Skip to main content

Bishop: Innocents’ Day is no time for pranks

 By


A Catholic bishop is reminding the faithful that the Holy Day of The Innocents being observed Wednesday is not an occasion to pull pranks on people. 

Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani noted that many Filipino Catholics had come to associate the feast following Christmas with April Fool’s Day because of the word “innocent,” which in the Bible refers to infants and young children but to Filipinos may also mean “gullible” or “naïve.”
“Filipinos think that when one is innocent, he is also easy to fool,” Bacani said in a phone interview with reporters Tuesday.

The bishop explained that the feast also known as Niños Inocentes was not an excuse to play practical jokes but a commemoration of the Biblical story where King Herod of Judea ordered the massacre of all male children aged two years old and under in the town of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, three wise men, or Magi, had come to Herod in their search for the newborn Jesus, and asked the king if he knew about the child. Threatened by this infant whom the Magi called the “King of the Jews,” Herod asked them to return to him after identifying the boy so that he, too, could “worship Him.”

The Magi, warned in a dream of Herod’s real intentions to kill the infant, took a different route on their way back to avoid betraying the child. Enraged, Herod ordered the infanticide.

The slaughtered children were considered the first martyrs for Christ, Bacani said, citing the main reason that the occasion should be treated with reverence.

Some prelates, however, concede that playing jokes on Innocents’ Day has become customary among Catholics that it may now be difficult to stamp out.

They continue to encourage churchgoers to deepen their understanding of the feast, which was instituted by the Latin Church sometime in the 4th or 5th Century and traditionally celebrated on December 28.

One good practice, they said, would be to bring infants to church to be blessed on this day. With a report from Inquirer Research
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Schedule of Masses and Pilgrimages at Carmelite Monastery

Solemnity of our Lady of Mount Carmel, 2011. Cebu Carmel Solemnity of our Lady of Mount Carmel, 2011 Schedule of Masses and Pilgrimages (see pictures) for the Novena  Cebu Carmelite Monastery, Cebu Philippines. Taken from: @Ste_de_Lisieux   (twitter Account) and http://lovepetitefleur.blogspot.com Mother of God, Queen and Beauty of Carmel, Pray for us. Flower of Carmel Vine blossom-laden, splendour of heaven, Child-bearing yet maiden, None equals thee. Mother so tender, whom no man didst know, On Carmel's children thy favours bestow, Star of the sea. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "O Star of the Sea, help and protect us! Show us that you are our Mother!" Thursday, July 7     6:00 a.m. Holy Mass Celebrant -Preacher - Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph Tan 7:30 a.m. Celebrant- Preacher- Rev. Fr. Wilfredo, Borces, MSP                 Pilgrims - Blessed Sa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blessed Sunday (My first Online Gratitude Journal Entry)

Hello, everyone! I am so excited to share with you that today, July 30, 2023, I have decided to start my online journal. This is something new for me, as I am not really used to writing and journaling, but I was inspired by the homily of reverend Monsignor Santos a while ago. He said that gratitude is the key to happiness and peace and that we should always thank God for the blessings we receive every day. So, I decided to start my online gratitude journal, where I will jot down all the things that I am grateful for these days and the days ahead. I hope that by doing this, I will be able to appreciate more the goodness of God and the beauty of life. For my first entry, I want to express my gratitude for the gift of life. I am grateful that I woke up today with a comfortable bed in an air-conditioned room. I am truly blessed knowing that I have a roof over my head and that I took a bath three times today. I am also grateful that I was able to eat the food I love. Lord, thank you for eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

my Spiritual Purification Through Bro.Joey

we have our recollection and our speaker is brother joey mabborang.. he is an excellent speaker, he's so brilliant a very commendable for a job well done... he tackles about the life and works of saint john of the cross ( NADA - TODO) though he didn't gave us that much brief explanation but, i personally understand everything most especially on the life and Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, the 7 mansions and etc., and it made me more interested to read the book that brother willow gave us.. thanks by the way bro. willow for your generosity.. bro. joey is a prolific speaker.. he moves me, lalalong lalo na nung sinabi nya na " For other people we are fool, coz we have a job but why are we here? hindi naman tayo medyo pangit pero bakit? we can have our own family and have many children pero bakit? maybe they think that we are fool, ready to sacrifice everything even our love ones but for us we are fool for the love of our beloved, our lord Jesus Christ..." i told my s...
Post a Comment
Read more