The Week Ahead - Keeping Up With All The Feasts

There are a number of important feast days in the upcoming week. I would like to make posts about each one, but I am predicting that I will not end up having the time due to this being a very busy week for me. I will try, but I figured that, just in case, I would write one quick post here mentioning them and encourage everyone to take some time each day to observe the celebrations of these Holy men and women.

Monday, December 7th is the Feast of St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.

Tuesday, December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a holy day of obligation in the United States.

Wednesday, December 9th is the Feast of Blessed Juan Diego, the man to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared.

Saturday, December 12th is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas.

A great way to keep up with all of these wonderful feast days is to check out the website Catholic Culture. Visit their site and click the link "Liturgical Year" at the top of the homepage. They have tons of great information about the liturgical celebrations of the Church. One feature I especially like on their site is their "Things To Do" section for some feast days. They give ideas for ways of celebrating the feast days, including cultural traditions, links to websites, and even recipes.

Another great way to keep up with all of these Feasts is to have a book, such as a Lives of the Saints book to read daily. I have been very lucky lately to obtain a couple of great books that have a vast amount of information about the Church's liturgical traditions. Both of the books are pretty old, so they may not be easy to acquire, but if you can get your hands on them, I would highly recommend them.

The first is titled Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs; The Year of the Lord in Liturgy and Folklore by Francis X. Weiser. Originally published in 1952, my copy was printed in 1958. It is filled with historical and cultural facts about the Church's liturgical celebrations.

The second is the first volume of the set of books called The Church's Year of Grace by Dr. Pius Parsch. A good friend recently gave me this book. I haven't read much of it yet, but I can tell you that it has a ton of great information about the Church's liturgical life. The volume I have spans from Advent to Candlemas. Each day has its own entry with information about the prayers and mass for the day. It does, of course, not follow the modern Roman calendar exactly since it was written before the Second Vatican Council, but the information it contains is still wonderful.

I believe that we as Catholics are called to more than just attending mass on Sundays. We need to be a part of the liturgical life of the Church, which will lead us, as St. Paul exhorted us, to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). By observing the feasts of the Church and sharing the traditions of the Church with our families, we will be learning more about our faith and strengthening our relationship with Our Lord.

Have a great week!