Pastoral memoirs are not a genre in great demand. They don’t tend to make it to the New York Times Best Sellers list. After all, the pastoral vocation, some say, has fallen on hard times and Christian pastors writing about spirituality seem to have lost their influence in the marketplace of ideas. But there is […]
When we ground our spirituality in the church’s liturgical calendar, says Hunt Priest, we experience ancient patterns of preparation, encounter and celebration that can make us more fully aware of God’s active presence in our lives and the world around us.
In this Advent reflection, Tom Ryan wonders whether we really want what Advent prepares us for.
Chris Hoke learns something about receiving the Messiah from towering and tattooed Teddy, a former gang member in Skagit Valley, Washington.
In this meditation on Joseph’s discovery of Mary’s pregnancy, Melissa Skelton urges us to embrace the voice of God speaking in the depths of our souls, and to not be afraid.
In this Meditation on Matthew 3:1–12, Will Willimon reminds us that we are not right, that our worlds are out of kilter, and that Jesus presents us with the most difficult, demanding bad news that ever was called good, bad news that can set us straight.
In this Advent sermon, Dan Rhodes engages the deeply disturbing and yet hopeful interruption of the angel Gabriel to Mary, when he announces that she will bear the Christ-child.
For author Greg Moore, the season of Advent is rooted in a divine memory.
Advent is a season of waiting, of being drawn into the spiritual discipline of anticipation. Our spiritual director is Mary, the mother of Jesus, the one in whom we see revealed the patience of God. Mary waits for the Messiah, and in doing so she invites us into a way of life that welcomes the gospel through a posture of waiting.
