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
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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Readings for the 1st Sunday of Lent: Gen 9:8-15; Psa 25:4-9; 1 Pe 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15 Adam was not aware. He lived in blissful beauty, he did not know the primal chaos. He couldn’t know the bleak facts of life without God: darkness; void; formless waste. He did not witness the glory of land rising up from the sea. Adam did ...
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As we plunge into Lent, settling into patterns of prayer and fasting and giving to others, the lectionary points us to the reason for it all. Each week until Easter, I'll be musing on the Sunday readings: specifically, through the lens of the first (Old Testament) readings. Read in turn, these take us on a journey through God's plan to ...
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(Traducción en español al final) My son was the youngest and newest member of the local Peewee football league, and as such he sat warming the bench in his spanking-white uniform while his teammates slogged through the mud. It was a cold and rainy day but the game was exciting, and we all cheered as the running back took the ...
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Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of a king, the Son of God. Did you know that the day he was born, many thought he had already come? “He” was not a simple child of Israel. “He” was Caesar Augustus, who had already ruled for nearly 30 years. The adopted son and successor of Julius Caesar, who had proclaimed himself ...
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Hush.... It’s time! Time to finish the buying and wrapping, time to set our troubles aside. Our cares will still be there next week, after all, and we don’t want to miss the peace that’s promised by the season. One Christmas hymn keeps floating through my mind, helping me focus. A friend sent me this instrumental version on video (it’s ...
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Twice a year, on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays[1], the priest dons rose-colored vestments for mass. In spite of what he might think about wearing that color (and there’s always someone cracking a joke about it) — I love seeing it. I love its rosy warmth and the way it breaks into the somber violet of the rest of the season ...
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Christmas preparations are looking very different for me this year. Normally, I’d be baking and planning parties and strolling with friends through winter-lit gardens. But I find myself staying home to avoid unsafe contact and searching out COVID test sites, investigating state travel restrictions and counting isolation days. Because what kind of Christmas will it be, if our boys can’t ...
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