Richard Fritzky
Published: 2016-11-22
Total Pages: 330
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"And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge," wrote Charles Dickens of his resurrected Scrooge. He added, "May that truly be said of us, and of all of us," challenging us to live in the bright light of Christmas as well. In Tidings of Great Joy--Keeping Christmas Well, we explore the depths of A Christmas Carol's "If any," "May that truly be," and "Keeping Christmas well." Twenty-five moving Advent reflections give way to twenty-five memoirs or musings upon gifts given when Neissseria meningitidis and imminent death and catastrophe reigned, gifts that shed light into the darkness of a fifteen-month exile from hearth and home and Maggie and our twelve children; gifts of goodness and grace--spiritual, emotional, inspirational; gifts tendered in words and in deeds, in laughter and in tears, in both the every day and the ordinary and the miraculous; gifts that tempered unbelievable suffering, trauma, and loss; gifts that reclaimed. Out of the darkness of October 4, 2005, and into the light of December 21, 2006, a homecoming for Christmas, they worked their magic, and living expression was given to "If any man alive" and "Truly keeping Christmas well." Oh, what it is to finally be worthy of Christmas and its unbridled tidings of great joy