Advent is a time of truth-telling and so I will tell you this: I have a horrible singing voice. But I love to sing—Christmas carols in their season— and throughout the year, the chants of Taize. I know that I feel more human, and more free of the burden of being human, after belting outContinue reading “Healed by song”
Tag Archives: Advent
You just never know
What do you think of when you think of Andy Warhol? Campbell’s Soup? All-night parties? Pop-art album covers for the Rolling Stones? You might picture a slight, frail, near-albino artist in tortoise shell glasses, but you probably wouldn’t picture him in the back pew of a Catholic church, genuflecting devoutly. But that’s where he was,Continue reading “You just never know”
Listening to Life
Five years ago at Christmas, my son Graham gave me a book by Parker J. Palmer called Let your Life Speak. He didn’t know anything about it, found it on a table in the spiritual books section of Barnes & Noble, thought I might like it. It has, over these past five years, become oneContinue reading “Listening to Life”
The thin crayon line
We enter the close of 2011 as members of a nation with very clear dividing lines: red state/blue state, pro-this/anti-that, a worldview of cynicism/a worldview of hope. Now, during what we once called Christmastime but now call the holiday season— correction, the holiday shopping season (apparently the only thing we could agree on was theContinue reading “The thin crayon line”
Mary, did you know?
I have quite a few friends with new babies this Christmas. Some are believers, some are not. But each one of them knows the feeling— because every mother on the planet knows the feeling— that is captured in this lyric: “The child that you delivered will soon deliver you.” I remember the first time IContinue reading “Mary, did you know?”
