To kick off the fourth season of “Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols,” we have a Christmas song that begins on a plodding, somber note and erupts into a thrilling epiphany. We’re exploring “We Three Kings.”

if you go to Mass, you hear the near-perfect opening line in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God

Besides its musical beauty and thrilling sense of wonder, the song ‘We Three Kings’ offers a treasure trove of stories to unwrap.

The star led the Magi to Jerusalem, “as we are always taken to Jerusalem—because we must encounter the Scriptures of Israel,” says David Neuhaus, S.J. “It is from the Scriptures of Israel that they will receive the precise destination to which they are going—Bethlehem.”

Pope Francis urged people to pray and work for peace in no less than ten conflict situations worldwide.

"Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world."