Posts with the category “advent-meditations”

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), from his set of four paintings, The Four Freedoms (1934) – Freedom from Want. This set of four paintings was inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address. The President spoke of the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.  Read More

In Matthew’s Gospel there are no Angels associated with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, but only an Angel who came to Joseph at Jesus’ conception, or soon after that. Matthew offers us not a “heavenly host” in the sky over Bethlehem and the Stable, but instead he speaks of Wise Men coming from the East, who can see better in the dark that which finally mattered most to them to find. I think of the dramatic opening line of Theodore Roethke’s poem: “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”  Read More

Jim Harrison, poet, novelist (b. 1937): “Life is sentimental. Why should I be cold and hard about it? That's the main content. The biggest thing in people's lives is their loves and dreams and visions, you know.”  Read More

St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness (1533-1578)1 , Engravings by Cort van Hoorn Cornelis (1533-1578)2 and Girolamo Muziano (1532 – died Rome, 27 April 1592).3 In Matthew 10, the evangelist lets us remember with him that day, or was it over the course of a few weeks, when Jesus finally decided who from out of “the crowds” were to be His closest colleagues – the Twelve.Matthew 10 (NJB): 2 These a...  Read More

In the post-Classical, or the Ecclesiastical Latin, period of the Latin language, the noun annunciatio (late 4th century CE, in the Vulgate translation of the Bible by St. Jerome) meant “a preaching of the Gospel”, a moment or instance of this having been done. It was only in the 7th century that this same noun came to mean the most consequential proclamation of the Gospel in all of human history:  Read More