If you are presiding at the liturgy on January 1, try this: Ask the assembly what we are celebrating today. Most people will look at you as if you just emerged from hibernation. Then, the person who ...

The 1969 Roman Calendar reform recovered Jan. 1 as the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This is among the oldest feasts associated with the Octave Day of Christmas and reaffirms a basic truth that ...

"Happy New Year!" If you're from Denver, you not only might repeat that greeting through the month, but also leave your Christmas lights on until Jan. 22, the last day of the National Western Stock ...

Pope Francis began the new year by urging his fellow Catholics to entrust 2024 to the Mother of God, who “knows our needs” and always intercedes to “make grace overflow in our lives.” The pope made ...

For Catholics, New Year's Day isn't just the first day of the new year: It's a day of holy obligation. January 1 marks the Solemnity of Mary, a day the honors the role of Mary as the Mother of God, ...

Here below is Pope Francis’ homily at Mass this morning in St. Peter’s basilica, New Year’s Day, the Solemnity of the Mother of God. The Church also observes the World Day of Peace on Jan. 1 (see here ...

The Feast of Mary, the Mother of God, celebrated on January 1st, is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. Thus, the ideal motto for the New Year should be “Through Mary to Jesus!” This is a ...

St. Irenaeus said—we only have him in the Latin, not the original Greek—Gloria enim Dei vivens homo. “A living human being is the very glory of God.” No human being, at least not one who is only human ...

On New Year’s Day, Pope Francis encouraged people to place their lives under the protection of Mary, the Mother of God. “The new year begins under the sign of the Holy Mother of God, under the sign of ...

The roots of the Scottish Christmas carol “Tàladh ar Slànaigheir,” Gaelic for “The Lullaby of Our Savior” lie too deep in Celtic Christianity to discern its origin, but the carol’s English words were ...

Pope Francis reads his homily during the Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Jan. 1, 2025. (Credit: Vatican Media.) Listen On the first day ...