CAVA - Chicago Archdiocesan Vocation Association

01/01/2026

We join our Catholic sisters and brothers the world over in praying for the continued repose of the soul of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who passed away three years ago today on December 31, 2022. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace!

12/31/2025

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12/31/2025

SEVENTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD: This “hour” has a special intensity and in a certain way sums up all the hours of the year that is about to end. However the year went, whether it was easy or difficult, barren or fruitful, let us give thanks to God. Indeed the "Te Deum" contains deep wisdom, that wisdom which makes us say that, in spite of all, good exists in the world and that this good is bound to win.

Christians are people of hope, even and above all when they face the darkness that often exists in the world. For Christians know that the power of faith can move mountains: The Lord can illuminate even the thickest darkness. Faith in Jesus makes possible a constant renewal in goodness, as well as the ability to extricate ourselves from the quicksand of sin and to start out afresh. The truth that Jesus Christ came to reveal is the certainty that urges us to look with trust to the year we are about to begin.

Dear friends, on the last evening of the year which is coming to its end and on the threshold of the new one, let us praise the Lord! Let us express to the Lord God repentance and the request for forgiveness for our shortcomings, as well as sincere gratitude for the innumerable benefits granted to us by the divine Good. Let us thank him for the grace and truth that have come to us through Jesus Christ. In him lies the fullness of all human time. In him lies the future of every human being. In him will be brought about the fulfilment of the hopes of the Church and of the world. Amen!

-- Pope Benedict XVI

12/30/2025

12/30/2025

SIXTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD: He, indeed, is your rest and your peace, your life, salvation, and beatitude; therefore always refer all that you do, see, and hear to praising God, so that a good and peaceful conscience may be yours. Depend totally, firmly, and entirely on God and on him alone, for he is the giver of all good things who works all in all through his immense goodness and bountiful mercy.

Perhaps it is not yet possible for me to arrive at such a point, but everything is possible to God, who, by grace and love, can, within an instant, unite the devout soul to himself. God’s pure and perfect love can, in a moment and as often as it wishes, bring it about that I, with all my past forgotten, become fully inflamed and melt away by the fire of his love.

O my God and my love, when shall I, a pilgrim here, be wholly united to you through all my soul’s faculties, which you have graciously given and bestowed on me? Let every creature of yours be silent before you, my God, and you, who are eternally blessed above all the heavenly stars, alone speak, assist, and enlighten me.

-- Venerable Thomas à Kempis

12/29/2025

Today is the first day of Kwanzaa, the weeklong festival that celebrates African-American culture and African traditions. Customs include singing and storytelling and lighting a candle each night on the candleholder called a kinara.

Divine Word Missionaries wish a happy Kwanzaa to all who celebrate.

12/29/2025

FIFTH DAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD: After the fullness of time had come, there came too the fullness of the Godhead. He came in the flesh, so that at least he might make himself manifest to our earthly minds, so that when this humanity of his appeared, his kindness might also be acknowledged. Where the humanity of God appears, his kindness can no longer be hidden. In what way, indeed, could he have better commended his kindness than by assuming my flesh? My flesh, that is, not Adam’s, as it was before the fall.

What greater proof could he have given of his mercy than by taking upon himself that very thing which needed mercy? Where is there such perfect loving-kindness as in the fact that for our sake the Word of God became perishable like the grass? Let man infer from this how much God cares for him. Let him know from this what God thinks of him, what he feels about him. Man, do not ask about your own sufferings; but about what God suffered.

Learn from what he was made for you, how much he makes of you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity. The lesser he has made himself in his humanity, the greater has he shown himself in kindness. The more he humbles himself on my account, the more powerfully he engages my love.

-- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

12/29/2025

12/28/2025

On this Feast of the Holy Family, we give thanks for the gift of our families and we ask God for the grace to renew and deepen our family life. May the new year ahead bring us all good health, hope, and happiness!

12/28/2025

THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF JESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH: The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus -- the school of the Gospel. The first lesson we learn here is to look, to listen, to meditate and pe*****te the meaning of this very simple, very humble and very beautiful manifestation of the Son of God. Perhaps we learn, even imperceptibly, the lesson of imitation.

Here we learn the method which will permit us to understand who Christ is. Here above all is made clear the importance of taking into account the general picture of his life among us, with its varied background of place, of time, of customs, of language, of religious practices –- in fact, everything Jesus made use of to reveal himself to the world. Here everything is eloquent, all has a meaning.

Here, in this school, one learns why it is necessary to have a spiritual rule of life, if one wishes to follow the teaching of the Gospel and become a disciple of Christ. How gladly would I become a child again, and go to school once more in this humble and sublime school of Nazareth: close to Mary, I wish I could make a fresh start at learning the true science of life and the higher wisdom of divine truths.

-- Pope Paul VI

12/27/2025

We invite you to prepare for the FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY by reading this Scripture Reflection by Fr. Enzo Del Brocco, CP. "The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that family life is sacred but also fragile. Families are threatened not only by moral confusion but by violence, poverty, and forced displacement. When families are torn apart, when children live in fear, and when parents are treated as disposable, the Holy Family stands before us as both an admonition and a challenge."

Sunday Scripture Reflection

12/27/2025

FEAST OF SAINT JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST: It is appropriate that the Feast of Saint John the Apostle falls in the Octave of Christmas. The beloved disciple passionately proclaimed the Incarnation. It is John who begins his Gospel by proclaiming that the word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. John writes repeatedly in his first letter that he proclaims what he has seen with his eyes, touched with his hands, heard with his ears. He first believed in the Resurrection of Christ not because he understood scriptural prophecies, but because of what he saw, with his own eyes, when he peered into the tomb at the rolled burial cloths.

An early heresy in the Church held that Jesus did not actually become human, but only appeared to be human. John pointedly corrected this when he wrote that any spirit that acknowledges Jesus’ coming in the flesh is of God, and a spirit that denies this is the anti-Christ. John went all the way to the cross with Jesus. In the midst of Jesus’ suffering John saw his divinity. In the midst of that ugly, bloody chaos, Jesus’ authority, his love, and his mercy were never compromised. The blood did not obscure the divine love of Jesus but rather testified to it. John knows that Jesus is fully human and fully divine by experience!

This Christmas Octave, we pray to Saint John the Apostle to share in his faith and knowledge of the victory of the Word Made Flesh, today and forever.

-- Fr. Richard Veras