Advent

Battling a spirit of cranky not caring entails disciplined worship and prayer, community, physical activity and general service to another. I would also add humor.

The holy family depicted here endured struggles, as modern families do, and they met those struggles with faith and perseverance and obtained the peace, if only fleeting, that we see in this painting.

I'd like us to realize that keeping Christ in Christmas has nothing to do with what others choose to do, and everything to do with who we choose to be.

The only theology John the Baptist offered were the directives to repent and to give away our wealth, retaining only what we truly need. ... The truth about that wealth was so deep and clear in the eyes of God that it was at the heart of Christ's message.

The Christmas season can be a lot of fun, buying and getting gifts, going to parties, being with friends and family, but it also has a profound spiritual component.

I'm not so sure that the reality of Christ has a Return On Investment that would be attractive to the big banks. They are two very different ideas of what's "priceless."

The season of Advent sounds a discordant note in a world abuzz with holiday Muzak: The world around us is in turmoil, God. We need your presence. Come and occupy our world now!

Never mind it's based entirely on fantasy. But the pleasure of anticipation must outweigh the disappointment of reality, or else we wouldn't keep doing it, right?

Even if you're like me and want nothing to do with this fictitious "war" on Christmas, you might still feel that something is not right in what usually happens in December.

So what, you might wonder, do Advent and Occupy Wall Street have in common? They share a conviction that something is profoundly wrong with our world. They both express a longing for things to get better.

There's an ironic smile hovering in the air after the haggling in Durban, South Africa. In a season of giving, negotiators at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change hoarded.

My Christian sisters and brothers, let us revive the struggle. This fabulous sport can be our guide as we strive this Advent season, expectantly awaiting the New Born King.

We all know about the stress and comercialism of the holidays whether that is Christmas, Hanukkah or any other of the many Holy Days observed during D...

Can it be that the story of Advent and Christmas holds less meaning for the single, separated, and divorced? I don't think so -- not if we look at the facts.

Each successive year I feel like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas speeds up and I long for spiritual practices that will slow me down. Each year I am grateful for the season of Advent.

I am grateful every day to have a network of friends, a full-time job, and a church community at this point in my life. But as a mother in my mid-forties, I deeply miss my own parents.

The Vatican claims that a translation more faithful to the original Latin is needed. Is this the real reason for this disruption? I don't think so.

Advent (from the Latin adventus meaning "coming") is a liturgical season observed in many Western Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting an...

An Advent calendar is a special calendar that counts and celebrates the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Some calendars are strictly relig...

It matters not to proclaim Christ has come, that He is with us now, and that He will come again, if we fail to recognize that our beliefs must be the basis for our ethics and for our civility.

The impulses behind Advent should alarm those who are overly enamored with the current system, as well as any others who are overly confident in their ability to engineer what's best for the world.

The unemployed and the underemployed can experience Advent as one big let down. The ability to earn, and to provide for others, and to give to your church are blessings not to be taken for granted.

In hospice care, we realize that patients deserve a team of professionals with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in order to serve the person's physical, emotional, relational and spiritual needs.

At the advent of Advent, I was inspired by my local priest, Father Mike, to eat better, become thrifty, help the poor in my community and, overall, le...