The Holly and the Ivy

Today is the first Sunday of Advent.  It is time to light the first candle. #Hope. O come, O come, Emmanuel, And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here, Until the Son of [more…]

We are all familiar with the ingredients of the nativity story: the birth of Jesus foretold. The Census of Caesar Augustus (tax censuses were a regular feature of the Roman Empire and a Quirinus was [more…]

The third Sunday of Advent – #Peace. Maestà, or Maestà of Duccio is an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by the city of Siena in 1308 from the artist Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1308–1311 [more…]