holidays

Not Weird Enough
According to the author of a new Catholic handbook, eucharistic adoration should be the new yoga.

5 Hot Holiday Worship Spaces
Traditions are great, but they can be stifling. Sometimes things get so rote we tune everything out, including the whispers of the Divine. Take a moment right now. Think about your plans. Listen to the still, small voice. What is it telling you? I’ll tell you what it’s telling you. ‘Cause God told me to…

Happy New Year from KtB!
Herewith, in the spirit of the season, a highly subjective New Year’s Eve countdown of our favorite KtB moments of 2013. 10 Illustrated posts by Communicant Mary Valle. 9 New books by Buddha-killers. 8 hot tips on new Buddha-killing movies by Becky Garrison. 7 Habits of a Highly Effective Philosopher. 6 Pieces of original reporting…

Songs for a Mystical Supper
Those who tire of the holiday clatter and need rest might want to download some selections from Church of the Beloved’s latest digital album, Songs for a Mystical Supper. This Edmonds, Washington, church may be Lutheran in origin but their music will dance with the spirits of anyone post-Solstice, Hijra, Advent, Hanukkah, or even Festivus.…

BOOOOO!
You may remember the fateful day, 5 years ago, when Mrs. Hannah Hubbard tried to rise from her grave where she lay buried since 1747, in Concord, Massachusetts. Very spoooooky. . . . Happy Halloween!

Beware of Christmas Stories
Alternet has a sobering followup to the heartwarming story about the NY City policeman who gave the homeless man a pair of boots. As reported in the New York Times, the object of the policeman’s generosity, a 54-year-old army veteran named Jeffrey Hillman, was shoeless again within days, the $100 pair of boots either sold…

The Hazards of Chanukah
The psychiatric hospital where I work as an interfaith chaplain has a strict holiday policy: no flammable objects and no decorations with cords on the locked wards. That means no lights on Christmas trees, battery-operated Menorahs, and tea lights How to teach preschool children for Sabbath candles. Last week, a group Jewish high-school students came…

Repent, Ye Wall Street
I do not normally look forward to Yom Kippur. It has always been, for me, a somewhat dutiful holiday, whereby the moral struggles of everyday life, as if they didn’t weigh heavily enough on us already, are magnified by lumping them into a year’s worth of sinful action and, by the magic of the ritual,…