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Friday Fun Facts

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Welcome to a new feature here on Messy Blessings – the Friday Fun Fact!

I hope to bring you a fun historical or etymological factoid every Friday that relates to the Catholic Church and how it has impacted our language, customs, education, and economics. So on to our first factoid!

The week we’ll start off easy – the word “holiday.” The idea of having a special day off to memorialize something is not itself an invention of the Catholic Church, but the church is the source of our current word for these days. The original Old English word was haligdaeg – literally “holy day”, which later morphed to “haliday” around the 12th century and changed again to our current pronunciation of holiday around the 14th century. The term was exclusive to Church holy days until sometime in the 16th century, when its usage became more divergent.

Have a great weekend!
Mike

Fortnight for Freedom

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Tomorrow, June 21st, begins a two-week period that the US Bishops have called the “Fortnight for Freedom.” During this period there will be rallies, gatherings, and parish priests will be making homilies dedicated to understanding the issue of religious freedom that is currently under attack by the current administration. Just in case you haven’t heard, let me give you a quick synopsis: (more…)

HHS Mandate – Quesions the lay faithful can ask members of Congress

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Over the past few weeks there has been a tremendous upheaval in the Catholic community in the United States. The HHS mandate that requires catholic institutions to violate their own teachings and morals has been codified in the federal register. In the face of this, all U.S. Bishops are united in the cause of its repeal. The strategy that the bishops are pursuing is to utilize the legislative branch of government to pass a law (H.R. 1179/S. 1467) to declare that the conscience rights of individuals and entities are protected, which would then make the mandate unenforceable. (more…)

A Better Understanding of my Vocation

As 2011 draws to a close I am reviewing my thoughts on what this year brought to me and my family. I was out of work for about 7 months this year, which was in itself a blessing. I was able to spend time with my wife and children and get to interact with them in way that working fathers are not usually able. During my job search I prayed a few different novenas many times over, but one specific novena has changed my outlook on the place of work on my life. (more…)

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