Note: This Rejoice, O Queen of Heaven, is a re-post from last Easter, 2022. I hope we’re in a much better place this time, well, we are at least in some ways. Happy Easter to you!
+JMJ+ A traditional prayer of the Church is the Angelus, prayed three times a day: 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, and 6:00 pm. During the Easter season this prayer is replaced by the Regina Caeli, below.
Continue reading “Rejoice O Queen of Heaven, a re-post”
+JMJ+ This Easter Vigil marked my twenty seventh anniversary as a Catholic. Still in love with the Lord and His Holy Church. Still the best thing that ever happened to me and that I’ve ever done.
Continue reading “A Very Happy and Blessed Easter to You and Yours”
+JMJ+ I can’t believe it’s already here but it is. Holy Week, and Monday almost gone as I write this. I want to go back, I want to do a better job of preparing. But the days of the calendar keep pressing forward and so I must, too. Here are some things that I think will help me—and you—enter more fully into this Holy Week, and even beyond into the rest of the year.
Continue reading “Praying Through Holy Week”
+JMJ+ Have a blessed Holy Week, y’all.
Come, and as we make our way up to the Mount of Olives, let us go out to meet Christ, who is returning today from Bethany, and of his own will makes haste towards his most venerable and revered passion, whereby he will bring to fulfillment the mystery of the salvation of mankind.
Continue reading “Holy Week is here, y’all!”
+JMJ+ Holy Week will soon be here but there is still time to prepare. Even if you are not being received into Holy Church at this time, you can still take part in the vigil and you can make it even more meaningful this time around by taking time to meditate and reflect on what our brothers and sisters experienced in the Early Church and down through the centuries. One way to do that is to listen to Mike Aquilina’s podcast, Way of the Fathers, the episode The Mother of All Vigils. YouTube link below.
Continue reading “Getting Ready for the Mother of All Vigils “
+JMJ+ Last night we prayed the Rosary to cultivate a civilization of Love and Life and to end the culture of death, but also in honor of the Annunciation. I post a thread before the Rosary itself of things to help us prepare for our meditation, a kind of meditation before our meditation: parts of the Divine Office, images of the saint of the day, things like that. Last night I posted some images of paintings of the Annunciation. You can see that prep, and the Rosary thread that followed it, on my Twitter page. The link to that thread and many others are also on the Rosary Project Live Archives page. You can also visit the First Joyful Mystery page in the Rosary Project on the blog, available to you 24/7/365.
Continue reading “Happy and Blessed Solemnity of the Annunciation”
+JMJ+ A blessed feast day of Saint Joseph to you! And happy first day of Spring. Here we in the fourth week of Lent. Hasn’t this Lent flown by? My sister sent me a gift card for Christmas and I’m just now using it. What did I get? One book, so far: The Silent Knight: A History of St. Joseph as Depicted in Art, by my favorite art historian and one of my all-time favorite speakers, period, Dr. Elizabeth Lev. I only bought the book today and I haven’t begun to read it yet, so how can I recommend it to you? Well, first, did I mention it’s by Liz Lev? And I’ve watched some interesting interviews about it (see below), so I am looking forward to digging into it. In keeping with the art of Saint Joseph theme I’m going to include a few of my favorite paintings of him.
Continue reading “Happy feast day of Saint Joseph”
+JMJ+ I’ve mentioned before that my favorite daily meditations, after the Mass readings and the breviary, come from the series In Conversations with God by Francis Fernandez Carvajal. I was reading in it tonight and this passage jumped out at me.
Continue reading “We are not our own best advisers”
+JMJ+ Greetings! Here we are at the second week of Lent already. I’ve made an extra effort to remember what I’m doing this time, fasting and abstinence. And I’ve managed to mostly keep to it. Mostly. Old habits are hard to break. And I’ve spent the past couple of days dealing with illness. But then I stumbled upon some videos about babies whose mothers are addicted to some serious drugs and their babies go through some awful withdrawal after they’re born. Looking at my suffering after that? No comparison. (These poor little ones really grabbed my attention and my heart this weekend. Be forewarned. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. So here’s tonight’s post.)
Continue reading “For the suffering”
+JMJ+ And the winner is… Marcia Geraghty! I’ll send out an announcement via email and social media posts, too. Just email me your shipping address, Marcia, and I’ll get your copy of In Conversation with God, Volume 2, sent to you ASAP!
Continue reading “Announcing the winner of the Giveaway Lent 2023”(Note: This giveaway has ended, winner will be announced tonight, March 3. View other giveaways.)
+JMJ+ Tonight I decided to give away a copy of In Conversation with God, Volume 2: Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide, published by Scepter. It’s going to be a quick giveaway so the winner will have time to use it during Lent. See the Lent 2023 Giveaway page for more info and the email form to use to enter the giveaway. See past giveaways.
Continue reading “Time for another giveaway! (Ended)”
+JMJ+ During His forty days in the desert Jesus undid the temptations of the fall: pleasures, possessions and pride* and He did so by resisting the temptation to eat, to rule all the kingdoms of the world (I did giggle when the Devil offered that to Christ the King of the Universe), and to exalt Himself (as if He could exalt Himself anymore than He already was exalted, what with being God and all). Lent gives us a chance to join Him in overcoming our ancient enemy and his tactics, his temptations, and overcoming our weakness. And do we ever come face to face with our own weakness during Lent!
Continue reading “What will I give up for Lent”
Catholic Heart and Mind 