Advent & Christmas News

Monday, First Week of Advent - The season of Advent

By • Catholic Online • 11/28/2010

Each year, as the Church recalls this mystery of Christ's coming, she urges us to renew the memory of the great love God has shown us. WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Beloved, now is the acceptable time spoken of by the Spirit, the day of salvation, peace and reconciliation: the great season of ...

The Advent season gives us a fresh opportunity to look at our lives and deepen our relationship with the Lord Jesus who has come already in humility and will come again in glory.

1st Sunday of Advent: Wake Up! Happy Priest on Preparing for Christmas

By • Catholic Online • 11/28/2010

Most of the world did not notice Jesus' first coming. We need to stay awake and notice how he comes to us each day. What about those special graces that come to us each day? What about those amazing opportunities that he gives us each day to love him more and more. When we ...

The Birthday of the Lord is the Birthday of Peace

By • Catholic Online • 11/11/2010

For this is true of any believer in whatever part of the world, that once he is reborn in Christ he abandons the old paths of his original nature and passes into a new man by being reborn. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - We present a sermon of Pope St. Leo the Great, a Doctor of the ...

The Word took our nature from Mary

By • Catholic Online • 10/1/2010

The body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) � We present an excerpt from a letter of St. Athanasius, considered one of the champions of the Council of Nicea ...

A Christmas Reflection on Suffering and Trust

By • Catholic Online • 12/31/2009

When some cross presents itself in our life, let us not fear; for the All-Powerful Child has plans for those whom he loves; plans of such unfathomable beauty and wonder. GLADE PARK, CO (Catholic Online) - Christmas is upon us; the Child has arrived; his presence brings inexpressible joy to those ...

Jesus spent 30 of his 33 earthly years in Nazareth. Some spiritual writers have called these the 'hidden years', because there is so little written about them in the Gospel narratives. However, they reveal the holiness of ordinary life and show us how it becomes extraordinary for those baptized into Christ.

Learning in the School of Nazareth: Feast of the Holy Family

By • Catholic Online • 12/27/2009

From antiquity the Christian family has rightly been called a domestic church. In our family we can learn the way of selfless love in the School of Nazareth. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - The Epistle reading for our Sunday Liturgy on this Feast of the Holy Family includes these words from the ...

Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier.Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin�s womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven.

Octave: Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon and Protomartyr

By • Catholic Online • 12/26/2009

Christ made love the stairway that would enable all Christians to climb to heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore, in all sincerity, give one another practical proof of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - In the Catholic tradition, Christmas is ...

Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin�s womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven.

Octave of Christmas: Feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr

By • Catholic Online • 12/26/2009

Let those of us who have embraced the truth of this claim now manifest- in our own lives and families- the fruits of the Incarnation. Let us become a Christmas people and offer through our lives of love the greatest gift of all. Let us continue to manifest the beauty of the Incarnation to a world that still waits to be born.

Merry Christmas: He Pitched His Tent Among Us

By • Catholic Online • 12/24/2009

On this one wonderful day called "Christ-Mass" the entire world rightly pauses. Heaven has come to earth so that earth can be brought to heaven. CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - With these words the most theologically profound Gospel begins, the one written by the beloved disciple John: "In the ...

'St. Francis with his nativity scene highlighted the defenseless love, humility and goodness of God, Who in the Incarnation of the Word shows Himself to mankind in order to teach them a new way to live and love.'

Pope Benedict XVI: The Child Jesus Makes the Love of God Manifest to the World

Vatican Information Service • 12/24/2009

'Spiritual atmosphere that now surrounds Christmas developed during the Middle Ages thanks to St. Francis of Assisi.' VATICAN CITY (VIS) - In his general audience of Wednesday morning, December 23, 2009, in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope focused his remarks on the subject of Christmas. At the ...