The Lord Is Close to the Brokenhearted

The Blue Christmas Mass is a tradition begun in 2011 at Our Lady of the Woods Chapel by Fr. Ronald Knott, chaplain at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky. It was the result of an article he wrote for The Record which noted that for many the Christmas season can be more depressing than uplifting. "Not everybody finds this time of year to be a happy time. People lose relatives, parents lose children. For a lot of people there is a great deal of sadness. Some people, because of their personal experiences, just dread the arrival of the holidays. Then they go to Midnight Mass and that kind of rubs it in. The Blue Christmas Mass is more meditative and reflective. It is not festive, there are no trumpets playing Joy to the World." This book is a collection of Fr. Knott's homilies given at the past five Blue Christmas Masses. He offers them as a comfort to those who find Christmas a painful time.

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Father J. Ronald Knott is a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky. Ordained May 16, 1970, he has served as a home missionary, college teacher, campus minister, pastor, cathedral rector, traveling evangelist, homiletics instructor and archdiocesan vocations director. He is the Founding Director of the Institute for Priests and Presbyterates at Saint Meinrad School of Theology; a columnist for his archdiocesan newspaper, The Record; and a part-time campus minister at Bellarmine University in Louisville. Father Knott has had articles published in America, Church, Seminary Journal, Deacon Digest, and The Pastoral Review. He has given major addresses at national conventions on church renovation, homiletics, presbyteral unity and vocations. He has presented more than 75 parish missions and retreats and has led more than 100 presbyteral convocations around the country and abroad. Father Knott holds a Masters of Divinity degree from Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Presbyterian Seminary in Chicago. He has authored several books for clergy and published three collections of his homilies and twelve volumes of his For the Record book series. Three of his books for clergy are available in Spanish and one in Swahili. For information about where to purchase eBooks and printed editions of Father Knott's books, go to: www.ronknottbooks.com