Advent & Christmas News
100 Best Recordings of Sacred Music
By • Catholic Online • 12/12/2012
No matter how fine the music, say Bach's Mass in B minor, a poor performance will leave the listener wondering where the "greatness" went. So the recommendations below represent a merging of both: All of the compositions are among the very best sacred music ever written, but the recorded ...
Archbishop JOSÉ H. GOMEZ: Advent is Always a Season of Mary
By • The Tidings • 12/11/2012
St. Thomas Aquinas used to say that besides God our Father, Mary is the only other one who could rightly call Jesus, 'Son.' Because she is the mother of Jesus, no one can help us more than Mary to grow in our awareness that we are children of God. LOS ANGELES (The Tidings) - Advent is always ...
John the Baptizer shows us the way to Happiness and Freedom
By • Catholic Online • 12/9/2012
Too often we associate repentance with some kind of wrong- headed self hatred. To the contrary, for those who have been schooled in its lessons like John the Baptizer, the way of voluntary penitence and conversion becomes the path to freedom and happiness. CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - This ...
The Solemnity of The Immaculate Conception: The Virgin Mary Lights The Path To A Fruitful Advent
By • Catholic Online • 12/8/2012
The Church, explains John Paul II, "proceeds along the path already trodden by the Virgin Mary, who 'advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and loyally persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross'" (RM 2; LG 58). For this reason, it is especially important during the sacred season of Advent ...
100 Best Catholic Movies
By • Catholic Online • 12/8/2012
It's regrettable that Catholic educators have yet to regard cinema as an important artistic tradition, one that should be studied along with literature, painting, theater, and music. The advantage of studying film is its relative youth, having been born only a little over a century ago. ...
Advent Catechesis: Pope Benedict XVI on the Benevolent Plan of God
By • Catholic Online • 12/7/2012
He came into the world, becoming a man like us , to bring His plan of love to fullness. And God demands that we become a sign of his action in the world. Through our faith, our hope, our love, He wants to enter the world again and again He wants to shine His light in our night. VATICAN CITY ...
Advent Homily: St. Bernard on the Three Comings of the Lord
By • Catholic Online • 12/6/2012
We know that the coming of the Lord is threefold: the third coming is between the other two and it is not visible in the way they are. The first coming was in flesh and weakness, the middle coming is in spirit and power, and the final coming will be in glory and majesty. WASHINGTON (Catholic ...
100 Best Catholic Novels. Or, How to Buy a Catholic Library for Christmas
By • Catholic Online • 12/5/2012
I welcome any controversy that may ensue from this list; in fact I will be disappointed if no one takes me to task. I'm always anxious to learn of titles I don't know, or have forgotten, or should know better, or be reminded that my own certainties may be unfounded. WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic ...
Las Posadas - a Catholic Hispanic Tradition
By • Catholic Online • 12/4/2012
The Posadas are not to be confused with a mere Christmas party. Instead, the Posadas should be seen as a religious event. CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - What is a Posada? This is a question that a lot of people ask as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. The tradition ...
Fr Randy Sly on the First Sunday of Advent and Preparing for His Comings
By • Catholic Online • 12/1/2012
Advent is a wonderful opportunity to review those lasting things in our lives. Advent is a time for cleaning house, for digging into the the storehouse of living faith in order to prepare ourselves, so that we - and the world - will be ready for His coming(s). WASHINGTON,D.C. ...
