Month of December 2018 - Advent & Incarnation of Christ

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* 1. What is the primary liturgical color of the Advent season?

1)  What is the primary liturgical color of the Advent season?

Answer:   Violet / Purple

“So What do the Colors Mean” from 9/23/2007 article by Thomas J Craughwell in Our Sunday Visitor:  (https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/ByIssue/Article/TabId/735/ArtMID/13636/ArticleID/8899/So-what-do-the-colors-mean.aspx)
  • Violet or purple represents sorrow and penitence. It is the liturgical color for Advent and Lent, as well as the color of the stole the priest wears when he hears confessions.
  • Black is the color of mourning. Either black or violet vestments may be worn at funeral Masses.
  • Green is the color of rebirth and hope, especially of hope for eternal life. Green is worn during the liturgical season known as “Ordinary Time.”
  • Gold-colored vestments may be worn at Masses of Solemnities (highest importance), such as Midnight Mass.
  • Red is the color of blood and represents the burning love of the Holy Spirit. Red vestments are worn on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, all feasts of Our Lord's Passion, Pentecost, and feast days of martyrs.
  • Rose is a joyful color worn on only two of days the year: Gaudete Sunday (the Third Sunday of Advent, so named from the first word of the entrance of the Mass of that day, “Rejoice…” [Gaudete]) and Laetare Sunday  (the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is a joyful break from the penance of the season).
  • Silver-colored vestments are permitted for solemn holy days, although it is rare in the U.S.
  • White vestments (representing joy, innocence, purity and glory) are worn during the seasons of Easter and Christmas and on all feasts of Our Lord other than His Passion, as well as on feasts of the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and saints who were not martyrs.

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* 2. Advent is (select the one that does NOT apply):  

2)  Advent is (select the one that does NOT apply):

The answer – Advent is NOT:  The start of the Christmas season

“Advent is not Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting for Christ to be born in our hearts again. Advent is one of the most beautiful seasons in the Church year. It is a time to wait, not to celebrate. It provides an opportunity to take some time to look into our hearts and our lives for those deeper yearnings that so often are covered over by being busy. How do you personally need Jesus Christ to come into your life this year? This is very important and should not be missed.”  http://licatholic.org/advent-is-not-christmas/

“Beginning the Church's liturgical year, Advent (from, "ad-venire" in Latin or "to come to") is the season encompassing the four Sundays (and weekdays) leading up to the celebration of Christmas.  The Advent season is a time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas. The final days of Advent, from December 17 to December 24, focus particularly on our preparation for the celebrations of the Nativity of our Lord (Christmas).” -- http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/advent/

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* 3. The feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th) refers to the virgin birth of Christ.

3)  The feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8th) refers to the virgin birth of Christ.

The answer is: False

“There's a popular idea that it [the Immaculate Conception] refers to Jesus' conception by the Virgin Mary.  It doesn't.  Instead, it refers to the special way in which the Virgin Mary herself was conceived.  This conception was not virginal. (That is, she had a human father as well as a human mother.) But it was special and unique in another way. . . . as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: ‘The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.’”  [emphasis added]  http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-immaculate-conception

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* 4. Select the name of the heresy addressed by the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, which stated the belief that Jesus was created by God and was therefore less than God:      

4)  Select the name of the heresy addressed by the Council of Nicaea in the year 325, which stated the belief that Jesus was created by God and was therefore less than God:

The answer is: Arianism

Arianism is the heresy that denies the Divinity of Christ.  It “was willing to grant Our Lord every kind of honor and majesty short of the full nature of the Godhead. . . .Essentially this movement sprang from exactly the same source as any other rationalistic movement from the beginning to our own time.  It sprang from a desire to visualize clearly and simply something which is beyond the grasp of human vision and comprehension.  Therefore, although it began by giving to Our Lord every possible honor and glory short of the actual Godhead. . . . and the treating of Our Lord at last as a prophet and, however exulted, no more than a prophet.”  From The Great Heresies by Hilaire Belloc, Tan Books and Publishers, 1991, p17-18 [first published in 1938 by Sheed & Ward, London.]

“Aryanism is the doctrine popularized by Nazism that the so-called Aryan peoples possess superior capacities for government, social organization, and civilization the belief in the doctrine of Aryanism and acceptance of its social and ethical implications often accompanied by suppression of the so-called non-Aryan peoples (as the Jews).”  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Aryanism

Monism is a Christian heresy which rejects the distinction between body and soul, matter and spirit, object and subject, matter and force.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10483a.htm  

Monotheism is a belief in one God… not many Gods.  http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10499a.htm  

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* 5. The traditional date of the Epiphany is January 6th, which means that the Three Wise Men visited the Infant Jesus when He was only 12 days old.

5)  The traditional date of the Epiphany is January 6th, which means that the Three Wise Men visited the Infant Jesus when He was only 12 days old.

The answer is: False

Jesus would have been considerably older than twelve days because the Magi were supposed to have come to Jerusalem from Persia – a journey of between 1000 and 1200 miles. “Such a distance may have taken any time between three and twelve months by camel. Besides the time of travel, there were probably many weeks of preparation.”
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09527a.htm

Also, in Matthew 2:16, known as the “Slaughter of the Innocents,” Herod orders the killing of all of Bethlehem’s male children, who were two years old and younger, “according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” 

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