It seems as if, once Christmas has passed – BAM! – it’s over. Trees are at the curb, decorations come down, music on the radio goes back to whatever it was. However, Holy Church gives us an Octave to rest within the feast of the Nativity itself and contemplate it from different angles, including the…
It’s hard to know what to write about for this Sunday. In the Novus Ordo in most places the observance of Epiphany will take place. In the Vetus Ordo it is the Feast of the Holy Family. In the Novus Ordo last Sunday was Holy Family, while in the Vetus it was Sunday in the…
St. Philip Neri (+1595) was praying one night, as he often did, in the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. A ball of light came down from above and entered his mouth. He was so overwhelmed by the love of God that he cried out, “Enough, Lord! I cannot take anymore” and passed out. When he awoke,…
When I visit Rome, at least once during my time there I go to the Ara Pacis or “Altar of Peace” of the Emperor Augustus Caesar (+14), which is housed in dreadful building that looks like a gas station. I don’t go in to see the actual altar. What I revisit is the supporting wall…
This lovely liturgical season of Advent is more than a sentimental journey to the side of the manger with an ox and an ass and some straw strewn around for ambience. We Christians fast before our feasts with vigils and with whole seasons. Advent, dressed in violet and not white, is therefore penitential. We sing…
We might be tempted to ask rhetorically if there was ever a time in the Church when divisions in factions, disagreements between groups was ever so bad as now? On the 2nd Sunday of Advent we hear from Paul’s letter to the Romans. There had been sizeable Jewish community in Rome because of both 2nd…
This penultimate Sunday of the Liturgical Year brings us a pericope from Paul’s 1st Letter to the Thessalonians 1:2-10. Paul’s Letter could be one of his earliest, along with Galatians. Some scholars think it could be the earliest section of the New Testament. Thessalonica is in modern Greece. Paul visited there and converted both pagans…
Early on living in Rome I learned always to close doors so they latched and to block or latch windows, often the tall, vertical kind that meet in the middle. Why? Because when the wind is blowing, by opening a door in one area, the air flow changes, and – BAM! – a door or…
All good things come to their end other than the joy of Heaven. Just so, this series ends with a dive into the Epistle reading for the 24th and Last Sunday after Pentecost, the final Sunday before the beginning of a new liturgical year with the 1st Sunday of Advent. Our reading is from the…
As we approach the end of the liturgical year, an odd thing happens in the Church’s traditional calendar for the Vetus Ordo. The Sundays left over after Epiphany are finally dusted off, “resumed,” and prayed until the liturgical year is concluded. This is because of the vagaries of the Moon and shifting date of Easter…
We would have had a first selection from Philippians last week, the last Sunday of October, but the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost was superseded by the Feast of Christ the King in the Vetus calendar. Sunday’s reading from Philippians 3:17-21 and 4:1-3 is also used in the Vetus calendar on the Feast of St. Clement…
