The Feast of the Nativity — that great and lauded celebration of the Incarnation, the coming of Christ and his birth in our midst — begins the brief season of Christmastide, which stretches 12 days from the day of Christmas itself (Dec 25) through the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan 6).

The Church year begins and ends — ends and begins — with a memory and anticipation of the capital-E End: with parables of the Kingdom and of Judgement, prophetic promises, visions of the Second Coming, and the unity and persistence of the Church in the midst of the turning of the ages.