Stories and features about parish life and faith
A is for Antiphon. We begin nearly every Mass with the “Entry Antiphon”, but what’s that? “Antiphon” means “answering voice”. It is a refrain, or ‘chorus line’, at the beginning and end of a psalm or after each group of verses. Usually it comments in concentrated form on the theme of the text. So in [...]
Until now, there has been some mystery surrounding the location of the Mass on Sunday, September 19 at which the Pope will beatify John Henry Newman.
UCM April 2010 newsletter
We may think that the proper religious symbols of Eastertide are the Easter fire, the Paschal candle and the font of baptism, and that the other Easter symbols are pagan ones for the purely secular world, but we would be wrong.
We are all aware of the great events of the end of Holy Week, but what about the Monday and Tuesday?
Bishop Crispian’s Pastoral Letter for Lent, 2010
From the 13th century, the list of liturgical vestments was more or less complete, and what followed was a more detailed regulation of their use.
Boniface, our patron saint, is most famous for the story of the German Christmas tree, but he had a more local connection.
Between the 9th and 13th centuries, the range of vestments became fully developed, the details for their use codified, and symbolic meanings applied to them.
The history of religious vestments in its totality is enormously complicated, but it sheds much light upon the changing understanding of the priesthood through the ages.