Joseph Hanneman Nearly two-thirds of state capitol buildings in the United States will display a Nativity crèche this Christmas season, a nearly 50 percent increase in just two years under a partnership between American Nativity Scene and the Thomas More Society, a public-interest law firm.
Every year we have the extraordinary opportunity to welcome the Lord Jesus into our hearts with the Season of Advent which culminates on Christmas Day—the Birthday of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Actually, the Church invites us to meditate upon the three comings of
If I say to you, “May the force be with you,” you’re likely to think about Luke Skywalker and the Star Wars movies. But someone unfamiliar with those films will have no idea what I’m talking about. Similarly, if you hear people at the start
We don’t often associate Christmas with resurrection. But we should. So let’s start by talking about Santa Claus. Christmas is openly under attack in contemporary society where the word has essentially been banned in favor of “holiday” and traditional Christmas carols have been replaced by
For families, there can be temptation at Christmastime to pack everything into Advent — both the preparation and celebration crammed into a season meant for peaceful anticipation. This is actually a distortion of the liturgical year, in which the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ begins on
Many are shocked to walk into daily Mass on December 26 and instead of hearing more of the “Baby Jesus” we are confronted with Martyrdom, “The Feast of Stephen” is ancient on the Church’s calendar. More ancient than the Christmas cycle and hence it was
In this Fourth Week of Advent, we are very close to Christmas and to the Birth of the Baby. The Church tries to show us in this time that, on the one hand, Jesus is in continuity with God’s plan in the Old Testament and
Even if the celebration of many Masses on the same Sunday may be an ordinary experience for many parish priests too often, Christmas, with its three distinct Mass settings for three different times of the day, remains a unique liturgical occasion. In the middle of
ONE OF THE FIRST SHOWS about Christmas I watched as a kid was A Charlie Brown Christmas. I haven’t watched it in years, but I haven’t forgotten the culminating scene where Charlie Brown shouts above the noise to demand an answer to a question he’s struggling
When we imagine Mary making the journey to Bethlehem, we think of her as waiting for the Christ child. But she wasn’t waiting for Him. She was the only person who wasn’t waiting anymore. Yes, she was waiting for His birth, but she already knew Him. And
Praying the Rosary
Familiarize yourself with the prayers of the rosary.
