Christmas holds a warm place in the heart as no other time of year. It is the joyful celebration of God's love in the birth of Jesus, the Word made flesh. The Christmas novena has long been one of the most cherished ways to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas Novena guides readers on a pilgrimage of the heart and is a spiritual treasure that you will want to make a part of your preparation for Christmas each year. Saint Alphonsus Liguori (b. 27 Sept. 1696, d. 1 Oct. 1787) is best known for his Moral Theology writings. Alphonsus founded the Redemptorist Congregation. He made great pastoral reforms in the pulpit and confessional, replacing the pompous oratory of the time with simplicity. For nearly ninety years he had been a model of holiness, prayer, and mortification. Alphonsus fought against Jansenism, which later became condemned as heretical. He spent twenty-six years on the road preaching in the Kingdom of Naples. Saint Alphonsus was made bishop of Palermo at age 66. His life was filled with illness, eight times, he was administered the sacrament of dying. He was declared "Venerable", 4 May, 1796; was beatified in 1816, and canonized in 1839. In 1871, was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX. David Werthmann has a Master of Arts degree in Pastoral Studies from The Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, and has done further graduate studies in pastoral liturgy at Santa Clara University. He has been a teacher, pastoral minister, liturgical musician, and free-lance writer for nearly 30 years.