Links
Past Links (click here)
Daily Mass Readings
The centerspread of this issue offers some ideas for activities and prayers this Advent season. If you wish to pray along with the Mass readings each day, you can find the current texts at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website http://www.usccb.org/video/reflections.shtml You can also listen to these in audio readings and/or watch a video reflection.
And more suggestions
With your gifts to the annual Catholic Communications Campaign collection, the USCCB site also offers a weekly look at more popular Catholic books, including interviews with the authors and the Catholic Book Publishers Association’s weekly Top Ten Bestsellers. See it at http://www.usccb.org/ccc/cb.shtmll, and look for other radio, TV and video offerings and movie reviews.
Go-ahead for St. Damien of Molokai
Pope Benedict XVI has approved the canonization of Father Damien de Veuster, the Belgian missionary who lived among the lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai and eventually succumbed to the disease in 1889. You can read the latest on the Pope’s decision here.Another holy Hawaiian
Meanwhile, the Diocese of Honolulu has also been working to promote the sainthood of another legendary missionary to the lepers, Mother Marianne Cope. With her beatification in May, the diocese is preparing for her first feastday January 23rd. Read more about this pioneering Franciscan.
100 Years in Canada
As noted in the "Catholic Extension at Work" column, Catholic Extension’s sister organization to the north is celebrating its centennial year. To learn more about the work of Catholic Missions in Canada, visit http://www.cmic.info/People You Should Know
Sister Adelaide Link, who wrote the “A Christmas Miracle” story in this issue is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor. You can read more about her congregation here. The other active religious at her mission on the Navajo Reservation also come from a long line of missionaries devoted to the apostolate to Native Americans. Read about some of the Franciscan Friars and the Blessed Sacrament Sisters here. Click here to support their work at the tiny mission in Chinle, Ariz.
Making Church More Accessible
As reported earlier, the Pathways Awareness Foundation offers practical information and materials about ways parishes can make all of their facilities more accessible to people of all abilities. Click here for ideas on changing your physical plant as well as congregation’s consciousness about “opening the doors wider.”
Continuing features
Papal Mission Intentions
Apostleship for Prayer promotes the Pope’s Monthly Mission Intentions. The apostleship publishes in-depth reflections on these prayers on their website.