The
COURIER
Christmas Day December 25
December 2020
Official Newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, MN | dowr.org
Pope: This Advent, Ask God
Gift
of
Conversion
Year of St. Joseph Announced
“Receiving baptism was an outward and visible sign of the conversion of those who listened to his preaching and decided to do penance. That baptism occurred with immersion in the Jordan, in water, but it proved worthless; it was a only a sign and it was worthless if there was no willingness to repent and change one’s life.” The pope explained that true conversion is marked, first of all, by detachment from sin and worldiness. He said that John the Baptist embodied this through his “austere” life in the desert. “Conversion involves suffering for the sins committed,
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 8, 2020 (CNA) - Pope Francis announced a Year of St. Joseph Tuesday in honor of the 150th anniversary of the saint’s proclamation as patron of the Universal Church. The year begins Dec. 8, 2020, and concludes on Dec. 8, 2021, according to a decree authorized by the pope. The decree said that Francis had established a Year of St. Joseph so that “every member of the faithful, following his example, may strengthen their life of faith daily in the complete fulfillment of God’s will.” It added that the pope had granted special indulgences to mark the year. The Dec. 8 decree was issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees indulgences, and signed by the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, and the Regent, Msgr. Krzysztof Nykiel. In addition to the decree, Francis issued an apostolic letter Tuesday dedicated to the foster father of Jesus. The pope explained in the letter, entitled Patris corde (“With a father’s heart”) and dated Dec. 8, that he wanted to share some “personal reflections” on the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic,” he said, noting
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 6, 2020 (CNA) - We should ask God for the gift of conversion this Advent, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday. Speaking from a window overlooking a rainswept St. Peter’s Square Dec. 6, the pope described Advent as an “itinerary of conversion.” But he acknowledged that true conversion is difficult and we are tempted to believe it is impossible to leave our sins behind. He said: “What can we do in these cases, when one would like to go but feels he or she cannot do it? First of all, remind ourselves that conversion is a grace: no one can convert by his or own strength.” “It is a grace that the Lord gives you, and thus we need to forcefully ask God for it. To ask God to convert us to the degree in which we open ourselves up to the beauty, the goodness, the tenderness of God.” In his address, the pope meditated on Sunday’s Gospel reading, Mark 1:1-8, which describes John the Baptist’s mission in the wilderness. “He reveals to his contemporaries an itinerary of faith similar to the one that Advent proposes to us: that we prepare ourselves to receive the Lord at Christmas. This itinerary of faith is an itinerary of conversion,” he said. He explained that in biblical terms conversion means a change of direction. “In the moral and spiritual life, to convert means to turn oneself from evil to good, from sin to love of God. It is what the Baptist was teaching, who in the desert of Judea was ‘preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’” he said.
for the
Conversion, cont'd on pg. 5
St. Joseph, cont'd on pg. 12
INSIDE this issue
'Look to the Example of the Good Samaritan' (pt. II) page 4
Seminarian Education Fund page 6
The History of the Nativity Scene page 9