Holidays and Holy Days
Here you will find musings related to Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter along with reflections prompted by holidays like Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, and the onset of summer. It’s also a place for thoughts on Holy Days and related topics like the communion of Saints and the Sacraments. Posts are pictured with the most recent first. Look for season-related series or start with one of these popular reflections:
- 5 Thanksgiving Psalms to Pray This Week
- 40 Days in the Word: 3 Ways to Add Scripture to Your Lenten “Diet”
- Praying with the Penitential Psalms
- Find Peace This Advent
- The Jesse Tree: An Advent Tradition for the Whole Family
“Behold, I am coming soon.” He says it twice in one chapter (Revelation 22:7,12). Really, Lord? I have to ask. Two thousand years and counting … “soon”? And he repeats it: “Surely I am coming soon” (vs 20). Come, Lord Jesus! my heart cries out. Come! Please! It’s not easy to wait, especially in our need. But Advent plunges us into ...
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Advent is not a simple season. Its four weeks are full of festive preparation, yet it’s a penitential time as well. Along the way, it asks us to hold in balance three separate “comings”: The coming long ago of Jesus to earth, born as a child in Bethlehem His coming at the end of time in joy and glory, preceded ...
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There are lots of good books on the meaning of Christmas, and it’s not often I come across something new. But here at the heart of Michael Patrick Barber’s new book, The True Meaning of Christmas, is a gem we all should keep in mind as we approach our celebration of the birth of our Lord: Just as we shouldn’t ...
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Today we enter the darkness. We feel the betrayal of Judas, then stand at a distance with Peter, deny Jesus ourselves. Like Peter, we are afraid. What use is there, for all this suffering? On Good Friday, we enter into it. We stand horrified beside the cross. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We are crushed by the ...
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Readings for Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion. At the Procession with Palms: Mk 11:1-10 or Jn 12:12-16. At the Mass: Isa 50:4-7; Psa 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 14:1 – 15:47. My most vivid childhood memory of Easter is the Palm Sunday morning we visited a community of religious sisters. I must have been six or seven years ...
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Readings for the 5th Sunday of Lent: Jer 31:31-34; Ps 51:3-4, 12-15; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The night before I turned sixteen, I couldn’t sleep for crying. High school wasn’t easy for me. Not the work so much; it ...
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Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent: 2 Chr 36:14-16,19-23; Ps 137:1-6; Eph 2:4-10; Jn 3:14-21 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) The honeymoon didn’t last long. In fact, it hadn’t even started. The people were still wearing their wedding clothes, for crying out loud; God ...
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Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent: Ex 20:1-3, 7-8, 12-17; Ps 19:8-11; 1 Cor 1:22-25; Jn 2:13-25 (if you hear different readings, your parish may be using the Year A readings that go with the Scrutinies for RCIA) “Sarah, do you take Mark for your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse ...
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Readings for the 2nd Sunday of Lent: Gen 22:1-2,9A,10-13,15-18; Psa 116: 10,15,16-17,18-19; Rom 8:31B-34; Mk 9:2-10. Our third child was being baptized, and the priest did something at the end I’ve never seen before or since. “Lay the child on the altar,” he said. We walked forward, and Mark laid Clay down on his back as I smoothed the hand-crocheted ...
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