MAJOR FEAST DAYS - Index

James L. D'Aquisto is considered the <i>Stradivarius</i> of the full-bellied archtop guitar. When he died, April 1995, in Farmingdale on Long Island, New York, short of his sixtieth birthday, he had created only nine of these extraordinary guitars favored by jazz virtuosos.

Of the many beautiful objects adorning the St. Jude Chapel, none surpasses its magnificent stained-glass window. portraying the "tree of Life". A symbol of the Church and her vigilant expectation of the "eschaton", the Tree of Life images the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Vatican II Council (1962-1965) documents declare that "...the eucharistic sacrifice is the source and the summit of the whole of the Church's worship and of the Christian life". The Greek word "eucharist" means thank-offering and thanksgiving.

In the course of my conversion to the Catholic Church, I recall two experiences which remind me to this day that good intentions cannot be in conflict with the right practice of religion. Both personal anecdotes highlight the importance of eucharistic teachings.

Nazareth is located about twenty miles due west from the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. There, God's gospel plan of salvation emerges in the quiet and peaceful village. The archangel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that she will give birth to a son named Jesus.

The Roman Catholic Church observes the Solemnity of Christ the King, a major celebration deserving our highest regard and our fervent participation. Christ the King Sunday marks the end of the Year of Grace which we began on the first Sunday of Advent last year.

The celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King marks the end of the Church’s liturgical year. We are blessed by Christ who is our ransom from captivity to sin and "made us worthy to share the lot of the saints in light".

In the old walled city of Jerusalem, on the Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter, stands Ecce Homo, the Catholic convent of the Sisters of Sion. "Ecce Homo" is the Latin for behold the man, the infamous words of Pontius Pilate.

Christian tradition preserves a marvelous story about the elderly St. Peter who was believed to have lived in Rome for some years after founding its local Church. After a great fire had destroyed much of the ancient metropolis, the Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) condoned the malicious accusation that the pagans, that is, the superstitious Christians had started it.

An old superstition claims that things come in threes. As children, we heard this used when the deaths of two persons occurred close together. Someone else is going to die, we were told. Yet, if we move away from superstition to talk about threes in terms of life, then we draw near to profound truth: "...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life".

Arthurian legend narrates the story of the eucharistic cup used by Christ in the presence of his disciples at his last supper. In the latter centuries of the first millennium, it was believed that the last drops of Christ’s blood were carefully preserved. Joseph of Arimethea, it was said, had captured the Precious Blood in the very chalice that Christ himself made holy in the passover meal.

In the "Introductory Rites" of the Mass, the presiding priest greets the people of God in the name of the Church: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you." Immediately apparent in this greeting of faith is its beauty, invoking as it does the love, grace and fellowship of the family of persons we have come to know as the Blessed Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.