Vignette #1: Friends on Facebook may by now be getting tired of seeing a particular post. A former student, now a good friend, recalls a quote of mine from a class about 20 years ago. She posts this every year in early December: “I don’t care what pa…
♫ I love you in the summertime and the wintertime and all the time. ♫ Twenty-one. That’s how many beautiful years my Grandpa Pecoraro and I were gratefully able to spend together. The first was Easter which occurred that year just about a month after…
About fifteen years ago, when my daughters were little and we lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago, I was the director of Vacation Bible School at our church. Our theme one year was “Bethlehem Village,” and it was one of my favorite VBS themes ev…
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The word “joy” has special meaning for me. My story starts like many: I grew up in a loving home with my parents, and my big sister, Jenny. Jenny had an accident when she was 2 ½ that left her intellectually and physically disabled. This is the part…
Choral music often displays interpretive notes for the singers’ attention to suggest the tone or mood that is to be portrayed in that particular section. For example, the anthem that the St. Paul Chorale presented on November 14th, “All Creatures of…
If you know me well, you know that my two favorite sounds are my grandchildren’s voices and fallen, dry leaves beneath my feet. The kids’ words and laughter elicit pure grandma joy. The leaves offer a more subtle joy, peace, really, something I look…
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Recently, I found myself surrounded by groups of teenagers in a warm chapel hearing stories of quilting. Those two things, teens and quilting, are normally not something you find together. However, Confirmation at St. Paul has a funny way of bringing…
‘Make a joyful shout to God all the earth! God is the source of all joy’ (Psalm 66.1). I’m a glass half full person. I find joy in most things but, there is a joy I experience every day from my dog Barney. There is a joke I’ve heard about man who put…
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In case you’ve never tried the activity, it’s impossible to tickle yourself. Some schizophrenics are the exception here since their identity can blur with others and they may struggle to self-differentiate. But since tickling hinges on surprise, ther…
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Ushers are those individuals who help create an environment of hospitality during worship. They allow for worship to flow and for worshipers to relax. It’s a simple and uncomplicated form of serving that’s a gift to everybody else who walks through t…
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Both sets of our parents grew up during the depression and were grateful for whatever they had. Later in life they’d tell us that back then they were poor, but didn’t realize they were poor. We think that experience must have been their foundation fo…
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy. Every few years my dad and I plan a few days of pho…