Chilling rain and the “City of Lights” completely locked down due to high profile guests did not stop the crowds from arriving as close to Notre Dame Cathedral as possible for its inaugural Mass celebrated Dec. 8.

The solemn reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral put Paris in the center of the Catholic world on the evening of Dec. 7 as the archbishop of France’s capital struck the magnificent door with his pastoral staff, marking the moment of the iconic Catholic church’s rebirth.

As the whole world awaits the reopening of Notre Dame, for those present inside the cathedral for the “grand réouverture,” it will be even more of a special moment.

He’s worked with patients whose ears were bitten off in dog attacks. He’s seen people whose eyes or ears were lost in accidents or whose flesh was ravaged by aggressive cancers. And he’s helped others born without body parts or who suffered unimaginable gunshot wounds.

Christmas gifts made by hand offer many benefits, artists and crafters say, no matter if they are baked, painted, sewed or melted. They are one-of-a-kind and mean a lot to both the givers and the receivers.

President-elect Donald Trump will attend the upcoming reopening ceremony for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he said Dec. 2. The trip will mark his first foreign trip since his election to a second term.

Artist and psychologist Tetiana Myalkovska of Ukraine used her art therapy techniques to work with children who have special needs and with her country’s traumatized soldiers returning from the conflict when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

As Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris officially reopens Dec. 7-8, bells will ring in churches an ocean away in the United States to celebrate the historic moment.

The world was left stunned when the first images of the rebuilt Notre Dame were published and spread with viral speed as President Emmanuel Macron walked through the bright, unrecognizably beautiful Parisian cathedral on Nov. 29, a week ahead of the Dec. 7-8 official reopening.

Musicians and musical directors have prepared a wide array of performances to treat worshipers during the Catholic calendar’s most joyous time of the year.