Leo the Great reminds us that Christmas, the nativity of the Lord Jesus, is the birthday of peace and our birthday as well, since we are members of Christ's body, the Church....
St. Thomas Becket gave his life rather than allow his king to trample the rights of God and his church. Here he exhorts fellow Christian leaders to the courage and initiative that he exemplified. Without real effort he writes, no one wins the crown. His...
This excerpt from Gaudium et Spes, Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, affirms the sanctity of marriage and the family....
The Feast of the Holy Family is an essential part of the Christmas Season. It makes clear that the Incarnation means not just that the Divine Word assumed a human body, but entered into every aspect of human life, including family life....
Saint Leo says the genealogy of Jesus given us in Luke and Matthew's gospels shows that Jesus was truly one of us, possessing a complete human nature. He did not merely appear in human form, as in the biblical types and scriptural symbols of the...
Peter Chrysologus notes the meaning of the incarnation, God becoming man, for human dignity. The humanity of Christ is the original sacrament from which all the others flow....
Irenaeus, ca. AD 185, here writes of the incarnation, the Word of God born for us as Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, Son of Man, the sign of our salvation. He comes to restore God's likeness in us and lead us to glory. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color=''...
Aelred of Rievaulx on Jesus Christ as the model of brotherly love and patience through his forgiveness of persecutors and enemies and his prayer from the cross "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."...
Thomas a Kempis, in The Imitation of Christ, here treats of the difference between the world's empty promises and the promises of God. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='65' color='' background_color='' border_color='']M[/dropcaps]y son, says the Lord, listen to my words, the most delightful of all words, surpassing all the...
St. Peter Chrysologus here chronicles the long history of humanity's search for God and quest to see his face. An apt meditation on the history of salvation for Advent, the season of hope and longing....