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Welcome back to Advent! Glory is on the way. The liturgy is full of the prophecies of Isaiah, which were first given for consolation to the Jews 2,700 years ago (the same sort of time as the legendary foundation of the city of Rome). They were fulfilled once over in the first century BC when the Son of God became man as the baby Jesus – and still those prophecies speak to us of the Second Coming of Christ.

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November is the month of the dead: a month of celebration rather than mourning. Unreliable statistics suggest that out of all the Christians there have ever been, 1 in 3 are living now. This means that for every one of us on Earth, there are two team members who have passed through death; and we are united into one single community by prayer.

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After Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis, Pope Leo is canonising Blessed Peter To Rot this coming Sunday, the 19th. You can read about him in the Universalis pages for his feast day, 7 July. Here is a link to the About Today page for that day.

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Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Carlo Acutis were canonised by Pope Leo on 7 September, and the podcast of that date tells you more about these new saints (you can find a link to it below). They will be a ‘saint for me’ for some people who, looking at the calendar of saints, can’t see anyone who could be their ‘friend in heaven’. But even for the rest of us, their lives have a lot in them to teach us and inspire us. I wish I had been able to be like Frassati in my early twenties, but I didn’t even know it was possible. Is it too late now? No, with God nothing is too late.

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August sounds as if it ought to be a quiet time, but it has had some glorious feasts in it. The greatest ones have been the Transfiguration of the Lord on the 6th and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the 15th: a much-needed midsummer public holiday in many countries.

September is going to bring its own treasures, including a long anticipated multiple canonisation on Sunday the 7th; and of course it ends with a bang with St Michael and the archangels.

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We are half way through Lent, and Laetare Sunday on 30 March marks the occasion by having rose-coloured vestments: half way between Lent’s purple and the white of Easter and the Resurrection.

The Gospel for Laetare Sunday this year is the parable of the Prodigal Son. It comes at this time in Lent because it forms a perfect framework for how we deal with sin: repentance, confession, forgiveness, celebration.

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Welcome to February!

This newsletter covers the Word on Fire conference, Universalis on social media, and the latest podcast episodes.

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