to take on our human nature and to illumine the world with your light.
By your grace adopt us as your children and enlighten us with your Spirit,
through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 20
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The Assigned Readings:
Micah 4:1-5 (December 22)
Micah 4:6-8 (December 23)
Luke 1:46b-55 (Both Days)
Ephesians 2:22-22 (December 22)
2 Peter 1:16-21 (December 23)
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And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults in God my savior;
because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.
He has shown the power of his arm,
he has routed the proud of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy
–according to the promise he made to our ancestors–
of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
–Luke 1:46-55, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One function of rhetoric regarding the fully realized Kingdom of God is to criticize the errors of human social, economic, and political systems. Exploitation of people, often via the artificial scarcity of wealth, has been a serious problem for a long time. Many of the hardest working people are among the poorest, for many economic systems are rigged to benefit a relative few people, not the masses, and therefore the society as a whole. Violence is among the leading causes of poverty and hunger, corruption frustrates poverty and creates more of it, and labeling groups of people “outsiders” wrongly for the benefit of the self-appointed “insiders” harms not just the “outsiders” but all members of society. Whatever we do to others, we do to ourselves. As even many antebellum defenders of race-based chattel slavery in the United States of America admitted, keeping a large population “in their place,” that is subservient to Whites, held back Whites and the entire society also. After all, if keeping a large population “in their place” was to be a reality, who was going to keep them there without forgoing other tasks? In human brotherhood free people could have advanced together, but slavery delayed the society in which it existed.
In Christ, we read in Ephesians 2, we are:
no longer strangers and aliens, but…citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord….
–Verses 19-21, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
2 Peter 1 reminds us “cleverly concocted tales” to quote The Revised English Bible (1989), form the basis of the declaration of the majesty and power of Jesus. The oral tradition, which informs many canonical writings, has a flexible spine which preserves the core of stories yet permits variation in recall of minor details. Nevertheless, the narrative retains its integrity, even if it contradicts itself about, for example, in whose house a woman anointed Jesus. So, without committing the error of biblical literalism, I affirm that something happened and that we can have at least an outline of what that was.
This is a devotion for December 22 and 23, two of the last three days of Advent. This is a time when I complain about the inaccuracy of many manger scenes. The shepherds, from the Gospel of Luke, were at Bethlehem. The Magi, from the Gospel of Matthew, were at Nazareth a few years later. What are they doing in the same visual representations? Why have more Christians, churches, and artists not paid attention to these details? Regarding those details I acknowledge that, even if all of them are not literally true, something still happened and we can have some reliable idea about what that was. Via the Incarnation God broke into human history and started a new chapter in the grand narrative of salvation. That is no “cleverly concocted tale.”
God, via Jesus and other means, seeks to reconcile us to God and to each other. Part of this reconciliation is the correction of social injustices, the perpetuation of which provides certain benefits to many of us while harming us simultaneously. In baby Jesus we have a reminder that God approaches us in a variety of ways, some of which we do not expect. We might miss some of them because we are not looking for them. Our functional fixedness is counterproductive.
God’s glorious refusal to fit into the proverbial boxes of our expectations challenges us to think and act anew. May we rise to the challenge.
Merry Christmas!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 21, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN ATHELSTAN LAURIE RILEY, ANGLICAN ECUMENIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
Above: Icon of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Image in the Public Domain
Loyalty and Renewal
DECEMBER 22, 2021
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The Collect:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.
With your abundant grace and might,
free us from the sin that binds us,
that we may receive you in joy and serve you always,
for you live and reign with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 20
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
Isaiah 42:14-21
Psalm 113
Luke 1:5-25
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high,
but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?
He takes up the weak out of the dust
and lifts up the poor from the ashes.
He sets them with the princes,
with the princes of his people.
He makes the woman of a childless house
to be a joyful mother of children.
–Psalm 113:5-8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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The theme of pregnancy continues for the third consecutive set of pericopes. The warrior-like Yahweh of Isaiah 42 remains loyal to Israel, will redeem it, and “will scream like a woman in labor” (verse 14c, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures, 1985). The reading from Luke 1 tells of the conception of St. John the Baptist, the great forerunner of his cousin, Jesus. Once again a barren woman becomes pregnant, losing the disgrace resulting from her childlessness in a patriarchal culture.
These are accounts of new life, both physical and spiritual. God, the pericopes tell us, is loyal to certain people on the basis of grace even when they are disloyal to God. (There is doom for others, however.) Is not God due loyalty? Nothing we can offer God can repay for divine grace, but God does not seek repayment. Our responsibility is to trust in God, loving God fully and our fellow human beings as we love ourselves. One way of expressing love for God is loving our neighbors.
