Advent Weekday MONDAY volume 11, no. 265 December 18, 2000 For best alignment of this page, set font size to smallest in your browser. MS Explorer works best. While waiting for page to load, we invite you to say as many Hail Mary's as necessary. For articles in various sections, click the section of your choice below After looking back for so long in counting and recounting, analyzing and reanalyzing, we finally look forward to Christmas and beyond in caring for the soul and the Catholic conscience in the following articles this week. See CATHOLIC PewPOINT plus GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER and VIEW FROM THE PEW and SYMPHONY OF SUFFERING and PRO-LIFE PRESCRIPTIONS as well as our DAILY Devotions for Late Advent and the Christmas Antiphon Novena celebrating Las Posadas. below. FEATURES IN THIS ISSUE OF THE DailyCATHOLIC Pat Ludwa's VIEW FROM THE PEW column DAILY LITURGY This DAY in CHURCH HISTORY December 15, 2000 issue December 16, 2000 issue December 17, 2000 issue December 18, 2000 issue December 19, 2000 issue December 20, 2000 issue December 21, 2000 issue Monthly Medjugorje Message TOP 100 CATHOLICS: 1-50 TOP 100 CATHOLICS: 51-100 ARCHIVES FOR 1997 to 2000 issues HOMEPORT Entry Page

From cradle to cross, Jesus illuminated the Dark Night of the Soul with Hope in the Word made flesh. He shows us that, no matter how oppressed, lonely, poor, destitute, or sick we may be, we are never alone. He is always there with us. He is our Hope and Salvation!   In this issue Pat Ludwa looks compassionately on those who are most lonely and depressed this time of year and offers great hope to them through all that Jesus promised and what has been affirmed in Sacred Scripture as well as by great saints such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint John of the Cross and others. Pat points out that rather than getting down on ourselves this time of the year, realize that it was in that same atmosphere they feel that Christ chose to enter the world and leave the world in His humanness on the ignominy and humiliating face of the cross. When we're feeling down, feeling that life is unfair, that life isn't worth living, he encourages us to look to the Savior in the manger. The environment was not one a temporal, earthly king would choose, but it was into this atmosphere that God the Father chose to send His only-begotten Son and for that same Son to emphasize that the poor and oppressed of this world will be elevated in the next. That alone should give all great hope and the courage to carry our cross no matter the circumstances we may find ourselves in due to our own failings or society's. For Pat's column No one is ever alone in carrying their cross see VIEW FROM THE PEW

Support Pro-Life and the DAILY CATHOLIC by signing-up with a Catholic Pro-Life Phone Company with GREAT RATES at PRO-LIFE COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT THE Artwork "I Knew You" by Shannon Wirrenga, Bismarck, ND. c 1998. All rights reserved    We are grateful to the artist Shannon Wirrenga (701-255-7312) for permission to use the phenomenal and touching original painting above of Jesus smiling at a newborn babe full of life, a life that He allows. It is appropriately titled "I Knew You," taken from Jeremiah 1: 5. No entity, matter or energy can exist without God and He alone gives and takes life. Life is the most precious gift we have been given. That is why we dedicate this section to the Sanctity of Life for so few realize the treasures it holds from conception to the grave.     Because the Pro-Life movement is so important to all Catholics, we are also very pleased to announce our association with PRO-LIFE COMMUNICATIONS, a telecommunications firm owned and operated by Joseph and Jane Dalton of St. Charles, Missouri. They are both devoted, staunch Catholics who have dedicated their lives to the Pro-Life cause for the sake of His little ones. We can't endorse their company and benefits enough. In addition, when you abandon AT&T, MCI, Sprint and all those others who contribute to abortion causes, you will not only be receiving better rates and people you can actually talk to rather than the ol' runaround, but for every person who signs up Pro-Life Communications will donate 100% of the net profits to help keep the DAILY CATHOLIC on line. It's a win-win-win situation that God richly blesses. It is not only a necessity to continue this ministry, but it's a necessity that every reader has the peace of mind of being with a phone company that is truly Pro-Life. We pray everyone will realize the need to make this commitment to help eradicate the culture of death.     The elections are over, but the battle for life is not. We cannot give up the fight. Please continue to pray for the Sanctity of Life and pray for those pro-abort candidates who were elected that they will have a conversion of heart and recognize the evil of their ways. Remember, nothing is impossible with God. We encourage you to go to the Pro-Life links below to keep up to date on the great battle between life and death - the Sanctity of Life vs. the culture of death led by pro-abort candidates and those who would advance murder, immorality, sodomy, perjury, etc. Also we recommend the following excellent sites whose main purpose is the Sanctity of Life Pro-Life Infonet and Priests For Life and People of Life and Human Life International and American Life League and National Right to Life and Oblates of Mary Immaculate Life Issues

