To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here What Christmas carol has the distinction of being written in its entirety on Christmas Eve? That would be Silent Night, which sprang from a musical 911 call at St. Nicholas’ Church in Oberndorf, Austria, in 1818. On December 22, assistant priest Josef Mohr learned that the organ made no noise at… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If carolers come to your front door this December, they will likely sing Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, irrationally demanding that you bring them some figgy pudding (which is pretty hard to come by these days). What they’re less likely to sing is The Wexford Carol, one… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When my two brothers and I came into the world, we each received a security blanket. My older brother Scott got a blue one. My younger brother Bruce got a green one. My security blanket was yellow. Interestingly, when my brothers and I met with our parents a decade ago to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Father Gregory Boyle directs Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, arguably the world’s most successful ministry to the members of inner-city gangs. He is inundated by opportunities to speak around the country. It’s no surprise that he sometimes falls back on the same compelling stories. A few summers ago, Boyle was asked to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Tennessee Williams’ most famous play, A Streetcar Named Desire, debuted on Broadway in 1947. A journalist who was able to find his way backstage asked one of the performers how he would summarize its plot. The actor replied, “It’s about a guy who comes to take a woman to an insane asylum.” To put it… Read more »
Christmas carols are a bit like chili. There’s more than one great recipe out there. And surprising combinations can sometimes bring the best results. Angels We Have Heard on High is an excellent example. The tune is French. The most familiar verses, penned by James Chadwick in 1862, are English. The refrain (Gloria in excelsis Deo, or “Glory to God… Read more »
2020 has been a dumpster fire. This week an Indianapolis resident hauled a dumpster into his front yard and invited his neighbors to record their feelings about the current calendar year. Some scrawled “good riddance.” Others recorded jokes, jingles, and borderline poetry. At least one resorted to expletives. In a few days the dumpster’s trashy contents will be ceremonially torched… Read more »
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 composed by the English hymnwriter John Mason Neal… Read more »
Not all of the best-loved Christmas songs are hundreds of years old. Mary, Did You Know? hasn’t yet celebrated its 30th birthday, but it’s already become something of a classic. Composer Buddy Greene and lyricist Mark Lowry – two members of the Gaither Vocal Band from Alexandria, Indiana – wrote this song for Michael English, who performed it on his… Read more »
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, but historians suspect they may go back as far… Read more »
