One of the popular indicators of the supposed war on Christmas is the use of the abbreviation Xmas . The well motivated, if grating, “Don’t take Christ out of Christmas” alludes not so subtly to the abbreviation. The former Anglican bishop of Blackburn, Alan Chesters, . . . . Continue Reading »
Though the sending of round-robin Christmas letters seems to have gone out of fashion, or maybe the kind of people who used to send them have just taken us off their lists, which has deprived us of some innocent amusement, this is still hysterical: Lynne Truss’ Christmas round-robin letters: . . . . Continue Reading »
David mentions the awkwardness, one might say inappropriateness, of the singing of hymns at Mass. The best case for the practice I’ve read is the one offered last summer by Nathaniel Peters in these pages: ” The Catholic Case for Protestant Hymns .” Nathaniel makes several . . . . Continue Reading »
Verses, that is. In Far As the Curse is Found , Abp Augustine DiNoia’s Christmas Eve homily we’re privileged to be able to post “On the Square,” he says that the verse of which this is the last phrase is “rarely sung.” It’s rarely sung in Catholic churches, . . . . Continue Reading »
George Weigel on a lost pastoral opportunity : At their annual November meeting, the U.S. bishops failed to approve a pastoral message on the economy. “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Economic Times” was approved by a clear majority of the bishops voting, but objections raised in . . . . Continue Reading »
It is generally believed that the birth of Christ is celebrated on December 25 because our savvy Christian forebears with a flare for marketing took over a winter solstice holiday from the surrounding pagans. Not so, apparently. Here is William J. Tighe on Calculating Christmas and Andrew McGowan . . . . Continue Reading »
Have you ever noticed that there aren’t any words in French or Spanish that begin with sl-? There weren’t any in Latin, either. Every language rules out certain combinations of consonants, as being too hard to pronounce. Hawaiian rules them all out! You never . . . . Continue Reading »
Maybe we’re both just morbid, or feeling the pains of middle age, or for some other reason thinking gloomy thoughts about life on earth, but the “Catholic Sense” column I write for the Pittsburgh Catholic and the editor’s OTS column The Christmas Conspiracy . . . . Continue Reading »
Christmas is conspicuously the only time of year when the word “merry” receives heavy use. The greeting “Merry Christmas” dates back to at least 1565, in which year the author of the Hereford Municipal Manuscript wrote “And thus I comytt you to god, who send you a mery . . . . Continue Reading »
R.R. Reno on the Christmas conspiracy : God does not call out sin and death to meet them on a grand battlefield. He undertakes a covert action, as it were, entering into human history by stealth as the child of a humble young woman who gives birth in a stable. Undercover, the lord of all foments a . . . . Continue Reading »
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