When Christmas Preparations Truly Matter
It all began the day after Thanksgiving, on Black Friday. Navigating the sales and offers for material goods, many of which will be discarded the next day I was buried in the confusion of the season which hadn’t even started yet. The police were on high alert as the potential for violent clashes at retail outlets across the country was high.
We Are Blessed to Know the True Wonder of Christmas
Secularism Cannot Replace Christmas The day after Thanksgiving, I returned from Portugal. My wife and I decided to stay a few extra days after our Fatima pilgrimage group departed to spend the holiday with some friends. It was not a holiday there, but something jumped out at me; advertising for Black Friday was everywhere. This […]
Contemplate with Mary in the Silence of Advent
By Donal Anthony Foley Advent is Our Time of Preparation for Christmas Advent is our time of preparation for Christmas. During Advent, there is a change of tone in the daily readings at Mass, when we shift from a focus on Christ’s second coming at the end of time to one that considers His first […]
The Greatest Act of the Protomartyr St. Stephen
by Elizabeth Turello – As a kid, I remember always lingering on St. Stephen’s page in my book about the lives of the saints. In part, it had to do with the brutal means of his death; my little mind had a hard time comprehending the notion of being stoned. He was also the protomartyr, […]
Christmas and the Fatima Message
by David M. Carollo – The Fatima message was explained many years ago as reparation, reparation, Eucharistic reparation! We are all broken by the effects of Original Sin, and more directly by actual sin. The message of our Catholic Faith is to make reparation as Christ did. St. Paul stated that we must make up for […]
The ‘O Antiphons’ – Expressions of Messianic Hope
The Great Advent Antiphons, or ‘O Antiphons’, from the 6th century, are chants that call upon the titles given to Christ by the ancient prophets.
Christmas in Fatima – Yesterday and Today
by Elizabeth Turello – What might Christmas in Fatima have looked like for the three Fatima seers? Portugal has held on to many of its Christmas traditions, according to Ana Reis and Nuno Prazeres, directors of the International Secretariat of the World Apostolate of Fatima in Fatima, Portugal, who shared some of them with us. […]
The O Antiphons – Expressions of Messianic hope
by Donal Anthony Foley – As Christmas Day approaches, it’s good to adopt the mind and spirit of the Church in anticipation of this great and festive event. One way we can do this is by following the Mass readings of the days from Dec. 17 to 25 and by reflecting on what are known […]
Keep Christ in your children’s Chrismas
by Michaelyn Hein – My children are big Elf on the Shelf fans. Every year, at the beginning of Advent, the elf “magically” returns from the North Pole to keep an eye on the children’s behavior until Christmas. As in the children’s book of the same name, the elf reports to Santa Claus each evening […]
