Two martyrs — St. Stephen and St. Thomas Becket — and the Holy Infants who lost their lives to Herod’s vicious pursuit of Christ have feast days this week. What is the church trying to tell us by situating these particular feasts just after the joyful celebration of the Savior’s birth?
The church’s liturgical season of Christmas is one of its shortest, but also one of its most unique. Within it is the eight-day celebration of the Lord’s Nativity as well as other feasts.
The Vatican doctrinal office announced the optional use of seven eucharistic prefaces as well as the celebration of the feast days of recently canonized saints in the “extraordinary” form of the Mass.
