January 2019

In contemporary parlance, the term habit has come to mean a psychological groove that diminishes freedom and restricts a person to stereotypical forms of behavior. Whether this refers to speaking with a heavy regional accent or to drinking coffee each morning or even to smoking a cigarette after every meal,

The Adoration of the Magi was begun by Blessed Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar, and later completed by Fra Filippo Lippi. T seems that the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child (painted with particular delicacy and tenderness)

Jesus promised repeatedly that the kingdom was coming without delay. Midway through the “little apocalypse” of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place” (Matt 24:35).

Today the Catholic Church celebrates Mary as “the Mother of God.” Christians have invoked Mary in this way since at least the time of Origen of Alexandria in the early third century. She was officially honored as the Mother of God in 431 at the Council of Ephesus, which ratified the tradition of calling her Theotókos, a Greek term meaning “the God-bearer” or “She who gave birth to God.”