Ash Wednesday, which inaugurates the penitential season of Lent, will be on March 5 this year. I will again offer a daily reflection on the psalm verses from the lectionary, accompanied by music, imagery, and a prayer as well as a link to the readings. For readers who are newer to the reflections, a word about why I have chosen…
Keeping Advent 24: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
December 24/Fourth Saturday of Advent Christmas Eve “You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.” ~ Luke 1.76 We are on the cusp of Christmas. The last Advent calendar window has been opened; the four candles on the Advent wreath have been lit; all the…
Keeping Advent 23: Have You Heard?
December 23/Fourth Monday of Advent And all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. ~ Luke 1.65 Some years ago I came across a marvelous poem in The New Yorker, composed by the Italian Giovanni Pascoli and translated by the late, great Irish poet Seamus Heaney, that begins: “In a huddle by the fence/Neighbour women, hard at…
Keeping Advent 22: Showing Up
December 22/Fourth Sunday of Advent Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice. ~ Luke 1.39-41 Between the…
Keeping Advent 21: Twist and Shout
December 21/Fourth Saturday of Advent Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.Sing to him a new song; pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness. ~ Ps 33.2-3 A wise friend of mine once encouraged me, whenever I felt myself tightening up from the pressures or anxieties of life, simply to dance. …
Keeping Advent 20: Ordinary People
December 20/Third Friday of Advent In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. ~ Luke 1.26 The culture in which we live and breathe idolizes the extreme and the extraordinary. …
Keeping Advent 19: The Waiting Game
December 19/Third Thursday of Advent But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” ~ Luke 1.13 In the course of raising four children, I have spent a lot of time waiting. Not only waiting out the (+/-) nine months of each pregnancy, but waiting in carpool lines, waiting for toddlers to…
Keeping Advent 18: Planning the Work, Working the Plan
December 18/Third Wednesday of Advent Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into…
Keeping Advent 17: Skeletons in the Closet
December 17/Third Tuesday of Advent The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ~ Matt 1.1 We look back at the tidy pattern of our family’s generational history, neatly delineated on the genealogy dot-coms or on family trees that we’ve constructed, and it all looks so restrained, so civilized, so orderly. But…
Keeping Advent 16: The Center Holds
December 16/Third Monday of Advent “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” ~ Matt 21.22 Since about fourth grade, when I first encountered word problems, math has not been my strong suit. A geometry exercise I loved, however, was using the compass to draw a perfect circle. As I pressed the slender leg…