Month: October 2020

The Church celebrates the Solemnity of All Saints. Today we look to heaven to thank God, praise Him, Glorify Him, bless Him for the immense multitude of his children who are already in his presence and enjoy full life with Him. They are the saints whose names only God knows, who have not been beatified or canonized in the Church, but in their lives have identified with Christ. The Pope assures that Jesus has explained simply what it is to be holy: “He did so when He left us the beatitudes. They’re like the Christian’s identity card.” To the question of how it is done to become a good Christian, Francis tells us that it is necessary to do, each in his own way, what Jesus says in the sermon of beatitudes. “In them is drawn the face of the Master, who we are called to transparent in the daily life of our lives.”

In his speech this Sunday, October 25, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, thanked God for the work of consecrated religious working in homes for the elderly and disabled. Among the communities whose hospitable charism is an obvious reality in the Haban archdiocese, the cardinal mentioned the Daughters of Charity, the Little Sisters of the Homeless Elders, the Handmaids of St. Joseph, the Religious of Mary Immaculate, the Brothers of St. John of God and the Congregation Martha and Mary. He also thanked the youth and adults for helping them care for those in these holy places.

God has created us out of love and to love. Our essence is also to love, to love God, to others and to ourselves, to love as God loves us, to love because God loves us. God’s love we have known him in Jesus Christ. His new mandate reminds us to love one another as He has loved us, or better, as He continues to love us. And his love consists in the surrender of one’s life. His mandate, rather than a law or a standard to be fulfilled, is to live what we are and for what we have been created by Him, which is infinite, total, compassionate, and merciful love, eternal.

The Archdiocesan Catechesis Commission has reported that next Saturday, November 7, the Catechetical Year 2020-2021 will begin in Havana. In a letter to the parish priests, leaders of Christian communities, catechesis coordinators and catechists, they are reminded that by this beginning, which was impossible to resume on the usual date (after the Feast of Our Lady of Charity of Copper), the hygienic health measures established by the competent authorities must be fulfilled.

In addition, the misiva urges catechesis sessions to shorten the duration of meetings and conduct them in open, spacious and ventilated spaces, maintaining physical distance and the use of masks as main safety measures. It also recommends reducing the number of children per group (no more than eight) where possible and, if necessary, expanding the number of catechists.

“This would be an opportunity to invite young people, because we know that many of our catechists are elderly people, people at risk in the face of this pandemic, so we thought it would be highly advisable to ask for their cooperation,” the letter states.

Next we share the full message, signed by Father Eloy Ricardo Dominguez, Archdiocesan coordinator of Catechesis,

“Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call, but we can perceive it only when we live a personal relationship of love with Jesus alive in his Church.” With this expression of Pope Francis, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, recalled in his Sunday speech, the celebration on October 18 of World Mission Day. Over the centuries, and today, our Church continues to go everywhere, however difficult, announcing, teaching, baptizing, celebrating the sacraments, and practicing works of charity. The Habanero Archbishop insisted that we, as baptized, must also proclaim the gospel, but our mission is to make it present in our house. “Your husband’s best missionary is the wife, his wife’s best missionary, is the husband. The best missionary of his children is the father and also the mother. The mom and dad’s best missionaries are the children,” he said.