My latest comedy video on YouTube, “A Stanford Nutting Christmas” features liberal ex-seminarian Stanford Nutting hosting a holiday special with members of his family, including his radical traditionalist half-brother Bill Johnson, his televangelist cousin Rev. Cletus P. Love, and his cynical atheist grandma who worships the periodic table of the elements.  Click here and be prepared to laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1FOOto-JpU

Much humor, as well as profound insight, can be found in Mark Shea’s latest piece for Catholic Exchange, “Grace is Dark Matter”, which includes this memorable quote.  The Nativity “is the ultimate Dark Matter Moment, a paradigm of the hidden way in which God has always worked in the world … When our Lord is born, it happens not in DC or LA or NYC, but in something like the broom closet of the Stop ‘n Sleep Motel in Snohomish, Washington because his parents were down to their last dime and the snow was piling up on their stalled ’78 Ford Pinto when Mary went into labor.”  Well worth the read: http://catholicexchange.com/2010/12/22/128319/

And, finally, and most remarkably, Pope Benedict XVI hits it out of the ballpark with his year-in-review address to the Roman Curia.  This is one of the best things the pope has ever written.  He touches on pedophile priests, reunion with the East, the breakdown of secular society, the mystical prophetic visions of St. Hildegard of Bingen, and finishes up by giving the best explanation of Bl. John Henry Newman’s understanding of “conscience” that you’ll find anywhere.  A truly amazing address: http://communio.stblogs.org/2010/12/benedict-xvi-to-the-roman-curi.html

Merry Christmas to all our StAR readers!