Sacred Heart and Advent

Advent begins on Sunday. It is the traditional time of preparation for both comings of Jesus: it’s a memorial of His first coming as a baby as well as an anticipation of His Second Coming in Triumph to judge all nations and history. This latter is obvious if you pray the Liturgy of the Hours …

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The St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena begins Nov 30th!

Annual post: The St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena begins November 30th. It is piously believed that if you say this prayer fifteen times a day from November 30th (The Feast Day of St. Andrew, the Apostle) until December 24th, you will obtain what you prayed for. I think that the usual conditions apply: that it be …

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Random thoughts on Advent

Today begins Advent, that season on the Church’s liturgical calendar in which we prepare for Christmas. It is more than that. This isn’t just some kind of nice symbolic commemoration of Our Savior’s birth 2,000 years ago. If you pay attention to the Mass readings for the past month, and especially if you pray the …

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St. Martin of Tours: Patron St. of Reformed Alcoholics

Today is November 11, the Feast of St. Martin of Tours. His hagiography his readily available online (just look him up) but one thing that intrigued me about him is one particular aspect of it. He is frequently referred to as a “Patron St. of Reformed Alcoholics.”  I have no idea why, except for references …

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The Coming of the Lord

The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. Although the obvious point of the season is the Nativity of Jesus, the Mass readings in the weeks leading up to Advent and then in Advent itself serve to remind us that there is not one, but two comings of …

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Bringing to Light all Things Hidden

In the Office of Readings for Tuesday, 34th Week of Ordinary Time we read an excerpt from “A treatise of St Augustine on St John’s gospel – You will come to the spring and see light itself”: “When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ comes and, as the apostle Paul says, brings to light things hidden …

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St. Andrew Christmas Novena

Advent started today, and tomorrow, November 30th is the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. Associated with the Feast is an old tradition known as the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. To do this, you say 15 times a day from St. Andrew’s Day until Christmas: “Hail and blessed be the hour and moment at which …

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Christmas 2019 in this Dark Age

Merry Christmas to all my Sober Catholic readers; I hope your Advent season bore much spiritual fruit in your lives as you prepared for this day, the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If any of you paid attention to the Mass readings during Advent or even to the Office of Readings in the Liturgy …

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Turn the Page

Today is the end of the Church year. Sunset marks the Vigil of the First Sunday of Advent; that liturgical season when we prepare for the Coming of Christ. We remember His first Coming, the time of His Incarnation as a humble, innocent little babe, dependent on human parents and raised like any other child …

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Ember Days for Advent

Last September I mentioned the traditional liturgical practice of Ember Days. This week marks the series of days for Advent. They fall today, December 19th and this Friday and Saturday, December 21st and 22nd. From the Catholic Encyclopedia on New Advent: “Ember days (corruption from Lat. Quatuor Tempora, four times) are the days at the …

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