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January 2 2020 Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church Reading 1 1 JN 2:22-28 Beloved: Who is the liar? Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this...

Lincoln Center was feeling it.

January 1 2020 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Reading 1 NM 6:22-27 The LORD said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them." Responsorial Psalm PS 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 R. (2a) May God bless us...

The Christmas story celebrated each year by millions worldwide tells of an unwed teenager who becomes pregnant – after she responds “yes” to a life that redeems all of humanity. But that isn’t stopping some media outlets from deeming the holiday season appropriate to promote abortion, which says “no” to life, instead. On December 23, Rewire.News published an opinion piece with the headline, “All I Want for Christmas Is for Texans to Be Able to Afford Their Abortions.” Women’s centers and even the ACLU of Texas shared the story on Twitter. In the piece, OB/GYN activist and Physicians for Reproductive...

December 31 2019 The Seventh Day in the Octave of Christmas Reading 1 1 Jn 2:18-21 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;if they had been, they would have remained with us. Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number. But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One,and you all have knowledge. I write to you not because...

The church bells rang in Khartoum on Wednesday as Sudan marked Christmas as a public holiday for the first time in 10 years. Thousands of Sudanese Christians celebrated in the streets of the capital, where they were joined by activists sending a message of co-existence, as well elsewhere in the country, including rebel strongholds in the southern Nuba mountains. The holiday was announced by Sudan's civilian cabinet, which has spoken about improving religious equality after decades of rule that sidelined minorities. “This time is special, not like previous years," Simon Kunda, a 16-year-old student from the Nuba Mountains, told Middle...

The 'Jesus was a refugee' trope is tired and inaccurate. It's time for leftist politicians to stop exploiting Christmas by making false arguments about history.To profane a holy day, politicize it. Politicians’ profanity du jour is to exploit Christmas by making false arguments about immigration policy. Yet their rhetoric unintentionally supports the opposite points from what these politicians intend. Consider Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. On Christmas day, he said, “[D]ivinity on earth … came into this world not in riches but in poverty, not as a citizen but as a refugee.” Today I join millions around the...

December 30 2019 The Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas Reading 1 1 Jn 2:12-17 I am writing to you, children,because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men,because you have conquered the Evil One. I write to you, children,because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers,because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,because you are strong and the word of God remains in you,and you have...

December 29 2019 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14 God sets a father in honor over his children;a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever honors his father atones for sins,and preserves himself from them.When he prays, he is heard;he stores up riches who reveres his mother.Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,and, when he prays, is heard.Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother. My son, take care of your father when he is old;grieve him not as long as...

Away in a Manger: St Francis and the NativityFr. William Saunders As we learn each week from the saints, one must wonder, “How did the saints celebrate Christmas?” One of the best examples whose celebration lives on in our own is St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). Thomas of Celano, one of the first biographers of St. Francis, wrote, “More than any other feast, he celebrated Christmas with an indescribable joy. He said that this was the feast of feasts, for on this day God became a little child and sucked milk like all human children. Francis embraced with great tenderness...

“The One That Got Away” (Matthew 2:13-23) Christmas is a joyous, happy holiday. At this time of year, we celebrate the “good news of great joy,” that to us is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. With the angels who give glory to God in the highest, with the shepherds who return glorifying and praising God, with the wise men who rejoice exceedingly with great joy, we too join in the joy of Christmas. Yes, Christmas is a joyous, happy holiday. That is true within the church. But perhaps even more so, it’s true in the culture around...

A woman from Africa dropped a truth bomb on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s pandering Kwanzaa post, letting the Democratic presidential candidate know the real reason to celebrate in December. Warren turned to Twitter on Thursday to let everyone know that she and her husband, Bruce Mann, wished all Kwanzaa revelers a happy holiday. “Bruce and I are wishing a very happy Kwanzaa to everyone celebrating this week,” the Massachusetts senator said. Although Kwanzaa in part celebrates African heritage, the very continent it celebrates does not observe the holiday. Obianuju Ekeocha, a Nigerian-born conservative and outspoken advocate for the pro-life movement, responded...

