Planet Earth Blog
Selecting category "Catholicism". 11 posts on 2 pages found.
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Epiphany
January 6, 2021
Kings of the East, the Magi, famously journeyed from their countries to Bethlehem of Judea, following a star and bearing gifts for the newborn King of the Jews, Jesus the Christ. The Biblical account is brief, but these kings, these non-Jews, in their act of worshiping Jesus manifest to the world that Jesus will be […]
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2021
January 1, 2021
It arrived on time. This morning at midnight, a new year was born. Old 2020 packed it in and said goodnight while a fresh new 2021 said good morning. We were in Assumption Chapel, the air thick with incense, praying in the new year in front of the Blessed Sacrament surrounded by holy priests and […]
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The Twelve Days of Christmas
December 28, 2020
As I said in a previous post, Christmas is not just a single day — as the world and the retailers would have you believe. No. It is an entire season of days! This makes sense. It took four weeks of preparing during Advent to get to Christmas. So, why, after all that buildup and […]
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Favorite Christmas Movie
December 27, 2020
I have several favorite Christmas movies, but the most favorite of all is It’s a Wonderful Life. This is not only my favorite Christmas movie, but my favorite movie! We all know the story by heart, so there’s no need to repeat it. The question remains, though: Why do I love it so much? I […]
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Favorite Christmas Songs
December 23, 2020
I love Christmas songs, sacred and secular, but it’s important to distinguish, at the outset, between “Christmas” songs and “Winter” songs. Strangely, many “Winter” songs are considered “Christmas” songs and thus receive radio air-play only before and on Christmas Day. Christmas is actually a season consisting of many days not just one, but I’ll leave […]
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Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 20, 2020
Today begins the fourth and final week of Advent. On Christmas Eve at sundown or Vespers, we enter into Chrismastime or Christmastide. In this final stretch before the great feast of the Nativity of the Lord, we should be filled with hope. But what is hope and why should we have it now? According to […]
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Third Sunday of Advent
December 13, 2020
Today begins the third Sunday of Advent called Gaudete (Latin for “rejoice”) Sunday. The Church prescribes rose colored vestments today and on the third Sunday of Lent. The great feast of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, nears, only 12 days to go! That is a cause of rejoicing, indeed! This week is also the […]
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12, 2020
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and venerates the Blessed Virgin Mary under that title. On December 9, 1531, a peasant named Juan Diego experienced the first of five apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Tepeyac Hill near present day Mexico City. The beautiful, miraculous image of the Virgin […]
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Second Sunday of Advent
December 6, 2020
In the Gospel this Sunday, John the Baptist’s disciples seek out Jesus to ask if He is the One that is to come or should we expect another. Jesus replies in the language of the prophets of old: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, and […]
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First Sunday of Advent
November 29, 2020
Advent, a season of waiting, preparing, and hoping begins! Waiting for what? Waiting for Jesus to come at Christmas! But he already came, right? Yes, in history he came, and he will come again like he promised. But liturgically, we relive his first coming (the first Advent), and we anticipate with joy his second coming […]