Feast of The Holy Family & the Liturgical Calendar

[Edited since posting.]

In the traditional calendar, today we celebrate The Holy Family: Our Blessed Lord, Our Blessed Mother and Patron of the Universal Church, Saint Joseph…

From the Collect:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, who, being subject to Mary and Joseph, didst sanctify home life with ineffable virtues: grant that, with the aid of both, we may be taught by the example of Thy Holy Family, and attain to eternal fellowship with them.”

At Mass today, our celebrant made a very interesting point. He said Our Lord could have come into the world in any way He chose, but He chose to come through a family, the way we all do. This illustrates how sacred the family is. We must remember this, in a culture which has done everything in its power to destroy it, the most recent effort being the physical separation of loved ones (from visiting restrictions in healthcare facilities to quarantines imposed upon those who would dare cross state lines on a holiday which may be the last one our elderly parents or terminally ill family members have). My own family has been suffering as well, with these inhuman orders. Whatever you may think about covid, we are creating a world that no one is going to want to live in. When the fear of death overtakes life itself, it’s time to reconsider what we are doing.

This feast also marks the last Sunday of Christmastide, which began on Christmas Eve. This is arguably, the day to put away your creche and toss your Christmas tree.* In the traditional liturgical calendar, there are 2 parts of the Liturgical Year: The Christmas Cycle and The Easter Cycle. One celebrates the Mystery of the Incarnation and the other, the Mystery of the Redemption. We begin the year with Advent and proceed to Christmastide and Season After the Epiphany. The Easter Cycle, with Season After Septuagesima, begins on Septuagesima Sunday. We will keep track this year, on this blog, of where we are in the liturgical calendar. This is something most Catholics are not well-versed in, but it is an essential aspect of the Catholic life, upon which a truly Catholic culture depends. If “The Authentic Life,” is a Catholic society, the liturgical calendar is of fundamental importance, which should be taught joyfully to our children!

* An idea I recently came across from The Old Farmer’s Almanac, is to dispose of your Christmas tree in the woods, where animals can use it for shelter over the winter. I thought this was a great idea, until I realized there are probably fines for doing this. Anyway, just puttin the idea out there…BTW, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is a resource I cannot say enough good things about-they even mention Catholic feasts sometimes! The topics they deal with are weather, astronomy, gardening, cooking, health, homemaking, sustainability and preparedness. Check out their site right now for the “2021 Garden Planner,” email newsletter, online store and more…and find out what a hugelkultur is!

August: Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!”

~ Our Lady of Fatima ~

In this month of the Immaculate Heart, we begin on the 1st, with the First Saturday, which is a devotion in reparation to this very Heart. What a great time to begin the “Communion of Reparation,” given to us by Our Lady of Fatima. If your church is not doing this, why not help them start it? Otherwise, you can look at: First Saturdays At Home. Regarding Marian-related feasts, we have St. Alphonsus Liguori (famously authored The Glories of Mary) also beginning the month…..St. Dominic, the Assumption, St. Joachim (he is honored together with Our Lady immediately following the Assumption) and a double Marian feast on the 22nd, which includes the trad feast of the Immaculate Heart. We also have another saint devoted to Mary, St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died on the Vigil of the Assumption. He was starved at Auschwitz, but would not die, so he was given a lethal injection. How appropriate a day to die for one who early in life, created a Marian apostolate, “Militia Immaculatae.” I have noticed something in my research that I have not seen mentioned anywhere…he started the apostolate in 1917, just 3 days after the “Miracle of the Sun,” witnessed by thousands at Fatima. I wonder if that great event spurred him on to create his ministry. Let us give honor and reparation to Our Mother’s dear heart this month. There are so many ways to do this-please find something that resonates for you and your family.

This month shows us 3 Doctors of the Church and also the Transfiguration of Our Lord. These are just some highlights of Holy Church’s month of August. Its always good to look at the coming weeks to plan your spiritual life…..

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1-First Saturday / St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor, ”Prince of Moralists, Most Zealous Doctor, Patron of Confessors & Moral Theologians” (new)

2-St. Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor (trad)

4-St. John Vianney (new-I saw his heart once!) / St. Dominic, Seer of the Holy Rosary

6-TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD

7-First Friday

8-St. John Vianney (trad)

11-St. Clare of Assisi, her actual name was Chiara (my name-I am named after my grandmother who was born in Sicily), also known as Clara (new)

12-St. Clare of Assisi (trad)

14-Vigil of Assumption / St. Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Charity under Hitler

15-ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (not a holy day of obligation this year in the US)

16-St. Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary

20-St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor, ”The Mellifluous Doctor, Oracle of the 12th Century, Thaumaturgus of the West, Arbiter of Christendom, Last of the Fathers”

22-Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary / Immaculate Heart of Mary

24-St. Bartholomew, Apostle

28-St. Augustine, Doctor, ”Doctor of Grace, Doctor of Doctors”

This blog gives old and new feasts. The titles of the Doctors of the Church are taken from The 35 Doctors of the Church,TAN Books.

