We’re talking about Christmas songs at the lunch table. I say, “My favorite song is ‘Silent Night’. I like to sing it when it’s Christmas Eve and the church is dark except for all the candles glowing in every person’s hands.” “I don’t like that song.” My three-year-old says. “But it’s really beautiful.” “Hmmmm.” He takes bite of cheese quesadilla. This is the start of the days his 13-year-old self will use that word to answer every question I ask.... Read more
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. -Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 I read that passage the first day of Advent. Then I wrote it... Read more
And the list goes on… Listening to Chris Hohorst (Chris Hohorst!) making up a song with August at bedtime: “I’m in the nook! I’m in the reading nook!” How my baby holds his blankey to my face or his pacifier to my mouth…sharing what he loves most with his mama. (Oh, and “MahMahMahMah,” he says.) August putting baby Jesus to bed so sweetly. A meaningful conversation with one of my college girls on my couch, 9 pm during finals week.... Read more
Artist: Elisabeth Jvanovsky Every once in a while around here I’m going to be discussing the attempts we’re making as a family to engage with the Church calendar. Being no expert in feast days and the like, I’ll be fumbling through this with you. I told you before how challenged I was by the talk given last month by my friend Christine, whose husband pastors our church, about the ways her family practices traditions throughout the Church year. (I keep... Read more
The Lord is With Thee -from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1 They hail me Mary, full of grace. They bless me: brave, obedient—holy. What would you have said to the twelve-foot, light-soaked man, a gold flecked tower whose honey lips spoke your name? I said Yes. Then ran, traveled days, silent, hungry, purging in the grass, to my cousin’s. I knew nowhere else to go. I found Elizabeth, impossibly, full with child. She, fifty and bare, as pregnant as... Read more
Welcome to Mama:Monk’s weekly Wednesday series examining St. Benedict’s Rule and what it’s teaching me about motherhood and the praying life… “The first step on the way to humility is to obey an order without delaying for a moment. That is a response which comes easily to those who hold nothing dearer than Christ himself” (St. Benedict’s Rule, Chapter 5). Oh, how I’ve dreaded this post! Why, Benedict, do you use that word we all avoid? We like a lot... Read more
A Thankful Tuesday List: Two candles lit on the Advent wreath. Quiet morning coffee in the light of the Christmas tree. The Playmobile Nativity Mary and Lightning McQueen going for a ride in the Spy Plane together. My four Pandora stations that basically tell you everything you need to know about me: Dave Barnes Holiday, Amy Grant Holiday, Veggietales Holiday, and Sufjan Stevens Holiday. (Judge if you dare!) Christmas cards and the sweet way they insist you update your address... Read more
Advent is for waiting, but I hardly know what to do with that concept. I’ve lived my life celebrating Christmas during this season actually known as Advent. I don’t know how to spend the month of December solemnly waiting. I love my stockings hung by the chimney with care all month long! I love the Christmas tree sparkling..as soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers have been consumed. I like singing all the Christmas songs, not just “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”... Read more
Advent is for waiting, but I hardly know what to do with that concept. I’ve lived my life celebrating Christmas during this season actually known as Advent. I don’t know how to spend the month of December solemnly waiting. I love my stockings hung by the chimney with care all month long! I love the Christmas tree sparkling..as soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers have been consumed. I like singing all the Christmas songs, not just “O Come O Come Emmanuel.”... Read more
Star “A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” -Revelation 12:1 “…keep warm this small hot naked star/ fallen into my arms.” -Luci Shaw, “Mary’s Song” After the angel dissolved, I stood among the skies, clothed not in spun linen, but in fire: the sun’s silk my gown. I leaned into the swirl of gold and lit. Have... Read more
Micha Boyett
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