Not so much commentary today dear readers, on this (rare) Second Sunday After Christmas Day, but more praying. We have but a brief Christmastide in which to fit so much reflecting, and I want you to not miss these gems of Christmas Collects. We pray four in total during a
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WARNING: TODAY’S CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL CONTAINS ITEMS OF AN UNBELIEVABLE GEEKY THEOLOGICAL NATURE. PROCEED AT GREAT RISK TO YOUR SOCIAL STANDING AND COMFY CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS…. Break out the fruitcake, chocolate, and perhaps an adult holiday drink of choice as we plunge into some deeper Incarnational water today dear readers. If
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A sincerely Happy New Calendar Year dear readers! May 2021 truly be a different Year of our Lord! Lost in all the revelry (or perhaps a slightly later morning for some of us!), ball drops, Harry Meeting Sally (and yes, I have sat in the same booth to have what
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(Extra 1970’s cultural bonus points if anyone remembers where the title phrase comes from!) Well, Saint Francis of Assisi, revered Christ-figure of the medieval church, your turn to take us to the “woodshed” finally arrives! Dear readers, today we reflect upon the beloved Christian Christmas tradition we now call the
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We visit today with two beloved Christmas hymns. Anglican holiday hymnody is an embarrassment of treasures, and we have only 12 Days of Christmastide after all, so please use these devotionals as a launch pad to explore your personal favorites…why so many notes in one word (“Glo-o-o-o-o-ohh, o-o-o-o-ohh, o-o-o-ORR-riah”), how
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Okeey dokey smokey, after a three day run of grand slamming saints’ days, can we please get back to some good ol’ Christmas joy now?! How ‘bout reverting to that First Sunday of Christmas for a re-visit of Sunday’s gospel, the Prologue to John’s Gospel. The church in her liturgical
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Today is a hard day, perhaps the most challenging of any saint’s day on the entire Christian calendar. Most clergy simply never mention it nor acknowledge it due to it’s disturbing content, but we are not most clergy nor most congregations. Today, December 28th, is the traditional date for the
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Andrew, Nicholas, Lucy, the Baptizer, Mary, Thomas, Stephen…our list of hagiography (fancy vocab for saintly biography) for Advent/Christmas/Epiphany is power-packed and star-studded. Today is no different! At least one and sometimes two Sundays fall in Christmastide but saints’ calendar days remain fixed by tradition. Let’s celebrate the First Sunday of
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Happy 2nd day of Christmastide, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Feast of Stephen the Protomartyr…how many traditions can we cram into one 24 hour period?! Let’s review quickly….it took our early Christian forebears just days to proclaim the resurrection of our Lord as God’s victory over death and the inauguration of
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An Episcopalian professor, liturgical scholar and author J. Robert Wright did the American church an invaluable service, re-introducing the Early Church Fathers (yes, a few mothers, but their voices are more difficult to find) to today’s church. These monks, nuns, bishops, mystics and scholars carried the Christian message in the
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