The custom of Giving gifts on Christmas & Birthdays is a meaningful tradition that can easily lose touch with its original meaning. Some tips to restore meaning & purpose to presents and gift-giving....
[dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color='' background_color='' border_color='']T[/dropcaps]raditions in art and literature and popular fable have quite sufficiently attested, as has been said, this particular paradox of the divine being in the cradle. Perhaps they have not so clearly emphasised the significance of the divine being in...
This beautiful prayer is traditionally said 15 times a day, from the feast of St. Andrew through Christmas Eve. While novenas are usually prayed for 9 days, this one lasts for 25, overlapping most if not all of the season of Advent. [dropcaps type='normal' font_size='100' color=''...
14 minute podcast in which Dr. Italy discusses St. Joseph as an often overlooked hero of the Advent - Christmas story. He shows how St. Matthew's gospel presents him as a model of faith....
Quodvultdeus on the story recounted in Matthew's gospel of innumerable babies in Bethlehem by Herod's soldiers in an attempt to kill Jesus, the newborn king. These children are considered martyrs and are remembered on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, the 4th...
In this 14 minute podcast, Dr. Italy describes the town of Bethlehem and the field of the Shepherds at the time of the birth of Christ. He helps bring the Christmas story alive as we hear of the little town that was the City of...
Christmas, at least in the USA, is hard to imagine without Jolly ole Saint Nicholas, aka "Santa Claus." Since some focus on him to the neglect of the Christ child, some propose that he be banished from an authentically Christian celebration of Christ's birth. We...
It is fitting that the feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist, occurs during the Christmas season. For it is John, in his gospel and his first epistle, who so clearly teaching us the wonder of the incarnation, the word of God and word...
Short services of blessing of a Christmas Manger or Nativity Scene that are actually part of the official liturgy of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. But they can be conducted by lay men or women in their own homes. Both full...
Here Peter Chrysologus brings together the three events traditionally remembered on the Solemnity of the Epiphany: the visit of the Magi or Wise men, Christ's baptism in the Jordan River, and Jesus' first miracle performed at the Wedding Feast of Cana....