Musings of the Day

team-canada-hockey-gold.jpg This evening is in a way a day of closings. It’s the end of the week, and the end of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I think our television has been on almost nonstop for 17 days now. And it’s been good seeing our Canadian athletes doing so well. 14 gold medals, more than any country has ever won in any winter Olympics. I think the early glitches of the games were pretty much forgotten as we showed the world how we party at home. People in the street spontaneously singing the national anthem? That’s pretty remarkable for any country anywhere, I’d say. And of course, we made sure to remind the world that hockey is our game. I might have over-tweeted that point, but there it is. Here we are being Canadian… thoroughly proud to the core of all our athletes who scored a podium finish, and feeling sorry for those who didn’t, whether those others are Canadian or not.

Bonhoeffer on Christmas in Prison

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent Christmas of 1943 in prison where he’d been since April of that year. Most of you know the story — a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, member of the German Resistance movement against Nazism, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer had been arrested for his involvement in plans by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. As Christmas approached in 1943, he wrote the following in a letter to his parents:

Advent 2009

Today begins another Advent season, and marks the start of another year in the liturgical calendar (for the non-Celtic, anyway). Advent for me always seems to be a time of refocusing, of regaining my center. This can be facilitated in a variety of ways, but becoming a little more intentional about some of the habits and practices of the faith is one of the best ways to go about this, but simply being more mindful is a great first step as well. There are a lot of great Advent resources online, including my 2007 Advent Series, which includes not only my posts, but links to all the posts in a Synchroblog I organized that year with eighteen other bloggers. On the summary page, I’ve also listed a number of other related posts and resources collected at that time. That was the year I wrote and release my first book, That You Might Believe: Praying Advent with the Gospel of John. Continually though, one of the best sources of online Advent materials is Christine Sine, who recently posted about Celebrating Advent with Kids, Daily Bible Readings For Advent, and has now posted her annual Advent video, The Coming Of the Lord is Near.

Hymns of My Youth #103: Come and Dine

dinner-table.jpg It’s time to add another hymn to my collection, Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth. I didn’t really set out to find one that relates to Mother’s Day in any fashion, but if we stretch it we can say that the hymn is an invitation to dine, which is what a lot of families are doing with their mothers today. At least, that’s apparently what we discovered when we attempted to make reservations.

Older Posts

A Centurion’s-Eye View

The Holiness of “Place”

Peter Rollins on The Last Supper

Lenten Offsets?

Peace, Love, & Pancakes

St. Paul vs. Punxsutawney Phil

HoMY 86: O Come, All Ye Faithful

Brother Maynard’s Family Pancakes: A Dad-Challenge for New Year’s Day