Tag Archives: Christmas
The Birth of Christ Marked the Start of Year One, Not 4 B.C.
In a brief and simply written essay Jimmy Akin shows how one nineteenth century scholar, Emil Schürer’s, mistakes put a question mark on the exact year of Christ’s birth for over a century. I am far more skeptical about this “scholar,” than Atkin. I find it hard to believe that a historian, such as Schürer, who had encyclopedic knowledge about the history of the Jews during Our Lord’s … More →
Meditation by Msgr Charles Pope: Don’t Be a Liar at Christmas
As usual Monsignor Pope brings up some excellent matter for Catholic reflection. Ours is an Incarnational religion. This was a major theme of all of Father Feeney’s preaching and teaching and Msgr. Pope beautifully expounds upon this truth, so necessary for our salvation. Washington DC Archdiocesan website: At Christmas we celebrate the fact of the Word becoming Flesh. But what does this mean for us … More →
Merry Childermas!
Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents, once known in the Anglophone world as Childermas. This curious word is an elision of “Mass of the Children,” that is, the liturgical commemoration of those little boys of Bethlehem who were massacred by Herod the Great. The suffix serves as a reminder that the principal way to observe such a day was to attend the Holy … More →
Saint Joseph: The Hero of Christmas
(The following meditation on Saint Joseph was recently sent out as our Christmas Letter. I hope you enjoy it.) Contemplating a Nativity scene, we behold a divine Infant, an immaculately conceived Mother, and a foster father who somehow remains the most obscure of the three figures. Father Feeney, who loved Saint Joseph very much, made this observation about him: “Joseph did not live a hidden … More →
The Great Gift of Christmas
An offense is measured, not by the one who gives it, but by the one who receives it. While it certainly would be wrong for anyone to strike a neighbor, it would be a much greater wrong to strike the Pope, the President, or some other prominent individual. When Adam and Eve sinned, they offended God.
Homily on the Nativity of Our Lord And Savior Jesus Christ
(St. Leo the Great D. 461) The Voice of Peter The truths that belong to this day’s solemnity are truly well known to you, Dearly Beloved, and you have frequently been instructed in them. But just as this visible light delights in the healthy eye, so the heart that is healed there comes to joy without end from the Birth of the Savior, which we … More →
Christmas Sermon of St. Leo the Great
Our Saviour, dearly Beloved, was born this day. Let us rejoice.
In Defense of Christmas
Today’s skeptics, who seem to reject something traditional just because it’s traditional, cannot sit still during the holy season of Christmas without mocking the notion that Christ would have been born on December 25th. If it were just the unbelievers who engaged in this mockery, it would be expected, since unbelievers, by their very nature, are not expected to believe.
America’s First Christmas Card
When was the first Christmas message printed in America? It had to come with European Christians, but who were the first Europeans in America?
