When I was a child I picked St. John as my favorite apostle. Yes, most kids were picking superheroes. I was picking apostles. St. John was it for me. One of the “Sons of Thunder” as Jesus called him and his brother James, John was always the one who was a little bit ambitious but … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Saturday, December 27: Feast of St. John
I know you’ve sung it and not known what you were singing: Good King Wenceslas looked out On the Feast of Stephen When the snow lay round about Deep and crisp and even… This Christmas carol is actually talking about the day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen. Stephen makes his short appearance in … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Friday, December 26: Feast of St. Stephen
A blessed Christmas to you! Today is a day for feasting, for opening and giving gifts, for enjoying simplicity and joy. They mystic Thomas Merton provides a nice meditation for us this morning: Christ is born. He is born to us. And, He is born today. For Christmas is not merely a day like every … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Thursday, December 25: The Nativity of Our Lord
I hope you’re reading this in the early morning on this day. It’s been my practice for years to wake up very early on the 24th, long before the sun, to add extra time to my prayers and meditation. Some thoughts for your own meditation on this most holy of days! Theologian Karl Rahner- It … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Wednesday, December 24: O Emmanuel
When thinking about these days leading up to Christmas, Advent as we call it, it’s very easy to see it all in our 21st-century eyes. Red and green. Holly branches and red berries. Currier and Ives. But in those ancient days of the first church, and even into those middle days of the Medieval church, … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Tuesday, December 23: O Ruler
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once wrote, Everything beyond a certain distance is dark, and yet everything is full of being around us. This is the darkness, heavy with promises and threats, which the Christian will have to illuminate and animate with the divine presence. On this day, just two days before the grand eve of … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Monday, December 22: O Dayspring
Perhaps one of the oddest-named O Antiphons, unless you know a bit of history, calling the Messiah “O Key of David” will sound strange. In some chapels around the world tonight the priest will chant, O Key of David, O royal power of Israel, Controlling at your will the gate of heaven; Come, break down … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Sunday, December 21: O Key of David
Katharina von Bora Luther, affectionately known as Kathie (pronounced “Katie”), was the wife of the great Reformer, Martin Luther. She was born to an impoverished family on January 29, 1499 in a small village just south of Leipzig. When she was about 10 years old, she was sent to live at a Cistercian convent where … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Saturday, December 20: Commemoration of Katharina von Bora Luther, 1552
Read Luke 4:16-19. Though this story is of Jesus reading from Isaiah, the imagery is no less provocative. Here we have Jesus, just starting in his ministry, immediately after his baptism and temptation in the desert, essentially coopting these words from Isaiah to describe himself. So, you can see why some feathers might have been … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Friday, December 19: O Root of Jesse
Read John 1:1-5 “A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” These words from John feel more true to me now than maybe at any other point in my life. Not in the sense that I’m having some deep existential struggle within myself, but I look at our world, and … Continue reading Advent Devotional: Thursday, December 18: O Adonai
the narrow way 