Explore how the power of starting over reflects the Christian resurrection, where both the absurd and sublime meet. Discover how our ability to begin anew connects to deeper spiritual truths about human nature and divine renewal.

For this center candle reminds us that God's answer to all our Advent waiting was not to appear in power but in powerlessness, not in majesty but in humility, not in the extraordinary but in the ordinary. The Light we have been seeking turns

Discover how the childlike sense of wonder holds profound wisdom for adults. From fireworks to dandelions, explore how rediscovering amazement in everyday miracles can deepen our understanding of life and faith. Learn why becoming "like children" may be the key to seeing the world as it truly is - full of divine glory and endless possibility.

Discover the profound meaning behind Advent's third rose-colored candle, the Gaudete candle. Explore how Christian joy differs from mere happiness it's not an escape from sorrow, but a defiant hope that transforms it. A meditation on finding joy in life's deepest moments.

Consider the first Advent candle, which we light when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. If we were being entirely reasonable about it, this would be exactly the wrong time to speak of hope. It would be like planting a garden in winter

It is a peculiar folly of our age, a madness that seems to have infected the very marrow of our modern bones, that we have come to despise the small things. We are forever chasing after the grand and the glorious, the monumental and the massive, as if size alone could confer significance. Our eyes are constantly lifted to the horizon, searching for the next big thing, the revolutionary idea, the world-changing event. But in this mad pursuit of the colossal, we have forgotten the divine dignity of the diminutive. We have, in our modern mania, made the grievous error of mistaking bigness for greatness.

In our upside-down world, shadows are counted more substantial than sunlight, and darkness more real than dawn. Yet Christianity offers a startling reversal: a divine madness that transforms the darkest night into the brightest day, where even the deepest shadows bow before the light.