Feast of the Nativity of Jesus

Merry Christmas

Please pray 

• In thanksgiving for blessings received during Advent
• In thanksgiving for family reconciliations over Christmas
• For those who are alone during this season of Christmas
• For those listed in the bulletin, who asked for our prayers
• For benefactors who are ‘Friends of the Basilica’

 
Do you need the parish community to pray for your intentions?  
                  Email office@icjax.org and let us know.
 

1. Readings for this weekend are here
   
2. Bulletin for this week is attached or viewable online here
   
3. Worship Aids / Homilies are posted online:

 
Renovation & Repair – Updates:

1. Adoration Chapel – Work begins in January. (Please pray for the timely completion of our Stained Glass windows)
   
2. Organ – Pipes have been removed to be cleaned and prepped offsite. Fundraising continues.
   
3. Rectory / Office – Work completed. Fundraising continues.

 
Thank you to parishioners and ‘Friends of the Basilica’ for your continued material and prayerful support.  We benefit from the sacrifices, prayers, and material support of past generations.  Future generations of Catholics will benefit from yours!
 
Please remember, we still need parishioners & ‘Friends of the Basilica’ to give during the Sunday Collection in person or online. Special projects are important, but so are lights, AC, staff, etc. 

And in this corner....

Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds' crooks.

In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard of Wooster, Ohio, decorated a small blue spruce with paper ornaments and candy canes. It wasn't until the turn of the century that the red and white stripes and peppermint flavors became the norm.

In Indiana, a candy maker wanted to make a candy that could be a reminder of Jesus Christ, so he made the Christmas candy cane. He started off with a stick of pure white hard candy. The white color symbolized the virgin birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and the hard candy symbolized the solid rock which was the foundation of the church, and firmness of the promises of God.
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The candy maker made the candy in the form of a J, which represented the name of Jesus and the staff of the Good Shepherds. He then stained it with three stripes which showed the scourging Jesus received, and symbolized the blood shed by Christ on the cross. When you break the cane, it reminds us that Jesus' body was broken for us.