Category: Celebrations

  • Celebrating Your Name Day

    Celebrating Your Name Day

    Celebrating a name day is a bit like a celebrating a birthday — in reverse. Here’s why …

    First, your name day is celebrated on your patron saint’s feast day — the day he or she died. That means you are celebrating the beginning of a new life in Heaven. You can celebrate the day of the saint associated with your first name or your confirmation name.

    Second, while it’s traditional to receive gifts on your birthday, it’s traditional to celebrate your name day by giving small gifts to friends and family.

    Here are few examples of simple gifts you could give to celebrate a name day:

    • Small treats or confections: Lindt truffles, specialty chocolate bars, or other sweets
    • A holy card with a prayer and image of your patron saint
    • A decorative pen or pencil
    • A small book or blank journal
    • A take-out cup of coffee or small gift certificate from your local tea or coffee shop

    Your name day is an opportunity to draw closer to your patron saint. Make a new friend in Heaven or strengthen an existing relationship. You have a powerful intercessor and model for holiness who is waiting to hear from you!

  • Ember Days

    Ember Days

    Ember days are traditionally set aside four times a year for prayer, fasting, and abstinence. Each succession of three days (a Wednesday, Friday and Saturday) is associated with a feast day and occurs close to a change of season.

    Though fasting and abstinence are no longer required, ember days provide opportunities to offer thanks to God for the gifts of the seasons, to deepen our prayer lives, and to prepare for times of celebration.

    Here’s a traditional rhyme to remind you when ember days occur: Lenty, Penty, Lucy, Crucy.

    Spring

    Spring ember days in the northern hemisphere occur at the beginning of Lent on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday.

    Ideas:

    • Plan a spring garden or pilgrimage
    • Contact a local nursing home and offer to read aloud to a resident whose vision has declined
    • Make a large pot of soup to freeze and share with someone who is sick or not feeling well
    • Donate new and gently used contents of overstuffed closets and cluttered shelves to local thrift stores

    Late Spring/Early Summer

    Summer Ember Days occur on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost Sunday.

    Ideas:

    • Create and share a simple arrangement of summer flowers
    • Pray for newly ordained priests in your diocese and all clergy taking on new parish assignments
    • Pray a rosary for the Holy Father
    • Share vegetables from your garden or a local farm with neighbors or a local monastery

    Fall

    Fall ember days occur on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after September 14, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

    Ideas:

    • Give thanks to God for all that He has given you this year
    • Observe the mid-September Harvest Moon
    • Learn about the stars and observe the wonder of God’s creation at a local stargazing event
    • Make a local pilgrimage or plan a pilgrimage for next Spring

    Winter

    Winter ember days occur on the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13, the feast of St. Lucy.

    Ideas:

    • Offer your fasting and prayers for those in need
    • Make a donation to a local food bank or homeless shelter using the money you are saving on food.
    • Make and send greeting cards to prisoners or those in nursing homes
    • Offer to help an elderly person write and send holiday cards to family members or friends

  • Restoring Sundays

    Restoring Sundays

    Do you remember Sundays when stores were closed, families gathered for afternoon dinner, and neighbors left their lawnmowers in the shed?

    Sunday has now become like any other day. “Blue laws” are quaint regulations from the past. Sports teams travel. Businesses open their doors. Noisy lawn and construction equipment keep neighborhoods and cities groomed and repaired.

    Yet for Christians, making Sunday different is not only a matter of tradition. It’s a matter of justice — that of giving the Creator the worship He is due. The catechism of the Catholic church identifies this justice toward God as the virtue of religion.[1] Even God rested after working 6 days. And He requires us to do the same, placing this commandment in the list even before those concerning lying, stealing, and killing:

    8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; 11 for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. [2]

    Here are a few ways to honor Sunday:

    • Attend Holy Mass
    • Read a spiritual book
    • Take a nap
    • Take a walk or hike a trail
    • Invite family or friends to your home for a cookout or potluck
    • Visit a friend, relative, or neighbor

    Setting aside Sundays is now countercultural and may be difficult to carry out depending on individual work obligations. Does it seem impossible to take Sundays off? Do not lose hope — pray for an answer!

    The Archconfraternity of the Holy Face of Jesus seeks to restore the observance of Sundays and offer reparation for the profanation of Sundays and the Holy Name of God. Learn more about the Holy Face here:

    Holy Face Devotion

    Notes:

    [1]“Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText.” (CCC) www.vatican.va, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993, www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P65.HTM. Accessed 28 May 2025. 3.2.2.2.1807.

    [2] The Holy Bible : Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1994).