Viewing all items in Resource Category: Holy Days
Featuring the Saints whose feast-day is this month
- Did you have a miserable childhood? Were your parents more absorbed in themselves than in you? Later, looking for love, did you fall for the wrong man? Perhaps you now have children of your own, and struggle to raise them. If you feel your life has been ‘wrong-footed’ from the start, and that there is...22 February – Margaret of Cortona: sad search for acceptance and love
- Polycarp (c. 69 – c. 155) was one of the most important Christians in Roman Asia in the mid-2nd century, because of his link between the time of the Apostles and the earliest Christian Fathers. This disciple of John the Apostle became bishop of Smyrna and defended orthodox Christian belief against the heresies of Marcion...23 February – Polycarp: faithful servant who would not deny his Lord
- Have you ever been in the position where someone is desperately needed – and you fit the bill perfectly? It is almost as if all your miscellaneous qualifications that never made much sense before now make PERFECT sense. And you sense that you have been chosen by God for the task…. If so, then Matthias...24 February – Matthias the Apostle: the chosen one
- Have you ever been in the position where someone is desperately needed – and you fit the bill perfectly? It is almost as if all your miscellaneous qualifications that never made much sense before now make PERFECT sense. And you sense that you have been chosen by God for the task…. If so, then Matthias...24 February – Matthias the Apostle: the chosen one
- Editor: by David Winter Why do we have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, as we call it today? And what is Shrove Tuesday? And why do thousands of people feel it rewarding to race along a street somewhere tossing pancakes from their frying pans as they go? Well, the answer to the first...NEW * 25 February – Shrove Tuesday: Who’s for pancakes?
- Ever wonder why we eat pancakes just before Lent? The tradition dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when Christians spent Lent in repentance and severe fasting. So on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the church bell would summon them to confession, where they would be ‘shriven’, or absolved from their sins, which gives us Shrove Tuesday. ...25 February – SHROVE TUESDAY: Pancake Day
- Editor: by David Winter At the end of this month Ash Wednesday introduces the Christian preparation for Easter, which normally coincides with Passover, the major Jewish celebration of the year. It’s near Easter because Jesus was crucified at Passover, having just shared this very meal with his disciples. Passover celebrates and recalls the Israelites’ escape...*NEW 26 February – Ash Wednesday: My memory of the Passover in Jerusalem
- Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. But why ‘Ash’ Wednesday? The reason has to do with getting things right between you and God, and the tradition goes right back to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Israelites often sinned. When they finally came to their senses, and saw their evil ways as God saw...26 February – ASH WEDNESDAY: mourning our sins
- If you have been hurt in your search for romantic love, Gabriel Possenti (1838-62) may be a good saint for you. Because Possenti, born to the governor of Assisi, began by having it all. He grew up doing the mid-19th century equivalent of eBay, nightclubs, cinema and online dating, only in those days it was...27 February – Gabriel Possenti: the enjoyment of romance
- If we were to name someone prominent from the 17th century, we might mention Rembrandt or Shakespeare. It is unlikely we would remember George Herbert. However, he was a prolific writer, a gifted speaker and musician. His hymns are still sung today. Herbert was born into a wealthy family in Mid-Wales on 3rd April 1593....27 February – George Herbert: priest and poet
- On 27th February the Church Calendar celebrates George Herbert. For those who are muttering ‘never heard of him’, just think of the hymn ‘Let all the world/ In every corner sing’, which he wrote, along with several other hymns which are still popular, even if they are well over 300 years old. In the course...27 February – The Vicar’s a Poet
- There is a saint for Leap Year: He is St Oswald of Worcester, who died on 29th February 992. His family story was extraordinary, and full of some surprising ‘leaps’, all by itself. It provides a tantalising glimpse of what happened to at least one of those pagan Viking warriors who settled in Anglo-Saxon Britain....29 February – Oswald of Worcester: the saint for Leap Year