VATICAN CITY — Although the Vatican knows Christmas may be very different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it already has chosen its stamps and the Nativity scene and tree that will stand in St. Peter’s Square.
The larger-than-life-sized ceramic figures in the Nativity scene will come from a high school in Castelli, a town in the ceramic-producing region of Teramo, northeast of Rome, the Vatican announced Oct. 30.

The F.A. Grue Institute, a high school focused on art, will send only a handful of the 54 sculptures that students and teachers crafted for the scene between 1965 and 1975, the Vatican said. In addition to the Holy Family, an angel and the three kings, there will be a bagpipe player, a panpipe player, a shepherdess and a little girl carrying a doll.

The scene will be displayed next to a towering spruce tree from Slovenia.
The tree, which is almost 92 feet tall, will come from an area outside the town of Kocevje, the Vatican said.

“This year, more than ever, the staging of the traditional space dedicated to Christmas in St. Peter’s Square is meant to be a sign of hope and trust for the whole world,” the Vatican statement said. “It expresses the certainty that Jesus comes among his people to save and console them.”

The Nativity scene will be unveiled, and the tree will be lighted Dec. 11, the Vatican said.
The Vatican also revealed the design for its 2020 Christmas stamps, which celebrate the birth of Jesus Continue reading →

Glory to Jesus Christ!

On Oct. 11, Father Vasyl Symyon celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio for the faculty, staff, and students.
I was blessed to have partaken in my campus’ first Divine Liturgy in years.

My name is Chad Durante, a current student here at Franciscan University of Steubenville and vice president of Franciscan University of Steubenville’s Byzantine Club, which has 20 members.
The club and its members have been spreading awareness of the East on campus since it was formed in 2015, long before I entered college.
In part of sharing the beauty of the East was the desire to bring Divine Liturgy to campus.

Thankfully, after a failed attempt last semester due to the pandemic, the club was able to bring the cornerstone of Byzantine Catholicism to our campus. Franciscan University is a truly Catholic institution filled with students desiring to discover the true universality of the Church.
Many of my close friends love to discover different forms of the Mass and even different rites within the Church like the Byzantine Rite.
This led to an amazing turnout of over 200 students and faculty attending the Divine Liturgy. Continue reading →

VATICAN CITY — The purpose of crying out to the Lord in prayer is not to get used to suffering, but to remember that God, and not humankind, is the only source of salvation and consolation, Pope Francis said. Continue reading →

Here we are ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, one of the original and early religious feasts that came through our founders of this country who were from the Reform Movement and were very grateful for all that they received and experienced when they moved to this country.
It has continued to be a religious feast of sorts, at least a reminder, always, to be thankful to our Higher Power, to our God, who has provided so much for us in this blessed land. Continue reading →