Can you believe it? We’re just a week away from Christmas. For some of us, I know, that’s a cause for panic. Time to make that last trip to the mall, or hit Trader Joe’s, or see what Amazon can deliver before December 25th. Right around now is when you realize those Christmas cards you didn’t mail will have to be New Year’s cards. Drop by Walgreen’s and you’ll see small crowds of people huddled around the gift cards display,... Read more

This is probably the definitive and most familiar hymn of Advent—although, in my parish, we don’t begin singing it until this week, to coincide with the arrival of the “O Antiphons.” Wikipedia notes: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is a Christian hymn for Advent and Christmas. It is a translation of a Latin hymn, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, itself a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days... Read more

The video here, from Rome Reports, describes the contents. But did the Holy Father include a Christmas letter, too? Maybe I’ll have to wait and see when mine arrives in the mail. (It’s going to be a long wait…)   Read more

Christian persecution persists, even during the holidays. From the BBC: Six carol singers have been arrested in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh after a man accused them of trying to convert him to Christianity. The state has some of the strictest anti-conversion laws in India. One of those arrested was a professor at a Catholic theological college. The group said it was only visiting villages to sing songs. A car used by the carol singers was also set... Read more

Behold, a Christmas flashmob at a German shopping mall. This was sponsored by a German Christian publishing company, SCM-Verlag. Read more

This Christmas song has become a modern classic—and the source of much teeth-grinding, eye-rolling and head-scratching on social media. But it has an interesting backstory. This comes from an item in the St. Augustine Record, from a profile of lyricist Mark Lowry (who sings the song in the video above): Following is Mark’s story behind his now famous song, as he told it to me: “In 1984, Jerry Falwell called and asked me to write the program for their next... Read more

Details: When a mother receives the news that her child will be born with Down syndrome, should she have the choice to obtain an abortion? Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature says “no.” Lawmakers, with a 20-12 vote in the Ohio Senate, sent a bill to Gov. John Kasich that would penalize doctors who perform abortions after a fetal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Kasich said in 2015 that he would sign such a bill. The proposed law has sparked division within the Down syndrome community. Winton... Read more

The video above tells part of the story, which unfolded in Springfield, Missouri just before Thanksgiving. Details: Police say a man who was standing on a rooftop in downtown Springfield for more than 15 hours has left the roof. According to a tweet from the Springfield Police Department, officers “successfully ended” the incident at 3:30 a.m., at which point the man was taken to a hospital. The man had been on the rooftop since before noon on Monday, causing parts of... Read more

The pope made this insight during his homily this morning: The tenderness of God, as his defining trait, was at the heart of the Pope’s homily this morning  at Mass at the Casa Santa Marta. The theme was taken from the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and the psalm where God says of himself: “… his tenderness expands over all creatures”. The image presented by Isaiah is that of a God who speaks to us as... Read more

With more parishes in the United States hosting priests from other countries, here’s a fascinating look at what it is like for these newly arrived priests, from Katie Rutter in The Criterion: A group of 14 priests sat around tables, sharing stories and laughing together. Some would stop mid-sentence to mentally translate from their native tongue into English. Each understood the struggle of learning an entirely new culture. “American coffee is very different from Italian,” explained Father Daniele Criscione, a native... Read more