This is a devotion for a day in the vicinity of December 25, Christmas Day. In Jesus, the author of the Gospel of John tells us, the Word (or Logos) of God “became flesh and lived among us” (1:14a, The New Revised Standard Version, 1989). Yet Jesus met with rejection (1:11). That rejection was an example of disloyalty to God.
May Christmas become for you, O reader, an occasion to renew your loyalty to God in Christ. May the season of Christmas be twelve days of spiritual renewal as you celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Merry Christmas!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 21, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN ATHELSTAN LAURIE RILEY, ANGLICAN ECUMENIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
One of the great virtues of High Churchmanship is having a well-developed sense of sacred time. So, for example, the church calendars, with their cycles, tell us of salvation history. We focus on one part of the narrative at a time. Much of Protestantism, formed in rebellion against Medieval Roman Catholic excesses and errors, has thrown the proverbial baby out with the equally proverbial bath water, rejecting or minimizing improperly the sacred power of rituals and holy days.
Consider, O reader, the case of Christmas–not in the present tense, but through the late 1800s. Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas when they governed England in the 1650s. Their jure divino theology told them that since there was no biblical sanction for keeping Christmas, they ought not to do it–nor should anyone else. On the other hand, the jure divino theology of other Calvinists allowed for keeping Christmas. Jure divino was–and is–a matter of interpretation. Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians kept Christmas. Many Methodists on the U.S. frontier tried yet found that drunken revelry disrupted services. Despite this Methodist pro-Christmas opinion, many members of the Free Methodist denomination persisted in anti-Christmas sentiment. The holiday was too Roman Catholic, they said and existed without
the authority of God’s word.
Thus, as the December 19, 1888 issue of Free Methodist concluded,
We attach no holy significance to the day.
–Quoted in Leigh Eric Schmidt, Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), page 180. (The previous quote also comes from that magazine, quoted in the same book.)
Many Baptists also rejected the religious celebration of Christmas. An 1875 issue of Baptist Teacher, a publication for Sunday School educators, contained the following editorial:
We believe in Christmas–not as a holy day but as a holiday and so we join with our juveniles with utmost heartiness of festal celebration….Stripped as it ought to be, of all pretensions of religious sanctity and simply regarded as a social and domestic institution–an occasion of housewarming, and heart-warming and innocent festivity–we welcome its coming with a hearty “All Hail.”
–Quoted in Schmidt, Consumer Rites, pages 179 and 180
Presbyterians, with their Puritan heritage, resisted celebrating Christmas for a long time. In fact, some very strict Presbyterians still refuse to keep Christmas, citing their interpretation of jure divino theology. (I have found some of their writings online.) That attitude was more commonplace in the 1800s. The Presbyterian Church in the United States, the old Southern Presbyterian Church, passed the following resolution at its 1899 General Assembly:
There is no warrant for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holy days, but rather contrary (see Galatians iv.9-11; Colossians ii.16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the gospel in Jesus Christ.
–Page 430 of the Journal of the General Assembly, 1899 (I copied the text of the resolution verbatim from an original copy of the Journal.)
I agree with Leigh Eric Schmidt:
It is not hard to see in this radical Protestant perspective a religious source for the very secularization of the holiday that would eventually be so widely decried. With the often jostling secularism of the Christmas bazaar, Protestant rigorists simply got what they had long wished for–Christmas as one more market day, a profane time or work and trade.
–Consumer Rites, page 180
I affirm the power of rituals and church calendars. And I have no fear of keeping a Roman Catholic holy day and season. Thus I keep Advent (December 1-24) and Christmas (December 25-January 5). I hold off on wishing people
Merry Christmas
often until close to Christmas Eve, for I value the time of preparation. And I have no hostility or mere opposition to wishing anyone
Happy Holidays,
due to the concentrated holiday season in December. This is about succinctness and respect in my mind; I am not a culture warrior.
Yet I cannot help but notice with dismay the increasingly early start of the end-of-year shopping season. More retailers will open earlier on Thanksgiving Day this year. Many stores display Christmas decorations before Halloween. These are examples of worshiping at the high altar of the Almighty Dollar.
I refuse to participate in this. In fact, I have completed my Christmas shopping–such as it was–mostly at thrift stores. One problem with materialism is that it ignores a basic fact: If I acquire an item, I must put it somewhere. But what if I enjoy open space?
I encourage a different approach to the end of the year: drop out quietly (or never opt in) and keep nearly four weeks of Advent and all twelve days of Christmas. I invite you, O reader, to observe these holy seasons and to discover riches and treasures better than anything on sale on Black Friday.
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 25, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SQUANTO, COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEING
THE FEAST OF JAMES OTIS SARGENT HUNTINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS
–Martin Luther; translated by William James Kirkpatrick
Yesterday I sang in my parish choir’s performance of the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah. We dropped “His yoke is easy and his burden is light,” culminating instead in the Hallelujah Chorus. The concert was glorious and spiritually edifying for many people.
