Christmas 23
Why We Need Christmas Trees
Rituals are our allies in sorrow. They help us appreciate what brief time we had with our loved ones while acknowledging the years we will face without them.
Feast of the Solstice of God Among Us: On Healing the Nativity of Fake Light
On this year’s Feast of the Nativity of the Light in Our World in the Age of the Machine, my prayer is this: may our ceremonies not be one dimensional,…
Nostalgia, Longing, and Christmas Joy “In the Bleak Midwinter”
Christina Rossetti's 1872 devotional poem, "A Christmas Carol," has held a special place in my heart from the moment I first heard it at a high school friend’s Christmas concert…
Combatting the Christmas-Industrial-Complex
One can have a very merry Christmas with great simplicity. And maybe, thinking of charity toward our less fortunate neighbors, modeling simplicity has its virtues.
Losing Elections and Telling Better Stories
As we enter this season of Advent, we would do well to share the skepticism of Mary and her misfit Son about the powers of this age to establish an…
Sonnets in Advent with Dunstan Thompson
Dunstan Thompson's poetic prayer reminds me how necessary Advent is and leaves me grateful for Christ’s work that makes his former foes members of his household.
Institutions Rescue George Bailey
George offers his joyful holiday greetings to these institutions as if they were persons, bodies that saw his town through good and bad, through war and peace.
Footsteps on a Generational Housetop
It may be that only in coming face to face with a world where gifts are truly needed can children discover the Earth as authored by something—or someone—greater than their…
Waiting, Seeing, and Receiving
Advent is a reminder that God has not forgotten—that He is faithful to His promises, that we're not left to our own devices, that he hears and knows.
It’s a Wonderful Film
It wasn’t enough for George to stay in Bedford Falls and do the right thing; he needed to choose which values to embrace and which to reject.
A Christmas Tree You Don’t Know Beans About
The locust tree is a rare symbol of Christmas and Easter as one.
Making a Castle, This Time of Year
"At this time of the year--the Christmas and New Year time--I am seldom out of my Castle. For the associations of the season seem to hold me there, and the…
What Aristotle Says about Christmas
My piece at Ethika Politika: Aristotle's Key to Christmas
Where was God?
Hidden Springs, VA. In the days following the horrific events in Newtown, a theological debate has arisen, a debate that goes well beyond theoretical musings and gets to the heart…
Dear Santa
You may think every five- to eight-year-old you know wanted an iPod this year. Not these kids.
The Bar Jester’s Unpremeditated Verse
But as a profound poet trying to make a comfortable living I can’t really trouble myself about that fit audience though few. . . . Were I to start thinking…
Ecce Homo: The Fleeting Treasure of a Mortal Life Within the Light that Envelops
Washington, CT. Puckish ad infinitum, I take it as my heathenish duty during this special time of year to preach at the choir boys and girls of ye Front Porch…
It’s the Family, Stupid
Hillsdale,MI. David the King ordered the beautiful Bathsheba to come to him because he could. He also could have her husband killed, and sent the letter that condemned Uriah the…
Still.
Wichita, KS I write a Christmas post every year. I'm actually quite fond of this year's entry, with its reflections on ghosts and spirits and other things in the wintertime…
Christmas Wish ’09: Repelling the Martian Invasion
Christmas celebrates the birth of the Prince of Peace. With all of the clerical cheering on behalf of recent wars, the intertwining of cross and flag, and the blessings bestowed…
Crass Christmas
The celebration of Jesus Christ's birth gives us an opportunity not only to act upon the principles of peace, sharing, and selflessness, but also to pass them onto our children…