June is the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

This week, we have talked about “Mary, Mother of the Church” and the Ember Days of Summer in the Octave of Pentecost (prayer and penance for the coming season). What else do we have to look forward to in this Month of June? Let’s look at a sampling, as we normally do….

Trinity Sunday is both an old and new feast. In the old, it marks the end of Eastertide and the beginning of the Season After Pentecost. However, we are still celebrating the Mystery of the Redemption, as we are still in the Easter Cycle, the Second Part of the Liturgical Year. A new Liturgical Year begins at Advent, when we contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation.

We have several feasts of Our Lord this month and one for Our Lady. I get excited every June, when we celebrate the “back-to-back” feasts of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart. Let’s think in advance how we will honor these feasts together. We can be celebratory, since the Sacred Heart is a Solemnity! We honor 3 Doctors of the Church and several Apostles as well.

What can we do to give glory to the Sacred Heart of Jesus this month? We can educate ourselves about St. Margaret Mary and the Devotion that was given to her. Please see link on our last post and link below. The Sacred & Immaculate Hearts at EWTN, has a variety of wonderful prayers. One of Our Lord’s “12 Promises of the Sacred Heart” to St. Margaret Mary was:  “I will bless those places wherein the image of my Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated.” If you do not already have this image in a place of honor in your home, that would be a great little project this month!

7-Trinity Sunday

9-St. Ephrem of Syria, Doctor

11-Corpus Christi

13-St. Anthony of Padua, Doctor

14-Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ (new version of Corpus Christi), St. Basil the Great, Doctor

18-St. Ephrem of Syria, Doctor (trad)

19-Most Sacred Heart of Jesus-Solemnity, no penance

20-Immaculate Heart of Mary

23-Vigil of St. John the Baptist

24-Nativity of St. John the Baptist (my 25th wedding anniversary:)

26-Sts. John & Paul

27-St. Cyril of Alexandria, Doctor

28-Vigil of Sts. Peter & Paul

29-Sts. Peter & Paul

30-Commemoration of St. Paul

We provide both old and new feasts.

Image courtesy Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in London-please read their page on the Sacred Heart.

A New Marian Feast Today!

“When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.”

John 19:26

On February 11, 2018, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (sadly, Lourdes is now closed*-get your Lourdes water while you still can!), the Church instituted this wonderful new Marian feast! From “Vatican News,” March 3rd, 2018:

“Pope Francis has decreed that the ancient devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Mother of the Church, be inserted into the Roman Calendar. The liturgical celebration, B. Mariæ Virginis, Ecclesiæ Matris, will be celebrated annually as a Memorial on the day after Pentecost. In a decree released…by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Robert Sarah, its Prefect, said the Pope’s decision took account of the tradition surrounding the devotion to Mary as Mother of the Church. He said the Holy Father wishes to promote this devotion in order to ‘encourage the…growth of genuine Marian piety’. The decree reflects on the history of Marian theology in the Church’s liturgical tradition and the writings of the Church Fathers...Scripture, the decree says, depicts Mary at the foot of the Cross…There she became the Mother of the Church when she ‘accepted her Son’s testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple, as sons and daughters to be reborn unto life eternal.’ “

For full article, including the official document: Pope institutes new celebration of Mary, Mother of Church

From the Mass:

O happy Virgin, you gave birth to the Lord
O blessed Mother of the Church
You warm our hearts with the Spirit of your Son Jesus Christ

For more info on the Mass, see USCCB’s page: Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

What a blessing to have this feast at this particular time! Never before has the Church needed Our Holy Mother’s help more. Let us pray a Rosary tonight or some special prayers to Our Lady, a litany, or start a novena. In prayer, we have the greatest power!

*Someone over at Catholic Answers Forums just informed me Lourdes has partially reopened. More info.

Image courtesy http://carmelitenuns.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/mary-mother-of-the-church-343x300.jpg

"Your Cross"

"The Everlasting God, has in His wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you, as a gift from His inmost Heart. This cross He now sends you, He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large, and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His Holy Name, anointed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from Heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful Love of God." ~Saint Francis de Sales

It is the new feast of Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622). What a beautiful meditation on peace within suffering he wrote. Saint Francis, Bishop of Geneva, himself suffered much at the end of his fruitful life, and with final perseverance won his heavenly reward-eventually achieving the title of Saint and Doctor of Holy Mother Church.