Know Tea

If you listen to people like Bill O’Reilly and/or listen to Christian radio (and I’m going to assume there’s a whole lot o’ overlap there), you’re used to hearing about the “war on Christmas” this time of year, every year.
This year, American Family Radio (a Christian radio network based in Tupelo, MS) published its “naughty [...]

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I ended my first on this topic with this thought:
This is the shape of the Church Calendar that has been in place since the Fourth Century.  It not only predates the Reformation of the 16th Century, but it even predates the Great Schism (between East and West) of 1054 by almost 600 years!  So this [...]

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The last post gave some background on the origins of the Church Year and why Christians have celebrated the seasons of the Church Year since at least the Fourth Century AD.  In short, observing the seasons and rhythms of the Church Year gives believers a sacred sense of time:  a way to celebrate God’s mighty [...]

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This post is mainly for the great group of talented musicians we have at our church now, but if the rest of you want to listen in, that’s fine.
Being a liturgical church in a mostly non-liturgical part of the country, visitors usually run into some things that require explanation.  On the most basic level, there [...]

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It still surprises me how many Christians have no idea what Maundy Thursday is, when it is, or (most importantly) why it is.  Just the other day someone in the community whom I know to be a churchgoer asked me what events we had planned for this week at the church (this person attends a [...]

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Brief note here.  Getting ready for church, which prompted this thought:
So many people tell us every year to “keep Christ in Christmas.”  How about keeping the “mas” in Christmas?
“Christmas” is “Christ’s Mass.”  Christ’s Eucharist.  Christ’s Holy Communion Service.  Christ’s Lord’s Supper Service.  Whatever the terminology of your particular tradition may be, the Communion Service in [...]

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Sunday’s Gospel tells the story of the Annunciation.  With that in mind, here is Chanticleer singing Franz Biebl’s beautiful Ave Maria.  This is really a setting of the Angelus prayer, with the last part of the Ave Maria (Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, hora pro nobis peccatoribus . . .) added at the end.
Click on the [...]

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Everyone needs to go read this right now.  If you don’t have time right now, come back when you have time.  Read it.  Digest it.  It’s really, really good, and really, really needed.
It’s what I’ve been trying to say for years now, but never as well as this.
Go read it and ponder these things in [...]

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8:45 a.m. — I am sitting in the car, in our neighbors’ driveway.  Our oldest is taking care of their dog while they’re gone for Thanksgiving, and since it was raining this morning I drove her down instead of making her walk.  (Because I’m so nice.)  Anyway, while she’s inside taking care of the dog, [...]

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Don’t you love that old song by the Zombies?  But that’s not what I’m talking about.
It’s the changing of the season that is right in front of us.
Not fall to winter.
Not fall to “holiday season.”
Not fall to “Christmas shopping season” or “holiday shopping season” or any kind of “shopping season.”  Why would we want any [...]

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