I was reading a meditation on stress yesterday. It came on the heels of another source of spiritual thought that I regularly frequent meditating on Jesus’ admonition in the sermon on the Mount not to worry. It got me to thinking—- Lent starts on February 18. Do I participate this year and what might be a worthy focus? I’m not wise enough to discern fully but feel prompted to advocate an examination of stressors in life. Simply put, our hearts need to incorporate the truth that God has this...

There is a familiar scene in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. It is the day after Christmas and Bob Cratchit comes into Ebenezer Scrooge’s office about 18 minutes late. Scrooge bellows and mockingly berates him for his tardiness. Cratchit’s excuse was “I was making rather merry yesterday, Sir”. I will apply Cratchit’s line to my tardiness in getting this installment on advent Joy out a bit late. I have gratefully had the opportunity to make merry with family this past week. And get...

After seasons of warmth, the growing season, the harvest and the beauty that is autumn (in which I relished for an extended season from Quebec to home feasting on the colors and refreshing cool) we enter winter with its attendant palpable gloomy gray days. It’s a time when we begin to long for the better seasons. But this season offers a needed quiet, a respite from labors. Freed from many daily outdoor chores and activities. It is a time to nourish our interior life, our spiritual life. The...