Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The octave of Christmas provides a beautiful liturgical key in which to understand Christmas.  Throughout the Advent season, we prayed that we would be prepared for the "coming feasts" - plural-precisely because in the octave days after December 25, and indeed throughout the Christmas season, we prolong the Christmas feast.  Each day is a day of celebration and joy during which we are invited to visit the Child lying in a manger, to reflect on His presence in our lives, and to rejoice with the choirs of angels, the shepherds, and all who hear…read more

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I want to know things. Human beings, by nature, desire to know. We look at the world and try to understand why it is the way it is, we ask questions, we explore, we try to grasp the nature of the world. Sometimes we even find answers. There are, of course, things beyond our ability to comprehend, or for which humanity has yet to find a complete explanation. We don’t know how many different species exist since new ones are constantly being discovered, history cannot explain the etymological origin of the English word “dog,”…read more