Author Archives: joyocala

As this season of Advent has given us time to “get ready” for the celebration of Jesus’s birth, and allowed us reflective moments of how we are growing in Christ and how we can share the good news; may it … Continue reading →

Tomorrow is the fourth Sunday of Advent and the spiritual preparation for the birth of Jesus Christ continues.  The actual tradition of using the Advent Wreath for this season originated among German Lutherans in the 16th Century, but the use … Continue reading →

I wrote this blog last February. I have been feeling out of sorts again recently. I have been grumpy and rude with people who do not deserve this kind of treatment. So I thought that I would get the blog … Continue reading →

I only know about John Prindle Scott (August 16, 1877 in Norwich, New York – December 2, 1932 in Syracuse, New York) what I read in Wikipedia: He “was an American author, lecturer, educator and composer of art songs.” One … Continue reading →

When I was a child, I kept pestering my parents for a bike. All my friends had one, why not me? It turns out that they had been struggling with this issue, since I was 11 and my 10 year … Continue reading →

We are now just past the midway point in the Advent season. The tone shifts to more-comfortable Mary from scary John the Baptist. It reminds me of many things. This would be the time when Mom would bake some sixty … Continue reading →

Did you get up this morning at dayspring?  I’m guessing you may be a bit baffled.  What exactly is dayspring?   To us it’s an archaic word, but it simply means dawn, daybreak, the first appearance of light before sunrise.  The … Continue reading →

Who were the magi?  Magi is a transliteration of magus a word in Greek, that refers to the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings. From what I have read there is no concrete evidence there were only three kings, but the assumption … Continue reading →

Today I had the pleasure of attending the recently released movie “I Heard the Bells”. It was based on the story behind the writing of “Christmas Bells”, by America’s most popular poet of the 19th century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He … Continue reading →

I have been doing a little research on Charles Wesley. What a remarkable person-poet, preacher, and man of God! Truthfully, I knew nothing about Mr. Wesley until I read an excerpt about him and his brother John in the little … Continue reading →