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: Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where … 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
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
Christmas Novena Opening Prayer (To be recited each day) Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary At midnight, in Bethlehem In piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe I beseech Thee, O my God, To hear my prayers and grant my … Read more
