Year of Faith

The Year of Faith is upon us! 

"This year can help fill the Emptiness found in Society today." 

"Today, more than ever, evangelizing means witnessing to the new life, transformed by God, and thus showing the path." – Pope Benedict XVI’s homily from the opening Mass of the Year

Watch this video!

Check out these words from the Holy Father about the Youth in this world...

Pope Benedict XVI sees young people as a sign of hope for Christianity in the world. In a recent interview he stated the following, "A third reason [for hope]... is evident in the fact that this sense of restlessness today exists among the young. Young people have seen much - the proposals of the various ideologies and of consumerism - and they have become aware of the emptiness and insufficiency of those things. Man was created for the infinite, the finite is too little. Thus, among the new generations we are seeing the reawakening of this restlessness, and they too begin their journey making new discoveries of the beauty of Christianity; not a ...watered-down version, but Christianity in all its radicalism and profundity... The facts confirm this in a single phrase: Deep foundations. That is Christianity; it is true and the truth always has a future."  Beautiful.

The Vatican during the opening of the Year of Faith...look at all those people!!

October...it's almost over! What a packed month, praise the Lord!

Some items of note:

• Pope Benedict the XVI named two additional Saints to the level of Doctor of the Church - St. John of Avila, and St. Hildegard of Bingen. These aren't medical doctors, as some might believe, but rather Saints who through their lives showed a great understanding of the message of Jesus Christ. With these two recent additions, there are now 35 Doctors of the Church. Other notables include St. Therese of LiSieux, St. Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila. Read a bit more about St. Hildegard HERE! And for the complete list of Doctors, check out HERE (without the 2 new additions).

• The Feast of St. Denis happened on Oct 9th! St. Denis, as legend has it, was beheaded while preaching...he wasn't quite done yet, so he picked up his head and continued preaching while walking for quite a distance before falling over. That's just cool. :)

• October 11th marked the opening of the YEAR OF FAITH - declared so by Pope Benedict XVI. You'll be hearing much more about this throughout the next year! Praise the Lord. 

• SEVEN Saints were canonized in October! One of them, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is the first canonized Native American Saint! Praise God! Another, Saint Marianne Cope worked in Hawaii serving lepers.  We also have a new patron Saint of young people, Saint Pedro Calungsod! Click on their names to learn more!

And speaking of Saints...All Saints day is coming up soon! Did you know that we are called to be Saints? It's true...Saints are those we know of who are together with God in Heaven...what else is there??

Be Holy. Become a Saint. :)