Sing, daughter; Your enemies come across the hills Resplendent in all of their power, But they will not come near to you; They will balk at this fortress. Dance, Israel; The battle is not over, yet The heralds run across the hills, The message of the victory bright In their hearts to tell you. Rejoice,Continue reading “The Lord Our Stronghold (Third Sunday of Advent)”
Category Archives: Advent
The Gift (Day Fourteen)
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies. Who, Alana wonders, are her enemies? She can often see them clearly in her mind’s eye: those whose faces and voices sheContinue reading “The Gift (Day Fourteen)”
The Gift: Third Candle (Day Thirteen)
“Lift up your hearts.” “We lift them to the Lord.” “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” “It is right to give our thanks and praise.” Standing, they face the front of the church where three Advent candles flicker in their wreath beside the two still unlit ones. The voices rise around them.Continue reading “The Gift: Third Candle (Day Thirteen)”
The Gift (Day Twelve)
One day he had come into the living room to find Alana crying. She had been on the phone to her mother and something had been said to shake her equilibrium, words said perhaps with the best of intentions but with the worst of consequences. At first Peter had tried, as he so often did,Continue reading “The Gift (Day Twelve)”
The Broken Carol
A few years ago, during a very difficult time in my life, I rediscovered Christmas carols. I’m not exactly sure what prompted this discovery, but I found myself one year downloading a wide variety of contemporary, and often artistically quite interesting, recordings of Christmas carols and put together the first of a series of musicalContinue reading “The Broken Carol”
The Gift (Day Eleven)
Alana is dreaming. It is daytime – noon, it seems, for the sun is high in the sky and blazing brightly – and she has walked outside of their house and is wandering in a strange wilderness outside which, though she cannot recall ever seeing it before, seems not altogether foreign to her. The groundContinue reading “The Gift (Day Eleven)”
The Gift (Day Ten)
Staying behind in the living room, Peter’s eyes skim the pages of the children’s Bible but in his head he is replaying every second of the conversation, his mind freezing over key moments, pausing, replaying, examining the scene from every angle he can find. At several points he thinks to get up and check onContinue reading “The Gift (Day Ten)”
The Gift (Day Nine)
The Story of Hannah and Samuel There was once a man named Elkanah who had two wives. Their names were Hannah and Peninnah. Elkanah loved Hannah more than Penninah, because she was a kinder person and her conversation was more engaging than Peninnah’s who, as her name implies, was a bit of a ditz. (“HowContinue reading “The Gift (Day Nine)”
The Gift (Day Eight)
Slowly the story returns to him. Hannah was the second wife of Elkanah, and unable to have children when Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, had already given him several children. Elkanah loved Hannah more than Peninnah, however, and whenever they went to the temple to offer their sacrifices he gave Hannah an extra helping of theContinue reading “The Gift (Day Eight)”
The Lord Our Redeemer (Second Sunday of Advent)
Make way, make way In the desert, make way In your desert hearts, make way Prepare the way, make straight the path For the Righteous King is here Prepare your hearts Your sullied hearts Present your hearts; He comes with flame To burn right through our sullied hearts; Who can stand before His flame? TheContinue reading “The Lord Our Redeemer (Second Sunday of Advent)”
The Consolations of Writing 