There are still a few days of Advent left. So I encourage you, O reader, to observe them. Then, beginning sometime during the second half of December 24, begin to say
Merry Christmas!
and continue that practice through January 5, the twelfth and last day of Christmas. And I encourage you to remember that our Lord and Savior was born into a violent world, one in which men–some mentally disturbed, others just mean, and still others both mean and mentally disturbed–threatened and took the lives of innocents. Names, circumstances, empires, nation-states, and technology have changed, but the essential reality has remained constant, unfortunately.
The Hallelujah Chorus, quoting the Apocalypse of John, includes these words:
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
That is not true yet, obviously. But that fact does not relieve any of us of our responsibilities to respect the Image of God in others and to treat them accordingly. We must not try to evade the duty to be the face and appendages of Christ to those to whom God sends us and those whom God sends to us. We cannot save the world, but we can improve it. May we do so for the glory of God and the benefit of others.
May the peace of Christ, born as a vulnerable baby and executed as a criminal by a brutal imperial government, be with you now and always. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 17, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR
THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN
THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER
free us from the sin that would obstruct your mercy,
that willingly we may bear your redeeming love to all the world,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19
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The Assigned Readings:
Zephaniah 3:8-13 (December 22)
Zephaniah 3:14-20 (December 23)
Psalm 96 (Both Days)
Romans 10:5-13 (December 22)
Romans 13:11-14 (December 23)
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He will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples with his truth.
–Psalm 96:13, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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The language of the Kingdom of God functions on more than one level. It describes the following, with some germane scriptural passages favoring one definition above the other two:
an earthly future when God’s order has replaced corrupt, violent, and exploitative human systems;
an earthly place where God’s order has replaced corrupt, violent, and exploitative human systems; and
Heaven.
There is also a sense of the Kingdom of God being partially manifest in the present; the Regnum Dei has arrived, yet there is more to come. In a political sense, the Kingdom of God functions as a criticism of violent, corrupt, and economically exploitative human systems. Thus, for example, any way in which the Judean monarchy or the Roman imperium differed from the Kingdom of God was a way in which it missed the mark–sinned.
One function of divine judgment in the Bible is to prompt repentance. Judgment has a purifying function, as in Zephaniah 3:8-20, a vision of a righteous time and place. The restored, purified remnant of Judah will live faithfully in the presence of God. Furthermore, the passage says, justice will prevail and shame will be absent and unnecessary.
Those who have benefitted from the mercies of God ought to live accordingly, thanking God with their lives, as grace enables them to do so. The love of God is universal, so the previous sentence applies to everyone. To respond to perfect love with as close to that as humanly possible does not constitute symmetry, but God accepts it graciously. The Kingdom of God, the Gospels tell us, is inside us and around us. It has arrived partially; its fullness will come in time. May our lives, by grace, indicate something of that part of the Kingdom of God which is present.
As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, whom the Roman Empire executed, may we remember that he entered a violent world in which he was a target from the beginning of this incarnated life. Yet:
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
–John 1:5, New Revised Standard Version (1989)
The darkness remains, but so does the light. And God is the King, despite appearances to the contrary.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
free us from the sin that would obstruct your mercy,
that willingly we may bear your redeeming love to all the world,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19
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The Assigned Readings:
1 Samuel 1:1-18 (Monday)
1 Samuel 1:19-28 (Tuesday)
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (Wednesday)
Luke 1:46b-55 (All Days)
Hebrews 9:1-14 (Monday)
Hebrews 8:1-13 (Tuesday)
Mark 11:1-11 (Wednesday)
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My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 119
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Stories of and set in the context of angelic annunciations of conception and birth are, of course, appropriate for the days leading up to December 25. In the previous post I dealt with the story of Samson. These three days we have Hannah (mother of Samuel) and St. Mary of Nazareth (Mother of God). To read Hannah’s song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) now is appropriate, for it was the model for the Magnificat.
This is a time to celebrate new life. I mean that on more than one level. There is, of course, the birth of Jesus. Then there is the new spiritual life–both communal and individual–available via Christ. As we celebrate this joyous time of year–one fraught with grief for many people also–may we, considering the assigned readings from Mark and Hebrews, consider why a birth occurred. The pericope from Mark tells of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The readings from the Letter to the Hebrews, after much Greek philosophical language, culminate thusly:
For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
–Hebrews 9:13-14, New Revised Standard Version (1989)
To the passage above I add that we must move along to the Resurrection, or else we will have Dead Jesus. I serve the living Messiah, not Dead Jesus. Christ’s Resurrection conquered evil plans, as the Classic Theory of the Atonement states correctly.
We find foreshadowing of the crucifixion in the words of Simeon to St. Mary:
…and a sword will pierce your soul too.
