On this Third Sunday of Advent, we mark our third significant Saint’s Feast Day in Advent, the Feast of Saint Lucy or Lucia. Like her contemporary Saint Nicholas, Saint Lucia marks a consequential shift from the early, persecuted church to the landed, establishment church of the early Middle Ages. The
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One of the pandemic’s most ravaging larcenies is depriving us of shared musical experiences, and not in some furtive, pilfering manner either. From concerts to live theater, from choirs to festivals, from hymn sing to children’s’ holiday performances, it seems COVID’s singular objective is to deprive us wholesale of moments
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Okay, yeah, I’ll admit it. I didn’t want to go see it, could’ve cared less about their music when they were global superstars, waaay too many Broadway attempts to resurrect aging rock hipsters from previous decades, but, “rush” cut-rate tickets, seats on the first row, can see the large piano
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The theme of our second Advent candle, and pervading this entire week, is Peace. The very words sound comforting in their native tongues, Shalom in Hebrew, Eirene in Greek (from which we derive the English name “Irene”). Used almost 250 times throughout Holy Scripture, our English term struggles to contain
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Undergirding our weekly Sunday Advent themes are several implicit, transcendent Christian cornerstone experiences. In Advent, as God’s future comes graciously towards us and into view, we are called, literally, to wait. To receive God’s gifting on God’s terms in God’s good time. There is a profound historical tension here, as
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As we move into this second week of Advent, we pause for what has become a civic version of a saint’s day. Sadly, like so many of our national days, this day marks a tragic and traumatic 80th anniversary. In the early morning of Sunday, December 7th, 1941, aircraft from
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Each week in Advent is characterized by a grand biblical theme emblematic of God’s gracious attention to us. As we light the first candle of Advent each day this week (suppers, prayer times, “I’m sick of news and turning it off to watch my candle” moments) we reflect together on
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We interrupt this newly launched Advent devotional blog to mark one of the great festival days on the Christian calendar, the first of several we will celebrate together in the coming weeks. November 30th is the Feast Day of Saint Andrew, Apostle and Patron Saint of Scotland. Interestingly, he is
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Yes, dear readers, I somehow forgot to work in a reference to the wildly popular pop culture literary and small screen phenomenon that is Outlander. The kids got Harry, the tweens got Bella, the teens got (well, kinda hosed as they received multiple knock-offs of Twilight all based upon the
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Fun with history! Boy can those British forebears complicate the $#%@ out of such a simple Christian festival! A blessed and happy Pentecost to all, the Christian festival of the Holy Spirit lighting upon those original disciples (plus one) to unleash nascent Christian faith from Jerusalem’s center to the entire
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