Hail Mary!in such a quandary,perplexed and pondering,having said -- yes -- to the angel, with Christ your belly grows. The Annunciation – of the Angel Gabriel to Mary is one of the most painted and sculpted scenes in all of history. It’s been found in 4th century catacombs in Rome, woven into 6th Century Coptic textiles, carved in…
Once upon a time, I built a Christmas tree out of books. This is not as crazy as it sounds. I used to work (at least part of the time) in a library. Deeply rooted in theological knowledge, I built my tree out of old National Union Catalogues, Anchor Bible Commentaries, and dusty volumes of…
Middle child, born and bred, my DNA has directed, no, better said; my DNA has dictated my lifelong passion for peace-making. Having grown up in a cacophonous household, ripe with arguments, petty and small, I would try to negotiate family conflicts. As an act of self-preservation mostly, I was a kid, after all. Like a United Nations…
“We seem to have an unlimited supply of Christmas carols, and people are writing new birthday songs for Jesus every year, but Advent hymns are scarce. Many churches observe this pre-Christmas season with candles and Christmas music, but the focus of Advent is expectation. We anticipate the miracle of Christ’s incarnation, often by revisiting the…
“You are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church”. Imagine for a minute how Peter might have felt when Jesus made this statement. Might he have been excited, proud, and perhaps a little anxious? That seems like a lot of pressure, doesn’t it? To be honest, I have listened to the Gospels…
Read more A Fisherman, a Stone Mason, an Architect, a Caterer & the Dreaded Tax Collector
And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto thee. I confess to you that these are my very favorite Eucharistic words in the Book of Common Prayer. And I know they are seldom heard because they come from Rite…
I am no Hemingway… But like the Old Man of his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, I have long had a problematic relationship with large bodies of water. Sea water and pool water. As a child – by the sea, by the beautiful sea – my fair, freckled skin would fry to a crisp. Bright red…
Back in the day, when I lived in Del Ray, when I still had a yard, this was my gardening mantra: If it’s green, leave it alone. I should have had better garden sense, having once upon a time worked at a plant store called “Great Plants Alive”. But truth be told, my house was kind…
I remember the day I got the phone call from my Grandmother Peacock. It was a cold February day. I was in my bedroom at the time and my one year old, Zachariah John, was napping on the bed. My grandmother’s voice, was oddly steady and sad at the same time: “Annie and Colin were…
Let me tell you how I spend my Thursday afternoons — not at Emmanuel but on the other side of the Potomac, at one of my happiest places on earth, at my weekly volunteer gig a our Nation’s Library where I welcome visitors from all over the world. WELCOME TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS! I…
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