Category: Calendar & Seasons
An Easy Guide for a Truly Remarkable and Fun-filled Lent
Is Lent over yet? Oh, wait, I just remembered that Ash Wednesday was last week, so this is… oh, no, this is day seven! And already my fingers are itching to check the latest posts on Facebook, while I’m simultaneously longing to gobble down a large chocolate bar studded with almonds. Day seven and I [...]
My Favorite Liturgical Season
Of all the seasons in the calendar of the Church, I love Lent the best. It hasn’t always been so. But through a re-examination of my faith, and an exploration of the purpose and meaning of Lent, I’ve come to a deep appreciation for this holy season of waiting. As a child, I thought of [...]
Going Forward in this New Year by Looking Back
One of my favorite ways to learn about my faith and to grow in my relationship with God is to try and read as much as possible the writings of Pope Benedict XVI. For some reason the Pope’s words always hit me right between the eyes and strike me smack dab in the heart. Whether [...]
A Not So Ordinary Season – What you need to know about Ordinary Time
Ordinary Time and the Liturgical Seasons The liturgical season of Christmas came to an end with the celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord this past Sunday. We are now in the first week of Ordinary Time, the longest season of the Church’s liturgical year, which began yesterday. Ordinary Time is separated [...]
Yes Virginia, There is an Infant
by Sister Timothy Marie, O.C.D. Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles Dear Virginia, I am writing to tell you about something that has been on my mind for several weeks. It has bubbled up within me, percolating up and down my brain and saturating my thoughts. Like coffee grounds in a [...]
Learning from the Shepherds
There is something beautifully symbolic about the tradition of Midnight Mass. It shows that Christians are so eager for Christmas to begin that they want to start celebrating on the first moment of Christmas day. People who ordinarily never go out late at night and are often at that hour dressed in pajamas and sleeping [...]
Meditation Notes on the “O Antiphons”
The “O Antiphons” refer to the seven antiphons that are recited (or chanted) preceding the Magnificat during Vespers of the Liturgy of the Hours. They cover the special period of Advent preparation known as the Octave before Christmas, December 17-23, with December 24 being Christmas Eve and Vespers for that evening being for the Christmas [...]
Great Expectations
At the end of last Christmas, as we bid farewell to our visitors and reluctantly packed away the tinsel, the ornaments, and our treasured nativity sets I vowed—in my typical cynicism—to write an article the following Advent about disappointed expectations. It seems as though every year my family and I go into the Advent season [...]
Merciful Mother – Our Lady of Guadalupe
Reflections on Our Lady of Guadalupe: Our Merciful Mother by Sister Ines, O.C.D. In every approved Marian apparition, Our Lady has a specific mission. Each one reveals a determined and specific message – a unique and necessary goal. In the Anáhuac Valley of Mexico, on a barren hill called Tepeyac, Our Lady of Guadalupe came [...]
Waiting for the Christmas Miracle during Advent
by Sister Regina Marie, O.C.D., Vicar General Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles “There is in every human heart, be it the heart of a man or a woman, an empty cradle, waiting for the birth of Christ to fill it.” On the First Sunday in Advent, all over the world [...]
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