New CC content on a Vatican McDonald’s, holiday grief, incarnation, and more.
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** Poetry for Christmas
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Merry Christmas! I hope you had a blessed and restful holiday, filled with joy and reflection. But I know that isn’t the case for everyone, and that this time of year can be lonely or painful. If that was you this year, my heart goes out to you. Feel free to email me if you need a friend.
I have come to think that this time of year, with its strong emotions and spiritual potency, is perfect for poetry. So I’m excited to introduce three new poems that relate in different ways to the Christmas experience. Bonnie Thurston (my favorite poet!) sees Jesus in a homeless man on Christmas Eve ([link removed]) . Alfonso Sito Sasieta considers the midwives and doulas on hand for Jesus’ birth ([link removed]) . Suzanne Underwood Rhodes writes of sorrow and faith while visiting a loved one’s grave ([link removed]) on Christmas.
Plus more great new content. Scroll down for a fascinating essay about a McDonald’s next to St. Peter’s ([link removed]) Basilica, a review of Christian Wiman’s dark memoir ([link removed]) , and more.
Email me: How was your Christmas this year?
Jon Mathieu
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20Editors%E2%80%99%20Picks)
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Antechapel and rest house ([link removed])
“In St. Peter’s the people hear of the high call to love their neighbor as themselves. In the McDonald’s they are close enough to their neighbor to know what he smells like.”
by Sharon Christner
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** Christian Wiman’s feel-bad memoir ([link removed])
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“Christian Wiman opposes the encroaching shadow with all of his strength and with all of his words.”
review by Katherine Willis Pershey
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** Christmas Story ([link removed])
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“Old, widowed church ladies don’t
take in homeless men for Christmas.
But perhaps, my sisters, we should.
Perhaps this is St. Joseph . . .”
poem by Bonnie Thurston
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** In the Lectionary for December 31 (Christmas 1B) ([link removed])
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Simeon and Anna echo the worship material of ancient Israel.
by Paul N. Anderson
Christmas 1B archives ([link removed])
Get even more lectionary resources with Sunday’s Coming Premium, an email newsletter from the editors of the Christian Century. Learn more ([link removed]) .
** Doula ([link removed])
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“Deep speaks to deep. Womb
greets womb & blessed
are you who wriggled & writhed . . .”
poem by Alfonso Sito Sasieta
** I visit his grave on Christmas ([link removed])
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“The earth has sunk, level now as unleavened bread
of communion, no longer a mound,
that unnatural, risen loaf of the first raw day
he went down, but this ground’s recognizable . . .”
poem by Suzanne Underwood Rhodes
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