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

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

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

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

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

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

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,

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,

Around the corner from the church I serve in downtown Philadelphia sits City Hall. Its stately Second-Empire architecture looms over Penn Square, set at the very