Advent 2012 (First Saturday)
O Come O Come Emmanuel O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan's tyranny From depths of Hell Thy people save And give them victory o'er the...
Advent 2012 (First Friday)
"Lots of people these days are seeking recollection, writing books about it, urging us to do it. It seems like a nice idea all right - until you try it. What a lot of the books don't tell you about is the terror. To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge may mean not knowing much of anything else. With the peace and quiet of...
Advent 2012 (First Thursday)
We are still waiting for snow. We've seen flurries now and again, but the inches we've been promised have yet to materialize. This sixty-degree day is mocking my hope. It's hard to believe in snow when the sun is this warm. I've decided it will be easier if I stop thinking about it. If I stop hoping. If snow will come when snow will come then...
Advent 2012 (First Wednesday)
We gathered around our advent wreath Sunday night. The boys were too loud, and the baby needed to be fed halfway through, the three-year-old whined because we wouldn’t light all four candles, and then, of course, everyone fought over who would get to blow the candle out. But, the dining-room lights were low, and it was sort of beautiful, too....
Advent 2012 (First Tuesday)
It is dark, four children are finally quiet and in bed, and I am carrying a basket of folded laundry up the stairs. I lift my head and see this: the tall double-hung window that presides over the turn in our staircase. The bottom is etched glass, and a battery-operated candle on the sill has filled it with one perfect rainbow. The top is clear...
Advent 2012 (First Monday)
For a while now, I've reserved Mondays for poetry. If nothing else, poetry slows us down, and I usually need that on Mondays. Here is a poem for the first Monday of Advent. No doubt you can find many English-language versions of Rilke's poem "Magnificat." I'm afraid I couldn't say which is best, whatever "best" means when we are speaking of...