Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle who is the brother of Simon Peter. It was Andrew who brought Peter the first Pope of the Church to Jesus. Jesus gave the Aramaic name “Cephas” which means rock and in Greek “Peter”.  Andrew and Peter were the sons of John and fishermen. Jesus calls them saying that he will make them fishers of men and they immediately leave their nets and follow Jesus. Andrew is also the resourceful one who brings the boy with the five small loaves of bread and two small fish to Jesus, which Jesus multiplies to feed five thousand men.
After the resurrection Andrew preached in Greece where he was martyred on a cross in the form of an X. His relics are preserved in the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, Patras in Greece. And the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople who is the head of the Greek Orthodox Church traces back his succession to Saint Andrew. It is also believed that Andrew preached in Turkey.
Saint Andrew you preserved in your faith to the point of death, we pray you intercede for us to emulate your courage and zeal for our faith!

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Miraculous Medal. In 1830s Saint Catherine was a novice of the Sisters of Charity in Rue Du Bac, France. One night as she was sleeping, her guardian angel appeared to her and took her to the Chapel where she was told that the Blessed Virgin Mary wished to speak with her. Saint Catherine followed and immediately on entering the chapel she found that the chapel was filled with light and Our Lady appeared to her and requested there be a Confraternity for Children of Mary. She later appeared a second time to request a medal be made in her honor where she is standing on a globe and rays of light emit from her hands and on the other side the two hearts of Jesus and Mary were to be stamped.  In a third apparition Our Lady explained that the rays from her hands were graces that God wishes to bestow on all who ask. The Medal was called Miraculous Medal because many were saved miraculously from contagious disease and from other harm when they wore this medal during 1830's in France. While the apparitions happened in France the message was meant for the entire world. 
The words on the medal were "“O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.”
You can read more details on the official site here: 
http://www.chapellenotredamedelamedaillemiraculeuse.com/langues/english/apparitions-et-la-medaille-miraculeuse-gb/

My children, parents, sister and I had the great privilege of visiting the Chapel and Shrine in 2010 during our trip to Lourdes, France. We were there on the Feast day of Saint Vicent de Paul and I believe it was divine providence that we were there on that day because Saint Catherine also experienced visions and supernatural phenomena when the relic of the heart of Saint Vicent de Paul changed colors on three consecutive days. 
Saint Catherine and Saint Vicent pray for us and Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you!

Each year the Feast of Christ the King is celebrated on the last Sunday of Ordinary time. This year it was on November 24th. 
One may wonder which kingdom is Christ the King of. In order to understand this we need to take a step back and understand the expectations of the Jewish nation at the time of Jesus Christ who were under the oppression of the Roman empire. The prophets had foretold that God would send a savior and a messiah who would free the Israelites from the bondage that they were in and that the messiah would rule forever and his kingdom will have no end. Most the Israelites at the time of Jesus were expecting a political messiah and a political king to come and defeat the oppression of the Romans. However very few like the Blessed Virgin Mary, Joseph the foster father of Jesus, John the Baptist, Prophet Simeon, Prophetess Anna, the three wise men from the east and later on the disciples of Jesus recognized in Jesus the fulfillment of the promises God made in the scripture, as a spiritual deliverance from the bondage of sin. The spirit is of more value than the body and spiritual deliverance from the fallen nature of man and restoration of access to heaven was an eternal cosmic event and far more important than the temporal political freedom from the Romans that most of the Jewish nation were expecting at the time of Jesus. 
By his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection, Jesus has a formed a new kingdom for the glory of God. This City of God has citizens who are united to God and one another by baptism and in prayer and service. Jesus is the king of this heavenly kingdom. This kingdom is among us, it is in our very own hearts. Jesus Christ is the sovereign King of this kingdom which has citizens from all nations and will remain forever and ever. In this kingdom there is no division or war, in this kingdom there is love, peace and harmony. 
Jesus Christ Sovereign King of the Universe, be the king of my heart!

Today the church celebrates the feast of Saint Cecilia who is the patron saint of all musicians. Cecilia was an early Christian martyr and virgin. She spent her entire day meditating on God and Sacred Scripture. She sang God's praises even when she was being martyred. A beautiful basilica was built in her honor in Rome after the legalization of Christianity. 
Singing is praying twice. So we see both in the old and new testaments the believers praising God in songs. Moses and the Israelites sang God's praises in the desert, David sang and danced before the Ark of the Covenant, and the entire book of Psalms are David's praises of God, the Israelites are also seen singing when they are in captivity in Babylon. Singing and music is a natural and beautiful way for us to express our love and gratitude to God. In the new testament especially in the final book of the Apocalypse myriads of angels and saints are seen worshiping God by singing His praises in heaven. 
Today we pray for all artists, musicians and those aspiring to be one that Saint Cecilia may intercede for them and make their dreams come true!

