Douglas Firs and Apple Trees
by Bill Palmer and Ellyn Sanna

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Douglas Firs and Apple Trees </br>by Bill Palmer and Ellyn Sanna

My Christmas tree this year is a beautiful Frasier fir, for which I paid a whopping $45 at Kodey’s Tree Farm on the first Sunday of December. It meets my late father’s minimum requirement that it scrapes the ceiling of my living room. But in honor of my Dad, there’s no way it could have come into the house until it was almost Christmas (my family followed a now-almost-extinct tradition that the tree did not go up until Christmas Eve because the preceding weeks of Advent were a time of spiritual preparation for the Big Day and very much NOT part of the Christmas Season). 

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The Gift of Christmas
by Marietta Bahri Della Penna

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The Gift of Christmas </br>by Marietta Bahri Della Penna

Celebrating Christmas by spending money on all sorts of trinkets and gifts has been the norm for several generations. Not that there’s anything wrong or immoral about it. Giving gifts to those we love, to make others happy, or simply for the sheer joy of celebration are all good things. So is the yearly reminder of our yearning for a peaceful world that’s embedded in Christmas cards and the lyrics found in Christmas carols. But somewhere along the way, we’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted from the central meaning of this holy-day.

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Christmas and the Night of St. John of the Cross by Avellina Balestri

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Christmas and the Night of St. John of the Cross by Avellina Balestri

There is more to Christmas than just Christ’s birth. It serves as the beginning of epic, and Advent is the prologue whereby we prepare for the first spellbinding chapter. There’s a thread running through Christmas that ties into so many other Christological elements, including Christ as Divine Lover, in concert with the poetry of St. John of the Cross, whose feast aptly coincides with the Advent season on December 14.

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The Meaning of Hope by Ellyn Sanna

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The Meaning of Hope by Ellyn Sanna

The Advent season is a time of hope—but many of us are feeling as though our hopes have been trampled into the mud. It’s hard to hope for anything now. The future looks dark, terrifying. To continue to hope seems like whistling in the dark. It almost seems safer, less risky, to abandon all hope, batten the hatches, and prepare for the worst.

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Thanksgiving in Action by Bruce Epperly

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Thanksgiving in Action by Bruce Epperly

Gratitude leads to a transformed lifestyle. In gratitude for this good Earth, we are challenged to be stewards of our blessings. Thanksgiving inspires care for the Earth and reverence for its manifold diversity. It also inspires appreciation for our human companions. The Christian scriptures counsel, “Pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17). Ceaseless gratitude brings forth light in you and in all creation.

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The Otherworld by Ellyn Sanna

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The Otherworld by Ellyn Sanna

The miracles Jesus performs in the Gospels may strain our modern credulity. The Celts, however, were quite comfortable with stories of the impossible being possible. They lived in a world where the Otherworld was so interwoven with this world that nothing surprised them. Another reality could easily overlap with everyday reality, causing all sorts of strange things to happen.

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Thanksgiving as a Spiritual Practice by Bruce Epperly

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Thanksgiving as a Spiritual Practice by Bruce Epperly

Thanksgiving is at the heart of the spiritual journey, whether you are a monk or a parent. Thanksgiving roots us in the graceful interdependence of life and reminds us that none of us ever makes it through life on our own. As a child, I learned the “A-C-T-S” formula for prayer—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. As an adult, I seek to cultivate the spirit of gratitude essential to my own well-being and to the well-being of my relationships with family members, congregants, colleagues, students, friends, and God.

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