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Evangelical

2021-02-02T00:56:04-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rest on the Twelfth Night in a House for Our Heroes (Twelfth Night of Christmas)

Last updated on: February 2, 2021 at 12:56 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

The Last Day of the Christmas Feasting Gracious friends invited us out of Houston, that great American City, to a quiet place in Texas. The house is near water and the pond draws more deer and wild turkey than I have ever seen in the wild. The food was good, the company better, and the stars were bright just like the song says they are deep in the heart of Texas. On Twelfth Night we journied to Fredericksburg for an... Read more

Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2021-01-05T22:19:51-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

All Grown Up (Eleventh Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: January 5, 2021 at 10:19 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

I cannot go to Granny’s anymore. The stocking from 1908 Preston Street, Granny’s house, is in my office now. My childhood crèche is nearby. My parents gave us wonderful Holidays and then, as Mom would say, just as we got interesting, we left. As believers in “extended family” both Daniel and I have kept nearby, but we are no longer there all the time. We are a good bit less cute. This year Hope and I had a jolly Christmas... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2021-01-03T19:34:00-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Joseph: the Man at Christmas (Reflections on the Tenth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: January 3, 2021 at 7:34 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

One day in school a teacher asked what growing up with a disabled parent had taught me. I did not know what to say, because this had never occurred to me before that moment. Dad was Dad: the sort you asked for wisdom, because he knew. There were some differences, I suppose. He did not teach me to drive, though not being to blame may be in his favor. Dad had something to say, but mostly he lives a life of integrity. He was... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2021-01-02T13:30:09-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Eternal Vision (Ninth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: January 2, 2021 at 1:30 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

A solution to what ails us is an eternal vision, but we begin in small things. When the shepherds rushed to the manger, they went to see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, but did so at the impetus of a heavenly vision. The Empire of Love penetrated the mundane and gave a better vision. The shepherds saw the temporal and the eternal. These hard working men bowed to a baby, but only because of angelic hosts! Shepherds keeping... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2021-01-25T23:30:57-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Being For What We Are For (Reflections at the End of the Eighth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: January 25, 2021 at 11:30 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

I spent the afternoon with some of the family and we were bound by love to Christmastide. This was a community of Holiday. Christmas is Love, not Opposition to Evil A great-grandfather once described a man as “so straight he leans a little.” This is the man who knows what he opposes, knows what is wrong with the world, and is motivated by his animus. Few will admit to fear, disdain, or hate which energizes their work, because the wrongness is obvious. Herod feared... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-31T16:36:57-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Any Excuse for Hope (The Seventh Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: December 31, 2020 at 4:36 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Take any good excuse for a party. The Seventh Day of Christmas also brings the “new year” as we flip our calendars. The “new year” is a belated blessing. We entered new liturgical time on September 1 as the cycle leading up to the Nativity and eventually Pascha began in earnest. The numbers in the common era, finding roots in attempts to date the birth of Jesus, will flip from 2020 to 2021. As a way of predicting the future, numerology is both... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-31T19:18:51-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Cracked Like Old Stained Glass (Sixth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: December 31, 2020 at 7:18 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

We are cracked, but beautiful. Our restoration is coming. From my chair, right now, I see the calm image of Saint Anne through the Christmas tree.* This piece of nineteenth century stained glass, surrounded by more hideous twentieth century blue glass, is no longer valuable. The Church that removed it shipped it to me in such a way that hairline breaks run throughout. As a result, I paid nothing for this window. This is good. Some things are too precious... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-31T17:43:42-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Transformation done by the Lowly (Fifth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: December 31, 2020 at 5:43 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

All was transformed, each culture, every thought, by Christmas. Each good from every time was kept in safety for all time as itself. One can see an example in the metamorphosis of mere Hellenism to the glories of Hellenic, classical, Christian society. Nothing of the old pagan, philosophical tradition was (intentionally) lost. All was kept in context, the good and the bad, yet the Gospel written in Greek soon made all of Greek part of the divine order. There was no force needed. Why? The process... Read more

Culture

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-31T17:06:01-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Beauty has Saved the World (Fourth Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: December 31, 2020 at 5:06 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

“Beauty,” he said to me, “will save the world.” I knew what he meant and as far as his intention went there was truth there. He was urging us to make beauty and that beauty mattered. A warning sign of a bad cause is when it comes wrapped in aesthetic ugliness. This is not certain, something can appear beautiful, but be disguised falsehood or evil. Overtime, however, this cannot last. Fundamentally there is in truth beauty. Stay in a plantation house as a guest long... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

2020-12-28T11:46:34-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Kingdom Came (The Third Day of Christmas)

Last updated on: December 28, 2020 at 11:46 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

Let us live in peace, so far as is possible, in the Kingdom born before the foundation of the Earth, but fully revealed in the Nativity of the King. Do not cease from mental fight, but in hard times first turn to self-examination: the spiritual warfare that Scripture commends. Only then can we, first doing no harm, seek justice with mercy in our communities. We pray, as Jesus taught us: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in Earth as... Read more

Spiritual Reflections

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