Translating Scripture is a notoriously difficult enterprise. Not only can someone confront the challenge of rendering ancient idioms and vocabulary into a modern one, there is the perennial debate between dynamic equivalence and a literal translation of Sacred Scripture. Personally,…
When I was in Seminary, I remember the other guys laughing once in a while about those Optional Memorials on the Liturgical Calendar which no one, until then, had ever heard about. Quite a few Saints get left in the…
We often forget in the life of Our Lord Jesus just how much of the promises made about the Messiah were fulfilled in the context of his own cultic commitments as a pious Jew. There are so many great writers…
EDIT: As I was setting up my Breviary for Lent, I noticed that the name of Ash Wednesday in the Latin is in fact Feria IV Cinerum, which does NOT have the significance I thought it did previously. I apologize…
The 14th of September marks the beginning of Liturgical Autumn in the Roman Calendar, with the Feast of the Exultation/Triumph of the Holy Cross. This feast was established in the 4th century, but also commemorates the 7th century victory over…
Although I love all parts of the Church’s calendar, the Feasts of the month of August liturgically have always been a favorite for me. Especially granted the “dog days” of summer are nestled almost precisely in the annual midpoint between…
Although the Epiphany Octave has been abolished for over fifty years in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, it seems as if the Ordinary Form can hardly do without it; the Divine Office and other liturgical texts constantly point…
After the Octave of Christmas and its attendant celebrations, it is sometimes easy to forget the subtle but powerful sense of expectation which is conveyed in the last days of Advent. The “days after Christmas” before the Epiphany seem rather…
The Liturgical Traditions surrounding Advent have mystified me, in the truest sense of the word, for decades. Unfortunately, because they are wedded in most people’s minds to traditions proper to Christmas, it is difficult, unless true effort is made, to…
Trinity Sunday is always that Sunday which makes theologically literate people cringe. Some people used to call it ‘Heresy Sunday’ or something similar, because so many Priests and Deacons seemed unable to articulate in a convincing, cogent way the Supreme…