Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year B, RCL)

The biblical foundation for a holy practice

How do we say yes to the call of this moment?

I see love incarnate in suffering flesh, a body bearing a body in pain for love.

I've long identified with Mary's fire. Now I want to learn from Elizabeth.

Mary and Elizabeth knew the basic truths of life.

When I read the annunciation story, I picture Mary as Clara.

The Magnificat rejoices in a God who acts within human history.

I imagine Nathan waking to the word of the Lord with his heart pounding.

"I love you," says God. "We love you, too," our prayers reply.

What a relief it might be to middle-class America to be sent away empty.

As I lifted the chalice, the baby began to play soccer under my ribs.

This story is full of echoes—most famously, Mary's song echoes Hannah's. But there is another echo: Elizabeth's praise of Mary, which gets taken up into the Hail Mary, is an echo of Deborah's song in Judges 5.

Mary is a jazz singer, improvising on a familiar tune.

The prospect of Syrian refugees entering the U.S. has unleashed a wave of fear. But fear, while understandable, is an unreliable guide to policy.