Posts by Fr Jay Scott Newman

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 Jubilee of Mercy began five days ago on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, but today in Rome Pope Francis is opening the Holy Door of his cathedral church, the Basilica of St. John Lateran. And for the first…

Dear Friends in Christ, Tomorrow, Monday 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…

Dear Friends in Christ, “It was December, and another Christmas was at our throats.” The English humorist P.G. Wodehouse thus described the unholy frenzy that too often accompanies the approach of December 25th, and it is a sentiment most of us can readily understand. To avoid succumbing to hat feeling, we need to see what…