No Ambition Except to Do Good: Mary, Mother of God and A New Year
January 1st begins the new calendar year and it also brings to an end the celebration of the Christmas Octave with the celebration of...
The Mighty Genius of Michelangelo, 1475-1564
The Italian sculptor and painter Michelangelo lived to be nearly ninety years old, fulfilling his own dictum: I am a poor man and of...
Pope Benedict and the Holy Family
BENEDICT XVI
ANGELUS
St Peter's Square
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this last Sunday of the year we are celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family...
Leonardo da Vinci ~ Unfinished Artist (1452-1519)
Arguably the most popular painting in the Western World is The Last Supper, and virtually every educated person knows that it was painted by...
The Hope of the Holy Innocents
The feast of the Holy Innocents, which we celebrate appropriately enough within the octave of Christmas, might seem a troubling commemoration at first glance....
St John the Evangelist and His Life-Giving Message
Two days after the Solemnity of Christmas, Mother Church celebrates the beautiful memorial of St John the Evangelist. Pope Benedict XVI, seeing the paramount importance...
Saint John, Son of Zebedee
Pope Benedict XVI offered three audiences on the Apostle John, back in 2006, and, concise as they are - a trait of the erudite...
Pope Benedict and Saint Stephen
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Saint Peter's Square
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our recent Catecheses we have seen how through personal and community prayer the...
Christmas Urbi et Orbi
(Here is the Christmas address of Pope Saint John Paul II, from way back in 2002, and the needs for which he prayed eighteen...
Haec Dies by William Byrd and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
A festive, rousing motet for this Christmas Day - or twelve days - by William Byrd, composed in 1591, here performed by the incomparable...