Today marks the feast of Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. They don’t appear in canonical scriptures; lacking source material, generations of Christians have looked for them in themselves.
The Surprising and Disrupting News of the Annunciation
If you’re anything like me, you might have still found scraps of Christmas lying around when you were getting ready to help your children with a school Valentine’s Day celebration. It’s still cold in most parts of the country, and we might still feel a bit of a holiday hangover when we’re not quite sure what to do with ourselves in the days following the Feast of the Epiphany.
I need more time with baby Jesus.
Driving up the highway to return a few backup Christmas gifts, I began to meditate on the Christmas season, baby Jesus, and scripture I heard […]
Re-Imagining Mary
Mary was a distant figure for me before having children. As a child she was the part in the nativity I never got to play (my short brown hair meant that I always lost out to my long blond-haired friends). As an adult, to me she was the venerated saint of Catholics, whose hailing brought a comfort I did not understand. I knew she was important, but I could not relate to her.
Those Who Take Your Call
Mary does not have a gender-reveal party with a surprise color of cake–teenage pregnancy has always been hard–but she does seem to have a wise friend, and having a wise friend seems to make all the difference. I’ve been thinking about wise friends lately.
Mary, Elizabeth, and you: finding your place in the Feast of the Visitation
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation, when Mary goes to visit her older cousin, Elizabeth after accepting the call to carry and give birth to Jesus. Just why do we celebrate this event? Where’s our place in the story? Let’s find it.
Creating Sacred Spaces
As a child, my impression was that a clergyperson’s work was confined to celebrating Eucharist on Sunday mornings and spending time in silence throughout the […]