Immanuel means ‘God with us.’ And not in the sense that God just showed up or arrived on the scene. A thousand times no. In spite of the fact it changed everything, the birth of Jesus didn’t technically create a new reality for God or us; rather, it was simply and...
01857 – Doubt Can Lead to Faith
Before doubt, I thought that faith was a matter of correct beliefs. My religious teachers taught me so: that if I didn’t hold the right beliefs, or at least say that I held them, I would be excommunicated from my community, and perhaps, after death, from God’s...
01174 – Our Fear of the Steps to Change
Spiritual life is an ongoing experience of spiritual gestation, of giving birth to deeper dimensions of wholeness. We enter the spiritual womb many times. As the Bible says, "We...are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another" (2 Cor. 3:18),...
01006 – “Our Saviour’s Birth is Celebrated”
Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comesWherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,The bird of dawning singeth all night long,And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to...
00319 – What Do We Want for Christmas?
I wonder, if we were to stop people at random in the street on December 24 and ask them what they want most for Christmas, how many would say, “I want to see Jesus”? I believe that the single most important consideration during the sacred season of Advent is intensity...
00318 – Christ’s Birth Has a Purpose for Us
The birth of Christ in our souls is for a purpose beyond ourselves: it is because his manifestation in the world must be through us. Every Christian is, as it were, part of the dust-laden air which shall radiate the glowing epiphany of God, catch and reflect his...
00143 – God in the Flesh
Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says, “Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done to me.” —————Gender-neutral...
00029 – Mary and the Divine Mystery
Mary made her womb available for a holy conception and birth. She surrendered to the mysterious, divine working of God, knowing that the holy child within her would change the world. May we, too, open our minds, hearts, and bodies to the mysterious working of God , so...