When the secular world starts putting its ‘holiday’ things away, and as shopping malls stop blaring ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’, Catholics should just be getting started their celebration of Christ’s birth! The cleaning and baking during penitential Advent pays off now, and the feasting and carolling begin. The days from the Feast of the Nativity [...]

This is the schedule of Christmastide services at Holy Family Church in Vancouver. Sunday services will be at the usual times. Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December 7:30 am & 9:00 am Christmas Day, Friday 25 December Midnight Mass 8:00 am Low Mass 10:30 am High Mass Feast of Saint Stephen, Saturday 26 December 7:30 am [...]

Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Gaudete Sunday are known as ‘Advent Embertide’, special penitential days which come near the beginning of the season of Winter. The Ember Day fast, although no longer strictly obligatory, is presumed in the prayers of our liturgy, and so we would encourage you to observe this laudable tradition in a [...]

Tuesday, 8 December 7:30 am Low Mass 7:30 pm High Mass This feast is often misunderstood even by practising Catholics. It does not refer to Our Lady’s conceiving of Jesus by the Holy Ghost (the Annunciation) but, rather, to the sinless conception of Our Lady in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, by Our [...]