Joyous Customs Surrounding the Nativity

(ACNS) - It goes without saying that the Nativity of Our Lord is a joyous occasion and a time of great celebration. Part of this celebration includes three important feast days that follow immediately after Christmas Day. These are the Feast of Saint Stephen the Deacon and Protomartyr on the 26th, the Feast of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist on the 27th, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the 28th.

St. Stephen was the first martyr. He was both a martyr in will and in fact, being both willing to die if necessary for the Faith and actually doing so. He was stoned to death while Saul, the later Blessed Paul the Apostle who was then a great persecutor of Christians, looked on approvingly. The popular Christmas Carol "Good King Wenceslas" tells the story of a Bohemian ruler who braved the winter weather to carry food and supplies to a poor peasant on this day. This act to charity reminds us of the duty of Stephen in life as a Roman Deacon to tend to the needs of the poor. It is also no surprise that this feast day is of great importance to the Patriarchal See of St. Stephen, for it is its Patronal Feast. By custom, the Patriarch vests for solemn mass as far as the dalmatic, the garment of a Deacon, and then, standing before the altar, sings "Stephanus autem plenus gratia et fortitudine faciebat prodigia et signa magna in populo." (And Stephen full of grace and power worked great signs and miracles among the people.) The choir responds with "Thanks be to God," for there is indeed great thanks both for Blessed Stephen's ministry and his celestial patronage of the Patriarchal See.

On the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, we celebrate the life and ministry of the only Apostle who was not martyred. The enemies of the faith tried to kill him, but without success. When they gave him wine that had been poisoned, he blessed the wine, drank it, and was not harmed. It is for this reason that we have a special blessing for wine this day and toast to the love of St. John. There are also recipes for mulling the wine before the toast.

The last of these three special feasts is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. These babes were murdered by Herod, who was jealous of Jesus and wanted Him dead. The infants died for our Lord, though they did not know this reason they were dying. In some countries, this day is somewhat like an April Fool's day in America and is full of pranks. Other customs include letting the youngest child of the family decide what to do that day, the meals, the entertainment, and so forth. The traditional Christmas carol "Coventry Carol" deals with the Holy Innocents.

The celebration of Christmas is not simply on one day. Even some of the popular Christmas carols we sing or hear played on the radio point to other days within the Christmas season. The three days following the Feast of the Nativity are of special importance and fittingly come with special customs to enjoy, celebrate, and learn from them.

Patriarchal Address on the Feast of the Nativity 2012

To the Bishops, Regular Clergy, and Faithful of the Anglican Rite Roman Catholic Church, greetings and Apostolic Blessings on this joyous Feast of the Nativity of our Lord in the two hundred and twelfth year of the Incarnation. This Christmas finds our Patriarchate growing in numbers and faith amidst the ever-present strife of the fallen world. We are pleased by the blessing of both new vocations and those who are discerning clerical and religious vocations. These new vocations will be the voice of evangelism in the coming years. Effective evangelism remains of utmost importance at this crucial time in the world's history. We must not be discourged from this mission, even if the godly admonitions of the Church from time to time fall on deaf ears.

As we celebrate the Incarnation of Christ more than two thousand years ago, we reflect of the magnitude and the scope of His holy mission. It is a mission that all Christians are called upon to continue. It is a mission that was met by great opposition in the time of Christ. And, it is a mission that continued to be met with great imposition after the Ascension of Christ, as the blood of the martyrs will certainly attest. Yet we must not shrink in the face of danger. We must be bold in our evangelism today just as Christ and the Blessed Saints.

The evangelism of today must indeed stand in the face of great opposition. It must stand against increasing secularism promoted by world government, commerce, and the media. Today the world continues to be plagued by the curse of abortion. The United States alone murders over a million unborn children each year. Secular society has bred a culture that does not respect the fundamental right of each human being to life. Yet, each and every other right enjoyed by human beings has as its necessary pre-condition the existence of life. The discussion of other rights cannot begin, therefore, until the right to life has been acknowledged.

The fundamental building block of all society is the family, and this, too, is being threatened. The family is built upon marriage, and a marriage is by definition between one man and one woman. Marriage is the acknowledgement of the natural differences between men and women and the beautiful complementary nature of those differences. It is an acceptance of how almighty God has made each of us individually. It is a humble submission to the way that we were made. The secularists, however, are pushing forward with their agenda of redefining what marriage is. Quite a few countries, including the United States, have legalized homosexual marriage in whole or in part. By making men and women essentially interchangeable in a marriage, we arrogantly laugh in the face of God and refuse to acknowledge how He made us. Rather than accepting our God-given nature, society today chooses to define its own nature. The work of our evangelists today is perhaps at the most daunting level it has ever been since the days of the Early Church.

