All Posts By

Jared Ayers

Blog

The Rooster

The rooster jolted me awake at 3:45am. I was on a tour group led by Marlin and Sally Vis, midway through a ten-day trek around

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Blog

My Summer with Dante

When I had journeyed half our life’s way,I found myself within a shadowed forest,for I had lost the path that does not stray. Ah, it

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Blog

The Long Defeat

A few nights ago, I sat down into the worn blue chair crammed into the corner of my sons’ bedroom, and opened the book. The

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Introducing the O’s

I love having talented friends. Several weeks ago, my friend Bruce, who leads an artists’ collective I appreciate, told me they were publishing a book

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Simeon’s Song

Simeon sang one of my favorite Christmas songs. You may not think of Simeon’s Song—the Nunc Dimittis—as a chart-topping Christmas carol, but it’s become one

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Sore Afraid

Mark Richard once wrote a poignant piece of first-person fiction in The New Yorker entitled “The Birds for Christmas.” In it, the narrator describes a

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Breaking Stained Glass

Irish writer Colm Toibin once authored a controversial novella about the mother of Jesus called The Testament of Mary. Around the time of its release,

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Blog

Advent Calendars & Mr. December

The first Advent calendar appeared in 1851, and featured a biblical-character-a-day to count Christian worshippers down to Christmas. It featured, among others, John the baptizer,

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