“Given the very difficult days that we and all our neighbors are all experiencing as the COVID pandemic, including the most recent new variant in South Africa, I suspect we would all benefit from not only longer seasons of Advent as we continue to journey into the troubled 2020s.”

“A religious icon is a window into the realm of heaven.  When I write an icon, I often think of myself as the glass.  The ego part of me creates all sorts of smudges, nicks and dust.  It’s inevitable to the human condition that this would be so.  I try to get as clear as possible by sitting in prayer, but I have to resign myself to never being completely transparent.”

“Some churches acknowledge that this season can be much different from how most people appear to feel. The churches deliberately draw in those who grieve, feel lost, or are alone. The usual date for such services is on the winter solstice, the “Longest Night” of the year. This year that date comes on December 22nd.”

“You came forth from the eternal God,
and you returned to that same source,…
With God the Father you are one,
and one with us in human flesh…”

“Being present—being alert and awake to what is going on around us right now—I am convinced is one of the great lessons of Advent. In a time when our identity and sense of self-worth is wrapped far too tightly around what we do or who we know, Advent reminds us that simply BEING is perhaps even more important.”

“After all the long nights feeding the baby, the meltdowns over what clothes the toddler would wear, the endless pile of dishes, the worry about a family member’s recent diagnosis, the food to be cooked, the distractions, the constant busyness, and the coordinating of schedules, the days are good. 
Because as night comes and I’m ready for bed, the words come naturally. 
A good day.” 

“…(the hope against hope) that there is in this cosmos the listening, the watching, and not least, the judging, the sorting, which so many of us, for so long have sought,…”

“Waking up means getting better at serving others.  Waking up also means that we keep growing.  Christ needs us to keep growing because he reveals himself to humanity in ever evolving ways.  There is nothing static about a relationship with God.  If it is static, it is atrophying.”

“What might it take to spend a few minutes every day to meditate on the coming of Christ and what his coming might means to us as Christians in a secular world? What might we give up doing to make time for that meditation or reflection? What might we gain by it? What might we lose by ignoring it?”