Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Today is the Memorial of Saints Cyril and Methodius. St. Cyril (827-869) was a priest and a philosopher and accompanied his brother St. Methodius (826-885) to Moravia to preach the Gospel. They both perfected a Slavonic alphabet which is now known as the Cyrillic alphabet and translated the liturgy into this language. They were summoned to Rome, where Cyril died on this date in 869, and Methodius was consecrated bishop and sent to Pannonia. Methodius died on April 6, 885, in Velehrad, Czech Republic, after working tirelessly on spreading the Gospel.

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The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) invited parishes and individuals to contribute to a collective 250 hours of Eucharistic adoration and 250 works of mercy for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“Parishes can participate in 250 hours of adoration together by offering a Holy Hour on a weekly or monthly basis leading up to the July 4 anniversary,” the bishops’ conference explained. “While 250 hours seems like a lot, each person present constitutes an hour prayed.”

The presidents of the episcopal conferences of France, Germany, Italy, and Poland called upon Europe to “rediscover its soul in order to be able to offer the whole world its indispensable contribution to the ‘common good.’’”

“The founding fathers of [post-World War II] Europe, Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi, inspired by their Christian faith, were not naïve dreamers, but the architects of a magnificent, albeit fragile, building,” the prelates said. “Europe cannot be reduced to an economic and financial market, on pain of betraying the initial vision of its founding fathers.”

The prelates added:

The world needs Europe. This is the urgency that Christians must make their own in order to be able to commit themselves decisively, wherever they are, to its future with the same lively awareness as the founding fathers ... In the name of their faith, Christians are called to share with all the inhabitants of the European continent their hope for universal brotherhood.

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Pope Leo XIV encouraged members of Rome’s Carabinieri (military police) to “rediscover the essence of the Christian message and the style of the early Church, in order to embody them in our very different, and much more complex world.”

“I think of the dawn of Christianity in this city, when the Good News of Jesus began to circulate in various circles, including the army: a new way of living and thinking, a God who is love, mercy, forgiveness; a fraternity among all men and women that transcends every social and ethnic difference,” Pope Leo said during the audience, which took place on February 13 in Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace

The Pope added:

Dear friends, you are military personnel and you know well what hierarchy, command and obedience mean. We also use these words in the Church, transformed by the newness of the Gospel.

And, similarly, the Gospel, throughout the centuries, has permeated the structures, criteria, and ways of acting and thinking of the civilizations where it penetrated; it did so not with a violent revolution, but with a peaceful transformation, from within, through consciences, the conversion of hearts.

In this way the Gospel has brought the meaning of God and of humanity everywhere: absolute respect for life and for the human person, along with the worship of God, and Him alone.

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