At Christmas, bookshops stock a lot of stories about Santa, and at Easter, you can’t avoid bunnies and chocolate. If you’re looking to balance that with picture books telling the original Easter story of Jesus’ last weeks on earth, here are my top recommendations. Joy Cowley’s The Easter Story [A version of this review first […]
In 2023, Lent begins Wednesday, 22 February We’re spoilt by the church calendar at this time of year! We’ve just had four weeks of candle-lighting at Advent, culminating, in our household, with this delightful moment on Christmas Day: Now we’re coming to the end of the two-week Christmas season, and then it’s only a month […]
Over at The Big Picture, a fantastic news photography blog, the caption for this bunny picture is this: Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Police Chief Victor Amato holds a pet rabbit named Hope, Friday, April 10, 2009, in Marlboro, N.J., that had been abandoned in the woods behind the owner’s […]
On the Thursday night of the first Easter week, an unnamed woman had a dream about Jesus: While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him.” Matthew 27:19 […]
We’re now in Holy Week, where Lent morphs into Easter. In my house we’ll continue lighting our Lenten candles and saying the sentences about Jesus that go with them, but there are plenty of other special things coming along this week that can take their own place in household spirituality. So here’s a bunch of […]
This is the fourth in a mini-series looking at how different traditions celebrate Lent. They build on each other, so you might like to catch up on the first three: Fasting in the Old Testament Jesus and the Early Church Orthodox Practices Looking for Lent stuff on Pinterest (a current, geeky hobby of mine) leads […]
This is a mini-series leading up to Lent, which begins in 2014 on March 5. You might like to catch up on the first part, looking at fasting in the Old Testament, before reading this one. In the Old Testament, fasting is usually portrayed as a spontaneous response to what Scot McKnight calls a ‘sacred, […]
This is an introductory post to our Lent with Kids series, explaining how and why we’re using candles and a bunch of other things to make Lent meaningful at home. I wrote this several years ago now, and it has become a cornerstone of our family spirituality. Skip to the bottom to see the basic […]
You may have spotted Michael/SKATERAK’s comment on Tim’s first Not Only A Father post. It reads: This will definitely be an interesting series. Thanks for whetting my appetite already. Is there any chance you could throw in some advice on how to present God to children, as well? Just a little question, eh, Michael? I […]
Solidarity and hope are my Easter words, thanks to a German theologian called Jürgen Moltmann. He was moved by his experiences in the Second World War to contemplate suffering in a profound way. The result was his ‘Theology of Hope,’ and it is a major influence on how I think of what happened when Jesus came. […]