By Clare Lazzuri
Quick — light that last purple candle of the Advent wreath before it’s time to clear it off the table to make way for the Christmas centerpiece.
12/22/17
Reading Time
4
min
By
A call went out in mid-December that grabbed our collective attention. No, it was not from Caesar Augustus demanding that we return home to Bethlehem to be counted. It was from The Guardian news website encouraging readers to submit their "underwhelming" Christmas photos for the second year running.
12/20/17
Reading Time
3
min
By Nancy De Flon
The highlight of Christmas, for me, is hearing the reading from Isaiah (9:1-6) proclaimed at the Mass during the night: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone."
12/20/17
Reading Time
2
min
By Elizabeth Foss
It has been a too-short Advent. I can’t quite find my rhythm. Every day, I make my list, and every day, I scratch things off (unfinished) or move them to another day.
12/20/17
Reading Time
3
min
It is 2100 or 2200 and you are beat. The dishes are drying, tomorrow’s lunches are made, tempers are cooling after a clash with your teen, and the coffeepot is set. If every man is a comfort-seeking missile, then you are now homing in on proximate targets.
12/20/17
Reading Time
3
min
By Fr. Stanley J. Krempa
The third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called "Gaudete Sunday" or the "Sunday to rejoice.” It goes back to a time when Advent was more deeply penitential than it is today. Gaudete Sunday signaled the halfway mark signifying that Advent was almost over. People were invited to rejoice that Christmas was near.
12/14/17
Reading Time
2
min
By Thomas J. Craughwell
People who knew Thomas Becket didn’t like him much. He was a superb administrator, with a genius for making himself indispensible to the most powerful people in England. And he was very good at making himself wealthy. Considering that he was canonized only two years after his death, it must have come as a shock to them that Becket was now a saint and a martyr.
12/14/17
Reading Time
3
min
By Greg Erlandson
Catholics in our country are barely aware that our coreligionists around the world are persecuted — sometimes subtly, sometimes cruelly — in dozens of countries. Pope Francis has said that there are "more martyrs today than in Christianity's first centuries," and many of them are in the region where Christianity was born.
12/14/17
Reading Time
3
min
By Ann M. Augherton
I’ve decided that you can tell a lot about a person by their Christmas ornaments. With this box, carefully taped and marked, I discovered what delights my husband and confirmed what I already knew about his priorities.
12/13/17
Reading Time
3
min
Gospel Commentary: Do not be afraid
When confronted with the majesty of an angel of the Lord appearing to them in the fields around Bethlehem, the shepherds quaked. “Do not be afraid,” the angel assured them. “I proclaim to you good news of great joy.”