Paroquia de San Juan Bautista Elyu

16/10/2024

20/03/2024

Lent and Easter 2024

17/03/2024

This Fifth Sunday of Lent ✝️
PASSIONTIDE

The practice of veiling images alerts us that something is different. They are hard to miss and they serve as a reminder to get ready.

The veiled images build within us a longing for Easter Sunday. Through this absence of images, our senses are heightened, and we become more aware of what is missing. Similarly, the suppression of the Alleluia during Lent effectively demonstrates that we are in exile from our true Home, where the angels sing Alleluia without ceasing.

When images are unveiled before the Easter Vigil, we are reminded that we, in a sense, live in a veiled world. It is through our own death that we are able to see our true home, and the veil is lifted. Christ lifts the veil through His Resurrection.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. John 11:25-26

13/02/2024

💜ASH WEDNESDAY

The season of Lent, a 40-day period of preparing for the commemoration of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, begins with the observance of Ash Wednesday.

💜What is Ash Wednesday?

It marks first day of the 40 days of Lent, a roughly six-week period (not including Sundays) dedicated to reflection, prayer and fasting in preparation for Easter. It ends on Holy Thursday, the fifth day of Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter) that marks the Last Supper.

Ash Wednesday is an obligatory day of Fasting and Abstinence for Catholics, except for sick people and pregnant or nursing women. Catholics are also obliged to abstain every Friday during the Lenten Season.

Fasting - Only one full meal and two smaller meals are allowed during the day; binding to all 18-59 yrs old.

Abstinence - Avoiding Meat or Products made of animal fats; binding to all 14 yrs old and above.

In addition to certain rules about foods and fasting, many Christians (and even non-Christians) abstain from additional foods, luxury or material goods or certain activities and habits.

💜Where do the ashes come from?

They’re obtained from the burning of the palms of the previous Palm Sunday, which occurs on the Sunday before Easter, and applied during services. Palm Sunday marks Jesus’ return to Jerusalem, when people waved palm branches to celebrate his arrival. The ashes are typically mixed with Holy Water.

💜What do the ashes mean?

The ashes, applied in the shape of a cross, are a symbol of penance, mourning and mortality. Centuries ago, participants used to sprinkle themselves with ashes and repent much more publicly, but the practice fell away sometime between the 8th-10th century before evolving into what it is today. There aren’t any particular rules about how long the ashes should be worn, but most people wear them throughout the day as a public expression of their faith and penance.

Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.💜

28/11/2023

The Sacrament of Confirmation
is the second of the three sacraments
of Christian initiation.
Confirmation completes Baptism,
by which in the laying on of hands
and the anointing with Chrism Oil,
which first happened at Baptism,
we are confirmed with the fullness
of the Holy Spirit.

25/11/2023

CHRIST THE KING
Feast Day:
November 26,2023 Sunday

Christ the King Day

Instituted during in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, Christ the King Day is a holiday which falls on the final Sunday of the Liturgical Calendar, or on the last Sunday of October as celebrated by traditional Catholics. Although it was originally a Roman Catholic Holiday – known as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – it has since been adopted by other Christian denominations as well. The purpose of this holiday is to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the “King of all kings” and it was originally intended as a way to bring God back into a secular world.

History of Christ the King
The history of this holiday can be traced back to 1925 when Pope Pius XI added the holiday in the Encyclical Quas Primas of Pius XI in December of that year. He instituted the holiday as a balance against what he saw as an ever growing secularism and to introduce Christ into the hearts of followers. From 1925 through the reform of the Roman Calendar in 1969, this holiday was celebrated on the last Sunday of October and is still celebrated on that day by many traditional Catholics. Today, Christ the King Day is celebrated by many denominations on the Sunday that falls before the First Sunday of Advent.

Celebrating Christ the King Day

On this day, many Christian churches have masses that celebrate Christ. Most major Protestant and Anglican groups observe this holiday on the final Sunday of their liturgical years. This include the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church in North America, the Church of England, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, among others.

Some people take the time out of their day to reread Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas primas; other people participate in many of the Christ the King processions that occur on this day; and some people recite the Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Jesus Christ King.
Many people celebrate Jesus Christ with a celebration that can feature food items such as crown cupcakes (a representation of Christ as king); cakes topped with icing thorns or King Cakes baked in the shape of a crown.

