Here He Comes! Advent anticipation moved up a notch this week with the start of the “Golden Nights of Advent,” the octave leading up to Christmas Eve. Beginning the evening of December 17, religious communities in monasteries and convents all over the world sing one of the beautiful “O Antiphons” before and after the Magnificat […]
ADVENT 3, PROCLAIMING JOY: “Joy to the World!”
From where I lay on the third floor under the eaves, I could hear the piano. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” My aunt was visiting, and she thundered away without thinking of the children above, who were meant to be sleeping. Dum – dum – dah-dum … dah-dum – dum – dum! […]
ADVENT 2, EXPECTING A SAVIOR: “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”
O, the thrill a new baby brings! When our oldest was pregnant with her first child, we were beyond excited. By Advent, Abby was into her eighth month and was all baby and promise – down to the glow that never seems to leave her. I’ll never forget the day she pulled my hand to […]
ADVENT 1, YEARNING FOR PEACE – “O Holy Night”
As we head into Advent in an increasingly contentious world … might the answer be a simple song? A decade ago, a Saturday Night Live skit featured a family falling out over political and social differences at a Thanksgiving dinner — only to be saved when a little girl plays Adele’s then-new breakaway song, “Hello:” […]
UNTO YOU A CHILD IS BORN! – Welcoming Jesus with the O Antiphons
“HEY! Unto YOU a child is born!” Tough and scrappy little Gladys Herdman, one of “the worst children in the history of the world,” may not have been the most likely choice to play the angel in the Christmas play — but she knew how to deliver her line! I watched “The Best […]
JOURNEY TO CHRISTMAS WITH ONE OF THESE FREE READING PLANS
Wake up! It’s time to make our way toward Bethlehem. Imagine what that was like for the magi, leaving on their long journey, following a star that promised a king. They hoped in that promise and acted in faith: not knowing where they would end up or how far they had to go. In […]
HANG ON TO HIS WORDS: JESUS IS COMING!
Toward the end of Luke’s gospel, Jesus drives the merchants out of the temple and then goes there, every day, to teach. And all the while, the Jewish leaders look for a way to kill him — but they never get the chance. Why? “Because all the people were hanging on his words.” “Hanging on […]
LOOKING FOR JESUS? Lessons from the Magi
I can’t stop thinking about the Epiphany this week, as I — like the Magi — seek to find Jesus. There are times I can’t find him. Or he’s there, and I can’t see him. I don’t recognize his presence in people around me, in situations that are hard. Shouldn’t it be easy, to find […]
3rd SUNDAY OF ADVENT: REJOICE!
Twice a year, on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays[1], the priest dons rose-colored vestments for mass. In spite of what he might think about wearing that color (and there’s always someone cracking a joke about it) — I love seeing it. I love its rosy warmth and the way it breaks into the somber violet of […]
FINDING NEW MEANING IN THE CHRISTMAS TREE
In the winter of 1510, the merchants of Riga, Latvia, hauled a tree into the center of the marketplace. They decorated it with roses, symbol of the Virgin Mary. They danced around the tree in celebration of the Christ-child’s birth, and then they set it alight in a blaze of glory. That was the first […]
