A Reflection for the Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

John Updike, long one of the nation's finest novelists and short story writers, also wrote extensively about the Christian imagination (and once on his misgivings about Santa Claus).

Recent edicts and explanations of edicts out of Rome have ignited a familiarly unpleasant conflict in the U.S. church. And yet, though this will infuriate a vocal minority of my fellow Catholics, I just don’t get the brouhaha over the traditional Latin Mass.

Some derided the art as contemptuous of God and sacrilegious. What did artist Kelly Latimore intend to convey with the image? Is the picture meant to be a deification of George Floyd?

“Silent Night” is a song that seems to inspire the imagination in so many ways.

Our return to an in-person celebration of the birth of Jesus is also an opportunity to think about how we have done Christmas in the past—and perhaps even make some adjustments.

In his message for the 2022 World Day of Peace, Pope Francis proposed three paths to peace: dialogue between the generations, greater investment in education and job creation.

A Reflection for the Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent

President Biden is playing the long game in trying to revitalize the economy after Covid. It may take a long time to figure out how to measure the results.

Pope Francis spoke with an abused woman who recently fled her home with her four children.

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., speaks about the need for the Canadian church to apologize to Indigenous population for its role in abuse at residential schools.

A Reflection for Monday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Patriarch Sabbah: “When you celebrate Christmas, remember that in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, life is not a Christmas life. It is not the blessed life of the new redeemed humanity. The song of the Angels is far away.”

President Joe Biden installed a new touch of his own to the White House: a framed copy of a “Hagar the Horrible” cartoon. In it, Hagar yells to the sky, “Why me?” to which God replies, “Why not?”

A Reflection for the Sunday of the Fourth Week of Advent

Aaron Sorkin's take on the "behind-the-scenes" world of "I Love Lucy" depicts Lucille Ball in a most unsympathetic light.

A Reflection for the Saturday of the Third Week of Advent

A new document from the Vatican congregation that oversees Mass and the sacraments offers responses to questions some bishops have asked about restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II liturgical rite.

In 2021, there seemed to be fewer series to watch, or fewer worth watching. But a few stood out.

Can Black writers flourish in a marketplace dictated by white tastes?