Christmas
Dov’è Cristo?
Jesus came in the most unexpected of ways; the King of Kings was born in a manger as a baby. His coming was not shouted from the rooftops, nor did he come as a great warrior, like so many of the Jewish people expected. Since Jesus’s birth was concealed from most of the world, Italian […]
On The First Day of Christmas or: “When the world’s party has ended, ours has just begun.”
It all comes to an abrupt and undramatic end on Christmas Day. All the decorations in the stores magically disappear and the horrible music mercifully ceases. That is when Christmas actually begins. Christmas Day is…the First Day of Christmas. We have twelve days of feasting and celebration. When the world’s party has ended, ours has […]
Grace, Beauty, Goodness, Truth, and Good Ol’ Charlie Brown
But why is [A Charlie Brown Christmas] still going strong after almost half a century? Revolutionary animation? The brilliance of its jazz soundtrack? An adorable beagle who sleeps on top of his house? Nope, nope and nope..though Snoopy is pretty cool. What keeps A Charlie Brown Christmas on the air year after year is because […]
The Power to Enjoy Christmas
“People are losing the power to enjoy Christmas through identifying it with enjoyment,” Chesterton writes. “When once they lose sight of the old suggestion that it is all about something, they naturally fall into blank pauses of wondering what it is all about.” In other words, Christmas isn’t frivolous enjoyment for its own sake. It’s […]
The Miracle of Birth
[W]e often talk about the “miracle of birth”. However a miracle is an event that occurs with no human/natural explanation. At Christmas we celebrate the only true Miracle of Birth that occurred once in human history. —from the blog post A Christmas Thought by Dr. Joe Strauss
Presents and God’s Presence
This Christmas (well, really Advent, but that’s a topic for another time) I had been especially concerned and felt restless about the birth of Jesus and Christmas day being consumed by Consumerism whose goal it seems is to turn Christmas into just some day in which it is our right to get presents from people […]
On Santa Claus Who is “more fully alive than any of us”
Which brings me to my next point, Santa Claus is a real person. So it’s not a lie to say that Santa Claus is real. He has died, yes. But he’s not really dead. He’s alive in heaven, which means he’s more fully alive than any of us. Santa Claus = Sinter Klaas = Sint Nikolaas […]
the five minute Catholic 