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
There are many legends surrounding the childhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary however very little is recorded in the Gospels. Most of the legends are based on pious devotions of early Christians which has been captured in art and literature. It is said that Mary was a child of three when her parents Anne and Joachim presented Mary in the temple in Jerusalem, dedicating her to the service of God and the people of God. It is also believed that Mary took a vow of perpetual virginity at an early age. 
The scriptures tell us that the virgin Mary was chosen by God to be his mother. She is the new ark of the covenant that would be discovered at the end of ages and would carry in her virginal womb the Messiah Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind. Her fiat to the angel Gabriel's annunciation message made this possible.
This is a special Feast day for my Alma mater Nirmala College for Women, Coimbatore, India directed  by the Franciscan Sisters of the Presentation of Mary and founded by Rev.Fr. Joseph Louis Ravel.
May we seek the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on this day and present our children to her for the service of God and our neighbors!

Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul. The Apostles Peter and Paul both shared the same calling and mission of Christ. They are the two pillars on which the church stand. Peter's primary mission was to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles. These two princes of the church imitated Christ in life and in death. Both suffered martyrdom during the intense persecution of Christian by the Romans.
Peter was crucified upside down on the cross in Rome and his body was buried and early Christians marked his tomb and venerated it for many centuries. Paul was beheaded and buried outside the walls of Rome and the early Christians built a small structure over his tomb and venerated his martyrdom as well. After the conversion of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Christianity was legalized and Constantine built the first Basilica of Saint Peter and the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the walls over the tombs of the Apostle martyrs.
Each of these two structures are magnificent in their own unique way. The Basilica of Saint Peter has many chapels inside and masses are celebrated in parallel in many languages. My favorite memory of Rome is attending mass in the early morning, it reminded me of the universality of our Catholic faith and I wondered if I had already reached heaven when there were so many masses being celebrated around me at the same time. Another memorable experience was climbing up the Dome of Saint Peter's to take in the beautiful view of Vatican city and surrounding areas of Rome. Saint Paul outside the wall is also beautiful with the marble structures and the mosaics. The current Basilica was built by contributions from many countries after fire had destroyed the original Basilica in the 1800's. Each year the Pope has Ecumenical prayers in this Basilica.
From the New Testament accounts we read that Peter and Paul were so different in personality but they were united in their faithfulness to Christ. While the Roman empire is no more Christianity has survived persecutions, defections and schisms and true faith has been preserved by the blood of the martyrs. May we invoke the protection and prayers of these two saints to help us in our present challenges in our life journey. 
Saints Peter and Paul pray for us!

On November 12th we celebrated the Feast of Saint Josaphat Bishop and Martyr who is highly venerated by the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church. Saint Josaphat was born in Lithuania and was a Eastern Rite Christian in the late 1500s. As a young boy he was inspired by the icons of the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary. One day when his mother and he visited a church, he felt a spark of fire from the icons pierce his heart. He grew up to live a life of poverty and prayer. He spent most of his time reading and meditating on the scriptures, especially the Psalms and the lives of the saints. As a Bishop he is most well known for being instrumental is bringing the Eastern Rite Church into union with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. This created several enemies for Saint Josaphat. He was martyred by a mob of schismatics on November 12th, 1623. 
Saint Josaphat please pray for the unification of the Body of Christ!

Saint Leo whose feast we celebrated on November 10th was the Pontiff in the mid 400s. A well known incident of his sanctity occurred when Rome was attacked by the Huns. Saint Leo went to meet the leader of the Huns who were planning to destroy Rome. As he stood there asking the Huns to leave there appeared next to Saint Leo a man in priest robes with a sword in hand who was so powerful that the Huns left without causing any harm. When asked what had made them leave their leader said that this man who had appeared with the sword had asked him to obey Saint Leo or they would be destroyed. Legend says it was Saint Peter himself who had appeared to save Saint Leo and the people of Rome from the Huns. 
Saint Leo pray for us!  

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of Saint John Lateran Basilica in Rome. This church  was constructed in the fourth century by the Roman Emperor Constantine after his conversion to Christianity and when Christianity was legalized. It has survived many natural and man-made disasters over the centuries. It is the oldest Basilica in Rome and Europe and is the Mother Church of Roman Catholics around the world. Until about 1800's the Pope would be installed in this Basilica and not at Saint Peter's Basilica. It is the Cathedral Church of the Pope who is the Bishop of Rome. The Basilica is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
The readings for today's mass are from 1 Corinthians 3, where Saint Paul says that we are God's building and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. That is each person is a church or a temple and God comes to reside within us. We need to take care of our body and soul and keep it a fitting place for our Lord and King to live in. We can do this by making frequent spiritual communions or by just meditating on the Holy Name of Jesus. One exercise practiced by many Christians is to say the name of Jesus quietly in the mind as we inhale and as we exhale we exhale all of our shortcomings and weaknesses and repeat this for 20 minutes.
Today is a good day to think of the many people, young and old, who's temples of the body are destroyed by war, crime, abortion, death penalty, poverty and violence. We can pray for the victims and victimizers and for us to be more sensitive to these issues and the people impacted by it.
May the Holy Spirit lead us to treat each other with reverence as we make progress in our journey of spiritual growth and holiness!

On October 28th we celebrated the Feasts of Saints Simon and Jude. Both were Apostles of Jesus and were martyred together in Persia. 
Saint Jude was also the cousin of Jesus and is the patron of impossible causes. He is depicted with a flame on his head which represents the Holy Spirit who descended on the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. For this reason my son chose Saint Jude as his confirmation name. 
We pray for all those who bear the names of Simon and Jude!