You will conceive—in your womb—and you will give birth to a son…  Did the Blessed Virgin say, “me too”? There is a moment in the Annunciation story when an ordinary girl on the cusp of womanhood is approached by a powerful male figure who tells her what is going to happen to her body, in its...... Read More

What if Jesus doesn’t come back? We are waiting. And we have been waiting. We have ritualized our waiting, renewing it every Advent. But what if Jesus doesn’t come back? I think perhaps it shouldn’t matter. Our wait is not idle. We work while we wait. Our world is broken and we are mending it....... Read More

A reading for Advent and a meditation: Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil and they hasten to pour out innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, violence and brokenness are in their highways. 8 The path of peace they do not know and there is no justice in their pathways. Their courses they...... Read More

St. Joseph, Patron Saint of Fathers Patron Saint of Step-Fathers Patron Saint of Adoptive Fathers Patron Saint of Dead-Beat Dads   Every year during Christmas and Advent, I think about St. Joseph. I remember a sermon I heard from his perspective more than a decade ago. The preacher-man was saying how hard it is for...... Read More

God has shown strength with God’s arm; God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,  and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things,  and sent the rich away empty. God has helped God’s servant Israel, in remembrance of...... Read More

You could say I was following a star. As they say, it's always Christmas in Bethlehem. The beautiful art in the newest building of the Bethlehem Bible College portrays the signal moment in Bethlehem's - and some say the world's - history. But a few things have changed since then...... Read More

Advent is a sacralized last-trimester pregnancy among other things. Many women identify with the pregnant Virgin – in spite of the sexual intimacy through which most of them were impregnated, medical and reproductive technologies aside. But all women will not and cannot become pregnant and give birth. For some that is extraordinarily painful and magnified...... Read More