The Coventry Cathedral is the birthplace of a Christmas carol featured on the latest season of “Hark!”—America Media’s podcast on the stories behind our favorite Christmas carols.
Christmas
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
There was more than one Epiphany—and in dark times, that’s a relief.
Epiphany has come and gone. But this year, it struck me for the first time that the feast we celebrate is actually composed of several epiphanies—and that comes as something of a relief.
Posted inFaith, The Good Word
At New Year we remember Mary and the depth of Christmas
A Homily for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, by Father Klein
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis urges war-torn world to walk through ‘door of peace’ on Christmas
Pope Francis prayed that the Jubilee Year may become “a season of hope” and reconciliation in a world at war and suffering humanitarian crises as he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
Posted inFaith, Pope Francis Homilies
Pope Francis at Christmas Mass: ‘Hope is alive’ as Jubilee Year begins
‘If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!’
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Embracing the simplicity of Jesus’ birth: A Christmas Eve homily inspired by Henri Nouwen
Inspired by his friend and mentor Henri Nouwen, Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the U.S., invites listeners in his Christmas Eve homily to approach the manger with renewed awe and openness.
Posted inFaith, News
Why G.K. Chesterton and his wife loved Christmas so much
While Chesterton wrote on a vast number of subjects, Christmas was a favorite.
Posted inArts & Culture, Dispatches
The Irish Christmas tradition that celebrates the unsung work of women
The Irish tradition has long been that on Nollaig na mBan, this final day of the busy Christmas season, women get to put their feet up and enjoy a day of socializing. In some versions of the tradition, men take over the household chores.
Posted inFaith, News
Another somber Christmas in Bethlehem under the shadow of Gaza war
For the second straight year, Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations will be somber and muted, in deference to ongoing war in Gaza.
Posted inArts & Culture, Dispatches
The sound of the Christmas season: A history of the lost art of bell-ringing
Bell ringing has a rich history, integrated into daily and liturgical life year-round, a tradition being rediscovered and appreciated by anthropologists, academics, musicians and an increasing number of ordinary people.