00 05/12/2010 13:18








December 5, Second Sunday of Advent

Panel shows an aerial view of Mar Saba, and the high altar where the saint's remains repose.
ST. SABAS (b Cappadocia [present Turkey] 439, d Jerusalem 532)
Venerable Father, Hermit, Abbot
Considered one of the founders of Eastern monasticism, Sabas came to Jerusalem at age 18, where he started his exemplary
monastic life in a monastery under the mentorship of St. Euthymius. At age 30, he was allowed to spend five days a week
in a cave, praying and weaving baskets. When his mentor died, he moved to a cave in the Kidron valley east of Bethlehem,
where he was eventually joined by other monks. This became the nucleus for the Great Lavra, now known as Mar Saba,
the first monastery founded by Sabas. St. John Damascene was the most famous pupil of the monastery. Subsequently, Sabas
travelled throughout Palestine establishing more monasteries, preaching and gaining Christian converts. He was appointed
Archimandrite of all Palestinian monasteries in 491. At age 91, he undertook a mission to Constantinople for the Patriarch
of Jerusalem. He died of an illness shortly after his return. In the 12th century, Crusaders took his body for safekeeping
to Rome, but Paul VI returned the remains to Mar Saba in 1965.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/120510.shtml



OR today.
The only papal story in this issue is the Holy Father's meeting with the secretary-general of the World Council of Churches, in the inside pages. On Page 1: President Obama, on surprise trip to Afghanistan, vows that Taliban and Al-Qaeda will be defeated; in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, daily violence continues between clashes among rival political groups and terrorist attacks; US unemployment rate rises to 9.8%; and a front-page commentary by the director of the Vatican Observatory on the astrophysical implications of NASA's discovery that a bacterium on earth has an arsenic-based biochemical structure, opening up new possibilities for extra-terrestrial life forms having a different chemistry altogether for what until now had been considered 'essential' for life. In the inside pages, Cardinal Bertone ends Kazakhstan trip with a call for respect for human rights and social coexistence.


THE POPE'S DAY

Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father reflected on John the Baptist in today's Gospel, as an appropriate Advent figure
who prepared the way for the Lord. After the Angelus prayers, the Pope asked the faithful to pray for comfort,
reconciliation and peace for all the many situations of violence, injustice and suffering in the world today.