Author: Avellina Balestri

  • Love Goes On and On: Growing Up with Disney’s “Robin Hood”

    Robin Hood, the animated feature, continues to shine brightly in all of its childlike innocence, and yet still manages to capture the paradox of the Christian message – the defiance of it, the inverse reality of the last being first, and the first last. Read more

  • The Ekron Initiative: Interlude

    BY G. CONNOR SALTER When a freelance journalist receives a leather dossier of messages from the enemy, he doesn’t know he’s getting an inside look at how evangelical Christianity has changed over the last fifty years. Read more

  • Mother of Her Father

    BY ADEEL AHMED “Pray for a miracle, my father,” Fatima pleaded. “You are Allah’s final messenger. Surely, He will cure Mother if you make supplication.” Read more

  • “A Savior of the Savior”: A Josephite Reflection

    BY SEAN EARNER One title stands out from the centuries accumulated list of titles: Savior of the Savior. To say it almost seems blasphemous in its audacity. Read more

  • Through My Most Grievous Fault: A Hunchback of Notre Dame Story

    BY AVELLINA BALESTRI “You say that? You?” She stood up and looked at him full in the face. “Then you cannot bear the evil eye, as first I thought…” Read more

  • Washington Takes Command: An American Girl Story

    BY HANNAH SKIPPER “Mr. Adams argued that if the colonies didn’t unite around the cause, then they’d lose.” Read more

  • Under the Brooklyn Bridge

    “The arches would rise more than a hundred feet, like majestic cathedral windows or the portals of a triumphant gateway” Read more

  • Christmas Giggles

    By Hannah Skipper Ge nerally speaking, a Christmas Eve church service is a solemn occasion. One should not make a lot of noise or fool around while attending. This story, however, is about the time I was accidentally not on my best behavior. I don’t remember how old I was, just that I was a Read more

  • To the Queen

    BY AVELLINA BALESTRI Heavy is the head and strong the heart of she who wears the crown. Lady, lioness, our Queen. Read more

  • A Gilded Cage: A Harry Potter Story

    BY LASTCRAZYHORN “I am no one sir. I have no one. I don’t have anywhere to go, and the only thing I can do to remove myself from the equation.” Read more

  • Accents and Sophistication: A Poldark Story

    By BellChell17 Word Count: 921 Rating: G Summary: A comedic domestic sketch of Ross and Demelza Poldark (Set during season two, before episode seven.) Ross had just come home from the mine and settled in his seat to talk to Demelza while she was cooking dinner. The topic of holding the smuggled goods for Trencrom Read more

  • Salaam, Maryam

    BY ADEEL AHMED “It is the will of your Lord that you should bring forth a pure boy, who will be a light of truth to all existence.”  Read more

  • 6 Reasons Why ‘Die Hard’ Is a Christmas Movie

    BY KATE O’HARE “There are two kinds of people: Those who think ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie; and those who are wrong.” Read more

  • Limping Pilgrims

    BY SARAH BINGHAM These limping pilgrims, weary, wounded, maimed, even. Yet heading homeward, leaning on sticks and each other. Read more

  • Journey and Destination: A Theological Reflection on Pilgrimage

    BY SARAH BINGHAM Historically, the focus of pilgrimage has always been about the place to which one was travelling. Read more

  • Ever England

    BY LAWRENCE “MACK” HALL Faith does not pass with ephemeral time: Brave Hurricanes and Spits still claw and climb. Read more

  • Eternity Begun: A Meditation on St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

    BY SEAN EARNER But with Elizabeth the dogmas became a part of a positive, ecstatic discourse of worship of the threefold divine life. Read more

  • The Bog

    BY M.C. BIRO “They are not people,” Desva said, “they are but the old desires of flesh and darkness that run rampant beyond these walls.” Read more

  • Day of Wrath: Sweeney Todd and the Search for Salvation

    BY AVELLINA BALESTRI Rich and poor alike are part of the same chain of being which the disillusioned barber believes should be cut.  Read more

  • The Late Sir David Amess

    BY AVELLINA BALESTRI They say he was a gentleman and a gentle man, the Queen’s good servant and a child of the Church. Read more