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”[a] And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Clearly the red dragon is Satan. But Bishop Barron does not say this. He said, 'A force of evil' and talked of the Emperor Augustus. This is why Bishop Barron and people like him make me uneasy. Why will he not talk about the devil? Clearly this passage refers to Satan as a Fallen Angel. It reminds me of the time he denied the existence of hell by suggesting it might be empty. Oh, I know people will say what a good person he is and how many people he converts. But heresy is important and not to be ignored. It is a gradual killing of the faith. Bishop Barron just makes me feel very,very uneasy. Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Painting by Luc Olivier Merson (1846–1920), Painted in 1879, Oil on canvas © Museum of Fine arts, Boston Gospel Reading When the Magi had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Who is to say the dragon doesn’t have multiple meanings? In the Mystical City of God the fight between the dragon and the woman happens at the time of the downfall of the fallen angels. Satan is upset that a mere mortal Woman will outrank him. We know that it also represents Our Lady’s Assumption and the 2,000 year long fight between the Woman and her children (Jesus and the saints) with Satan. This could be another meaning. It’s also likely this also represents Mary currently fighting the devil and her success (the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart), as well as her final crushing of the serpent’s head (and the prior persecution of her Church) at the end of time. I think about every verse in the Apocalypse can have several different meanings, which shows that such a text could have never been written without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Anyways, these are just my opinions or things I’ve read.
Prayers for all our families as we strive to be Holy. Prayers especially for young parents who I think have it very difficult trying to raise children in the faith in todays society. God bless and protect you
It seems to me that if you interpret the Dragon subjectively and say it has multiple meanings , effectively you are saying it means whatever you want it to mean. Which is then just another way of saying it does not mean anything at all. It seems certain to me reading this passage it does in fact mean Satan. At the start it talks of the dragon dragging the third of the stars down from heaven and these are the fallen angels. How could the third of the stars relate to the Emperor Augustus? Barron suggests it was Augustus's minions, but this is a real stretch. It seems to me that there is a modernist trajectory in what Bishop Barron says and does. Saying hell is empty as he did is just the same thing as saying hell does not exist. Just as saying the red dragon is a force for evil instead of Satan is another sign of the rejection of the supernatural which lies at the heart of the Modernist heresy. Another example of Bishop Barron being light on his toes was in an interview with the Talmudic Jew Ben Shaprio. Ben said to the Bishop straight out that he did not believe in Jesus. He asked him if he thought he would go to hell for not being a Christian? Barron hemmed and hawed. He could and and would not give a straight answer. Again par for the course. The Dogma They Silence: "Outside the Church There Is No Salvation" in the Words of 10 Saints - Catholicus.eu English
I don’t think something meaning multiple things means it has no meaning, or that it can mean anything. I do not think that’s the same thing as saying certain things in the Apocalypse can be referencing future, past, and spiritually eternal truths at the same time. In another example, Ven. Mary of Agreda says the Blessed Virgin Mary is the New Jerusalem mentioned in the Bible, but this can also be God dwelling with men in the tabernacles of the world, and of course of the Beatific Vision before and after the Last Day. Bishop Barron is in error when he says that we may “reasonably hope” that hell is empty. Unfortunately, hell is far from empty. Though invincibly ignorant people can be saved in spite of belonging to a false religion, in my opinion Rabbinic Jews are the least ignorant of the false religions because their entire religion is based on a rejection of Jesus.
