Stories from Christmas, including how an Old Bay ornament made its way to our tree

God knows how the Infant Jesus will capture our attention—if we just let Him.

The Christmas story is a lengthy meditation on a counterintuitive but essential truth: true freedom, genuine liberation, comes through freely chosen obedience to God’s purposes.

We’ve made it this far. Ready or not, Christmas is coming. But this last little stretch offers a sliver of time.

Little gifts. Tiny blessings. This Christmas season, give away a compliment and your smile.

Unexpected snow days are always a hit.

Every Christmas our family presents my parents with a beautiful calendar full of grandchildren pictures. Everyone loves the calendar. Everyone except, well, maybe the person who knows the calendar is going to be her responsibility the next year.

Alas, like many other hymns, “For All the Saints” is an endangered species today, gutted by parish music directors and pastors who commit the grave sin of not singing a hymn in its entirety — or worse, who bowdlerize the lyrics to coddle the sensibilities of the Church of Nice.

In 40 years of working with the addicted, I have learned that these negative  behaviors block the positive power of grace.

Our fourth grader may have only had one brief job to do, but he embraced it wholeheartedly. He held the Star proudly and peered through the center of it with an enormous smile. His eyes, his smile, and his whole face were full of joy.