Lent Blog

Tag: Advent

  • The Night Before Christmas–A Collegiate History

    Twas the night before Christmas…

  • Anticipation and Celebration–Advent and Christmas 2022

    During Advent, the world eagerly awaits the birth of the Christ child again in our hearts. Created by Victoria Pepe, our new online video exhibit depicts both sentiments through the lively, colorful visual art of Marie Malluk, Victoria Pepe, Susan Ceely Philips, Joan Silinsh and Margery Westin. Seasonal poetry and music by Carole Gregory and…

  • Christ in my Heart at Christmas

    A Christmas version of I Corinthians 13By Brian R. Godshall   12/14/97   © 2010 If I sing with the tongues of a Bing Crosby or the Boys Choir of Harlem, but have not Christ in my heart at Christmas, I may be only a Christmas with the Chipmunks tape or an Elmo & Patsy 8-track. If…

  • thoughts on Advent and the art of hope…

    Look around you.Near and farThere are objects and music and design and stories and static and moving pictures and portraitsAn exponential multitude of evidence of artLeading us to the hope and love and light of Christmas morningAnd the birth and rebirth of another chance toHope and love and bring lightLaid before usOnly to receive, retrieve…

  • A License to Love

    Nothing will get you into the Christmas Spirit faster than playing Santa Claus in a New York City department store. For actors, the competition to be cast in these jobs is fierce. Even when appearing in a major Broadway show, I would portray Santa at Macys, Sachs or Bloomingdales by day, then act and sing…

  • It’s Christmas Eve

    Madeline L’Engle’s book The Irrational Season has been the basis of this year’s Advent blog. As Advent ends and we welcome the Christ Child, I share these words, and also some words of thanks. This is an irrational season…and God is irrational. Who would think God, almighty God, would choose to touch down in our world, coming…

  • Bit by Bit

      I am blessed to live on the Hudson River and look out on a beautiful park filled with glorious trees.  I watch the seasons come and go, buds form, leaves bloom, colors turn, leaves fall until the barrenness arrives. It always comes as a surprise, stark and surreal those barren branches.  The very same…

  • Make a Trail

    Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;  God’s the one who will keep you on track. Proverbs 3:6 All too often we follow the path that others have set for our lives. As we grow up, our peers tell us how we should dress and how we should act. Our parents…

  • Afternoon Bonus: Excess Baggage

    Like many others, I’m doing a lot of traveling this holiday season.  At the check-in kiosk, I notice another traveler trying to pare down the contents of her luggage to avoid fees for an extra carry on and overweight luggage.  One pile was for the garbage. I noticed a couple of books and an old…

  • Doing Less and Being More

      I was so excited when I figured out that I could retire this year.  Even though I loved my work, the daily grind of commuting over 2 hours to and from Queens every day was becoming too taxing on me. Once I retired, I set out the ambitious goal of co-creating the next chapter of…