It was December and the night was crisp and chilly. From my doorway I watched in awe as a magnificent scene unfolded before me. A candlelight procession of...
Advent
Every year, as soon as Advent arrived, my parents would tell stories about how Christmas was celebrated “back home” in the Philippines, where they had been...
The story goes that one Christmas Eve St. Francis of Assisi thought of a new way to share the news of God’s amazing love and mercy, a way that would speak to...
Perhaps no tradition fills us with as many pleasant memories as the Christmas nativity scene. Times of wonder and joy come alive when we remember the details...
Maybe it’s different for people who live in the neon glow of the Vegas strip or for people from New York, the city that never sleeps. But I hail from rural...
This whole blighted year I’ve waited for Isaiah with the agonized impatience children suffer for the arrival of Santa. Not that Isaiah is as rare a...
Every Christmas season my mom retrieves “The Book” from storage and puts it on display on the living room coffee table. It’s not a family Bible, but to us it’s...
Even though I grew up Catholics in the 1950s and ’60s, I was only remotely familiar with the custom of the Advent wreath. One or two years during my childhood...
For my family and so many others, 2020 has been the year of waiting. But even before the rest of the country entered the seemingly endless waiting game of the...
At the threshold of Christmas, our last days of Advent focus on two strong mothers, Elizabeth and Mary. Mothers whose strength in the face of challenges and...