Catholic

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year to all! Let’s start the year with some happy and beautiful things.

1. This is the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord, and Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Get your liturgical calendar for 2014 (for the United States) from the USCCB, linked here. 

2. Did you know that the title of Mary as Theotokos, God-bearer, goes back to about 60 AD? There is also an ancient and beautiful hymn, We Fly to thy Protection, or Sub Tuum Praesidium, that goes back to about 250 and includes the Theotokos title.

3. There are so many wonderful depictions of Mary in art. There is also a legend that Luke was an artist and painted a portrait of Our Lady. Here is a discussion of this story and some icons and paintings associated with it.

Mary Immaculate

Feast of Saint Andrew

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Happy Feast of Saint Andrew!

Here are some facts and early traditions about St. Andrew, from Jimmy Akin, and more traditions and patronage information from saints.sqpn.com .

There is a very beautiful Christmas Novena starting today, here. God is not a cosmic vending machine, and he answers prayers only as is best for his designs. But sometimes… The whole homily is good, but you can start at 7:40.

A Fine Month to Think About Death

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windowprint3

This is a print of the dust that flew off of a bird, probably a dove, that flew into a window. The print was old so the bird was nowhere to be seen. The second photo is a crop of the first. The third was taken with an Olloclip macro lens on an iPhone. You can see the tiny structures of the feathers by the superfine dust outline. No feathers are photographed here, only dust.

In November when we celebrate All Saints and All Souls, it is good to think about the suddenness of death. Here are two good columns from Cardinal Wuerl on the subject of death:

http://cardinalsblog.adw.org/2013/11/preparing-for-the-grace-of-a-good-death/
http://cardinalsblog.adw.org/2013/11/god-of-mercy/

and another from Msgr. Charles Pope on the beauty of the Requiem Mass.
http://blog.adw.org/2013/11/thoughts-on-the-traditional-latin-requiem-mass-not-really-as-dark-or-dreadful-as-many-say/