The Massacre of the Innocents stands right in the middle of our Christmas festivities and forces us to examine the status of our hearts and minds. It is not a cheerful remembering. Instead, it invites us to let the Christ child heal us from our hatred and violence. It invites us to lay our insecurities and desire for power at His cradle. Amen.

I have loved old books and old movies for as long as I can remember. I like the feeling of seeing something that has stood the test of time. In film, I love the noir-feel of black and white dramas as they hover just over the edge of being cheesy, but always find their way back to the pinnacle of classiness. Give me an old piece of Russian or British literature and I will be completely absorbed. Give me Humphrey, or Cary, or Katharine, or Hitchcock any day of the week. Those stories stick with me. Those characters linger.