For the Liturgy of the Hours: National Liturgical Calendar

If you pray the Liturgy of the Hours (and I highly recommend Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer), it is a good idea to have on hand the liturgical calendar for your country, so you know which Saint to celebrate each day. Here are liturgical calendars for Canada and the United States.

Ignatius books on Kindle

There are currently 251 Ignatius Press books on Kindle, with some really interesting titles in there.

Update: Other Catholic publishers on Kindle:

Servant Books has 11 books.

St. Anthony Messenger Press has 7 books.

Emmaus Road Publishing has 46 books.

Ascension Press has 25 books.

Catholic Answers has 1 book.

Catholic Book Publishing has 4 books.

IHS Press has 32 books.

Scepter Publishers has 26 books.

Tan Books has 31 books.

Saint Benedict Press has 12 books.

Paulist Press has 2 books.

Relative lengths of the Bible, the Summa, and the Catechism

Number of words in the Bible (Douay-Rheims): 1,063,100

Number of words in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica: 2,569,567 (2.4x Bible)

Number of words in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 227,929 (0.2x Bible)

Altar Server Schematic

This PDF shows the actions of an altar server at a Traditional Latin Mass. With some modifications, it can be adapted for the Novus Ordo Mass.



The first part of the Mass (the Mass of the Catechumens) contains the Introit and the Collect prayers, said by the priest. For the altar server, the main action to remember is to transfer the Missal from the Epistle side to the Gospel side.

The next part of the Mass is the Offertory. The altar server will present the wine and the water to the priest. Then he will give the water and the finger towel for the Lavabo. The priest says the Preface and the Sanctus.

The next part is the Consecration. When the priest spreads his hands over the offerings and says “Hanc igitur...”, the altar server rings the bell, genuflects in the middle, and goes up the steps. During the consecration of the Host and the chalice, the bell is rung a number of times as indicated.

The last part is the Communion. After the priest receives the Host and removes the pall from the chalice, the altar server gets the Communion paten, genuflects in the middle, and goes up the steps to receive Communion.

At the end of the Communion, the ablutions are done. Then the altar server transfers the Missal from the Gospel side to the Epistle side.

A Good Book: Pope Benedict XVI's "Light of the World"

Light of the World – Peter Seewald's interview with the Pope – is an interesting book. It gives insights into what the Holy Father thinks on a variety of issues. Since it's an interview, it makes for easier reading than his heavier books (Introduction to Christianity, Jesus of Nazareth).

It's also available for Kindle. Kindle has a great text-to-speech feature, so I enjoyed listening to the book on the ferry today.