It doesn’t matter if you are observing the Octave of Christmas, which is eight days long, or the more widely known Twelve Days of Christmas, today is the fifth day for both. As the familiar song is sung, the tempo is very upbeat and quick until the 5th Day of Christmas. Clearly there is an emphasis on the Five Golden Rings.
Continue reading “The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas”And Tears Fell from Heaven
Throughout the world Catholics will celebrate the Holy Family today. Their feast day is December 30, but often is moved to the closest Sunday thus allowing more of the faithful to attend. When this happens, the actual feast day normally celebrated on December 28 is all but forgotten.
Continue reading “And Tears Fell from Heaven”Saint John and the Christmas Season
While God does not work in Poetic Justice the way we think of Poetic Justice, there is something just in the fact that Saint John is the only Apostle whose feast day is within the Christmas Season. He was the youngest of the Chosen, and the only one to remain at the foot of the cross.
Continue reading “Saint John and the Christmas Season”As the Season Continues
Today is the 2nd Day of the Christmas Season. It is the Memorial Feast of Saint Stephen. It is also a Friday. Every Friday throughout the year is approached as a mini Good Friday. While fasting is not required, abstinence and penance is.
Continue reading “As the Season Continues”It’s Christmas Morning!
For the life of me I cannot recall Christmas Morning traditions as a child. There were the squeal of delight accompanied the flurry of ribbons, bows and colorful paper ripped from packages and tossed aside. Santa always managed to bring us something special even when times were tight.
Continue reading “It’s Christmas Morning!”Eggnon on Christmas Eve
Here we are all together for Christmas Eve’s blessed morning. It’s always a quiet morning for us. All the secular activities of the season are behind us now. We can enjoy a simple breakfast, perhaps take a stroll, then have a quiet dinner before Midnight Mass.
Continue reading “Eggnon on Christmas Eve”Spicing Up a Tuesday Morning
Here it is a beautiful Tuesday morning and Christmas is almost upon us. Are the presents all wrapped? Surely by now the tree is trimmed. You can almost feel the excitement of anticipation in the air. I love the smell of Christmas. The swirling scents of pine and fires burning.
Continue reading “Spicing Up a Tuesday Morning”On the Last Night of Hanukkah
Tonight people of Jewish faith with light the last of the eight candles of the Menorah, marking the last night of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is such a strange minor Holiday in that sometimes public schools or government buildings will display a Menorah while banning a Nativity display.
Continue reading “On the Last Night of Hanukkah”4th Sunday Advent: For He So Loved the World
Today marks the last day of Advent Sundays, but not the end of the Advent Season. That will not end until Christmas and the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Continue reading “4th Sunday Advent: For He So Loved the World”Good Morning Beautiful Embers Day of Advent
Not just on Sundays but all of Advent is filled with moments of quiet reflection. It is in the stillness of our hearts that the Lord waits, anxious to speak with us. Often that is more difficult than we can imagine. To be still requires the virtue of patients and a trust in God.
Continue reading “Good Morning Beautiful Embers Day of Advent”Give Thanks To The Lord
Welcome to the second Ember Days of Advent. While no longer fasting as a part of our Ember Days observances, it is a Friday. Whatever we do, there shall not be meat on the table.
Continue reading “Give Thanks To The Lord”Remembering A Feast Day of Old
Do you like learning new things about your faith? So much of the customs and traditions of old have fallen away, depriving those of us living in a hustle and bustle secular world to miss out on the quiet moments of contemplation of faith.
Continue reading “Remembering A Feast Day of Old”The First Ember Days of Advent
Ember Days. Until I began reading Dad’s text book The Visible Church which was published in 1922 as part of a Catholic Education I hadn’t even heard of Ember Days. Dad received the book to help him study in 1951, when he converted to the Catholic Faith. Little had changed in the teachings at that point.
Continue reading “The First Ember Days of Advent”Cover It In Chocolate
Today is National Cover It in Chocolate Day. Boy, that sure leaves us wide open for interpretation. Cover what? The world? Yeah, let’s turn the world into one giant Chocolate Covered Malt Ball.
Continue reading “Cover It In Chocolate”Spicing Up the Night
Growing up, Dad always made a big pot of Ham Hocks with Beans and Sweet Cornbread to welcome the first day of the year. Yeah, that should have been Black Eyed Peas, but none of us would eat Black Eyed Peas. I passed the tradition of a pot of beans on New Year’s Day on to my own children.
Continue reading “Spicing Up the Night”
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