by Rick Mastroianni | Dec 16, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
She insisted on seeing me face-to-face, unveiled, defying all custom for the betrothed to remain apart until the wedding feast. I watched her eyes rain when she saw doubt and pain in mine. They said it was a good match: me from David’s royal line, she connected to...
by Drew Masterson | Dec 10, 2019 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
Advent, when we allow it, transports us back in time to a relatively small and unheralded province of the Roman Empire where a people waited. This people had enjoyed millennia of imperfect but close communion with their God; He had walked with them, spoken to them,...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2019 | Church Unity, Liturgical Seasons
I love my parents, they did a great job with us four kids. They didn’t do it perfectly of course (what parent does?), but they loved us as best they knew how, and loved Jesus as best they knew how, and those two things cover a multitude of, well, things I’m sure they...
by Coracle | Nov 18, 2019 | Liturgical Seasons
Here’s a list of Advent resources, curated with love, that we hope will help you prepare well for Christmas this year. An innovative and beautiful online Advent Calendar utilizing Visio Divina, Biola University’s Advent Project, leads you through visual...
by Coracle | Dec 26, 2018 | Contemplative Life
By: John Gardner Many people know the story of how Franz Gruber, an organist in Oberndorf, Austria, whose organ was broken, hurriedly composed the melody for “Silent Night” for guitar on Christmas Eve, 1818 – two hundred years ago today. The bicentennial has gone...
by Bill Haley | Dec 5, 2018 | Liturgical Seasons
Advent–always a wonderful, and strange, season. It’s wonderful because it gives the opportunity once again to recall the long wait of the people of God for their Savior, and the promises punctuating centuries of waiting throughout the Old Testament that would find...
by Coracle | Nov 28, 2018 | Liturgical Seasons
“In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.” Isaiah 11:6 By: Margot Eyring, Spiritual Director with Coracle When Jesus...
by Scott Buresh | Nov 15, 2018 | Liturgical Seasons
As I look out my window at the multi-colored display of foliage, I find myself thanking God again for the gift of seasons, each with its own distinctive mood and beauty. Each leaf is a declaration of the mind and heart of God who envisioned creating a world full of...
by Bill Haley | Dec 26, 2017 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
In the very early hours of December 24, 2017, my mom –JoAnn Neburka Haley– passed on from this life to the next, having lived 83 years on this earth and forever in the world to come. It was not a surprise to us, we’d known it was coming these past two years and these...
by Wade Ballou | Dec 22, 2017 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
The year was 1933, deep into the Great Depression. In Murphy, NC, a small Appalachian town, a group of evangelicals seeking to raise funds had been ordered out of town. At one point before leaving: “A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform...
by Coracle | Nov 30, 2017 | Coracle News, Liturgical Seasons
Dear ones, I’m delighted to offer you Coracle’s Annual Report for 2017, and a look into 2018. Please take some time to look it through, thank God with us, and pray for us coming into 2018. SO many people are making Coracle possible, and you are amongst them. Thank...
by Kate Harris | Nov 16, 2017 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the...
by Bill Haley | Dec 19, 2016 | Contemplative Life
This Advent season, when I pause to reflect on the meaning of it and prepare for that feast day and celebration that is Christmas, my heart is filled with gratitude. It may seem rather simple to say, but I’m really grateful that God came. God came. It’s that simple,...
by Wade Ballou | Dec 13, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
My first invitation to wonder about Jesus’ coming came when I was a boy, stealing away to my childhood living room and sitting alone among all the bright trimmings of the season. Without really knowing it was happening, the mystery of the season seeped into my soul....
by Coracle | Dec 13, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
Bill Haley’s sermon given at The Falls Church Anglican on December 11, 2016.
by Erin Clifford | Dec 9, 2016 | Liturgical Seasons
“What are you waiting for?” It’s a question that we might be asked by a stranger as we hold up a grocery story line or to a friend who we want to encourage to step out in faith. It’s normally a question that implies choosing to wait as the lesser choice. Advent, on...
by Coracle | Dec 2, 2016 | Liturgical Seasons
Last time I offered some Transcendence. This time I want to offer Sheer Joy! These few things fill my heart with laughter or happiness or wonder or all of them at the same time. Enjoy them! The first is probably my favorite minute and twenty-two seconds on Youtube....
by Scott Buresh | Nov 30, 2016 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
On my journey with Christ I have considered myself many things: a redeemed, rescued, forgiven, beloved child of God; Jesus’s friend; Jesus’s co-laborer in the world; God’s handiwork created in His image. But rarely have I identified with being a “contemplative,” one...
by Kate Harris | Nov 28, 2016 | Liturgical Seasons
Every year as Advent begins our family takes out its Christmas library – the loosely curated stash of books acquired over many years conveying the Christmas story and spirit in poetry, images, songs, and stories from across centuries and around the world. At the...
by Karla Petty | Dec 21, 2015 | Contemplative Life, Liturgical Seasons
The song “Sleigh Ride” is lost on me this year. It has turned into the aural equivalent of eating sawdust. Originally an instrumental, lyrics were added by someone else two years after the composer finished the score in 1948, just three years after the end of World...
