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Happy New Year 2023

At the end of every year, we tend to look back at the big events which played a major part in our lives. And one of the main events that has unfortunately dominated the year we are about to leave and will continue to dominate next year is war. The war in Ukraine, of course, but also all the other conflicts, large and small, which continue to devastate the world.

Therefore, at the start of 2023, we are urged by Pope Francis to pray first of all for peace: “ Lord, come to our aid! Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: ‘Never again war!’.”

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Christmas 2022

We certainly live in times that are not easy: wars, poverty, discrimination … But the events leading up to and including the birth of Jesus were also challenging for all those involved. However, there are two constant messages from God in the Infancy Narratives: “Don’t be afraid” and “Rejoice”. Mary, Joseph and the shepherds are just a few examples of those who received these extraordinary encouragements.

God is doing something wonderful: He is coming to earth in the fragile form of a little baby. // FEAR IS REPLACED BY JOY. //

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2022 CHRISTMAS SEASON IN THE SAINT’S BASILICA

From 16 to 24 December 
Christmas Novena

  • 6:00pm: Novena Holy Mass

Saturday 17 December 
Blessing of the Nativity Scenes

  • Around 6:45pm: Radial chapels of the Basilica, at the end of the 6:00pm Mass

24 December 
Christmas Eve

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The “great walkers” in the Nativity Scene, the humble characters who teach us about the greatness of Christmas

In reading the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, we can notice that all the protagonists of the Christmas story are “great walkers.”

First of all there are Mary and Joseph, who travel 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, but their donkey is also with them; then there are the shepherds who set out with their flocks to welcome the Little Child, and also the horses and camels of the Three Wise Men, who come from the East following a star to meet the Son of God.

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800 hundred years ago in Forlì St. Anthony’s adventure as preacher of the Gospel began in earnest!

Exactly eight centuries ago Anthony, a young friar who had arrived on the coasts of Sicily after an adventurous shipwreck, was living in a friary in Montepaolo, on the hills south of Forlì, where he had gone with other friars after meeting St. Francis of Assisi in May 1221.

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In St. Anthony’s footsteps from Sicily to Padua from June 30 to October 9, 2022

Over 1,800 kilometers separate friar Anthony of Lisbon’s shipwreck site from Padua, the city of his choice. This summer, 800 years after the Forlì sermon that revealed him as the great announcer of the Gospel, a relic of our Saint, which forms a part of the Antonio 20-22 Project, retraces St. Anthony’s footsteps through all of Italy in 92 stages of the journey from Capo Milazzo to his Basilica in Padua. Anyone can join along the Walk and share a few kilometers or more of the enterprise to mark this 800 years anniversary.

WHY

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