Happy New Year, and belated Merry Christmas!
After suffering two weeks of technical difficulties, our Daily Readings will return on January 2, 2023.
Category: News
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2fish Web Site Improvements
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[/one_fourth][three_fourth_last]Frequent visitors will notice recent changes to our web site–regardless of whether they view the site on a computer, tablet or phone. Loading should be faster than in the past, and legibility (or readability) and navigation have been improved, too.
Our new template or theme is fully responsive, which means that it should scale to any size or type of device. Images should look good on both normal and retina screens; however, our only remaining task is to edit each image (the art work) to make it fully responsive, too. So, please bear with us as we beautify the site. God bless you![/three_fourth_last]
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Now Get Our Daily Mass Readings via Email
We’re happy to announce our new, free email service. Get the daily Mass readings directly in your email inbox. It’s very simple–just enter your address below. You will receive a message that requires you to “opt-in.” Click that link, and starting at midnight on the next day, you will receive the daily readings.
You can opt-out at any time, and we won’t do anything with your address except send the daily Mass readings to you.
Please note that we have designed the messages to look best on (newer) mobile phones. Our reasoning is that if you are viewing email on your computer, you can easily open our web site, but if you have a smart phone, it’s much more convenient to read the Gospel in an email.
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Improved Mobile Access to Daily Readings
We have made slight changes to the site’s menu structure and improved our mobile-phone template. Our daily Mass readings should now be easier to access and view from smart phones.
The daily readings are published by 11-year-old Lucy, who has been doing an excellent job for almost one year!
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The Origin of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’
Have you ever heard the song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas?’ Of course, you have!
However, did you know that the song was written to allow Catholic parents to teach their faith to their sons and daughters in secret?
Why in secret? Because, from 1558 – 1829, Catholics were not allowed to practice their faith, in any form, in England. So, Catholic parents used symbols such as the three french hens and five golden rings to represent different parts of the faith.
So, who do you suppose is “my true love?” Well, God, of course.
Here are all the Twelve Days and their meanings:
- A partridge in a pear tree: Jesus is the partridge. He was a carpenter who worked with wood and died on a wooden cross.
- Two turtle doves: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
- Three French hens: the Three Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love.
- Four calling birds: the four Gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
- Five golden rings: the five books of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
- Six geese a-laying: the six days that it took God to make creation.
- Seven swans a-swimming: the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
- Eight maids a-milking: the eight beatitudes.
- Nine ladies a-dancing: the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
- Ten lords a-leaping: the Ten Commandments.
- Eleven pipers piping: the 11 faithful disciples.
- Twelve drummers drumming: the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed.
These are the meanings of each of the gifts. The next time you hear or sing this song, think of all the great gifts God has given us. Merry Christmas!
(Lucy learned this from her fifth-grade teacher at her Catholic school.)
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New Feature at 2fish.co: Daily Readings & Gospel
The staff at 2fish.co is happy to announce our site’s newest feature: publishing each day’s readings and Gospel.
Each day at midnight (EST) time, that day’s Catholic Mass reading(s) and Gospel will be published. We are taking the readings from our on-line Bible, which is the Catholic Public Domain Version–a recent, original edition by Ronald L. Conte Jr., the translator and editor. (In the true spirit of the faith, Mr. Conte makes it available for free and without restriction.)
Other sites publish daily readings, too, but we doubt if they look as good on a smart phone. So, wherever you are, the daily scripture is available for you at https://2fish.co/news/daily-readings, or sign-up for the RSS feed at https://2fish.co/category/daily-readings/feed.
We hope to shortly make these readings available through a daily email, too.
For now, though, we want to thank eleven-year-old Lucy Spero for volunteering to perform the work. (Don’t worry, she is not staying until midnight to publish it.)
God Bless, and if you like the new feature, please let us know.
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Welcome 2fish.co!
Welcome to 2fish.co, a web site devoted to the defense of the Catholic Faith.
Our site’s name has two meanings: we hope that our reasoned, positive explanation of the faith and its practices will attract those interested in it. In that sense we hope to fish for men and women.
In addition, we hope to make a lot with limited resources–like the miracle of the five loaves and the 2 fish.
We still have a lot of work to do and are looking for like-minded volunteers to:
- complete many of the reference links (from articles to the bible pages),
- contribute articles about Catholicism and the bible,
- edit submitted articles,
- contribute articles to defend the Faith against current attacks,
- add artwork, and
- contribute financially (if the site is successful and needs its own hosting account).
If you are interested in helping, or would like to provide feedback or simply say ‘hello’ or wish us luck, please use our contact form.
Likewise, if you have a question for a priest, or would like to contribute a favorite sermon or interpretation, please use those forms.
God Bless you!
