Beating the Bounds: the Joy of the Rogation Days
Processions take the Faith from inside the churches, and bring it out to where the majority of people are.
The Pre-55 Paschal Feast of St. Joseph
Instituted by Pope Pius IX in 1847.
Forgotten Customs of the Easter Octave and Eastertide
Easter itself is an 8-day celebration, and even after the Octave concludes on Low Sunday, the Easter Season lasts for a total of fifty days until the completion of Ascensiontide and the celebration of Pentecost Sunday. This period of time, especially for the Octave of Easter, is enriched with many rich customs all expressing the…
Forgotten Customs of St. Joseph
"I never knew any one who was particularly devout to him, that did not continually advance more and more in virtue."
Forgotten Customs of Lent
The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should men grow remiss in their observance…
Forgotten Customs of Septuagesima
Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore…
Forgotten Customs of Epiphanytide
O God, of Whose mercies there is no number, and of Whose goodness the treasure is infinite: we render thanks to Thy most gracious Majesty for the gifts Thou hast bestowed upon us, always beseeching Thy clemency; that as Thou grantest the petitions of them that ask Thee, Thou wilt never forsake them, but wilt…
Forgotten Customs of Christmas Time
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad before the face of the Lord: because He cometh (Psalm 95:13,11 Taken from the Offertory Verse of the First Mass of Christmas) At the first stroke of midnight on December 25th, the Church in her Sacred liturgy bursts forth in joyous celebration for the birth…
Forgotten Customs of the Immaculate Conception
Above: the traditional Baile de los Seises in Spain for the Immaculate Conception. The feast of the Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception is the most solemn of all those which the Church celebrates during the holy time of Advent; and if the first part of the cycle had to offer us the commemoration of some one…
Posadas Navideñas: Filipino Advent
The festive Filipino disposition: non-Hispanic traditionalists might dismiss it as ‘spectacle.'
Thanksgiving and the New England Inheritance
The year decays, November’s blastThrough leafless boughs pipes shrill and drear;With warmer love the home clasps fastThe hands, the hearts, the friends most dear. On many seas men sail the fleetOf hopes as fruitless as the foam;They roam the world with restless feet,But find no sweeter spot than home. To-day with quickened hearts they hearOld…