To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There’s only one widely-sung Christmas carol whose verses tell a story. It’s also the only carol that spotlights a real-life character not found on the pages of Scripture. We’re talking about Good King Wenceslas, the recitation of a medieval tale now more than 1,000 years old. The lyrics we sing were… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Are you searching for a simple, memorable, spiritual resolution for the new year – something calculated to help bring about a genuine transformation in your life? This weekend might be the perfect time to get started. We’re talking specifically about Saturday, December 21. According to the ever-growing list of “official national… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When you think about it, I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In is a rather unusual Christmas carol. There are no boats in the accounts of Jesus’ birth. The Jews of Bible times, in fact, were generally terrified of open water. Only fishermen routinely set sail, and that was on the comparatively placid… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here George Frederick Handel was a musical has-been in 1741. The luster was gone from a once-lauded career as an opera composer. Financially, he was reeling. The German-born composer had been partially paralyzed by a stroke that clouded his eyesight and compromised his right hand, essentially putting an end to his career as… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Noel is a French word that means “birth of God,” which speaks to the mystery at the heart of Christmas. But the familiar carol called The First Noel is English through and through. No amount of research has turned up the composer of the tune or the author of the verses,… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here One of the world’s most beloved Christmas songs sprang from one of the world’s closest calls to nuclear oblivion. For 13 days in October 1962, the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union squared off in the Cuban Missile Crisis. At the height of Cold War anxiety, Soviet premier… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The Episcopal vicar Phillips Brooks was moved by his visit to the village of Bethlehem in 1865 – the same year America’s Civil War finally ground to a halt. Standing in the traditional Field of the Shepherds, he watched the shadows of night fall upon the ancient streets. Three years later… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The Horse and His Boy, the fifth book in C.S. Lewis’ children series called The Chronicles of Narnia, tells the story of a boy named Shasta. He doesn’t know it, but he is the twin son of a Narnian prince. He was separated at birth from his brother by an evil… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here One of the world’s most popular Christmas songs actually started out as a She Done Me Wrong song. O Tannenbaum (or O Christmas Tree, as it is often sung in America) was written in 1824 by German composer Ernest Anschutz. A “tannenbaum” is a fir tree – one of the stout… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here How can we know what something is worth? Two recent auctions have challenged our capacity to answer that question. Last month, cryptocurrency businessman Justin Sun outbid six rivals at a Sotheby’s auction to purchase a conceptual piece created by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. We’re not talking about a bronze sculpture… Read more »
