CatholicTV’s Father Robert Reed Will Provide Commentary For Vespers Prayers With Pope

On December 16th, CatholicTV will air Vespers with the university students of Rome in preparation for Christmas. Pope Benedict will preside over Vespers.

This will take place in the Vatican Basilica. Vespers will air at CatholicTV.com and on CatholicTV cable outlets at 8:30 p.m. and will be rebroadcast at noon the following day.

Commentary for the CatholicTV broadcast will be provided by Father Robert Reed, a former student of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and President of the CatholicTV Network.

CatholicTV Will Air Vespers Service With Pope on Feast of Conversion of St. Paul

On Monday, January 25, CatholicTV will air the Celebration of Vespers presided over by Pope Benedict XVI from the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.

This Vespers service will air on CatholicTV cable outlets and on CatholicTV.com at 8PM and will be rebroadcast at noon the following day (all times Eastern).

This Vespers service takes place at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Each year the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches chooses a theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year, 2010, the theme is based on the biblical verse of Luke 24:48: You Are Witnesses of These Things. Honoring the Week of Prayer takes place between the feasts of Saints Peter and Paul. The week gives Christians an annual opportunity to continue to work towards unity which is already shared in Christ. It is also a time to gather in praise of the Triune God and to deepen the understanding of the ecumenical movement.

During the same feast in 2009, the Pope spoke of conversion in his homily saying, “one recognizes that this new journey cannot come from oneself. It consists in letting oneself be conquered by Christ. As St Paul says: "I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ [Jesus]" (Phil 3: 12). Conversion demands our "yes", my "racing"; ultimately it is not my action, but a gift in letting myself be formed by Christ.”

CatholicTV regularly airs Papal and Vatican events: More information can be found at http://www.CatholicTV.com/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=57

New Year’s Day With the Pope? CatholicTV Will Air Vatican Vespers and New Year’s Day Mass from the Vatican

CatholicTV will air vespers service from the Vatican at 8PM Eastern on New Year’s Eve. CatholicTV will also air the Mass of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God at noon and 8PM on Jan 1st. New Year’s Day will also mark the 43rd World Day of Peace originally introduced by Pope Paul VI.

These Vatican events will stream at www.CatholicTV.com and also on CatholicTV where available.

The World Day of Peace is a feast day of the Catholic Church dedicated to peace. It was introduced in 1967 and was inspired by the encyclicals Pacem in Terris and Populorum Progressio of John XXIII and Paul VI.

Pope Benedict has already released a message for World Day of Peace and in it, the Pope talks extensively about the need to be respectful to the environment, which is God’s creation.

Pope Benedict’s message for the celebration of the World Day of Peace can be viewed at. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091208_xliii-world-day-peace_en.html

Vespers service will include a homily by the Holy Father. In the first Vespers service of Advent, Pope Benedict XVI said, “In our daily lives we all experience having little time for the Lord and also little time for ourselves. We end by being absorbed in "doing". Is it not true that activities often absorb us and that society with its multiple interests monopolizes our attention? Is it not true that we devote a lot of time to entertainment and to various kinds of amusement? At times we get carried away. Advent, this powerful liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he has for each one of us”.

CatholicTV regularly airs Papal and Vatican events: More information can be found at http://www.catholictv.com/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=57

Advent Vespers Service With Pope Benedict XVI Will Air at CatholicTV.com

On Sunday, November 29th, CatholicTV.com will air the Vespers service with Pope Benedict XVI from St. Peter’s Basilica. November 29th is the first Sunday of Advent. The Vespers service will air simultaneously on CatholicTV where available.

The Vespers service will air at noon (EST) and again at 8PM. CatholicTV will air additional special events with Pope Benedict XVI from the Vatican during the Advent and Christmas season.

CatholicTV is a nationally-broadcasted television network headquartered near Boston. CatholicTV streams its broadcast simultaneously, 24 hours a day at www.CatholicTV.com

These special events will include the following (broadcast times in parentheses): The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 (noon and 8PM), Christmas Eve Mass (11PM), and New Year’s Eve Vespers (noon and 8PM)

CatholicTV regularly airs Papal events. Details on CatholicTV Papal Programming as well as archived videos can be viewed at http://www.catholictv.com/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=57

All online shows at CatholicTV.com are viewable free of charge.