Articles
The Circumcision of Jesus and the Mother of God
A little over four years ago, I was in a hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, awaiting the discharge of my newborn son. At birth, he had trouble breathing (a skill he would learn with ease in a day or two), and thus spent nearly five da...The Feast of the Holy Family: Not Just a Model
Those of us suspicious of the pious platitudes that too often make their home in Catholic homiletic practice know that the feast of the Holy Family is a "code-red" day for such platitudes. We families assemble in our parishes a...
Thomas Becket and the Witness of Friendship
Renee Roden on the life of Thomas Becket as an icon of martyrdom.
Weeping with Rachel, in Sorrow and Hope
Hope Feist on the Holy Innocents
The God Who Had Strep Throat
Timothy P. O'Malley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy, on the powerful weakness of God revealed at Christmas in the infant Christ.
Auden on the Feast of St. Stephen
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes— Some have got broken—and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt...
Advent and the Angelus
Jared Dees of Ave Maria Press writes about the power of the Angelus as a devotion intended to prepare us to celebrate feast of Christmas.
Waiting in the Mystery of Hope
What surprises me, says God, is hope.—Charles Péguy, The Portal to the Mystery of Hope Every Advent I sit around a small prayer table with four-year-olds and contemplate the great mystery of messianic hope announced by the&#...
Festive Silence
The weeks leading up to Christmas are a noisy time amid the constant din of advertisements, Christmas music, and planning for the holidays. In this atmosphere it can be difficult to quiet our souls in preparation for the coming of the Ch...
The Irrational Season
Renée Roden on planning.
Stories of Grace: Episode 8
"There isn't a tidy bow that I can wrap on this story. But, I learned, it's not the bow that makes things beautiful; it's the gift of life itself."…
Advent Fun and Festivity: St. Lucy's Day
Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Lucy, a third-century Sicilian girl who pledged her virginity to Christ and endured a martyr’s death when she refused to renounce her faith. Numerous versions of St. Lucy’s martyrd...
The Virgin of Guadalupe and the Season of Advent
For some Christian people throughout the world, especially Mexican and Mexican-American Christians, December 12, of course, is the celebration of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. The feast commemorates her December 9–12, 1531 appearan...