There is plenty of light-hearted movie fare for the holidays, but the great performances are usually to be found in the more serious films. Here are several that are hard to watch, but worth the effort:

Whenever Mother Teresa would hear someone describe the order she founded as a community of “activists,” she would immediately correct them. She and the other members of the Missionaries of Charity were, she insisted,  “contemplatives.” She would point out that whenever new persons joined her community they were required to spend weeks reading the Gospels and contemplating the Host, so that they might be able to recognize Jesus when they go out onto the streets to look for him  “in His dreadful disguise among the poorest of the poor.”

When my family moved from Atlanta to Columbia three years ago, we could identify only one thing lost in the move. Baby Jesus.

     He was the centerpiece, obviously, of a hand-carved, olive wood crèche. Given to us by a friend after a trip to Israel and Palestine, the pieces came carefully wrapped in an Arabic newspaper. Although my husband and I each brought our own manger scenes into our marriage, this exquisitely beautiful one from the Holy Land quickly assumed the prominent place on the living room mantel.

Churches large and small are good and ready for Advent this year.

They began, like the Gospel story itself, with a nativity scene. John Mack Walker carved wood along the way the Gospel story went, through scenes and stories in the life of Christ, until finally there were sixty carvings.

I hold an advantage — like the young, I still knew

that in matters of love everything’s possible

and good assured.

It has begun, Lord, that sporting event in which we all

      are participants: the hundred-yard dash to Christmas.

LOUISVILLE — As the Christmas season approaches, Peter Mann hopes his fellow Presbyterians will think about the land of Jesus’ birth when they consider gift ideas.  Mann is president of Import Peace [www.importpeace.org], a non-profit organization that sells high quality, organic olive oil produced in Palestine. “A lot of church members buy it to give away as gifts,” says the Presbyterian elder from Lake Shore, Minn. “It is an alternative gift that is fair-trade certified.”

Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: Liturgies and Prayers for Public Worship, by Brian Wren. WJKP, 2008. Pb., 230 pp. $29.95.
Wren offers a great gift for worship planners and leaders in this collection of litanies and prayers, sung refrains, and orders for special services. Elements of worship are tied to the texts of the Revised Common Lectionary. Includes a CD-ROM of the book’s contents.  
 

They began, like the Gospel story itself, with a nativity scene. John Mack Walker carved wood along the way the Gospel story went, through scenes and stories in the life of Christ, until finally there were sixty carvings

     Twenty-four of his beautiful woodcarvings are now the centerpiece of displays at the Presbyterian Heritage Center at Montreat, N.C.