The Church Year: Apr. 18, 2012

Today is Wednesday of the 2nd week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On April 18, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

There is no special fixed liturgical day in the Extraordinary Form.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

88. Prayer should “accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man.” Thus, it is highly recommended that the various forms of popular piety normally include biblical texts, opportunely chosen and duly provided with a commentary.

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The Church Year: Apr. 17, 2012

Today is Tuesday of the 2nd week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On April 17, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Anicetus, pope and martyr, who died in A.D. 166. It is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Anicetus, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

Word of God and Popular Piety

87. The Word of God, as transmitted by Sacred Scripture, as conserved and proposed by the Magisterium of the Church, and as celebrated in the Sacred Liturgy, is the privileged and indispensable instrument of the Holy Spirit in the faithfuls’ worship.

Since the Church is built on, and grows through, listening to the Word of God, the Christian faithful should acquire a familiarity with Sacred Scripture and be imbued with its spirit, so as to be able to translate the meaning of popular piety into terms worthy of, and consonant with, the data of the faith, and render a sense of that devotion that comes from God, who saves, regenerates and sanctifies.

The Bible offers an inexhaustible source of inspiration to popular piety, as well as unrivalled forms of prayer and thematic subjects. Constant reference to Sacred Scripture is also a means and a criterion for curbing exuberant forms of piety frequently influenced by popular religion which give rise to ambiguous or even erroneous expressions of piety.

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The 335 Years War?

Did You Know? Peace was declared on Apr. 17, 1986 between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly (off the Southwest coast of England), ending a “war” that had been going on since Mar. 30, 1651. It is said to have been extended by the lack of a peace treaty for 335 years without a single shot being fired and no casualties on either side. Sounds like a pretty Scilly affair to me. LEARN MORE.

Christianity = Communism ?

Last Sunday one of the readings was from Acts 4:32-35 . . .

The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.

This passages recalls one a couple of chapters earlier in Acts (2:44-47), which reads as follows:

All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

We’ve got a lot of communal property going on here, and not just between husbands and wives.

These passages raise a number of questions like . . . to what degree is Luke holding this situation up as a model for the Church in general? . . . what should we learn from this? . . . and does this mean that we should abolish private property?

How are we to sort through these questions?

I know!

Let’s ask the pope!

The Church Year: Apr. 16, 2012

Today is Monday of the 2nd week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On April 16, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

There is no special fixed liturgical day in the Extraordinary Form.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

86. On this priestly basis, popular piety assists the faithful in persevering in prayer and in praising God the Father, in witnessing to Christ (cf. Acts 2, 42-47), and in sustaining their vigilance until He comes again in glory. It also justifies our hope, in the Holy Spirit, of life eternal (cf. 1 Pet 3, 15) and conserves important aspects of a specific [ritual] context, and, in different ways and in varying degrees, expresses those ecclesial values which arise and develop within the mystical Body of Christ.

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The Church Year: Apr. 15, 2012

Today is the 2nd Sunday of Easter. The liturgical color is white.

In the Ordinary Form, this is Divine Mercy Sunday.

In the Extraordinary Form, it is Low Sunday.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On April 15, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

There is no special fixed liturgical day in the Extraordinary Form.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

Devotion to the Divine Mercy

154. In connection with the octave of Easter, recent years have witnessed the development and diffusion of a special devotion to the Divine Mercy based on the writings of Sr. Faustina Kowalska who was canonized 30 April 2000. It concentrates on the mercy poured forth in Christ’s death and resurrection, fount of the Holy Spirit who forgives sins and restores joy at having been redeemed. Since the liturgy of the Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday – as it is now called – is the natural locus in which to express man’s acceptance of the Redeemer’s mercy, the faithful should be taught to understand this devotion in the light of the liturgical celebrations of these Easter days. Indeed, “the paschal Christ is the definitive incarnation of mercy, his living sign which is both historico-salvific and eschatological. At the same time, the Easter liturgy places the words of the psalm on our lips: “I shall sing forever of the Lord’s mercy” (Ps 89[88] 2).”

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The Church Year: Apr. 14, 2012

Today is Saturday within the octave of Easter. The liturgical color is white.

 

Saints & Celebrations:

On April 14, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Justin, martyred at Rome, who died in A.D. 165. It is a Class III day.

In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St.s Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus, martyrs, who died in A.D. 229. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Justin, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St.s Tiburtius, Valerian, and Maximus, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

 

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

 

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

Common Priesthood and Popular Piety

85. Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, the faithful become part of the Church, a prophetic, priestly and royal people called to worship God in spirit and in truth (cf. John 4, 23). The Church exercises this task through Christ in the Holy Spirit, not only in the Sacred Liturgy, especially in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, but also in other forms of the Christian life, among which are numbered the various forms of popular piety. The Holy Spirit confers the ability to offer sacrifices of praise to God, to offer prayer and entreaty to Him, so as to make of one’s life “a living and holy sacrifice, pleasing to God” (Rm 12, 1; Heb 12, 28).

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