MONDAY'S LITURGY: First Reading: Jeremiah 23: 5-8 Psalms: Psalm 72: 1, 12-13, 18-19 Gospel Reading: Matthew 1: 18-24

Monday in the Third Week of Advent Advent Daily Novena Prayers for the Third Monday in Advent     Blessed Mother, we can not be sure just when the journey began for you and St. Joseph to Bethlehem. You had so little that you had to take with you. It was difficult to travel in those days. Through your intercession, help us to remember that we offer so little sacrifice to God, and that we could give Him so much more by surrendering the luxuries of this life in anticipation of the glories of the next. For today and tomorrow's Late Advent Liturgy, see DAILY LITURGY

The DAILY WORD Taken from the Gospel for Monday's Mass "Now all this came to pass that was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son; and they shall call Him Emmanuel; which is, interpreted, 'God with us.'" Matthew 1: 22-23

				WORLDWIDE NEWS & VIEWS from a Catholic Viewpoint News Ticker from Catholic World News For the Latest DAILY CATHOLIC News and Headlines, see the following available news sources: CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS (CWN) ZENIT INTERNATIONAL NEWS Noticias Eclesiales CHURCH NEWS (NE) CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE (CNS) FIDES INTERNATIONAL NEWS MISSIONARY SERVICE NEWS (MISNA) L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE (VIS) For the latest news from a Christian perspective, we recommend: CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK NEWS The above News Agencies are not affiliated with the DAILY CATHOLIC, but the DAILY CATHOLIC provides this service to keep our readers up-to-date with what's truly happening in our world, especially considering all the misinformation the secular media circulates. CATHOLIC USED BOOKS SERVICE provides the motherlode of Catholic literary treasures!

Events that happened Today in Church History    Today is the 648th anniversary of the election of French-born Cardinal Etienne Aubert as the 199th Sovereign Pontiff in the line of Peter. He chose the name Pope Innocent IV in 1352 and was the fifth Pope to follow the Avignon line of Roman Pontiffs in exile in the walled city of Avignon in southern France. He refortified the city with a stronger stone wall around the papal palace to defend curtail invaders. He also ordered Spain's Cardinal Albornoz to restore order in many of the Papal States which were in turmoil during these times of uncertainty. Innocent's papacy lasted ten years. He died at the age of 80 on September 12, 1362. For other events that happened today in Church History, see MILLENNIUM MILESTONES AND MEMORIES It is in how we perceive that we reveal the window of the soul    They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the words of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen have been known to launch a thousand images in one's mind, one of the ways this late luminary did so much to evangelize the faith. Because of the urgency of the times and because few there are today who possess the wisdom, simplicity and insight than the late Archbishop who touched millions, we are bringing you daily gems from his writings. The good bishop makes it so simple that we have dubbed this daily series: "SIMPLY SHEEN". "What is outside of us is beyond our control; but what is within us can be mastered and woven to any desired pattern. As Pascal once said: 'Time and my moods have little relationship; I have my fogs and my bad weather within me.' Our personal dispositions are as windowpanes through which we see the world either as rosy or dull. The way we color the glasses we wear is the way the world seems to us. To a great extent what we see is colored from the inside, rather than from the outside."

Monthly Medjugorje Message for November 2000 NOTE: We respectfully recognize and accept the final authority regarding apparitions, locutions and prophecies presently being reported around the world rests with the Holy See of Rome and the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church to whose judjment we humbly and obediently submit. For more Our Lady's message for November and more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

		1 FRIDAY     no. 262 December 15 Weekday in the Second Week of Advent	2 SATURDAY     no. 263 December 16 Weekday in the Second Week of Advent	3 SUNDAY     no. 264 December 17 THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

4 MONDAY     no. 265 December 18 Weekday in the Third Week of Advent		5 TUESDAY     no. 266 December 19 Weekday in the Third Week of Advent	6 WEDNESDAY   no. 267 December 20 Weekday in the Third Week of Advent	7 THURSDAY     no. 268 December 21 Weekday in Advent St. Peter Canisius

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