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These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Saturday, 13 November 2021 00:00

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, religious, November 13 (USA)

When peaceful stillness compassed everything
and the night in its swift course was half spent,
Your all-powerful word, from heaven’s royal throne
bounded, a fierce warrior, into the doomed land,
bearing the sharp sword of your inexorable decree. (Wis 18:14-16;19:6-9)

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111321.cfm

The Christmas Carol, Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming, has the haunting refrain: When half-spent was the night. The phrase comes from this passage from the Book of Wisdom. Even though the passage is actually talking about the descent the Death Angel during the deliverance from Egypt, the church has always seen in the “all-powerful word” bounding from heaven an image of the birth of that Word in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary. Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized (1946). She is the patron saint of immigrants.

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