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ADVENT SAINTS
Last Advent, we focused on SAINTS- the main topic of the Blog. Our future is even less uncertain than it was last year. Wars have not ceased, our climate is even more unstable with hurricanes, fires,...
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BLACK MADONNAS
For Advent, I thought it would be interesting to see some of the BLACK MADONNAS from around the world. We will also consider the GREAT Os (Antophons sung at Vespers during the last days of Advent).I...
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THE GREAT Os- ADVENT
The O ANTIPHONS (also known as the Great Advent Antiphons or Great Os) are Magnificat antiphons used at Vespers on the last seven days (17 to 23 December) of Advent in Western Christian traditions....
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O ADONAI
O ADONAI * (December 18)Latin: O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento. English: O...
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THE TREE OF JESSE
O RADIX JESSE (December 19)Latin:O radix Jesse,qui stas in signum populorum,]super quem continebunt reges os suum,quem Gentes deprecabunturveni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.EnglishO Root of...
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LA MORENITA
In our first Blog on Black Madonnas, we mentioned that the dark skin color is often due to smoke from candles lit by pilgrims, as well as oil lamps. It can also be due to the effects of oxidation on...
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ANOTHER MORENITA
OUR LADY OF MONTSERRAT is one of the Black Madonnas of Europe, and given the familiar Catalan name, La Moreneta ("the little dark-skinned one" or "the little dark one"). Believed by some to have been...
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MADONNAS OF PRAGUE
.My favorite city in Europe is Prague, but unfortunately so many religious sites are now museums, since Communism took over this great city. One is the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia (formerly a...
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SORROWFUL BACK MADONNA
My one regret when I visited Poland in the late 1980s, was that I did not get to see the shrine at Czestochowa. We stayed in Krakow, where I attended Mass in the great Cathedral and we visited...
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KEY OF DAVID
TweetO CLAVIS DAVIDLatin: O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel; qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris et umbra...
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O MORNING STAR
O ORIENSLatin:O Oriens,splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.English:O Morning Star, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness:...
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KING OF NATIONS
O REX GENTIUMLatin: O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti. Fra AngelicaEnglish: O King of the...
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GOD WITH US- EMMANUEL
O EMMANUEL Anna Kolisnyk- UkraineLatin: O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos,...
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CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS- EVEN IN WAR
I love this painting by the Ukrainian artist OSTAP LOZYNSKY, who died January 6, 2022 at the age of 38. He would have known of the beginning days of the invasion in his country, and I wonder if this...
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HE IS BORN UNTO US
This colorful and unusual painting is by YULIA CHAIKA, a visual artist born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since the quarantine due to the covid 19 she has lived in Spain.She works with various types of...
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HOLY INNOCENTS TODAY
Today is the FEAST of the HOLY INNOCENTS- when the baby boys living at the time of Jesus’ birth were all slaughtered due to the raging jealousy of the mad King Herod. It is also when Joseph flees with...
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HOLY FAMILY
Pope St. John Paul II writes:For every believer, and especially for Christian families, the humble dwelling place in Nazareth is an authentic school of the Gospel. Here we admire, put into practice,...
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OUR MOTHER IN THE NEW YEAR
Why do we celebrate the feast ofMARY THE MOTHER OF GOD on New year's day?In his Apostolic Letter, Marialis Cultus, Pope St. Paul VI explained: “This celebration, placed on January 1 …is meant to...
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A YEAR OF HOPE
2025 is a JUBILEE YEAR- which occurs every 25 years. The theme this time is HOPE. The last ordinary holy year, the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, which took place under St. John Paul II, was one of the...
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PILGRIMS OF HOPE
"In the last two years, not a single country has been unaffected by the sudden outbreak of an epidemic that made us experience first-hand not only the tragedy of dying alone, but also the uncertainty...
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RETURN TO THE HEART
In calling for 2025 to be the YEAR of HOPE, Pope Francis has asked all Catholics to become “pilgrims of hope”. “Kindness is not a diplomatic strategy” nor “a set of rules to ensure social harmony or...
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BAPTISM- THE BEGINNING OF HOPE
The BAPTISM OF JESUS, is a sign of HOPE for all in a life that Christ has promised we too will participate in. It is the hope that can come only when we realize that through the birth and death of...
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HOPE HAS RISEN
At Christmas, we received a card from France from the Abbey of Jouarre, where our foundress Mother Benedicta Duss started. We were all struck by the one line on the card from NABIL ANTAKI a doctor in...
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STRUGGLE AND HOPE
“We know that hope is often put to the test. Our world is marked by war and by so many injustices; it is torn by individualism. All this often generates doubt, fear of the future and very often...
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HOPE FOR YOUTH
Everyday one reads about the youth in our country, or around the world, and the negative effects they have on culture and society. Then one or two (or more) young people show up at the monastery and...
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