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Advent can easily become a spiritual struggle when you have decorations, gifts, and Christmas preparations on your plate. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Church helps us to intensify our efforts of prayer and spiritual preparation for Christmas starting on December 17. From December 17 to the 23, the Church offers us the “O Antiphons” — short prayers that attribute Old Testament titles to Jesus and point to how they find their fulfillment in him. When you say each of these titles of Christ in Latin and put them in reverse order, the first letters reveal a hidden message and spell out the words ‘ERO CRAS’ — a Latin phrase that means, “Tomorrow, I will come.” These antiphons are recited during the Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. Let us reflect on each one to grow in joyfu...

Apple pie is not an American invention. In the 14th century, farmers in England began wrapping apples into inedible containers known as “coffins,” a pie prototype. Only in 1697 did the concept reach the United States—through European immigrants. But the USA has laid claim to the iconic dessert, a process that was crystalized when a 1902 New York Times article lambasted an English writer for complaining that eating apple pie more than two times per week was excessive: [Twice a week] is utterly insufficient, as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can be permanent...

On November 10, a “Synodal Committee” created by the recently completed German “Synodal Way” met for the first time. The committee’s mandate is to prepare the foundations for a “Synodal Council” of laity, clergy, and bishops to govern the Catholic Church in Germany from 2026 on. The idea of such a “Synodal Council” has already been rejected by the Holy See. And in a recent letter to four German laywomen who had resigned from the “Synodal Way” to protest deviations from settled Catholic truths and practices, Pope Francis reiterated that the “Synodal Council” cannot be reconciled “with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church.” The Pope also said this about the current state of Catholic affairs in Germany: “Instead of seeking ‘salvation’ in ever new committees and discussing the same...

“Rejoice always” sounds beautiful  when we hear it in Mass on the Third Sunday of Advent, Year B. Because it is beautiful. It’s Guadete Sunday; we light a pink candle and in many churches, the priest wears that same “rose” color. The Church traditionally stops holding back, a little. Many parishes will hear the organ again and see flowers for the first time in weeks. But just remember what allows us to rejoice on “Rejoice Sunday.” Yes, we rejoice because Baby Jesus is coming at Christmas. But we also rejoice because Adult Jesus is here, now, and he wants us to turn off every distraction and spend real time with him now. And if the sun goes dark today, and the dead rise from their graves, and a booming voice retells the deeds of our lives as Christ the Judge stares into our souls, we s...

—by Adam Bumas We’ve been using Newswhip’s real-time tracking data to analyze the top posts, links, and publishers on Facebook since April. It’s usually a mix of known publishers, some viral videos, and the occasional Taylor Swift post. That is, until November, when all 10 of the most popular links on Facebook were from a blog called Catholic Fundamentalism. Catholic Fundamentalism first came to our attention in September, when the single most popular link on the platform for that month was “Do Catholics find ‘Life’ by being pleasing to God? The Psalms tell us! #17.” The page linking the post had 409,000 total interactions in September. For scale, the Associated Press obituary for Jimmy Buffet had 356,000 interactions over the same time. It was unusual, sure, but random sites s...