Sexagesima and Quinquagesima These are the names of the second and third Sundays in Shrovetide, which were on 4 and 11 February in 2024—in other words, the next-to-last and last Sundays before Lent, respectively. Rendered literally from the Latin, they mean “sixtieth” and “fiftieth.” Because Sundays are counted out for the forty days’ fast of Lent, the Sunday right before Ash Wednesday is fifty days before Easter. The names of Sexagesima and Seputagesima are derived by rounding the seven days... Read more

Mark Is a Land Contrasts Finally getting this out, a mere sixteen days after Mark 1.21-28 was actually used as our Mass Gospel! Hoping to catch up to where we now are by, or perhaps on, Ash Wednesday. Speaking of Mark: as we’re now in Year B, I recently wrote us a brief intro to this Gospel. However, that was mostly about the provenance and style of the book; it occurred to me only a few days ago that I... Read more

Why “Groundhog Day” Is Secretly a Catholic Film Okay, I’m not really going to do one of those. But I do want to talk about Candlemas, which is the feast that falls on yesterday’s date (and whose themes could, maybe, have influenced the observance of Groundhog Day via the German Catholic immigrants who more or less brought it here1). I hesitate to say that Candlemas is an important feast—only one of the Gospels, Luke, so much as mentions it, and... Read more

The Gospel for the What Now? This post continues the topic from my last, i.e. the Gospel of Mark, and more particularly the bits of it read on most Sundays of January 2024. Due to other assignments I am a bit behind—I’m hoping to catch up by getting this post and my next published before the end of the month. The 21st was the Sunday of the Word of God. This is quite a new observance. Pope Francis established it... Read more

The First Gospel A statue of St. Mark the Evangelist, surmounting his basilica in Venice. (Used under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 license—source.) We’re now in the more ordinary part of the Lectionary; in fact, this season is literally called Ordinary Time in most churches. Its Sunday readings are arranged on a three-year cycle. That cycle is known as Years A, B, and C: each year in turn draws chiefly from one of the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke... Read more

When Were We? This question is relevant to two things: the liturgical date, i.e. the second Sunday after Epiphany; and the Gospel text itself, which picks up from the same sequence as the Johannine readings of Advent. First, some readers may be a little confused that this is the second Sunday after Epiphany (or, in the mainstream Roman rite, the second Sunday in Ordinary Time), given that last Sunday was Epiphany. However, if I’ve understood the rules correctly—which, heh, is... Read more

The Pretext I’m once again offering a translation of the epistle instead of the gospel reading, mainly so that I can take this opportunity to complain. A few things bug me about the way liturgical readings are handled in the Roman Rite. Most of them boil down to our normal translation (which I’ve discussed elsewhere). Some of them, it bears saying, are truly silly: for instance, I hate that our lectionary inserts the phrase “brothers and sisters” at the beginning... Read more

NOTE: As of 28 December 2023, this post has been lightly edited throughout; contrary to my usual practice, I have not highlighted the edits individually, as I felt the notes would get pretty tedious if I did. I’ve decided to change things up a little, and do the epistle for Christmas Day. It’s from one of my favorite books of the New Testament, namely the letter to the Hebrews. There are some really fascinating aspects of this book that I’ve... Read more

John 1.6-8, 19-28 (RSV-CE) There was a man sent1 from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness2 to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. … And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”3... Read more

(Those who read Roman numerals easily may have spotted that the Arabic and Roman numerals in the title are misaligned, and can’t I count? The answer is: yes, but the liturgical year changed on 3 December. See my post on the Feast of St. Andrew for further details.) The Moment of the Rose This coming Sunday will be the Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete, or Rose, Sunday. The name comes from the text of Philippians 4.4, which forms the... Read more