It is a national holiday in numerous historically Catholic countries. Attending a mass is the most common All Saints Day tradition within the Catholic Church. The Beatitudes are read during mass, and prayers are said for the Saints. Many visit the grave sites of loved ones and relatives to ...
St. Patrick's Day marks the day Saint Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, died in 461, but many of the lively traditions we know today began with Irish Americans.
I believe that Bible is God’s inspired Word, and therefore is to be our chief guide both for faith and life. In my opinion, nothing in this world tells us more authoritatively what the church ought to be than Christian Scripture. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox believers would agree ...
This Christmas Eve seafood feast is an Italian American tradition that dates back to an immigration wave in the 1900s.
Hurricanes initially were named in honor of the feast day for a Catholic saint. For instance, Hurricane San Felipe occurred on Sept. 13, 1876, or the feast day of Saint Phillip, according to theNational Hurricane Center. Hurricanes that struck on the same day would be distinguished by a suf...
Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption. Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1950, stipulating that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly gl...
Here it is. I say, pretty talented! Fr. Z kudos. __ 13 December was the darkest day – with the least length of sunlight – of the old Julian calendar. Hence, it was once the Winter Solstice. Today in the Gregorian calendar is the feast of St. Lucy, whose name from the Latin lu...
Happy Ember Day. I suppose you are about to post the Kalendas for Christmas. I have a related question that perhaps you would like to address. Do you know how the date for the creation of the world was derived? It is quite a bit shorter than the patriarchal timeline of the Biblical ge...
the coming of Jesus. The feast day of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist is celebrated exactly six months before that of the celebration of Christ’s birth.) Folks celebrated by feasting, dancing, singing, and preparing for the hot summer days ahead.Learn more about Midsummer Day. ...
What is the Church for?If a member of an uncontacted tribe entered a typical Catholic parish today, how long would it take him to learn an accurate answer to that question? Recently, Fr. James Grant wrote in these pages aboutputting the parish mission into action. He points out clear prob...