By Michael Patrick O’Brien– I’ve read and loved “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (aka “The Night Before Christmas”) all my life. And to celebrate the poem’s publication bicentennial, now I…
Posts published in December 2023
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My facts of life in the late 1970s—a self-absorbed teenager and the youngest member of my divorced family—erected barriers that sometimes stymied my boyish notions of…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My favorite moment with a Catholic icon—Our Lady of Guadalupe—occurred when I stumbled upon a painting of her and some red December roses a few years…
By Gary Topping– As I have been writing on this blog recently, I spent the winter of 1959-60 studying at the U.S. Navy School of Music in Washington, D.C. I…
By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Many Christians either forget all about Advent or confuse it with Christmas. However, as my Iowa Trappist monk friends always remind me, “Advent and Christmas are…