SPECIAL DEVOTIONS

A Time for new vision, hope and light St. Lucy’s Feast Day (Lucia Day) comes annually in the middle of Advent on Dec. 13. St. Lucy is the patron saint of vision, a blessed gift we need more than ever now. It is a wonderful coincidence that we are shepherded in our diocese by a […]

St. Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone; Francesco d’Assisi (Italian); Franciscus Assisiensis (Latin) in1181 or 1182 and died on Oct. 3, 1226. He was venerated and known in his ministry as Francesco, an Italian Catholic friar, deacon, philosopher, mystic and preacher. He founded the men’s Order of Friars Minor, the women’s […]

Teresa of Ávila, born Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada, is called St. Teresa of Jesus. She was born March 28, 1515, and died on Oct. 1582. She was a Spanish noblewoman who felt called to convent life in the Catholic Church. A Carmelite nun, prominent Spanish mystic, religious reformer, author, theologian of the contemplative life […]

St. Rosalia (1130–1166), also called La Santuzza or “The Little Saint,” and in Sicilian as “Rusulia,” is the patron saint of Palermo in Italy, Camargo in Chihuahua, Mexico, and three towns in Venezuela: El Hatillo, Zuata, and Anzoátegui. She is especially important internationally as a saint invoked in times of plague. Even now, in 2020, […]

Our church has a statue and a window of St. Rocco, a statue of St. Donato, and a window of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. The feasts of these men are all during the month of August. For more on the saints, check out our Saint of the Day feature St. Donato: The Shattered Chalice & […]

Story of St. Anne (Adapted from the Church of St. Anne, Rockhill, SC) St. Anne was born in Bethlehem and married Joachim from Nazareth in Galilee. Joachim was a shepherd given the task of supplying the temple of Jerusalem with sheep for sacrifices. After 20 years of marriage Anne and Joachim had no children. Once, […]

Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Pietro Novelli, 1641) “All Are Welcome” (Haugen) This song has been used to celebrate our parish anniversaries and major feastdays, and always for the weekend of our parish festival and the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Our Lady of Mount Carmel — Title and feast day Our Lady […]

The month of June is dedicated in the Catholic calendar to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose celebrated on the Friday of the third week after Pentecost (June 19, 2020) . The Sacred Heart image often depicted in art and sculpture as a wounded heart, sometimes encircled by a crown of thorns and radiating light […]

Three Things Mary Teaches Us (Father Ian VanHeusen) Why Catholics Call Mary Their Mother  (Father Mike Schmitz) Mary, the First Disciple (Catholic National Shrine 2020) Mary, the Blessed Virgin (Catholic Online) Mary, Mother of God (A closer look at the Annunciation) “O Mary Mother of God” “Hail Mary, Gentle Woman” Litany of the Blessed Virgin […]