Carol of the Bells as an Actual Advent Hymn

 Carol of the Bells has one of the most compelling musical settings among Christmas themed songs.  Unfortunately, the actual lyrics of the song have nothing to do with Jesus or His birth to the Virgin in Bethlehem.  This year I thought I'd rectify that by making some new lyrics appropriate to Advent.  The goal was to capture mood of a world waiting in pagan darkness for the savior.

Collecting on the "Marital Debt"?

In a previous post I mentioned how the lectionary is imbalanced in how it presents the duties of men and women in marriage.  In short, the duties of men are always read.  The duties of women are either skipped over or made optional.  This, I believe, has contributed to a culture in which it is taboo to speak of a woman's roles or duties within marriage.  

Into that silence steps X (formerly Twitter user) Will Knowland, who posted the following assertion on October 20th 2025.

This post, and the reactions thereto, are what I wanted to discuss today....

An Imbalance in the Lectionary

I've been a volunteer youth minister for 15 years now. I lead a weekly meeting which is half Bible Study and half discussion group. I've tried different formats for Bible Study over the years. Sometimes we'll read about some topic the kids ask about. Other times we'll make our way through a book of the Bible one paragraph at a time. Lately I've just been following the lectionary. In doing that I've noticed something that kinda bothers me.

An Ideal Correction

At some point in the future I'd like to do record some fulsome thoughts on Pope Francis' 12 years as Pope.  Overall, I could count the things I liked on one hand.  But today I want to look at one particular quirk of the document Amoris Laetitia... and the subtle correction that Pope Leo seemed to give to it.