Dec. 4, 2022

December 2022

December is the Month the Church Dedicates to the Immaculate Conception

 

“And the Lord God said to the serpent:… I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
(Gen, iii. 14, 15)

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.”
(Isaias, xi. 1)

“And Mary said: ...behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name.”
(St. Luke, i. 48, 49)

 

The Definition of Immaculate Conception.
(Dogma of the Immaculate Conception - INEFFABILIS DEUS. Given at St. Peter's in Rome, the eighth day of December, 1854, Pius IX)

Wherefore, in humility and fasting, we unceasingly offered our private prayers as well as the public prayers of the Church to God the Father through his Son, that He would deign to direct and strengthen our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. In like manner did we implore the help of the entire heavenly host as we ardently invoked the Paraclete. Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."

Hence, if anyone shall dare -- which God forbid! -- to think otherwise than as has been defined by us, let him know and understand that he is condemned by his own judgment; that he has suffered shipwreck in the faith; that he has separated from the unity of the Church; and that, furthermore, by his own action he incurs the penalties established by law if he should dare to express in words or writing or by any other outward means the errors he think in his heart.

 

Novena to the Immaculate Conception: Nov. 29 - Dec. 7.

Feast of Immaculate Conception: Dec. 8 (Holy Day of Obligation).

 

ANTIPHON, VERSICLE & PRAYER.

Antiphon. This is the rod in which was neither knot of original sin nor rind of actual guilt.

℣. In thy Conception, O Virgin, thou wast immaculate.

℟. Pray for us to the Father, whose Son Jesus Christ conceived of the Holy Ghost, thou didst bring forth.

Let us pray.

O God, who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare a worthy habitation for thy Son: we beseech Thee that, as in view of the death of that Son Thou didst preserve her from all stain of sin, so Thou wouldst enable us, being made pure by her intercession, to come unto Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Click here, to read the Apostolic Constitution by Pope Pius IX - defining the dogma of Immaculate Conception.

 

Days of Fasting & Abstinence in December 2022:

1. December 7, 2022: Fasting & Complete Abstinence (Eve of Immaculate Conception).

2. December 14, 2022: Fasting & Partial Abstinence (Ember Wednesday).

3. December 16, 2022: Fasting & Complete Abstinence (Ember Friday).

4. December 17, 2022: Fasting & Partial Abstinence (Ember Saturday).

5. December 24, 2022: Fasting & Complete Abstinence (Christmas Eve/Vigil).

 

Click here, for the Church Laws of Fast and Abstinence.

 

Below listed are the feasts falling in December 2022:

December 1: Mass of the Season

December 2: FIRST FRIDAY/Commemoration of St. Bibiana Virgin and Martyr.

December 3: FIRST SATURDAY/St. Francis Xavier Confessor, Greater Double.

 

December 4: II Sunday of Advent, Double of the I Class; Commemoration of St. Peter Chrysologus Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church; Commemoration of St. Barbara Virgin and Martyr.

December 5: Commemoration of St. Sabbas Abbot.

December 6: St. Nicholas Bishop and Confessor, Double.

December 7: St. Ambrose Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, Double; EVE OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION - Fasting & Complete Abstinence.

December 8: The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Double of the I Class (HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION).

December 9: Mass of the Season

December 10: Commemoration of St. Melchiades Pope and Martyr; Commemoration of Translation of the Holy House of Loretto [Regional Calendars of Spain, Belgium etc.].

 

December 11: III Sunday of Advent, Double of the I Class; Commemoration of St. Damasus I Pope and Confessor.

December 12: Holy Mary of Guadalupe [Regional Calendars of Mexico, USA, etc.]

December 13: St. Lucy Virgin and Martyr, Double.

December 14: EMBER WEDNESDAY.

December 15: Mass of the Season

 

Dec. 16 - Dec. 24: Novena for Christmas (Novena for the 25th Day of every month, from Raccolta).

December 16: EMBER FRIDAY/Commemoration of St. Eusebius Bishop and Martyr.

 

The Commencement of the Great ‘O’ Antiphons (Dec 17 - Dec 23).
(Cesar Augustus decrees that all should be enrolled into their own cities [St. Luke, ii. 1-5]. Let us accompany our Blessed Virgin Mother Mary and St. Joseph, from Galilee to Bethlehem.)

December 17: EMBER SATURDAY/O Sapienta.

 

December 18: IV Sunday of Advent, Double of the I Class/O Adonai; Commemoration of Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as “Our Lady of ‘O’”, [Regional Calendars of Spain, Ireland etc.].

December 19: Mass of the Season/O Radix Jesse.

December 20: Mass of the Season/O Clavis David.

December 21: St. Thomas Apostle, Double of the II Class/O Oriens.

December 22: Mass of the Season/O Rex Gentium.

December 23: Mass of the Season/O Emmanuel.

December 24: Vigil of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas Eve - Fasting & Complete Abstinence).

 

December 25: Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Double of the I Class with an Octave (HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION); Commemoration of St. Anastasia, Martyr (Second Mass).

December 26: St. Stephen Protomartyr, Double of the II class; Commemoration of the Octave of the Nativity.

December 27: St. John Apostle and Evangelist, Double of the II class; Commemoration of the Octave of the Nativity.

December 28: The Holy Innocents, Double of the II class; Commemoration of the Octave of the Nativity.

December 29: St. Thomas Becket (of Canterbury), Bishop and Martyr, Double; Commemoration of the Octave of the Nativity.

December 30: Of the VI day within the Octave of the Nativity, Double.

December 31: St. Sylvester I Pope and Confessor, Double; Commemoration of the Octave of the Nativity.

 

Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the stain original is not in thee. Alleluia.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!