Learn how to pray the Divine Office together with your kids through bedtime prayers. The church was dark except for the flicker of candlelight. As a group of clergy sang Compline, one priest got up and knelt in the center of the sanctuary before the altar: “In manus tuas, Dómine, Comméndo spíritu meum,” his lone…
Discover five powerful lessons for Catholics today from Zita’s life as wife, mother, and servant of God. The last Catholic empire crumbled under Zita’s feet, her husband died an untimely death in exile, and she raised eight children on her own. She wore only black for over 60 years for she had much to mourn…
Septuagesima is the perfect time to get your spiritual reading in order! What is Septuagesima? Septuagesima is the short penitential season (a mere three weeks or so) leading up to Lent. It begins on Septuagesima Sunday. Septuagesima is the Latin word for seventy, meaning from that Sunday there are approximately 70 days until Easter (really,…
A Traditional Catholic Holy Water for Expectant Mothers and the Sick The first thing I do when I find out I’m pregnant is go to a priest for a special pregnancy blessing and bring some water with me so that he can bless it in honor of Bl. Torello of Poppi. Did you know that…
5 Tips for keeping the 12 Days of Christmas and Beyond In American culture, Christmas seems to be over December 26. The lights come down, people stop saying “Merry Christmas!”, and the trees find their way to the curb. The bleak midwinter of January hits but none of the Christmas cheer promised in songs of…
5 untraditional tidbits about the Advent wreath and why I still make one As a teenager, I remember a Lutheran friend sharing an Advent wreath she had made at church. This surprised me, as I had known it to be a longstanding Catholic tradition. “Good for them,” I thought. Only some years later did I…
The history and meaning of the Paradeisl, a traditional Catholic precursor to the Advent Wreath. Yet again we’re lighting the dark days of Advent by a Paradeisl. A what? A Paradeisl, from the German word for “paradise,” calling to mind the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden and the need for redemption. The…
Having briefly considered why Latin is a holy and venerable language in its own right, we should also consider its practical benefits. Now there is a whole multitude of practical benefits for using so sacred a language, but I would like to focus on one, for it is one particularly relevant to my own life—and…
“…et erat scriptum hebraice graece et latine”“…and it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin.” (John 19:20) While Latin might prove useful for liturgical use in innumerable ways, it is a sacred language first and foremost because it was chosen by the hand of Divine Providence. As Msgr. Nikolaus Gihr wrote, “the Latin language…
“What accents did I utter unto Thee in those Psalms, and how was I kindled towards Thee, and on fire to rehearse them, if possible, through the whole world, against the pride of mankind.” -St. Augustine, Confessions If you’ve been wanting to start praying the traditional Divine Office, but are feeling a bit overwhelmed, The Little Office…