December 28 2019 Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs Reading 1 1 Jn 1:5—2:2 Beloved:This is the message that we have heard from Jesus Christand proclaim to you:God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.If we say, "We have fellowship with him," while we continue to walk in darkness,we lie and do not act in truth.But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,then we have fellowship with one another,and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.If we say, "We are without sin,"we deceive ourselves, and the...

<p>Most conservatives and liberals enjoy Christmas enough to just have a good time, though every once in awhile you get a Scrooge who refuses to fathom the reason of the season and badmouths the holiday and those who celebrate it. Salon’s politics writer Amanda Marcotte doubled down on her hatred for Christmas by calling those who celebrate it hypocrites who mean “f*** you” when they say “Merry Christmas.”</p>

Why Do We Think of Christ’s Birth As a Nighttime Event? O Holy night! Yes, a silent night! And it came upon a midnight clear! Christmas, it would seem, is a festival of the middle of the night. Jesus is born when it is dark, dark midnight. We are sure of it. And why shouldn’t we be?Even though we are not told the exact hour of His birth, we are sure it must have been at night. Scripture does say that the Shepherds who heard the glad tidings were keeping watch over their flock “by night” (cf Luke 2:9)....

Many people reading this will have already taken down their Christmas lights. Just a few decades ago, it was pretty normal for Christians in America to leave up their lights for all 12 days of Christmas. Now, many think Christmas Day is the 12th day instead of the first. My lights will burn bright until Jan. 5, where, by tradition, the lights must be off before sunset. On Jan. 6, which is Epiphany, Mardi Gras season starts in earnest for those of us from Louisiana. As I get older, I love the Christmas season more and more. Easter comes as...

A trip to New York City in the days right before Christmas 2019 wound up being an unexpectedly revelatory experience. Every December, the area of Midtown Manhattan around the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the dazzling decorated store fronts on Fifth Avenue draw hundreds of thousands of visitors from every state in the nation, scores of foreign countries, and cities and towns that make up the metropolitan NYC area itself. This year 2019 was no exception. But as one who grew up in the NYC metro area and who has visited numerous times during Christmas seasons since then, I...

What a great holiday season it is. Know why? Congress is on vacation, which means all the rest of us get a break from politics. We're in the middle of what amounts to a national Christmas ceasefire in our never-ending, 24/7 political civil war. Political bombshells, childish name-calling, stupid tweet battles, partisan posturing, congressional hearings, Democrat primary debates, FBI leaks, trade wars, Brexit, Jeffrey Epstein's "suicide" ... all are almost totally absent from the news media. The best present I received this year was that no one talked politics at my house all Christmas day. The "Trump" word was never...

What are your thoughts about this? Fr. Peter O’Connor of Dublin, Ireland made headlines this week after riding a scooter down the aisle at Christmas Eve Mass....The pastor of Ballyroan Parish in Dublin told his congregation “that he received the scooter from Santa and wanted to test it out.” The parish posted a video with the caption, “Fr. Peter’s Christmas present put to very good use! Happy Christmas”. The video depicts Fr. O’Connor providing the congregation’s final blessing, then rolling away on a scooter for the recessional. Other videos of the full recessional also surfaced. ABC News posted the pastor...

December 27 2019 Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist Reading 1 1 Jn 1:1-4 Beloved:What was from the beginning,what we have heard,what we have seen with our eyes,what we looked uponand touched with our handsconcerns the Word of life —for the life was made visible;we have seen it and testify to itand proclaim to you the eternal lifethat was with the Father and was made visible to us— what we have seen and heardwe proclaim now to you,so that you too may have fellowship with us;for our fellowship is with the Fatherand with his Son, Jesus Christ.We are...