“Our time here, even pre-pandemic, is difficult, painful, too short and too long, with glimpses of joy in between. This Christmas has the possibility of reminding us what life and effort, and the birth of a Savior showing us a better way was meant to be. “
“Christmas is about hope. Christmas is about faith—faith in God and in each other. Christmas is about love. Love in action. Love found sleeping in a manger, leading us to the way of life we were meant to live from the beginning.”
“This question helped focus me and quell the overwhelming nature of my work, but more importantly it grounded that work in God. It required me to say, “Here I am”, minute to minute, hour by hour and day after day.”
“Moments of joy and song. Moments of tears and sadness. Pride in speaking words on one’s own.”
“That is what the star led to: a world whose old beliefs had to be turned in a new direction, no comfort in trying to hold on to ways. There was a new, hard message that we call Christianity.”
“But we, too, are called. We are in our own dyad with the angel spirit who is the messenger from God. No matter how simple or ordinary we think we are, no matter how unsuited for a heavenly plan, there is an angel waiting.”
“Still, the metaphor of the mountains flattening and the valleys rising reminds me of how perhaps God wanted the earth to be: an even playing field with no rich and poor but only equals in every sense.”
“False prophecy always promises an unobtainable bliss and the illusion that we are in control, and sadly, many have used Christianity as the vehicle for that illusory message–that somehow, salvation guarantees that everything is going to be fine.”
“I’ve often marveled that the heart is often described as being set ablaze by love. Add a single letter, and “heart” becomes “hearth,” radiating warmth and light into the most steadfast darkness.”
“During each Advent since then, I find myself reflecting on what it would have been like to be Mary. The magic and mystery of this season sometimes covers over the real physical bodies involved in the incarnation.”