Trappists (or Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiæ, which is abbreviated OCSO, if you want to be precise) are the "silent monks". In this choir performance at a US school - which has been seen and appreciated by millions of viewers on YouTube - this aspect of their calling is marked in an excellent way.

The latest post on our Ithaca in Your Mind blog focuses on the feedback we have received through this Katolinen.net site's Survey page. There have, among other things, been requests of information about saints with connection to Finland's history. No sooner had that wish been published than Emil Anton responds on his blog Hyviä uutisia with a post about the Legend of Saint Henry. We recommend his blog to any and all who read Finnish.

Caritas Finland takes part in the One human family, food for all campaign beginning on December 10. The global campaign wants to get people thinking about the fact that we are all brothers and sisters and that too many of us go hungry. Through the campaign Caritas Internationalis aims to change attitudes in the world to put an end to hunger before 2025.

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, president of Caritas Internationalis, says: "There is enough food to feed the planet. We believe that with your help and the help of governments and the U.N. we can end hunger by 2025."

Pope Francis supports the campaign. He has said: 
"It is a well-known fact that current levels of production are sufficient, yet millions of people are still suffering and dying of starvation. This is truly scandalous."
 
Pope Francis is also involved in the Wave of Prayer that begins the campaign at noon on December 10. The global wave begins in Samoa in the Pacific and reaches Finland 12 hours later.

The Welcoming Team welcomes people into the Church and the topic of the final meeting this year is the Catholic Church in Finland.

Accordingly, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 8, Jan-Peter Paul will give a presentation in English on Finnish Catholicism at the Studium Catholicum.

Nobody can harden their heart to a helpless and hungry new-born child in need of love and care. We respond to any such small yet perfect creature, knowing instinctively that it needs to be held, nourished and protected. Like the birth of any human child, it is easy to see how the Feast of Christmas opens up to us in an instant with the birth of Jesus.

And yet a tension of opposites comes with the birth of that particular baby: The Gospels tell us that, like us, Jesus is human. But he is also the Son of God. Present in this helpless child is Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and Earth. The great majesty of God made manifest in a small human being. From the moment God becomes Man, the Old Testament ban against portraying God is overturned. In Jesus, God makes himself visible, he becomes flesh.