The letters "X" and "O" have meanings dating from the Hebrew tradition to a sacred Christian meaning.

Sealed with a kiss: The religious history of X and O (Commentary)

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When I was a young girl, my mother taught me to add “x” and “o” — a kiss and a hug — after my signature. So deeply embedded was this English-language tradition that it never crossed her mind that these symbols had anything to do with religion. I never thought about it myself until she passed away a few years ago and I found myself emitting streams of “x’s” and “o’s” like a binary love code in the countless emails that consume much of my daily life.

The quest for unity doesn’t aim to seek a uniform Christian Church, but allows a seamless diversity.

Seamlessness and diversity

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You have heard it said that a stitch in time saves nine. I know how to thread a needle and have done so many times. I have even sewn a button on my shirt and on occasion sat at a sewing machine, but a tailor I am not.

A man pauses in front of a Nativity scene at the Ainkawa refugee camp near Irbil, Iraq, Dec. 19. Christmas bells did not ring in Mosul and Christian villages this year for the first time since 1600 years.

In Christmas messages, patriarchs lament peoples' suffering, offer hope

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BEIRUT - Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East lamented the suffering of their people in violence-wracked areas and offered words of hope while calling for prayers for their safety.

For the Kennedy family, seen here in the 1950s at their home in Sudbury, Ont., Christmas is about charity. From left: Anne, Kathleen, standing on chair, Neil, Andrew, Angus, Philip and Michael.

’Tis the season to set an example and reach out

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I remember this scene from childhood. A couple of days before Christmas I came back home from delivering papers, and was surprised to see my mother standing in the snow-packed driveway, bundled up against non-stop snowflakes and the December chill.

Bishop Gordon, right, with Mykhailo Ozorovych, a seminarian studying for the priesthood from the Eparchy of New West- minster in British Columbia, and the bishop’s faithful golden retriever Merlin.

Christmas on the edge

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The great adventure continues with amazing sights under the Northern Lights in the Christmas season. My own adventures and travels are too many to put into one short Christmas letter. However, I will share a dog rescue story as the Christmas story has some four-legged creatures, too. There were cattle lowing, donkeys braying and probably a dog or two at the first Christmas in the manger of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born of Mary.

A Fr. Raby Christmas

A Fr. Raby Christmas

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Editor's note: for nearly 50 years the late Msgr. Thomas Raby penned his The Little World of Fr. Raby column for The Catholic Register. The following, Christmas lights in September, is a Msgr. Raby classic, along with one of the Christmas poems he wrote annually.

The candy cane’s Christian origins — fact or fiction

The candy cane’s Christian origins — fact or fiction

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The candy cane has been a Christmas treat and tradition for so long that no one is completely sure of its origin. In lieu of a history as solid as the hard candy itself, myths and legends have popped up in its place, including a tale that ties every aspect of its existence to Christianity.

Paul-André Durocher

Innocence recovered in Jesus

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The following is the Christmas message from Archbishop Paul- André Durocher, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As I write this Christmas message, barely a week has gone by since Remembrance Day, a day marked by the still fresh memory of the recent assassinations of two members of the Canadian Armed Forces. This year, Christmas in Canada will take on a different shading, muted and somber, because of these events which have saddened our hearts and our spirits.

At Christmas, God worked the sacred exchange, taking on what is ours so we could receive what is His.

God took on what is ours to give us what is His

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The following is the Christmas message from Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, papal nuncio to Canada.

We are just at the threshold of Christmas, a great event which — if we welcome it — is capable of changing our lives. A story by Tolstoy which I learned and owe to Pope Benedict XVI helps me to share the light and life that springs from Christmas:

A painting of Mary breast-feeding the infant Jesus is seen at the Milk Grotto chapel in Bethlehem, West Bank.

Believers pray to ‘Our Lady of the Milk’ in this ancient Bethlehem spot where Mary nursed

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BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Dozens of photos of smiling babies accompanied by moving testimonials line the walls of Franciscan Brother Lawrence Bode’s office in the Milk Grotto Church where, tradition holds, the Virgin Mary hid in an underground cave in order to breast-feed Jesus as she and Joseph were fleeing King Herod.

Father Frank Pavone, one of the country's most visible and vocal opponents of abortion, has been suspended from active ministry outside the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, over financial questions about the priest's operation of Priests for Life. The suspension was made public in a Sept. 13 letter by Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek. Father Pavone is pictured speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court building in Washington in this Nov. 8, 2006, file photo.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan cuts ties with anti-abortion crusader Frank Pavone

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NEW YORK - In the latest clash between the Catholic hierarchy and one of the church’s leading anti-abortion crusaders, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan accused the Fr. Frank Pavone of continuing to stonewall on financial reforms, and Dolan said he is cutting ties with his group, Priests for Life.

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