Morning Briefings

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

– Luke 2: 6-7

We are nearing the end of the year. It may be a good time to get reflective about our past. I pose this question: ‘What is the one experience which alone could justify your life?’ In God’s eyes, our moment could have well been some minor incident. It is possible that your most heroic act was to keep your mouth shut in a time of stress?

– Reverend James O’Leary
I Think I Am Happier Than I Think I Am

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

– Luke 10:23-24

Praised are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life and has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this season.

– Shehecheyanu – The Blessing for the New Season as noted in
Jewish Family Celebrations

In Missoula, Mont., a man spent more than $1,200 to pay down the balances of six customers whose layaway orders were about to be returned to a Kmart store’s inventory because of late payments. Store employees reached one beneficiary on her cellphone at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where her son was being treated for an undisclosed illness. “She was yelling at the nurses, ‘We’re going to have Christmas after all!’” store manager Josine Murrin said.

– Margery A. Beck, AP
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts

The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid.’

– Matthew 1:20

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

– From John 13: 14-15, quoted in
a speech by Vince Bianco before Catholics at Work OC

There are times when I believe God welcomes the circus into our lives to give us an opportunity to show that there is another way to live and respond to things.

– Tony Dungy
Quiet Strength Men’s Study Bible

‘Preach, you’re trying too hard.’ It came just like that. Without warning, and from a homeless boy who pretended to be calloused through and through came a penetrating, wonderful piece of insight. The impact of those words was immense. They went through me as if they had been spoken by God Himself.

– David Wilkerson
The Cross and the Switchblade

In the case of Mr. Tebow, what seems to fuel many of his fans–and to drive many of his critics crazy–is not so much his evangelical faith itself but the equanimity and generosity that his faith inspires in him. Can he really mean it when he says that football isn’t that important to him, that he cares more about transcendent things?

– Patton Dodd, The Wall Street Journal
God’s Quarterback: The Tim Tebow Phenomenon