Genius of the Call

“We are creatures of a Creator, and he created us because he thought we’d enjoy it. He thought we’d love it,” my characteristically joyful friend said. He was giving a short reflection on prayer, but it was these words that have resonated with me the last several months. At the time, I wasn’t particularly enjoying …READ MORE

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,  The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.   Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the …READ MORE

I heard footsteps and squeals. My eyelids were so heavy I could not lift them. I was at once thrilled with anticipation, itching to burst out onto the scene of the presents under the tree, and at the same time, so exhausted that I wished I could make the sun go back down for a …READ MORE

Come and be filled with gratitude and holy wonder with me—how God allows you and I to face the darkness of sin and death that we might come to know the poignancy of the blazing light of Jesus, our God of the Nativity. As a little girl, I struggled with the message of Christmas. The …READ MORE

Just imagine . . .  Mary gave one more quick glance around the small home she had learned to love. Since coming to live with Joseph, Mary had delighted in preparing the meals for Joseph, as she learned those dishes he especially liked. Sometimes, she just enjoyed watching him work in the shop at the …READ MORE

It was only a couple of years ago that I was introduced to the “O Antiphons,” which are part of Evening Prayer in the days leading up to Christmas. All of them call on Christ to come; each uses a different name of his based in the Old Testament prophecies. Here is today’s: O King …READ MORE