The Spiritual Benefits of Fasting Year-Round

Posted by Anna Bradley on Apr 8, 2021 7:24:00 AM

I started daily 16-hour fasts in July of 2019 after researching the benefits of intermittent fasting. When I was presented with a concrete plan for turning fasting into a more intentional spiritual practice, I discovered something much more rewarding than physical discipline.

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Topics: Easter, fasting, Feasts, Pope Francis, coronavirus, COVID-19 Resources, intermittent fasting

Music to Celebrate the Easter Season

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Apr 6, 2021 3:25:55 PM

Every year, I find myself struggling to keep my Easter joy alive for the entire season. For some reason, it’s easier for me to sustain my Lenten observances for forty days than it is for me to celebrate Easter for fifty. 

If this sounds familiar to you, first, know that you’re not alone in the struggle, and second, here’s something that might help us both: a Spotify playlist to help you enter into the joy of the season through music, which is a key component of both the Church’s liturgical life and of daily life (remembering of course that the liturgical life is meant to overflow into and transform daily life). 

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Topics: Easter, liturgical music, liturgical year, playlist

The Triduum in Art: Easter

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Apr 4, 2021 7:20:00 AM

“‘O truly blessed Night,’ sings the Exultet of the Easter Vigil, ‘which alone deserved to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the dead!’ But no one was an eyewitness to Christ’s Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it came about physically.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §647)

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Topics: art, Easter, Lent, Paschal Triduum

The Triduum in Art: Good Friday

Posted by Carolyn Pirtle on Apr 2, 2021 8:14:00 AM

In this extraordinary work, Pacino di Bonaguida (1280–1340) depicts the Cross of Jesus as the Tree of Life (ca. 1305–1310). In a cave at the root of the tree lies the devil (his image was scratched out sometime in the 15th century), and at ground level, the Genesis narrative of the creation and fall unfolds, indicating that Christ’s Death upon this Cross, this tree, sprouted from the seed of Adam and Eve’s sin. Twelve branches sprout from the trunk, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles of Jesus. Hanging from these branches are the fruits of the Crucifixion, and each fruit depicts a scene from the life of Christ. 

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Topics: art, Easter, Lent, Paschal Triduum, Good Friday

The Spiritual Benefits of Fasting Year-Round

Posted by Anna Bradley on May 11, 2020 4:13:57 PM

I started daily 16-hour fasts in July of 2019 after researching the benefits of intermittent fasting. When I was presented with a concrete plan for turning fasting into a more intentional spiritual practice, I discovered something much more rewarding than physical discipline.

Read More

Topics: Easter, fasting, Feasts, Pope Francis, coronavirus, COVID-19 Resources, intermittent fasting

Living and Handing on the Faith

The McGrath Institute Blog helps Catholics live and hand on their faith in Jesus Christ, especially in the family, home and parish, and cultivates and inspires everyday leaders to live out the fullness and richness of their faith in the simple, little ways that make up Church life.

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