Celebrating Liturgical Seasons
Growing by Experiencing the Feasts and Seasons of the Church Year
Advent Begins November 29!
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Ordinary Time
Christmas Time and Easter Time highlight the central mysteries of the Paschal Mystery, namely, the incarnation, death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Sundays and weeks of Ordinary Time, on the other hand, take us through the life of Christ. This is the time of conversion. This is living the life of Christ.
Ordinary Time is a time for growth and maturation, a time in which the mystery of Christ is called to penetrate ever more deeply into history until all things are finally caught up in Christ. The goal, toward which all of history is directed, is represented by the final Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. |
Thanksgiving: Gratitude Is a Prerequisite for Discipleship
by Joe Paprocki
As Thanksgiving is fast approaching, I’d like to share a few thoughts about gratitude.
Today, more than ever, we are hearing the term discipleship used in Catholic circles, as we seek to breathe new life into the Church and advance the New Evangelization. It occurs to me that a prerequisite for discipleship is an attitude of gratitude—a virtue that leads us away from cynicism, pessimism, and indifference and toward hope, faith, and love (charity). Read more. |
Thanksgiving love across the miles
Dear God of Love and Compassion,
Thank you for life-giving bread, beauty in nature, air, sunshine, water, and all nature’s resources! Thank you for the abundant blessings bestowed on me through my family and friends! Provident God, nothing can separate me from YOU, nor from my loved ones! Omnipresent God, link us with your love and care when we cyber-celebrate Thanksgiving across miles! Amen. |
In Gratitude
Thank you, Father, for having created us and given us to each other in the human family. Thank you for being with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort in our sadness, your companionship in our loneliness. Thank you for yesterday, today, tomorrow and for the whole of our lives. Thank you for friends, for health and for grace. May we live this and every day conscious of all that has been given to us. From The Catholic Prayer Book, compiled by Msgr. Michael Buckley |
Thanksgiving Prayer
For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Read more Prayers of Thanksgiving. |