Life in secular society dismisses the order of nature and turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to God. Secular society ignores its Creator and the rules of nature laid down by the Creator. Yet, the rocks, the trees, and the heavens all inevitaly follow the rules of God without question or exception. What would happen if the earth had a mind of its own and chose to stop obeying the laws of physics that keep it in an orbit around the sun that is conducive to life? Man is the only creation of God that has free will and the potential for comprehension. The secularization in society is a conscious choice to ignore God's natural laws and substitute our own. With gay marriage, we have a venerable and ancient institution thousands of years old that has been turned on its head. It is as if the earth no longer orbits the sun, but instead it is the other way around. The beauty of God's creation in man and woman is cast aside as society imposes its own definition that ignores nature.

Yes, the evangelists of today have a difficult task ahead of them. Their work is made all the more difficult by the vast number of liberals within our educational institutions that profess secularism and modernism. The media also widely pushes this anti-Christian and liberal agenda. The mission of the Christian people is only possible through the grace of God and the constant intercession of the Blessed Virgin, who sees her children in the world and lovinly prays for their conversion. So much did God want the world to turn to Him willingly and attain eternal salvation that He gave His only-begotten Son, whose birth we celebrate today. So much did the Blessed Virgin Mary love us all that she willingly submitted to God and stood at the foot of the Cross as Christ hung there dying for the sins of the world. It is those who profess secularism, liberalism, and modernism today who would have been shouting for our Lord to be crucified. They do not stand for the rights and freedom of all people. They have no sympathy for the suffering of our Lord. Rather, it is Christ on the Cross who stands for freedom, truth, and the rights of all mankind. It is the Blessed Virgin who stood by the Cross to the very end in sympathy with our Lord, her own Immaculate Heart pierced, herself crucified inside, who represents freedom and the rights of all. It is the Blessed Apostles and Saints, and the blood of the martyrs that stood firm as champions of the rights and freedom of all. The liberals present a false freedom that is attractive, but like a Venus flytrap, leads ultimately to one's own demise and the demise of society.

This Christmas season let us resolve to love our fellow man and stand up for the truth of Christ. Let us all pray for the current clergy and an increase in vocations, for there is yet much work to be done. Let us pray for the conversion of those who have turned from Christ. Let us indeed pray that the world will abandon secularism and embrace the love and beauty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom alone lies true freedom.

And now may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father +, the Son +, and the Holy + Ghost be upon you and remain with you always. R. Amen.

Statement by the Patriarch of St. Stephen Regarding the School Shooting in Connecticut

Sub Tuum. 

Rutherford Card. Johnson

To say that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, today came as a shock to most people would be perhaps quite an understatement. The national outpouring of grief has indeed been great. We offer our prayers for the souls of the dead and our prayers and compassion for their families and for those who survived. 

This tragic event is not the result of a lack of laws. We have many laws in this country. The shooter did not respect or follow the law, for what he did was most certainly against the law. Why would anyone think that he would respect new laws? More laws that burden the good and decent citizens of our country are not the answer. Instead let us work through our tears and consider the real underlying problem. 

Today's tragedy was a part of a greater tragedy, and that is a nation that has largely turned from God and fails to respect life. How can we be outraged at the 27 deaths in today's shooting while we turn a collective blind eye to the murder of over one million unborn children? It is no surprise that a culture that glorifies violence and every type of perversion would spawn someone who would kill his fellow students and even his own mother. This is the root of the problem, and it has been a long time in the making in America as society seems determined to push the love of Christ to the back of the storage closet to gather dust. Indeed we need not scratch our heads in wonderment at why such a horrible thing has happened. 

I do not believe, however, that every person in America has turned from God or glorifies gratuitous violence and perversion. Perhaps these are the "silent majority" we hear whispers about. It is long past time for the good and decent people of America to stand up and be heard in spite of those who wish to ridicule and even silence them. It is long past time to stop this insidious indulgence of deviant behavior and instead restore the sense of right and wrong that made American society great. 

The school shooting in Connecticut is the product of the secular society that we have created. The earliest occurrence of a school shooting according to US News is in the 1960s, and they have continued regularly ever since. That decade marks the general start of liberalization and secularization in America. Tolerance for deviance, degradation, and sloth has been on the rise ever since, as has the belief in moral relativism. 

In the wake of this terrible school shooting, what America needs is an awaking of the spirit, not an Alka-Seltzer tablet to make us feel better because we witnessed or heard about something we do not want to see. That would be like taking an aspirin to dull the pain while ignoring the cancer that grows within. Condemn the shootings for the cowardly murders that they were. Console the families of the dead and the survivors. But, let us also turn the magnifying glass on ourselves as a society and realize that the only true path to ending school shootings is a return to the love of Christ above all other things. Remember the New Commandment given by our Lord that we love our neighbors as ourselves. That is the path to life. 