There is a worrying to me trajectory in the way Bishop Barron looks at things. But we'll agree to disagree. I don't think he talks about an 'Evil force' rather than Satan is by chance. . Jesus never talked about evil forces, not once. He talked about the devil on numerous occasions. Jesus never talked about hell being empty , he did however talk about people being sent there. He also said that no one comes to the Father except through Him. Barron is far more nice than Jesus and easier to swallow. But I'll stick with Jesus
When it comes to Revelation and Satan in regards to the Bible I find it is incredibly complex. There is allegory, archetypes, historicity, symbolism, literalism, etc. However, Satan is clearly a person when it comes to scripture. I agree that Bishop Barron for whatever reason avoids the subject which is entirely bizarre to me. Especially since exorcists everywhere deal with satan regularly. I don't understand why it is a touchy subject to talk about the person of Satan, I figure it would give Bishop Barron more credibility to speak about Satan as a person. I had been listening to an exorcist recently, I believe it was Fr. Ripperger, and he gave some startling statistics. Something like 1/200 people currently are possessed. 25% of people have a diabolic obsession. I believe 25% are also diabolically oppressed. It also takes 4 years to clear someone of the diabolic, if it happens at all. Sorry if I got the numbers wrong, perhaps someone will correct me. But it is something like this. Now what appears to be happening is that diabolic influence in peoples lives in general has been growing for the last 70 years and is continuing to grow as time goes on. What this builds up to I don't exactly know with the exception of prophecy, but it seems like the world in general is rapidly increasing on the path of becoming entirely dark eyed. Which would explain what eventually happens to Christians in Revelation. So it becomes critical to start taking personal safety into consideration IMO. For example, I recently heard that women have to be careful in places like parking lots because there have been more abductions as of late. Why, because there are all sorts of diabolically possessed/obsessed people out there and their numbers are growing.
SAINT OF THE DAY MONDAY, 29 DECEMBER, 2025 SAINT THOMAS BECKET (ALSO KNOWN AS SAINT THOMAS OF CANTERBURY) BISHOP AND MARTYR (December 21, 1118 – December 29, 1170) Thomas Becket was born in 1118 of a merchant family. He studied in London and Paris, entered the service of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, became Lord Chancellor under King Henry II in 1155, and in 1162 Archbishop of Canterbury. Till then a submissive courtier, he now initiated a fearless struggle against the king for the freedom of the Church and the inviolability of ecclesiastical property, occasioning his imprisonment, exile, and finally martyrdom (December 29, 1170). Canonization came quickly (1173); in 1539 King Henry VIII ordered his remains burned. Formerly the Breviary included this summary of the saint's last days: "Calumniators informed the king that the bishop was agitating against him and the peace of the realm; and the king retorted that with one such priest he could not live in peace. Hearing the royal displeasure, several godless courtiers agreed to do their sovereign a favor by assassinating Thomas. Secretly they traveled to Canterbury and fell upon the bishop while he was attending Vespers. His priests rushed to his aid and tried to bar the church door; Thomas opened it himself with these words: The house of God may not be defended like a fortress. I gladly face death for the Church of God. Then to the soldiers: I command it in the Name of God: No harm may be done to any of mine. Thereupon he cast himself on his knees, commended his flock and himself to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Denis and other holy patrons of his church, and with the same heroic courage with which he had withstood the king's laws, he bowed his holy head to the sacrilegious sword on December 29, 1170." PATRON: Clergy; secular clergy; Exeter College Oxford; Portsmouth, England. PRAYER: O God, who gave the Martyr Saint Thomas Becket the courage to give up his life for the sake of justice, grant, through his intercession, that, renouncing our life for the sake of Christ in this world, we may find it in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
What a righteous saint! Fearless and eager for martyrdom. They came for him in darkness just like they did with Jesus.
I think if we pay attention when we meet someone for the first time, if we pay attention , we can occasionally find them having an unusual reaction to us. For instance taking a violent instant dislike to us for no apparent reason, a loathing almost. But in general the person acting spooky. We see this time and time again in the lives of the saints. People around them becoming really violently nasty to them. Examples. Fr Gemelli towards Padre Pio. The Archbishop of Turin towards St John Bosco. The Novice Mistress and Superior of St Bernadette.
There is the most wonderful film on the life of St Thomas on utube. I have watched it several times. I must watch it again. St Thomas was a martyr in defense of the Church. He died defending her. But the thing that strikes me today is the very thing people died for the Vatican gives away freely, getting nothing in return. For instance the poor Church in China, sold out by the Vatican to the Communist Government.
