Advent 2024: Fog

Advent Day 18, December 18, 2024 The above photo shows the view from my kitchen window yesterday morning. At this time of year, with the leaves gone, I can usually see the traffic below on one of the busiest roads into the city, but not yesterday. Fog snaked low across the valley before descending over the roadContinue reading "Advent 2024: Fog"

Advent 2024: Caesar or Christ?

Advent Day 17, December 17, 2024 This Advent series began as an invitation to unity in a world that is fractured by war, political division, insatiable greed, power-seeking, and biases of every sort, from skin color to sexual orientation. It is, in fact, a world very like the one that the Light/Love/Christ entered some two-thousandContinue reading "Advent 2024: Caesar or Christ?"

Advent 2024:  Candlelight

Advent Day 16, December 16, 2024 "Light your candles quietly, such candles as you possess, wherever you are.”  Father Alfred Delp If you’ve followed my blog at all these past few years, you can’t miss the fact that I love candlelight. In fact, I deLIGHT in the light, especially in these dark winter months. This morningContinue reading "Advent 2024:  Candlelight"

Advent 2024: Gaudete Sunday

Advent Day 15, December 15, 2024 For those who incorporate an Advent wreath into their Advent traditions, today is the day to light the pink candle, the Joy Candle. Known by its Latin term, Gaudete Sunday, this third Joyful Sunday in Advent reminds us that we are almost “there,” that the waiting for the Christ-LightContinue reading "Advent 2024: Gaudete Sunday"

Advent 2024: JOY

Advent Day 13, December 13, 2024 “We need a little Christmas now.”  Songwriter Jerry Herman If you’re looking for a prayer app, let me suggest Lectio365, a 10 minute devotional resource composed by leaders of Prayer 24/7, an international Christian movement focusing on prayer, mission, and justice. My reflection this morning is motivated by yesterday’sContinue reading "Advent 2024: JOY"

Advent 2024: The Long Goodbye

Advent Day 12, December 12, 2024 Today marks the 10th anniversary of my mother’s death. She died at 94 after a long decline caused by dementia and Parkinson’s disease which left her a “two-assist,” an impersonal term meaning that it required two people to move her from her bed anywhere else, even though she only weighedContinue reading "Advent 2024: The Long Goodbye"

Advent 2024: Notice

Advent Day 11, December 11, 2024 I am currently walking with a group through the book, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach about Jesus’ Birth, by theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. It definitely isn’t Christmas Hallmark movie reading. Yet in spite of its scholarly depths, the authors make some intriguing observationsContinue reading "Advent 2024: Notice"

Advent 2024: Waiting with Birds

(Photo courtesy of (c) Turner Matthews, Decatur, Alabama, USA) Advent Day 10, December 10, 2024 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  Philippians 4:8 Some two thousand years ago, in a politicalContinue reading "Advent 2024: Waiting with Birds"

Advent 2024: The Lynching of Robert Mosley

(Image of Robert Mosley painted with red clay from the soil of Madison County, Alabama, United States) Advent Day Nine, December 9, 2024 This past Saturday, I attended a sobering and unusual event: the dedication of the first memorial marker for the ten lynching victims in my home county alone, the last lynching in myContinue reading "Advent 2024: The Lynching of Robert Mosley"