Among Women Podcast #128 talks about the Liturgy of the Hours -- in less than an hour!

Among Women 128 features an conversation with writer-blogger Daria Sockey who is devoted to the Liturgy of the Hours and posts regularly about it on her blog Coffee and Canticles. Joins for a discussion on how you -- yes, you! -- can get started using this universal prayer of the Church this Lent.

This podcast also features a look at Blessed Jacoba's life and friendship with St. Francis of Assisi, plus an encouragement to stay informed about the fight for religious liberty over the HHS Mandate.

Listen today!

Christmas greetings... more than a day... a season, a life.

As far as I can tell, the first Christmas greeting ever mentioned in Scripture was not a Christmas card at all. It was more of a singing telegram sung by a choir of angels near the outskirts of Bethlehem where shepherds watched their flock by night. And as far as I know, those famous Magi bearing gifts for the Christ Child arrived after the fact… and their gifts represented not just a moment or a day in time, but a life to be lived, one that would develop and grow and bless many in its wake.

Enter the wisdom of the Church’s meditation on the Birth of Christ, giving us a sense that this blessed event was really a season… that we are entering into a new time, a new era.

A new order of life opened up that first Christmas night. And we have never been the same.

The Christmas season for the Christian is everything that comes after the birth of the Newborn King. Just like the life of a family celebrates the birth of a child after their arrival. This does not discount the advent of the child’s birth as unimportant. That is an important time of patient interior nurture. It anticipates the changes to come within the family, and allows time for appropriate preparations. But a birth brings external celebrations and excitement and blessed obligations. A birth initiates changes within all the relationships of the family, and beyond to the wider community.

The real joy is not just about a birth day, but the life that it represents… a tiny soul born with a profound destiny.

So in the spirit of birth announcements arriving after the birth, and the spirit of a continued season of wonder and joy as we welcome a newborn in our midst… 


Let us be about the holding and the hugging…  


Let us practice saying his name lovingly on our lips… 


Let us take turns embracing his family and kissing and cooing the warm bundle that is ours to share.

Let us linger over this somehow… like Mary did… by pondering these things in our hearts. Even if the rest of the material world is packing up Christmas, or selling it for 75% off, we can silently be assured that something more than day has passed. And something more remains.

Christ has truly entered in, for all time.

We have been given a new life in and through this Holy Babe. May we understand this, so many centuries later, that we have a Savior who, truly, anticipated our own births. And his loving gaze and outstretched arms still await our coming into full knowledge of our profound destiny.

May the grace of Christmas be yours for more than just one day, but every day. And may your New Year mark many days where Christ enters in.

How silently, how silently,

the wondrous Gift is given;

So God imparts to human hearts

the blessings of his heaven.

No ear may hear his coming,

but in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive him still,

the dear Christ enters in.

(O Little Town of Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks 1835-1893)

                                                                      

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Ready or Not Here Comes the New Translation of the Roman Missal. Lotsa Tips Here!!

Well, the clock is ticking toward the First Sunday of Advent on November 27. On that Sunday, the English-speaking churches of North America and elsewhere will begin using the updated or "new" third edition of the Roman Missal for its daily and Sunday Masses. We've not had such a large change in language since 1973 -- and that's before a lot of today's Catholics were born. So there's a period of transition ahead of all of us. And many folks are still not aware of the coming changes, so please help to spread the word.

This third edition of the New Roman Missal is not a change to the Rite of the Mass, but it has several changes to the wording of the prayers we are accustomed to within the liturgy. Therefore, things are going to feel and sound a little strange for a while until we all adjust.

Here at Among Women we talked about the New Missal with Jaymie Stuart Wolfe in the context of bringing familiarity with the changes to our families, most especially to our children.  Listen to Among Women 114 for discussion about the new missal.

I've also been doing a series at Patheos on the changes coming to the people's responses in the New Missal. You'll find the latest installment, "It's Not a New Mass, It's a New Translation", focusing on the Sanctus ("Holy, Holy, Holy") and the Mystery of Faith here. But here's an excerpt...

