"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me." Tony Bennett's voice wove its subtle magic throughout the shopping mall. How appropriate, I thought, as I watched the shoppers scurry from store to store. The advertisements promised "just the right gifts at just the right price," allowing us to "give like Santa and save like Scrooge."

As I listened, I was struck with how we have turned Christmas ...

We live in a fast-paced culture, but some things just ought to happen slowly.

The book Final Salute tells the story of Major Steve Beck, a U.S. Marine whose heart-wrenching task is to inform the nearest of kin when a Marine is killed in Iraq. Beck doesn't just break the sad news and then leave; for several days he may help the family through the process of the funeral. That includes supervising the ...

The Nativity Story is a drama that focuses on the period of Mary and Joseph's life during which they journeyed to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.

In this scene, the wise men have arrived in Bethlehem at the place where Mary has given birth to Jesus. Mary, Joseph, and the baby have previously been joined by a group of shepherds who have come to worship the baby Jesus.

The scene begins with the approach ...

Being from the South, I love ribs. I remember hearing about this particular restaurant that had amazing ribs, and a bunch of my friends and I drove 50 minutes to get there. The place was packed, and the food was great. It was "all you can eat rib night," and rib bones were piling up as fast as the line to get in. Eating ribs is messy business. Barbecue sauce gets on your face, fingers, and clothes; ...

Charles Kuralt used to produce fascinating TV stories about his travels across America. In his book, On the Road with Charles Kuralt, he tells about a time he and his crew visited the chapel of Maria Angelorum in La Crosse, Wisconsin. There the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration

have been praying without interruption for a hundred years! Every hour of every day and night for a century, two sisters ...

My sense of Christmas joy is focused on a specific moment each year: when I stand in an Episcopal church at a midnight Christmas Eve service and sing the French carol "Angels We Have Heard on High."

One of my fondest memories of Christmas Eve involves singing this carol alongside my father when I was maybe 9 years old. Dad was a deeply shy man, so he normally would sing hymns in the softest tones. ...

Disney's animated movie The Lion King, portrays the struggle between good and evil through the adventures of a lion named Simba. Son of the lion king, Simba faces several challenges as he comes to terms with his royal heritage.

In the opening scene, the long-awaited announcement of Simba's birth is carried throughout the valleys and plateaus of Africa. Tribal drums and African chants herald the cub's ...

I believe that if we are to be and to do for others what God means us to be and to do, we must not let Adoration and Worship slip into second place, "For it is the central service asked by God of human souls; and its neglect is responsible for much lack of spiritual depth and power."

Perhaps we may find here the reason why we so often run dry. We do not give time enough to what makes for depth, and ...

It is fitting and right to sing of you, to praise you, to thank you, to adore you in all places of your dominion. For you are the ineffable God, inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible, existing forever and yet ever the same, you and your only-begotten Son and your Holy Spirit. You brought us into being out of nothingness, and when we had fallen, you raised us up again. You have not ceased doing ...

Our emotions become worship when, in response to a truth about God, we give something back to God.