“It just doesn’t feel like a holiday without pasta,” my mother-in-law told us as she set a steaming bowl of tortellini onto the table in preparation for Christmas dinner. Now, I love pasta almost as much as an Italian. My...
Old traditions gain new meaning as families merge
Whether there is pasta or potatoes on the dinner plate, family traditions celebrated together bring God's grace.
New from our staff
December 2025
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE
Ever ancient, ever new
Digital artists are transforming centuries-old churches into canvases of light.
BY GABRIELLA PATTI
The women behind the pulpit
Catholic women are forming a new generation of preachers—and, sometimes, preaching themselves.
BY KELLY SANKOWSKI
The mothers we missed
From Mary to Herodias, biblical mothers defy expectations and reveal God’s surprising ways, says this biblical scholar.
AN INTERVIEW WITH JENNIFER HOUSTON MCNEEL
Consider the goon
A closer look at a beloved holiday classic inspires a meditation on liberation.
BY PATRICK GALLAGHER
In the bleak midwinter
Advent wasn’t a season of joy for medieval Catholics. Maybe we can learn from their approach to anticipation.
BY ELLYN SANNA
Advent is a season of preparation and anticipation, a road that leads us to the incarnation. We are not to rush through Advent; it is a process we must live through in the same way we live through the creative process.
Dani M. Jiménez
