What makes you different or weird, that’s your strength.
– Meryl Streep,
speech at Indiana University
SS: Play to Your Stengths
No Matter How Small!
A person’s a person, no matter how small.
– Dr. Suess, Horton Hears a Who!
2.0.4 – Read ➯ Think ➯ Speak
Think before you speak. Read before you think. This will give you something to think about that you didn’t make up yourself – a wise move at any age, but most especially at seventeen, when you are in the greatest danger of coming to annoying conclusions.
– Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader
This particular quote is from the Tips for Teens chapter, originally published in the stand-alone Social Studies volume. (Some of these witticisms are absolutely hilarious; I caught myself laughing aloud.)
Super Saturday: Christmastide!
Christmas time is here!
– Lee Mendelson, Christmas Time is Here, A Charlie Brown Christmas
Happiness and cheer.
Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of the year.
It’s Christmastide!
We’re halfway through the octave of Christmas: the eight days set aside to sincerely celebrate Christmas starting on Christmas day and going straight through the Solemnity of Jesus’s mother Mary on January 1st. Then there are another four days to round out the twelve days of Christmas, the Epiphany (on January 6th) marking the thirteenth day, and the Baptism of the Lord (January 9th) closing out the season on the current calendar. But if you’re still not done with the Christmas season, just go by the old calendar to extend the season until the fortieth day: Candlemas, the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple (February 2nd).
Major Christmastide Days
- December 25th: Christmas Day!
- January 1st: Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Final Day in the Octave of Christmas
- January 6th: The Epiphany (the visit of the magi); in the United States, celebrated Sunday (January 5th in 2020)
- January 9th: The Baptism of the Lord, in the United States, celebrated Sunday (January 12th in 2020)
- February 2nd: The Presentation of the Child Jesus
How do you celebrate Christmastide? I didn’t even know this was really a thing – though I’m one to say the tree stays up through at least the Epiphany. There are several resources offering ideas about what to do to celebrate throughout the season. Do you have any Christmastide traditions? Do you carol after Christmas, or make certain foods to celebrate the whole season? What’s your favorite Christmas season tradition?
1.7.6 – Burn Bright
We need have no undue fear for our health if we work hard for the kingdom of God. God will take care of our health if we take care of His cause. In any case, it is better to burn out than to rust out.
– Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Victory Over Vice
Hurrah for Archibishop Fulton J. Sheen, faithful servant of God!
Today is supposed to be the Archbishop’s beatification day. The process is being held up, but I’m confident the esteemed televangelist will receive the title Blessed – and then Saint – in due course. We need to recognize a modern day Saint like Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen to reinvigorate the Church, and God never fails His Church.
Help us petition in prayer with a novena. A novena is a prayer spread over nine days. This one, the Novena of Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen, takes about two minutes per day. There are also optional videos that go through the novena with you, about four minutes each; the videos are available in both English and Spanish.
It’s super short. Please pray with us!
Fulton Sheen Resources
- The Life is Worth Living series won the Archbishop an Emmy Award, and hours upon hours of the insightful and entertaining content is available on YouTube. Looking for more? He also hosted The Fulton Sheen Program.
- The Archibishop’s book Life of Christ is an excellent resource for getting to know Jesus better. Archbishop Sheen dramatically recounts the birth, life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ, also providing a portrait of His Person, both as God and as man.
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen has a Collection of works; available together or separately, the Collection includes Calvary and the Mass: A Missal Companion, The Moral Universe, and Victory Over Vice.
- There are so many other books spanning a variety of topics about God and man’s place in His plan. Want help understanding marriage, or figuring out where to go from here, or attaining peace, or learning about the holy family? The Archbishop provides insight on all that and more.
- Are you lucky enough to still have a CD player? Are you looking ahead to Lent? Archbishop Sheen’s Good Friday service on April 8, 1977 drew a record crowd of over 6,000 people. It was recorded, and Saint Joseph Communications packaged it into an audio retreat.
- The Archbishop’s most acclaimed miracle is saving a baby boy who was dead for 61 minutes – bringing him back to life and healing the numerous other conditions that resulted from his death. The mother wrote a book about the miracle.
- Just looking for the pre-sainthood t-shirt? It’s adorable.
1.6.6 – Super Saturday: Balance, Peace, and Joy to You
Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them.
– Thomas Kinkade,
reprinted in 21 Keys to Work/Life Balance
1.5.6 – Super Saturday: Be Able and Humble
Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able and yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.
– William Penn, reprinted in The New Dictionary of Thoughts
1.4.6 – Super Saturday: Prudence and Persistence
1.3.6 – Super Saturday: Armed with Theological Virtue
Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:8
1.2.6 – Super Saturday: Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
― Emily Dickinson
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
