2016 felt like a chaotic year, didn’t it? There was a difficult presidential campaign season in the U.S, and meanwhile presidents of other countries were impeached and even put on trial. There were horrible terrorist attacks across the globe. Syria’s bloody civil war ground on with the bombing of hospitals, churches, and homes, leaving thousands of people dead and thousands more fleeing for their lives.Will 2017 be less chaotic? We can hope so. But even if it isn’t, there are w...

In the classic He And I, French mystic Gabrielle Bossis, like the rest of us, started every year with something new. But her “resolutions” were very different from ours. Her conversations with God, recorded in her journal according to the date they took place, always started on January first with something called a “keynote,” what we might think of as a theme for the year. And all of these themes have one thing in common: they have nothing to do with self-i...

En el evangelio de Mateo leemos que Los Tres Reyes Magos "abrieron sus tesoros y entregaron a Jesús regalos de oro, incienso y mirra" (Mateo 2: 2).Un día, mientras oraba en la capilla y meditaba en la guardería de Navidad, empecé a concentrarme en el viaje de los tres reyes, Melchor, Balthazar y Gaspar. Siguieron a una estrella, y encontraron al Hijo de Dios con María, su Madre. ¿Y cuáles eran sus regalos para este pequeño Rey Ni&...

Most of us turn the page from December 31 to January 1 with mixed feelings. There may be regrets for what we’d planned to see accomplished in the year that is over. For many people, probably for most people, there is hope that the new year will be different. And most of us make new year’s resolutions. We decide that this is the year we’re going to lose weight, or start a new career, or take a class. We’re all about self-improvement, about making changes that will&mda...

The day was cold, (it was December after all), but as usual, there was not a flurry of snow in sight. That's common for South Louisiana; so, all things being equal, it would be a normal Christmas Day in my family's home where we lived not so far from a bayou or two. Or so everyone thought.Did armadillos aggravate the dog next door? Most possibly. Did possums hiss from under the porch? Undoubtedly. Did an alligator waddle through the neighborhood? Perhaps, but he really should have been h...

These first two weeks of December are always very special for us Daughters of St. Paul. These are the weeks of our Christmas concerts (click here to listen to a sample of the concert favorites from 2016 released on a new CD). This year the sisters who record the albums for the Daughters of St. Paul Choir performed in New York, Staten Island, Boston, St. Louis and Cleveland. In the words of Sr Julia Darrenkamp from the Daughters of St. Paul Choir, “music is the only art that will live forev...

While it is difficult to keep in mind in the midst of holiday celebrations, shopping, lights and decorations, and joyful carols, Advent is actually intended to be a season of fasting, much like Lent. It probably doesn’t feel that way, but any time the Church asks us to prepare for something, there’s an element of penance that goes along with that preparation.There’s something very appropriate about penance in this holy season of waiting. Because we spend time reflecting on the ...

The early Church’s three “pillars” of faith, were (as we’ve seen) prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Almsgiving is a very specific part of charity: it means giving of the blessings that you’ve received to those less fortunate than you but who are in a special way part of who you are.And, like the other two pillars, it’s not always easy to practice. Many of us are already trying to “make do” with just enough money to cover our essential needs; we don&...

The final Advent hymn in this series is not only the oldest Advent hymn still being sung, it was written by one of the greatest saints and Doctors of the Church: St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. St Augustine (Ambrose's most outstanding convert) testified in his Confessions to the power that the music in Ambrose's church had in winning him to the Christian faith: “I remember the tears I shed at the psalmody of thy Church, in the beginning of my recovered faith.” Augustine may be r...

“The angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emma...