Emphasis

Three Kings Cake

This variation of Three Kings Cake is flat, more like a cookie, with a trinket (...

The 1500-year-old story behind the Solemnity of the Hol...

by Nicholas Senz Where do feast days come from? Often the answer to this questio...

St. Ambrose—See in her the pattern of your life, …

See in her the pattern of your life, for in her, as though in a model, manifest ...

Start the new year attuned to the Holy Name of Jesus

Think Jesus. Here’s the simplest yet most perfect prayer you’ll ever pray: “Jesu...

St. Ephraem of Niseis—Lord, shed upon our darkened soul...

Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we...

St. Thomas Becket—Remember then how our fathers worked ...

Remember then how our fathers worked out their salvation; remember the suffering...

Reading and Understanding the Bible

BY AMY EKEH Let’s face it, as much as we may want to read the Bible, it can be a...

St. Augustine—May he who did not shrink from taking a b...

May he who did not shrink from taking a beginning even like ours, perfect in us ...

St. Stephen—Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son ...

Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of ...

The Christmas Child

BY GINA LOEHR The joy of Christmas is best understood by children. Excused from ...

Bl. Bartolo Longo—O, Mary, did you not find a room for ...

O, Mary, did you not find a room for your Son? Here it is, I offer it to you in ...

St. Thomas Aquinas—I would not believe if I did not rea...

I would not believe if I did not realize that it is reasonable to believe. — St....

Shepherds, kings, gold-foil stars…and llamas

Every child’s eyes focused on the altar, watching the annual Christmas pageant i...

Has Christmas Come for You Yet?

One of the things I love about Christmas being celebrated for an octave (or twel...

St. Augustine—This is the business of our life: by labo...

This is the business of our life: by labor and prayer to advance in the grace of...

St. John Henry Newman—Let us pray God teach us: …

Let us pray God teach us: we need his teaching; we are very blind. The apostles ...

St. Teresa of Avila—All difficulties in prayer have jus...

All difficulties in prayer have just one cause: praying as though God were not t...

St. Leo the Great—Invisible in his own nature he became...

Invisible in his own nature he became visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he chos...

Nick-nicknames

by Jake Frost In our family, we have so many nicknames that our nicknames now ha...

St. Lucy—You can take nothing with you from this life …

You can take nothing with you from this life, and whatever you give away at deat...