As I write, the fifth day of Eastertide (which began on Easter eve and ending 50 days later on Pentecost Sunday) draws close. As does the moment in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing just outside…
Going public with Lent’s call to penitence
“Concealment makes the soul a swamp. Confession is how you drain it.” — Charles M. Blow They have treated the wound of my people carelessly. They acted shamefully, they committed abomination, yet they did not know how to blush. —…
Epiphany: Manifesting the bias of heaven
As a youngster, Christmas season began the day after Thanksgiving (now known as “Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year) and ended on Dec. 26. That’s when holiday ornaments were put away, the tree was disposed (its shedded…
Reading Christmas through the lens of Advent’s anguish
“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” —French philosopher Henri Bergson For several years running, my sister and I played a little game to ease the boredom of our family’s four-and-a-half hour drive from West…
Things Christians need to know, for our own sake, about Yom Kippur, Judaism’s Day of Atonement
Invocation “Forgive the entire congregation / of the children of Yisrael / and the stranger amongst them / for the entire people sin unintentionally / Please pardon the sins of this nation / in accordance with the greatness / of…
The birth of Aya: Harbinger of Lent’s staggering promise
Invocation. “When in the dark orchard at night / The God Creator kneeled and prayed / Life was praying with the One / Who gave life hope and prayer.” —English translation of lyrics from “Wa Habibi,” a Christian hymn of…
The Advent witness of Rosa Parks, Ita Ford, Alfred Delp and Antonio de Montesinos
Invocation — The Whole World Is Waiting, Kate Hurley The whole world is waiting, The whole world cries. The whole world is waiting For our hope to shine. For you sweet Jesus Will make all things right. The whole world…
On the origins of Veterans Day
Veterans Day doesn’t lend itself to commercial attention like its twin, Memorial Day, probably because it’s squeezed between two other cash-registering holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it does not coincide with a car-cultural observance like the Indy 500 auto race….
Reversal of fortunes: Bake sales to support our troops
One recent slow morning in August, the grocery store circulars in the newspaper caught my attention. And I began to wonder how things might be different if certain fortunes were reversed. Instead of “back-to-school” it’s “back-to-basic-training” discount offers. Imagine the…