End of Holiday Season; Canada Day; Our Crosses

End of Holiday Season.  This year, the Church calendar had seven major feast days ("solemnities") in the period from May 17 through June 29. All but the last two are based on the date of Easter, and can shift about 2 1/2 weeks earlier or later than they were this year. This year, they were about in the middle of their possible range. So we celebrated —
May 17 — Ascension
May 27  — Pentecost
June 3 — Trinity
June 10 — Corpus Christi  (in many countries its original Thursday date, June 7 this year, is retained)
June 15 — Sacred Heart of Jesus
June 24 — St. John the Baptist
June 29 — Sts. Peter & Paul

I had a whole lot of celebrating to do (even aside from the point that the entire Easter season — April 8 to May 27 this year — is one big celebration, but you can't really party every day). Now there is no comparable concentration of big days until November-January, when from November 25 through January 6 we'll celebrate Christ the King, Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Mary Mother of God, and Epiphany.

Canada Day.  On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act came into effect, making Canada independent as a Dominion in the British Empire. Happy Canada Day to all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsHSVE5d3sc&feature=related

Our Crosses.  I happen to be reading a book written several years ago by Cardinal Dolan when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee, To Whom Shall We Go? It is a series of reflections on St. Peter's words and actions as told in the New Testament, and I'm at the part where he writes about Peter trying to dissuade Jesus from being crucified. Cardinal Dolan says that we also have to resist the temptation to avoid the crosses in our own lives: the struggles and hardships and difficulties which we must endure if we are to live as we ought.

Happy Canada Day

The title says it all.

You can find other versions if you check out the links.