I do not know when I moved from having a few creches to having a collection, but it was somewhere between having two and then forty
Advent Care Package for Youth: What’s in the box?
A post from the Forma Facebook page a few days ago reminded me: what am I doing for Advent with my youth group? Of course, I should have been thinking about this weeks ago. But here I am, scrolling through the list of ideas and putting together my Advent care package. But it’s not too late, especially in God’s time.
Rallying cry: Christmas in September
In a regular year, last Sunday would have been “Rally Day” at my church.
Our Family’s Nativity Tradition
On the first Sunday of Advent after church, I get to go home and do one of my most favorite things. No, it is not decorate a Christmas tree—we will wait until the week of Christmas to do that. On the first Sunday of Advent, in my family, we set up our nativities.
A Crowded Stable
As I stared at the crowds amassed around our holy family, it occurred to me that with our first child, other than the occasional comment on our parenting and her stranger glare reserved demeanor, we were pretty much left alone as parents to sink or float.
The Feast of Saint John: God is Light
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at […]
The Small Wonders of the Season
I saw an Instagram post this past week made by a residential program for women who are trying to piece their lives back together after varying circumstances. The picture in the post showed a small child holding a Christmas ornament, the young son of one of the women. The child was entranced with the sparkly red ball in his hands.
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.
Making Connections: The Good Book Club in Action
Sharing these stories and a time of wondering has led us to connect to the Scripture and one another in a new
way.
How We Keep Advent: Books, Nativity, Devotionals… and Milkshakes too.
We do not keep elves on any of our shelves to send behavior reports to the North Pole. Christ came for us while we were yet on the naughty list.