(Today’s Christmas story is taken from Luke chapters 1 and 2, from The Message translation of the Bible. You can find the rest of this Bible online here, along with more information.) LUKE 1 1-4So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most [...] Read more »
O Holy Night
This most beloved of Christmas songs is performed in virtually every musical genre each holiday season. Here’s Leontyne Price’s gorgeous rendition of “O Holy Night.” I wish for you and yours a wonderful, merry, and truly special Christmas Eve~ Read more »
Merry____ and Happy_____to all~~
As an American passionate about every citizen’s Constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech, I applaud Rep. Scott Rigell’s (VA-2) holiday-greetings video. Read more »
A fabulous last-minute ticket deal for Strathmore
For a wonderful (and cheap!) Christmas show for the whole family, check out this last-minute ticket offer for “A Dickens Christmas” tonight—December 20, 2011—at the Strathmore at 7:30 pm. Charles Dickens himself will do scenes and commentary throughout, along with other British and American actors. Favorite Christmas carols will be performed by the Cathedral Choral Society under the leadership of J. Reilly Lewis, and other special guests—a band of “minstrels,” or carolers—are students, teachers, and alumni from Episcopal High School, along with the school’s organist, Todd Fickley. Directed by Catherine Flye, it’s great fun for the whole family! With tickets [...] Read more »
Santa’s latest medical update after his recovery from “Santa Got Run Over by a Reindeer”
Oops… Read more »
Christmas Therapy
I must confess to grave personal insensitivity here. Never once have I considered the emotional, psychological, or self-esteem issues of the mythological Christmas community. Thanks to a friend’s posting on Facebook, such selfish narcissism on my part will not happen again. Please join me in greater awareness this holiday season of the needs of those who make Christmas cheer happen for all of us. Read more »
On Halloween Safety
As Halloween is almost upon us yet again, it’s time for the annual reminders about safety. Specifically regarding transportation: we all know the “don’t drink and drive” safety precautions, and we surely know the “don’t drive and text” rules. But because Halloween and its unique forms of transport occur only once a year, folks can so easily forget to be safe. Here’s a haunting, grisly example of what happened to one Halloween reveler when she forgot the #1 safety rule for Halloween: Just say “yes” to brooms and “no” to alcohol, folks—your local tree forests thank you kindly! Read more »
Good Friday
This haunting, ancient, beautiful Miserere was once performed only at the Vatican during the three days of services known as Tenebrae (meaning “darkness”) during Holy Week around the hour that dusk fell each evening. During the singing of the psalms, the candles were extinguished one by one in the papal chapel until only one candle was left burning, hidden by the altar, when the Miserere was performed. Composed by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652), so precious was this piece to the Vatican that for hundreds of years, excommunication was the reputed threat should anyone copy and distribute the manuscript. Over the years [...] Read more »
Happy April Fool’s Day, Everyone~
To all of you who have called, texted, emailed, or Facebooked me in concern over the Department of Homeland Security seizing my website today, I would direct you to today’s date: April 1, 2011. April Fool’s! Yes, I ‘fess up that my husband and I like to do an April Fool’s prank every year. You can find last year’s prank here, and you can find this year’s prank here, in case you missed the DHS “freeze” of my website that occurred for most of today, courtesy of my husband. And while I’m at it, kudos to him, as this year’s [...] Read more »
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night
On this December 25th, I wish you and yours all the pleasures of the Christmas season—wonderful food, great company, laughter, the anticipation of giving, comfort, traditions both old and new, and unexpected surprises. For me, the essence of Christmas is beautifully stated in an old, beloved Christmas carol: Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord Late in time, behold Him come, Offspring of a virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity Pleased with us in flesh to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel No matter what you believe or how you do or don’t celebrate [...] Read more »
Giving thanks
At the church where I sing on Sunday mornings, the clergy recently invited the congregants to verbally express their gratitude during the prayers portion of the liturgy. As various congregants gave heartfelt thanks for the many blessings in their lives, I was suddenly struck by a significant and continuing omission: none of us had thanked God for food. As a citizen of one of the most extraordinarily wealthy, powerful countries the world has yet seen, it’s been a few generations since the average American has known what it’s like to go hungry. For many of us, giving thanks that we [...] Read more »
Happy Labor Day
Whether you prefer your holidays to be concrete, abstract, existential, nihilistic, epicurean, realistic, utilitarian, naturalistic, epistemological, ontological, Deistic, non-existent, celebratory, or comatose, may your Labor Day holiday be for you whatever you wish it to be. (And may you always see the Super Soaker emerging in just the nick of time!) Read more »
Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
To my favorite country in all the world: happy birthday! Here’s to many, many more– And to the people who daily defend my country: thank you from the bottom of my heart to all branches of the U.S. military. Thank you for keeping us free. We can never thank you enough. A merry 4th to all! Read more »
Merry Christmas to All!
Merry Christmas, everyone! I thought I would post the lyrics for a favorite Christmas song today and let the text speak for itself in lieu of a regular blog entry. But this decision has been causing me lots of problems; I dearly love Christmas music, and there is a lot of Christmas music out there that I really adore. I was eventually able to eliminate at least some options from the list. Since I am such a class act all the way (umm….yeah, right!), I determined that as much as I might be personally fixated on “I Want a Hippopotamus [...] Read more »
On Waiting and Advent
I am not fond of waiting. In my internal dictionary, the word “waiting” is located in the same subsection as four-letter words. And it’s interesting for me to see what people often assume about you once you tell them about your personal dislike toward waiting. They might assume, for example, that you must be quite an impatient person—after all, doesn’t a dislike of waiting equal impatience? Or perhaps they decide that you must indeed be self-centered—doesn’t waiting often involve letting others go in front of you, and so if you dislike waiting, you must dislike thinking of others before yourself? [...] Read more »