Even if the original Pentecost event was credited with a daily increase in numbers (Acts 2:47), this number 400 is not good news – neither for this Pentecost, nor for the planet, nor for Pentecosts to come.
Archive for category Liturgical year
Pentecost at 400
May 18
When the solemnity of Mother’s Day falls on the Ascension of the Lord, which takes precedence?
I invite you to join me in entering and living, in prayer, this rich tradition in these days before Pentecost.
If Lent were a competitive sport, Rachel Held Evans would win this year. She gets points for creativity, vulnerability, simplicity, and a distinctly Paschal practice. Luckily, Lent, like origami, isn’t a competitive sport.
Tantum ergo
Mar 28
How my grandmother taught me about Aquinas.
A Palm Sunday Near You
Mar 27
Videos and service leaflets are beginning to appear across the Internet from last Sunday’s Palm Sunday Services. What did you do in your parish?
Veiling for Passion Time
Mar 26
“The veiling of crosses and images is a sort of ‘fasting’ from sacred depictions which represent the paschal glory of our salvation.”
- USCCB
In his book The Long Dark Winter’s Night: Reflections of a Priest in a Time of Pain and Privilege, Father Philip Bergquist, formerly of St. Raphael Catholic Church in Fairbanks, Alaska, uses the metaphor of living through the long Alaskan winter to describe his own struggles with the crisis gripping the Roman Catholic church over the sexual abuse committed by priests and the reactions of bishops to that abuse. Theologically, it is a liturgical treatise on Good Friday, filled with stories and reflections about how a Church Grieving meets its suffering Savior at the foot of the cross, “where heaven’s hope and humanity’s wounds meet.”
Since the Fifth Sunday of Lent this year falls on March 17, the feast of St Patrick, you may find it helpful to have a good source of information on Patrick. With so many later accumulated customs and traditions, it’s good to get back to the basics!
As I’m preparing for the imminent arrival of my third child, this week is going to be rather busy! I’d like to share a reflection on another impending moment of imminent (liturgical) birth from Aemiliana Löhr.