Has the commercialization of Christmas turned you into Scrooge? Rather than just making lists, baking cookies, hanging stockings, and wrapping presents, spend some time preparing your heart for the birth of our Savior by actually celebrating Advent. Here are some practical suggestions.
Happy Epiphany! This is the cover of the English-language January 2012 edition of Magnificat. It features “Adoration of the Magi,” an illumination from the Hours of Henry VIII, Tours, France, circa 1500. ©  The Pierpont Morgan Library / Art Resource / Scala, Florence I found the commentary by Pierre-Marie Dumont quite enlightening: “In the fourth century, Byzantine … [Read more…]
Take back Christmas by preparing your heart to receive Christ. Like homecoming weekend in a college town, there are currently no vacancies. Everything, it seems, is occupied. Occupy Wall Street. Occupy San Francisco. Occupy DC. Begun as Occupy Dataran in Kuala Lumpur in late July, the Occupy movement has spread around globe like wildfire in … [Read more…]
It’s the journey, not the destination. Our society loves to churn out bumper sticker philosophies, doesn’t it? Someone coins a phrase, someone screens a t-shirt; and bing, bang, boom a life philosophy is born. I’ll admit that at first blush, that phrase has a certain existential charm, an overall “groovy” feel to it. In my 20’s, … [Read more…]