The beautiful custom of setting up mangers to commemorate the birth of the Infant Jesus was started by St. Francis of Assisi. It was the year 1223. St. Francis went to Rome to obtain from Pope Honorius III authorisation to celebrate Christmas in a totally new way. St. Francis chose a forest in the vicinity … Read more
We have all heard the song, The 12 Days of Christmas, a delightful but apparently nonsensical rhyme set to music. However, it is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts. FREE Book, Order Today: Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic … Read more
One September morning in the year 1897, the editor of a New York daily newspaper called The Sun found a letter from an eight-year-old girl on his desk. The letter read: Dear Editor: I am eight-years-old. Some of my friends always tell me that Father Christmas does not exist. However, my father says that if … Read more
The Emperor Augustus then reigned over the East and the West. The nations that had been so proud of their independence, such as Italy, Spain, Africa, Greece, Egypt, Gaul (what is today France), Great Britain and Asia Minor, now transformed into mere provinces of the Roman empire, were subject to the laws of their conqueror. … Read more
In the seventh century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the word of God. His name was St. Boniface. He did many good works there and spent much time in Thuringia, a region later to become the centre of the Christmas decoration industry. Tradition has it that St. Boniface used the … Read more
One Christmas night, Our Lord, denying Himself the comfort of visiting those households where He knows He is loved, came down into the midst of a modern city to see what sinners were doing. Christmas!… Christmas!… Joy was universal. Everyone was celebrating. Christ encountered a policeman completely engrossed in directing traffic in a busy plaza. … Read more
Once upon a time there lived, in the faraway deserts of Arabia, a very poor boy. His mother had died when he was still very young, and his father was the guardian of a well where the caravans of travellers stopped to slake their thirst on their way across the desert. Then great crowds of … Read more
In 2014, the Church celebrated the 160th anniversary of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception which affirms that Mary was conceived without Original Sin. Is Technology Ruining Your Life? Take A Quick Quiz To Find Out By Clicking Here. For centuries, the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady was defended by saints, theologians … Read more
Now that the elections are over, there is much talk of trade and jobs. Predictably, the highest priorities are being given to negotiating new trade arrangements and tax policies that will bring back jobs to America. It is true that businesses in America are overtaxed and overregulated. Anything that can be done to alleviate these … Read more
The song ‘Silent Night’ is by far the most symbolic of Christmas carols. It is understandable, then, that we might wonder about the origin of such an extraordinary song. To tell the story of its origins we must start at the court of Frederick William of Prussia, the fourth king of that name, just after … Read more