Prayer to Christ, King of the Universe

O Christ Jesus, I acknowledge You King of the Universe. All that has been created has been made for You. Exercise upon me all Your rights. I renew my baptismal promises renouncing Satan and all his works and pomps. I promise to lead a good Christian life and to do all in my power to procure the triumph of the rights of God and Your Church. Divine Heart of Jesus, I offer You my poor actions in order to obtain that all hearts may acknowledge Your sacred royalty and that thus the reign of Your peace may be established throughout the universe. Amen.

25/11/2023

CHRIST THE KING
Feast Day:
November 26,2023
Sunday

Christ the King Day

Instituted during in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, Christ the King Day is a holiday which falls on the final Sunday of the Liturgical Calendar, or on the last Sunday of October as celebrated by traditional Catholics. Although it was originally a Roman Catholic Holiday – known as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – it has since been adopted by other Christian denominations as well. The purpose of this holiday is to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the “King of all kings” and it was originally intended as a way to bring God back into a secular world.

History of Christ the King Day

The history of this holiday can be traced back to 1925 when Pope Pius XI added the holiday in the Encyclical Quas Primas of Pius XI in December of that year. He instituted the holiday as a balance against what he saw as an ever growing secularism and to introduce Christ into the hearts of followers. From 1925 through the reform of the Roman Calendar in 1969, this holiday was celebrated on the last Sunday of October and is still celebrated on that day by many traditional Catholics. Today, Christ the King Day is celebrated by many denominations on the Sunday that falls before the First Sunday of Advent.

Celebrating Christ the King Day

On this day, many Christian churches have masses that celebrate Christ. Most major Protestant and Anglican groups observe this holiday on the final Sunday of their liturgical years. This include the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church in North America, the Church of England, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, among others.

Some people take the time out of their day to reread Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas primas; other people participate in many of the Christ the King processions that occur on this day; and some people recite the Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Jesus Christ King.
Many people celebrate Jesus Christ with a celebration that can feature food items such as crown cupcakes (a representation of Christ as king); cakes topped with icing thorns or King Cakes baked in the shape of a crown.

Prayer to Christ, King of the Universe

O Christ Jesus, I acknowledge You King of the Universe. All that has been created has been made for You. Exercise upon me all Your rights. I renew my baptismal promises renouncing Satan and all his works and pomps. I promise to lead a good Christian life and to do all in my power to procure the triumph of the rights of God and Your Church. Divine Heart of Jesus, I offer You my poor actions in order to obtain that all hearts may acknowledge Your sacred royalty and that thus the reign of Your peace may be established throughout the universe. Amen.

31/10/2023

November 1
SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS

The earliest certain observance of a feast in honor of all the saints is an early fourth-century commemoration of “all the martyrs.” In the early seventh century, after successive waves of invaders plundered the catacombs, Pope Boniface IV gathered up some 28 wagon-loads of bones and reinterred them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman temple dedicated to all the gods. The pope rededicated the shrine as a Christian church. According to Venerable Bede, the pope intended “that the memory of all the saints might in the future be honored in the place which had formerly been dedicated to the worship not of gods but of demons” (On the Calculation of Time).

But the rededication of the Pantheon, like the earlier commemoration of all the martyrs, occurred in May. Many Eastern Churches still honor all the saints in the spring, either during the Easter season or immediately after Pentecost.

How the Western Church came to celebrate this feast, now recognized as a solemnity, in November is a puzzle to historians. The Anglo-Saxon theologian Alcuin observed the feast on November 1 in 800, as did his friend Arno, Bishop of Salzburg. Rome finally adopted that date in the ninth century.

This feast first honored martyrs. Later, when Christians were free to worship according to their consciences, the Church acknowledged other paths to sanctity. In the early centuries the only criterion was popular acclaim, even when the bishop’s approval became the final step in placing a commemoration on the calendar. The first papal canonization occurred in 993; the lengthy process now required to prove extraordinary sanctity took form in the last 500 years. Today’s feast honors the obscure as well as the famous—the saints each of us have known.