“Arise in splendor, Jerusalem! Your Light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you!” —Isaiah 60:1 Epiphany (<Gk.epi+phanein, a manifestation, an appearance, a bringing to light) signifies one of the oldest notions of creation from Greek mythology. The primordial god of creation and reproduction in the Orphic cosmogony, Phanes was the progenitor of…
The New Year threshold might feel something like a raucous homecoming after what we have all just lived through in 2020. Perhaps like the Prodigal Father of Luke’s famous parable, known for his outrageous welcome and embrace of the Younger Son who has disgraced himself and his family, enraged his righteous Elder Brother, dishonored his…
“We may have ten possible images of tomorrow and for each one of these there may be ten images of the next day, giving a hundred possible images of the day after tomorrow and a thousand of the day after that, and so on, which means that the uncertainty of the future increases rapidly as…
“Who is this that grows like the dawn, As beautiful as the full moon, As pure as the sun, As awesome as an army with banners?” —Song of Songs 6:10, New American Bible Love stories are best told with music and poetry, and the best ones sing us with timeless wisdom and beauty. Love stories touch us…
The ancient story retold again and again and again through the centuries, conveyed via comic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVDOu2_Fuc) and cosmos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMMkWvGz9jI and https://www.actionnewsnow.com/content/links/Watch-Live-See-the-Great-Conjunction-Christmas-Star-of-2020-573451941.html), enlivens us anew THIS Christmas Day, 2020! The very energy that stirred people over 2000 years ago to travel to see and celebrate the radiant birth of Jesus still fascinates and animates us today.…
I’ll admit it—I love the over-the-top-ness of Christmas. I love finding—or even better, making—the perfect gifts for family, friends and coworkers. I enjoy watching cheesy holiday movies on the Hallmark channel as I wrap presents in shimmering paper, ribbons and homemade gift tags. I love seeing the light displays in my neighborhood as we take…
The idea of ghosts may give us goosebumps. “Ghosts” are spirits. The etymological derivation is interesting: Ghost < Old English gast, breath, and < proto West Germanic, gaistaz; source also of Old Saxon gest, Old Frisian jest, Middle Dutch gheest, Dutch geest, German Geist “spirit, ghost.” This is conjectured to be from a PIE root gheis-, used in forming words involving the notions…
This beautiful time of the year, we celebrate and ritualize lots of wonderful endings and new beginnings. Some hearts are comforted by the scripture story of the Nativity scene, the birth of a new baby to a man and woman accompanied by resting sheep, donkey and “lowly cattle” enveloped on a beautiful starry night. Jesus…
John O’Donohue encouraged us to not only pray, but to create or fashion a prayer that expresses the longing and beauty of our hearts. I wanted to share this powerful guidance as an invitation to create your own prayer with intention. Even if you do not go so far as to memorize the prayer, the…
The winter solstice is coming up on Monday, Dec. 21. This is the shortest day and the longest night of the year and the first official day of winter. As I ponder this special time of year both seasonally and spiritually, I am holding a beautiful song in my heart called The Longest Night of…