Guest Post

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About a decade ago, the rector of our small Episcopal church began to incorporate Spanish into the liturgy. She didn’t do this because we had Spanish-speaking members. We didn’t. She did it, she said, to remind us that the liturgy doesn’t belong to us alone.

New today from the Century: The editors on the budget deal and the House Speaker, Amy Frykholm on hosting her first Las Posadas celebration, more.

New today from the Century: Amy Frykholm interviews sociologist Vern Bengston, Debra Dean Murphy on Advent despair, more.

New today from the Century: Philip Jenkins on the conflict in East Timor, Carol Howard Merritt on the church and the body, more.

New today from the Century: Another ministry scenario by Ellen Blue, Jon Sweeney reviews Library of America's Updike collection, more.

New today from the Century: John Buchanan on incarnation, Martha-Lynn Corner on Advent waiting, more.

New today from the Century: Rachel Marie Stone reviews David Rakoff, Carol Howard Merritt on the image of God and the little pink pill, more.

New today from the Century: Jesse James DeConto on church for runners, Carol Howard Merritt on rooting for the human, more.

New today from the Century: Peter Storey remembers Mandela, Joanna Harader on the disunity of the Spirit, more.

New today from the Century: Kate Bowler on the Christmas prosperity gospel, Walter Brueggemann reviews Jerome Creach, more.

Though Nelson Mandela reportedly was guarded about his own religious convictions, he maintained close ties to church leaders and was deeply shaped by his Methodist education. When he talked of forgiving his jailers, called for racial enemies to live in peace, and in words and deeds opened up the path to national reconciliation, the echoes of the gospel were unmistakable.  Yet it should also be remembered that Mandela at one time embraced the use of violence as part of the resistance to apartheid.

New today from the Century: Carol Zaleski on Christmas and the relationship between poetry and dogma, David Heim on Mandela's morally complex life as a peacemaker, more.

New today from the Century: The editors on the pope's joyous gospel, Carol Howard Merritt on Rick Warren and the contraception mandate, more.

New today from the Century: Steve Hayes on Nelson Mandela, Kathryn Reklis on the show Orphan Black, more.

New today from the Century: Craig Barnes on life after high school, Emily Heath on staying awake during Advent, more.

Some people can’t get enough of Christmas carols. I can’t get enough of Advent hymns. “Prepare the Royal Highway,” “Creator of the Stars of Night, “On Jordan’s Banks the Baptist’s Cry,” “People, Look East,” “Comfort, Comfort, Now My People,” “Fling Wide the Door,” “Unexpected and Mysterious”—there just aren’t enough Advent Sundays to sing all the great ones. I came across a commentary that said, “Advent is the hardest of times for Christians,” because it calls us to “embrace the darkness and the silence and the cold” rather than enjoy the warm glow of Christmas.  But Advent seems to me the easiest season for faith, because it’s the most truthful.