Notes by Candlelight #4

Let's catch up, a list of winter delights

I see the love of God in you,

I see the light of Christ shine through

I am so blessed to be with you,

O holy child of God

Dear friends,

I sang this simple song to the children in the atrium on Sunday.

As the week draws on, it continues to coax at least one of my own children to sleep.

I hum it to myself, watching strangers pushing carts in the store around me.

And as my eyes catch the news — another life taken by egregious violence — it moves from lullaby to lament.

Sunset at Walden Pond.

I’m grieved and angry. Yet, a stubborn, necessary hope persists. I’m convinced we’re to be midwives of God’s healing and mercy, born ever-new each day. St. Teresa of Ávila surely had something similar in mind when she wrote Christ Has No Body. Poetically, she points to our curious partnership with God. The most ordinary of humankind can be the hands and feet of Christ.

With this invitation in front of us, what will our eyes notice? How might we participate in God’s grace to others?

In days such as these, do not neglect the joy found in art, humor, reading and writing, dancing, learning, cooking, sewing, serving— anything that compels you to see the love of God, the delight of God, in another person. This an act of hope.

My husband holding up my most recent quilt. Harder than it looks in the breeze!

Notes by Candlelight #4

1. While my family visited for the holidays we spent time sledding, baking cookies, and opening gifts day by day. We took walks. We ventured out to Orchard House. We wandered the Museum of Fine Arts, including the Winslow Homer exhibit and squeezed our way into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, even after it sold out. (What luck!)

2. I’ve found myself in three different reading groups this month, though all are somewhat related. I’m working through Mason’s sixth volume for the second time, G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, and I’m also leading a group of emerging home educators through For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.

3. After finding a second-hand craft supply store nearby, I stumbled upon yet another similar shop online. A Thrifty Notion is just the place for sewists and quilters alike. They sell a variety of fabric, notions, and patterns. Much of it is discounted. Speaking of sewing, I have it in my mind to recreate the white Dôen skirt from a bit of lace and a thrifted bedsheet with this pattern. We’ll see what happens!

4. Just in time for Christmastide, I finished a quilt for my oldest. By some grace, it suits her really well, even though I pieced the quilt top while I was pregnant with her. (No pattern, just an abundance of HSTs.) The purples and blues mixed with magical woodland patterns are right up her alley. Now that this one’s off my desk, I’m working on another one for my youngest using the Peanut Butter Quilt pattern.

5. I put away most of my Christmas decorations around Epiphany, but decided to keep up a few into Candlemas. The paper stars remain in the windows; handmade snowflakes hang in the hall. Given that these feast days are celestial in nature — centered around Light emerging — I’ll put up a few more stars. This would also be a good time to set out a candle. Find more ideas here.

Keeping Sacred Time: Winter

As we savor the rest of Epiphany/Ordinary Time, here’s a few dates to look forward to:

• January 19, Confession of St. Peter

• January 26, Conversion of St. Paul

• February 2, Presentation of the Lord (Candlemas)

• February 15, Transfiguration Sunday

• February 18, Ash Wednesday (Lent begins)

• February 24, St. Mattias, Apostle

• March 19, St. Joseph

• March 20, Spring Equinox

• March 25, Annunciation of the Lord

• March 29, Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday)

Curious for more? Download Sacred Spirals, my contemplative liturgical calendar guide, as you prepare for the Easter cycle. This guide is both a calendar and a companion through the year. There’s a little something for everyone.

JESUS MAFA. Presentation of Jesus in the temple, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48303 [retrieved January 15, 2026].

Reading

In a rare moment of solitude at the local library I picked up Maggie Smith’s book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life. It’s a bit like Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I like it!

Quoting

“In talking to other women over the years, I begin to absorb them, somehow, as if we’re all permeable. Some days I made up of a thousand mothers who have given one ironic look, one laugh at the right moment, one exasperated wave, one acknowledgment.

Mothering is a subtle art whose rhythm we collect and learn, as much from one another as by instinct. Taking shape, we shape each other, with subtle pressures and sudden knocks. The challenges shape us, approvals refine, the wear and tear of small operations transform until we’re slowly made up of one another, and yet wholly ourselves.”

— The Blue Jay’s Dance: A Birth Year by Louise Erdrich

Until next time,

Elizabeth

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Related Resources

• Paid subscribers not only support accessible spiritual direction for my directees (thank you!!) but they also have access to The Library and posts like this one: Make a prayer card with me.

• Write (or refresh your Rule of Life with this three part video series.

• If you’re working on a liturgical binder, take a peek at how I organize mine: A winter walkthrough of my liturgical binder.