Jeanie Hannaman

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing - The earliest day that Ash Wednesday can fall is February 4th.  The Christmas season most liberally construed lasts until Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation, on February 2nd.  Therefore, it would be possible for the Christmas season to go directly into Lent with just one day in between, Mardi Gras.  This is not common. The last time it happened was 1818, and the next will be 2285. In any case, we see that it is possible for Christmas and Lent to be conjoined but impossible for them to overlap.

By Dave Armstrong, National Catholic Register - Many Church Fathers referred to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the New Eve or Second Eve, meaning that she said Yes to God and obeyed him at the Annunciation, as opposed to Eve disobeying, leading to the fall of mankind. This was an analogy to St. Paul’s statement: “As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22, RSV; cf. 15:45). St. John Henry Cardinal Newman alluded to the development of this notion ....

By Peter Wolfgang, Catholic Culture - The pandemic began five years ago today. For me, at least. And by “pandemic,” I really mean the lockdown. I think that is what most of us mean when we talk about that era... At the close of business on Thursday March 12, 2020 Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont issued “Executive Order #7,” forbidding gatherings of 250 or more people. My organization, Family Institute of Connecticut, huddled with the Connecticut Catholic Conference and the March for Life all the next day and finally, on Friday the 13th, we sent out simultaneous messages cancelling what would have been the first Connecticut March for Life.