New Translation:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

There seems to only be the slight change in the opening line of the Sanctus, where the word “hosts” replaces the phrase “power and might.” 

This prayer comes at an important transition within the Mass, preparing our hearts to join with the priestly offering of the Eucharistic prayer. This hymn uses the thrice holy Hebrew superlative, praising the infinite and almighty God in heaven. The New Missal’s switch to using the word “hosts” more accurately reflects the Scriptural origins of this prayer. 

This hymn to God is taken directly from a heavenly vision from the prophet Isaiah. (See Is 6:3). What’s more, the vision vividly describes not just some angels present at the heaven liturgy; the word “host” refers to an army of angels lifting praises to God. 

“Host,” you may recall, also references the many angels who lit up the sky with their praises on the first Christmas night when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The shepherds were greeted by a multitude of “the heavenly host (Lk 2:13.)” 

This simple change in wording conveys powerful imagery and the truth of what is dynamically present to us in the liturgy. 

The Sanctus is the prayer of angels and we are privileged to join in their song. Heaven and earth are -- indeed -- full of God’s glory. And at this point in the Mass, we are but moments away from when heaven reaches down and touches earth in the form of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Go read the rest here.

Here are the other articles in the Patheos series:

The Translation: A Renewed Understanding of Love 

Missal Changes, Part One: Defined By Prayer (On the Opening and Penitential Rites) 

Mass Changes, Part Two: The Gloria and the Creed 

It's Not a New Mass, It's a New Translation (Part Three: The Sanctus and the Mystery of Faith) 

Other helpful resources:

Resources available for free: 

USCCB: Welcoming the Roman Missal 

Changes in the People’s Parts 

Catholic TV’s series: “Preparing for the New Roman Missal” – video recordings of a symposium for priests. 

Liturgy Essentials from Pauline Books and Media  - I especially like Sr. Anne's 7 min video on her insights on the New Missal.

Life Teen's Video Series Introducing the New Missal 

OSV’s Roman Mission revision readiness plan – helpful suggestions on how to  prepare for the new translation. 

Podcast: iPadre - Fr. Jay Finelli interviews Fr. James P. Moroney, an expert who is traveling the country introducing the New Roman Missal.  

Resources available for purchase: 

Books on the Missal  -- even for kids! -- from Pauline Books and Media

A New Translation for a New Roman Missal – DVD set featuring talks by Fr. James Moroney of Vox Clara. 

The Mass Explained -- book by Fr James Moroney 

The Church’s Common Treasure – A booklet produced by the USCCB containing 11 essays exploring the history and purpose of the new translation.

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Veteran Homeschool Moms "Living the Liturgical Year" in a new blog

Here's a plug: I know these gals. They've got a pretty good blog launch going on for a pair of new media neophytes. Go welcome their arrival to the blogosphere, check 'em out, and leave a comment. (Tell them Pat sent you.) Or, better yet, check out their blog AND listen to their conversation with me on last week's AW podcast.

I'm already EXCITED by Magnificat -- Now I'm THRILLED by the APP!!

How do you make a great resource like the Magnificat even better?  You make an APP for it.

Okay, there's Universalis, and others, I know, in terms of Apps.  But Magnificat has been clearly my favorite print resource for years, and now I've got a digital version when I'm in a wi-fi environment, using my iTouch.  (No, I don't have an iPhone yet... trying to keep the family phone bill down during these college-payin' years. Let's not even talk about the iPad... but I digress.)

What's not to love?

Among Women Podcast #54

This week's podcast features a discussion centered on ways to live out the liturgical year in your home and parish.  Pat's guests are Anne Gray and Barbara Whitlock who share their ideas and experiences from their newly launched blog, Living the Liturgical Year.

Pat also teaches about the life of Mary's mom, St Anne, and the Church Father's ideas about the sun and the moon in the mysterium lunae.  


This is the last week to take the Among Women Survey!!!