Priest named Chaplain of the Year

LEXINGTON, SC, 1 November 2012 (ACNS) - The Very Rev. Anthony Giunta, TOR Mar., PhD, was the recipient of three honors for his work as a hospital chaplain. He was named 2011-2012 Chaplain of the Year for the Lexington Medical Center by vote of the hospital staff.

Fr. Giunta (left) with other award recipients.

Fr. Giunta was chosen out of over three hundred chaplains. He also was named as one of the top ten chaplains in the Pastoral Care Division and received recognition for working the most hours as a chaplain at the hospital over the past year. Fr. Giunta, who also serves as a police chaplain, is Rector of Holy Cross Mission in Lexington and Minister General of the Franciscan Third Order Regular of Penance of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Parish celebrates its first Holy Mass

LEXINGTON, SC, 21 October 2012 (ACNS) - The faithful gathered today as the Holy Cross Mission of Lexington, South Carolina, celebrated its first mass. The Celebrant was the Rector of the mission, the Very Rev. Dr. Anthony Giunta, TOR Mar., who also serves as the Minister General of the Franciscan Third Order Regular of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The mission parish is part of the Archdiocese of the Southeast of the Anglican Rite Roman Catholic Church and works to provide the saving graces of the sacraments of Christ's Holy Church to all people who seek Christ. Fr. Giunta and the Holy Cross Mission also provide Christian counseling services to those in need.

Fr. Giunta celebrates the Holy Mass.



Blessing of the Animals

LEXINGTON, SC 4 October 2012 (ACNS) - Holy Cross Mission participated in the “Blessings of the Animals” at Columbia Police Department in Columbia, SC. The Columbia police Department came together on Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 6pm to have the complete K-9 Unit blessed on the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. Fr. Anthony, is a member of the Chaplain Corp at Columbia Police Department. The Asst. Chief Wisner was pleased to have Fr. Anthony come and provide a valuable service to the Officers of the department.

Letter to American Voters

Sub Tuum.

 

Dear Brethren in Christ in the United States,

 

The upcoming Presidential election is perhaps the most important one in American history. If not, then it is at least one of the most critical. Christians must remember their faith and their sacred duty under that faith when they cast their vote in November. The separation of Church and State can never mean that the Church must remain silent on issues of faith and morals at the heart of government policy. Faithful citizens must not check their religion at the door to the voting booth. Your faith must be your guiding light and your moral compass as you cast your vote.

 

Your vote gives you tremendous power. You have the ability to help preserve life, the family, and freedom. This is a tremendous power, and it comes with tremendous responsibility. At stake in the November Presidential election are many fundamental rights Americans have long taken for granted. These rights are granted by God. America’s soldiers have long fought and died to preserve them against the tyrants of the world. Now you have the power with your vote to take a stand against tyranny and for the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Your voice can be heard, and you can speak for those who cannot yet speak for themselves.

 

Much has been said, discussed, and debated, particularly over the past year, regarding health care in America. This is one of the most important and contentious issues surrounding the upcoming election. The Presidential Administration says that their health care program, known better as “Obamacare,”is needed in order to provide many people health insurance who currently do not have health care. Those who oppose this for whatever reason are often vilified and accused of not caring about the poor.

 

From a Christian perspective, all life is sacred from the moment of conception to the moment of death. All life must be treated with respect and dignity. Health care must likewise respect life, treating all persons with respect and dignity. No one ought to be turned away due to an inability to pay.

The fact is that the poor people of America have plenty of venues for receiving the health care that they need. Catholic hospitals, for example, provide health care to all in need, regardless of ability to pay. And, Catholic and religious-based hospitals are far from the only examples of health care facilities that provide services to those without insurance and without ability to pay. There is hardly a place in America that does not have some sort of charitable health care to ensure that the destitute, the indigent, those whose employers do not provide insurance, and those who are simply having trouble making ends meet can have their health care needs met. 

 

Why, then, is national health care, which provides abortions and abortifacient birth control, being touted as necessary in order to provide health care for all Americans? Christian hospitals, as well as even state-run hospitals have long been providing necessary health care to people, regardless of ability to pay. That abortions and abortifacient birth control are being labeled as “women’s health care” is further troubling and displays a lack of respect for the sanctity of life. Certainly there is a need for health care reform in American. Yet, the policies underlying Obamacare are so contrary to Christian doctrine and principles that no Christian may support them. 

 

The issues at hand in the November Presidential election are grave. The Christian Faithful cannot simply stand aside due to distaste for the political process and not take part. Christians have the opportunity to take a stand for life and for freedom, and therefore we have a duty to do so. You must vote according to your conscience in November, and you must allow your conscience to be guided by the Holy Spirit. This is your sacred duty. 

 

In the peace of Christ,

+Rutherford Card. Johnson

Bishop of Saint Stephen

Patriarch of the Anglican Rite Roman Catholic Church