–Luke 2:35b, New Revised Standard Version (1989)
In a similar vein, one can sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” to the tune “Easter Hymn,” to which many people sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” (The Methodist Hymnal/The Book of Hymns (1966) provides this option.) Advent and Christmas lead to the crucifixion and the Resurrection.
That is why the birth of Jesus occurred. Merry Christmas!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
Above: David Brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem
Image in the Public Domain
Jesus and Uzzah
DECEMBER 21 and 22, 2023
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The Collect:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.
With your abundant grace and might,
free us from the sin that would obstruct your mercy,
that willingly we may bear your redeeming love to all the world,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
2 Samuel 6:1-11 (Thursday)
2 Samuel 6:12-19 (Friday)
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 (Both Days)
Hebrews 1:1-4 (Thursday)
Hebrews 1:5-14 (Friday)
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Your love, O LORD, for ever will I sing;
from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.
For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever;
you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.
–Psalm 89:1-12, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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God, I am convinced, does not change, but human perceptions of God do. They have transformed, in fact. The Bible records some of those inconstant perceptions of the divine.
Consider, for example, the Ark of the Covenant, O reader. It was a tangible link to the intangible God. Unfortunate Uzzah, out of piety, reached out to steady the Ark, which oxen were causing to tip. He died. 2 Samuel 6:7 tells us that God was angry with Uzzah and struck him dead. That verse does not reflect my understanding of God.
Later in 2 Samuel 6 King David danced immodestly in public. Michal’s scorn was justified. The author of the text seemed to have a different opinion.
In contrast to the deity who allegedly struck Uzzah dead, we have a high Christological text in Hebrews 1:1-14. Jesus, the reflection of the divine glory, is greater than the angels, it says. Yet people touched Jesus and found healing, not death. He was God in the flesh (however that worked), among people, dining in homes, and weeping. Although the scriptures do not record any such incident, I think it likely that he had some deep belly laughs. In Jesus, my faith tells me, I see God.
Uzzah should have lived a few centuries later, for Jesus would have blessed him.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
The readings today contain good news and bad news. God will scatter the Assyrians who would conquer the Kingdom of Israel. Yet we know that the Chaldeans/Babylonians will defeat this realm in time. Revelation 22 is no less mixed: The righteous will rejoice in their deliverance by God, who will build the new world order after having obliterated the old one. Many people are invested in the world order God will destroy; woe to those who mourn its passing, Revelation says. And, in the Magnificat, the lowly and the hungry have good reason to rejoice, but the the powerful and the rich have understandable reasons to lament. Oppressors who refuse to cease oppressing will pay a steep price for their persistent sin. A familiar hymn tells us:
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens his will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
Sing praises to his name; He forgets not his own.
–Translated by Theodore Baker (1851-1934)
Among the major themes in the Gospel of Luke is reversal of fortune. There we find the Magnificat. A few chapters later we find the Beatitudes and Woes. (Those are just two examples.) That theme and the other readings for today point to the same reality. Sometimes divine deliverance of some is judgment upon others who have not ceased from oppressing and distressing. They had opportunities, which they rejected. This principle makes sense, for bad news for Herod the Great was good news for many other people, was it not?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 5, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY ZACCARIA, FOUNDER OF THE BARNABIES AND THE ANGELIC SISTERS OF SAINT PAUL
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ADALBERO AND ULRIC OF AUGSBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF H. RICHARD NIEBUHR, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST THEOLOGIAN
Advent receives inadequate attention. The season is certainly not commercial. Indeed, Christmas receives much commercial attention even before Halloween, for retailers need the money from Christmas-related sales to sustain stores through other times of the year. I admit to being of two minds. On one hand I do my rather limited Christmas shopping at thrift stores, so my deeds reveal my creed. Yet I know that many jobs depend on Christmas-related sales, so I want retailers to do well at the end of the year. Nevertheless, I am not very materialistic at heart; the best part of Christmas is intangible. And nobody needs any more dust catchers.
Observing Advent is a positive way of dropping out of the madness that is pre-December 25 commercialism. The four Sundays and other days (December 2-24 in 2012) preceding Christmas Day are a time of spiritual preparation, not unlike Lent, which precedes Easter. Garrison Keillor used the term “Advent Distress Disorder” (ADD) in a monologue last year. Indeed, finding positive news in the midst of apocalyptic tones of Advent readings can prove difficult. Yet the good news remains and the light shines brightest in the darkness.
So, O reader, I invite you to observe a holy Advent. Embrace the confluence of joy and distress, of darkness and light. And give Advent all the time it warrants through December 24. Christmas will arrive on schedule and last for twelve days. But that is another topic….
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 6, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM TEMPLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF TE WHITI O RONGOMAI, MAORI PROPHET
THE FEAST OF SAINT THEOPHANE VERNARD, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MISSIONARY, AND MARTYR IN VIETNAM
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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