RESPONSORIAL PSALMS:
Christmas Eve: Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.
Christmas Day: A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
TODAY’S MASS INTENTION: St. Elizabeth parishioners
MASS SCHEDULE & INTENTIONS FOR THE COMING WEEK:
| December | 31 | Saturday | 9:00 AM | Traditional Latin Mass |
| January | 1 | Sunday | 9:15 AM | Anna Petransky, by Mary Spisak |
FROM THE DESK OF FR. BONA: I wish all of you a very Blessed Christmas! May the grace and peace of God be always with you! The teaching of Christmas, the mystery of incarnation, has no counterpart in the world. God chose to join humanity to Himself in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who in Jesus took on flesh (the Latin “in carne” means “enfleshment”). Because of this belief, God is not only Transcendent, but also wholly Immanent, Emmanuel (God-with-us). While remaining Transcendent (meaning we must rise above our present condition to reach Him), He is at the same time Immanent (meaning He is with us as we rise toward Him). Every Eucharist is like Christmas where the bread and wine are transformed into His flesh (His Body and Blood), and, in a sense, He is born anew on the altar.
It is that time of year again, when we hear all sorts of theories of how the celebration of Christmas is only a Christianized pagan festival. Even though we may hear this a lot, it is a pious legend. More specifically, there are three pagan feasts (Saturnalia, Sol Invictus [the Unconquered Sun], and Mithras) that fall close to December 25. Their supposed connection to Christmas is entirely based on the proximity of these festivals to December 25. If the suggestion were correct, one would expect to find at least a single reference by early Christians to support it. Instead, we find scores of quotations from Church Fathers indicating a desire to distance themselves from pagan religions.
In establishing the feast of Christmas, the decisive factor for the Christians was the connection of creation and Cross, of creation and Christ’s conception. December 25 was based on a belief that Jesus’ conception and Passion were thought to have occurred on the same day of the year. Already in the year 204, Hippolytus mentions the celebration of the birth of Christ on December 25 with the mention of connection to Jesus’ passion.
In sum, there is no evidence that there was any attempt by the Christian community to “baptize” a pagan celebration. The various pagan religions all had festivals spanning the calendar. Whatever month the early Christians might have otherwise chosen would still place Christmas near some pagan celebration, and oppositional theorists would still be making the same claims.
MASS SCHEDULE FOR CHRISTMAS – NEW YEAR
for St. Elizabeth of Hungary & St. Emeric parishes
December 24: 5:00 PM Mass (St. Elizabeth) – Hungarian/English
December 24: 10:30 PM Christmas Carrols (St. Emeric) – Hungarian
December 24: 11:00 PM Mass (St. Emeric) – Hungarian
December 25: 9:15 AM Mass (St. Elizabeth) – Hungarian/English
December 25: 11:15AM Mass (St. Emeric) – Hungarian
December 31: 5:00 PM (St. Emeric) – English
January 1: regular Sunday Mass schedule
SUNDAY COLLECTION FIGURES: (Dec. 18 figures will be published in the next bulletin). THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY in supporting our parish. Thank you for sending in your offertory donation through the mail, or through the PayPal option found on the website: https://www.stelizabethcleveland.org/donations/
PLEASE, PICK UP YOUR 2023 YEAR DONATION ENVELOPES BY THE ENTRANCE OF THE CHURCH. Thank you for your generosity in supporting the parish throughout the year. If there are any address changes, please notify us.
PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK, especially, Kathy Szabó, Kamilla Szabó, Anna Melega, Dorothy Fromhercz, and Alex Szaday.
PLEASE PRAY FOR THE DECEASED.
THIS SATURDAY (Dec. 24) the 11:00 PM Mass from St. Emeric will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/saintemeric and on the website, https://stemeric.com/
This post is also available in: Hungarian
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