Posts by Fr Jay Scott Newman

Dear Friends in Christ, Christmas is not just one day on the calendar; Christmas is an entire season of the Church’s liturgical year. The season of Christmas Time or Christmastide begins with Vespers on Christmas Eve and ends with Vespers on the Feast of the Baptism the Lord, this year on Monday 9 January. And…

Dear Friends in Christ, The popular Advent Hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” took shape in France in the 17th century and was translated into English and set to the hauntingly beautiful plainchant melody we know in the 19th century. But the text of the hymn dates from the 9th century and earlier and is…

Dear Friends in Christ, The Lord Jesus teaches us to expect opposition, rejection, and even hatred and persecution from “the world” simply because we are his disciples. But, by “the world”, the Christ does not mean the universe he created or this planet which is his handiwork; rather, by “the world”, the Messiah means that…

Dear Friends in Christ, Wednesday 7 December is the feast of Saint Ambrose of Milan, one of the most remarkable bishops of the early Church. Aurelius Ambrosius was born around the year 340 in the city of Trier, now in Germany but then in the Roman Province of Gaul. Ambrose’s father was the praetorian prefect…