A few shots from a slightly different Christmas location. I loved the moon shining down on us on Christmas Eve, a little like a Bethlehem star. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a rich celebration throughout the Christmas season - it's only just begun today. All the other stuff before this was only the prelude.… Continue reading Friday photos … a day late
While I have a face for radio, nonetheless, earlier this fall I accepted the invitation to be a part of the Christian TV show called The Bridge on the Alberta based Christian network, The Miracle Channel (thanks Lucretia for getting me on the air). We taped two episodes of The Bridge that day, focusing on… Continue reading Saying our prayers – on TV
Sometimes you need someone outside your self, family, culture, or faith to help you see accurately, truly. Here is Jackson Browne doing that for all of us who celebrate Christmas. From a self-named "heathen and a pagan on the side of the rebel Jesus" comes a musical theological reflection on the radical nature of Christmas… Continue reading A Christmas view from the outside
To kick off the final week before Christmas, a few images of the Christmas lights around where I'm visiting, a place where dolphins and pink flamingos seem to be traditional Christmas ornamentation. And that "ornament" in one of the photos is not a decoration - think large citrus fruit.
Do you hear what I hear? A whole lot of bad holiday music, that's what! Let me play Scrooge for a moment in order to save me from having to run raving mad through a mall food court if I have to suffer another of these saccharine seasonal songs. Honestly, where do you witness such… Continue reading Christmas tunes – rant and raves
Writing a book is a risky act of faith. You labour for countless hours, rising way too early, working in silence, not knowing if anyone will ever read what you write, let alone embrace it. Which makes the news of the good reception to my book Seeking God's Face really sweet (you can buy your… Continue reading Good momentum for Seeking God’s Face
I was on retreat early this week at a place called Kingsfold, a great place to rest and renew. If you find yourself in the Southern Alberta area, find a good excuse to get yourself there. One day I walked through the valley floor along the Ghost River where, in the winter shadow, the trees… Continue reading Friday photos
“In the regularity of the office, the love of Jesus springs up within us, we know not how.” The Rule of Taize “The Daily Office stands as the primary means by which the church might make us wakeful and watchful. It is in this sense an order of vigilance.” R.R. Reno, In the Ruins of… Continue reading Quotes on praying the daily office
We've been in Banff National Park, an annual retreat to the mountains to celebrate the festival of Saint Nicholas (aka. Sinterklaas, which is December 6 but we couldn't get a place for those dates and we're not real purists on this one). Today we went tobogganing in a forest clearing with Cascade Mountain to the… Continue reading Friday photos
A particularly modern folly is what C.S. Lewis called chronological snobbery. It’s the misplaced trust in only ideas and practices of our own day because those of the past are considered, like old milk or stale bread, past their “best before” date, dismissed as inferior simply by virtue of their age. One of Lewis’ antidotes for… Continue reading Saying our prayers, part 3
Squinch 