From Silent Night To Silence

The most abrupt and shocking transition in the Roman Catholic Church's liturgical calendar occurs from December 25th to 26th, when the Church pivots from celebrating the birth of Jesus to marking the brutal stoning of St. Stephen. This liturgical mood swing between "mercy mild" and monstrous martyrdom is reinforced by the Church's memorial of the Holy Innocents massacred by Herod on December 28 and the murder in the Cathedral of the 12th century St. Thomas Becket on December 29. Nothing seems mo

The most abrupt and shocking transition in the Roman Catholic Church's liturgical calendar occurs from December 25th to 26th, when the Church pivots from celebrating the birth of Jesus to marking the brutal stoning of St. Stephen. This liturgical mood swing between "mercy mild" and monstrous martyrdom is reinforced by the Church's memorial of the Holy Innocents massacred by Herod on December 28 and the murder in the Cathedral of the 12th century St. Thomas Becket on December 29. Nothing seems mo…