Merry Christmas! Today, on this, the fourth day of the Octave of Christmas, Holy Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The family: child, mother, and father, forms the basic unit of the church and is the root through which the tree of life and salvation grows, as evidenced by the Holy Family.

This year, holy Church celebrates the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, held from May to August in the year 325 in the modern-day city of İznik, Turkey. One of the main topics of discussion at the council was who Jesus is metaphysically, especially in relation to God the Father.

“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say, rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.”

Today, the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent. The name of this Sunday comes from the first word of the above Entrance Antiphon, sung at the start of the Mass today, which in Latin is Gaudete.

The nativity scene or crèche arose out of ancient piety and the medieval theater. Christians were honoring the cave in Bethlehem where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born even before St. Helen built the Basilica of the Nativity over it around A.D. 330. Medieval mystery plays later reenacted the Nativity, but when they got out of hand, Pope Honorius suppressed them.

Today, the Church celebrates the First Sunday of Advent. Notice that Christmas is not included in that title, nor is it for the remainder of the liturgical season of Advent, even though much of the world around us is already acting like Christmas is here. I am in Rome right now, and even here, many places are decorated for Christmas. As Catholic Christians, though, we should know that Advent comes first, and cannot be forgotten as an important and necessary prelude to the joy of the Christmas season, which lasts not one day but a little over two weeks until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Today I am in Paris, having just visited the Cathedral of Saint-Denis just north of Paris. In that Cathedral is located the French Royal Necropolis. Surrounded by over 140 tombs of French Nobility, 40 of which are Kings, including King St. Louis IX, with their grand but sober funerary monuments, the immense temporal power that was wielded by those now laid to rest is evident, but even in death they seem to recognize that their power was finite and ultimately subservient to that of Christ’s, as on many monuments is incorporated effigies in prayerful posture often on their knees in the direction of an altar.

Continuing the church’s practice of contemplating death and praying for the dead, especially in November, I now invite us to contemplate how hope is present, even in death, with our Holy Father from his homily given on All Souls’ Day.

As Catholics, it’s crucial that we understand not only the Catholic Church’s practices but also the reasons behind them, particularly in our funeral rites. Like all liturgical rites, funerals serve a specific purpose within the life of the Church. Catholic funeral rites consist of three liturgies, each with a distinct role in ministering to the bereaved and commemorating the deceased.

The Eucharist is truly a gift to us. In fact, it’s a continuation of Christ’s total gift of self that began with his incarnation, came to its culmination on the cross where he died for us, and continues to be present to us under the appearance of simple bread and wine. Because the Eucharist is such a precious gift to us, it must be treated with respect.

“Tho’ I’m no Catholic, I listen hard when the bells in the yellow—brick tower of their new church ring down the leaves … ring in Sunday morning and old age which adds as it takes away. Let them ring, only ring! … Let them ring for the eyes and ring for the hands and ring for the children of my friend who no longer hears them ring … O bells ring for the ringing! The beginning and the end of the ringing! Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Catholic bells—!” (Excerpt of a poem by William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963)

The spiritual and bodily meanings of proskynein [i.e., adoration on one’s knees] are really inseparable. The bodily gesture itself is the bearer of the spiritual meaning, which is precisely that of worship. When kneeling becomes merely external, a merely physical act, it becomes meaningless. On the other hand, when someone tries to take worship back into the purely spiritual realm and refuses to give it embodied form, the act of worship evaporates. Worship is one of those fundamental acts that affect the whole man. That is why bending the knee before the presence of the living God is something we cannot abandon.

Ever wonder why the bread we use at Mass, then consecrated into the Precious Body of the Blessed Sacrament, is different from other bread we might normally encounter, and not just Wonder Bread? The way in which the bread is made is strictly regulated by the Church, and the wine for the Precious Blood is no different. The regulations, while allowing for some broad differences (though not often seen in the USA), are very precise about the most important details to ensure that the bread is real bread and the wine is real wine that would be analogous to the same that our Lord would have used when he instituted the Eucharist.

According to Catholic theology, baptism is much more than merely a symbolic sign of belonging to the church. It is the means by which a person is incorporated into Christ, becoming a member of his mystical body. Baptism, accordingly, makes the baptized an alter Christus, another Christ, and thereby grants us the common offices of priest, prophet, and king. This is precisely why, for example, every candidate for baptism is anointed with oil, just as, in the Old Testament, priests, prophets, and kings were anointed upon assumption of their offices.