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Baptismal vows are the promises required of a candidate for baptism. According to the Roman Ritual, three questions are addressed to the person to be baptized: "Do you renounce Satan? and all his works? and all his pomps?" To each of these questions the person, or the sponsor in his name, replies: "I do renounce them".

A rite includes all the ceremonies, prayers, and functions of a religious body. The Catholic Church is composed of 23 distinct rites, with the Roman Rite being the largest. Each rite has its own beautiful prayers and ceremonies which add to the richness of Catholic liturgical inheritance.

The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

Today we meditate on a few verses from the Gospel of John Chapter 1. We think about the light of Christ and the search for Truth. 

Today we reflect on a Christmas antiphon from the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the official prayer-book of the church.

Pope Victor I (died 199) was the bishop of Rome in the late second century (189–199 A.D.). He was of Berber origin. Meaning, he was the first black pope. He reigned for about 12 years and he excommunicated churches for celebrating Easter based on the Jewish date of Passover and not on a Sunday. Eventually he reversed his decision, and in the end, all Christians began celebrating Easter on the same Sunday. Today we are discussing the years 189 to 199 AD, when Victor became pope and the Easter controversy happened.

Historically, the ending of Christmastide was sunset on 6 January. Christmastide is commonly called the Twelve Days of Christmas. To this day, the "Christian cultures in Western Europe and Latin America extend the season to forty days, ending on the Feast of the Presentation.

It's Christmas, don't worry. I'm not neglecting my family or the joy of the season. This is a prerecorded episode. I am happily enjoying Christmas midnight mass and time with family and friends, that is if you're listening to this on Christmas day. If you're in the future, I suppose you can ignore everything I just said, but that's beside the point. This is the Christmas episode and I wanted to do a special mental prayer focusing on a Christmas sermon from Gregory Nazianzen who died in AD 389. I actually have a podcast on Saint Nonna, who was Gregory's mother. He was from modern day Turkey, which was known as Asia Minor. He wrote a wonderful sermon on the celebration of Christmas and we're going to use a short passage from that sermon for today's meditation.modern-day