this is our greatest festival

We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter in creative new ways: in art, literature, children’s games, poetry, music, dance, festivals, bells, special concerts. … This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity.

N. T. Wright

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (2008), 256, as found in "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told," by Gary E. Stevenson. General Conference April 2023

We hear in the gospel, 'No room in the inn,' and we think Motel 6 and "No Vacancies." But actually Joseph went home. These were his people. So, everyone who said no were probably blood relatives. They were cousins and uncles and there was no room for the shame and disgrace of Joseph's 'fiancée,' big as a house and ready to burst. Tenderness finds room. Church at it's best.

Father Greg Boyle

The Whole Language, The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. Simon & Schuster. 2021. As quoted in Living on the Inside of the Edge by Christian Kimball. Common Consent Press. 2023. p. 291

the ever-startling paradoxes

In the vision of a King born in a stable, attended by the animals and visited by the shepherds, I am led to the ever-startling paradoxes that are the essence of the gospel: out of weakness comes strength; out of simplicity, profundity; out of humility, dignity; out of humanity, divinity.


The Lord’s Question: Thoughts on the Life of Response by Dennis Rasmussen. Brigham Young University Press. April 1985. Chapter Six, “Knowest Thou the Condescension of God?” p.65

this Christmas...

This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.

Howard W. Hunter, "The Gifts of Christmas", Ensign, Dec. 2002, 16

not called wise by their peers

If experience is any teacher, the Magi were not called wise by their peers, for followers of distant stars have never been called wise. No doubt they were called foolish-foolish for leaving their homes and families in search of a dream, foolish for not requiring more specific proof to support their belief, foolish for giving up career and status, foolish for caring about truth at all.


Lloyd D. Newell, May Peace Be with You , p.108

The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also prophetic, speaking of our Lord’s offices of king, priest, and savior. Gold speaks of His kingship; frankincense was a spice used in the priestly duties; and myrrh was an embalming ointment signifying His death. In the millennium, He will also receive the gifts of gold and frankincense ; but no myrrh. His death was once and for all.


"Who Were the Magi? We Three Kings?" by Chuck Missler. November 2007 Personal Update NewsJournal.

See Isaiah 60:6

many more Wise Men

Tradition holds that there were three men who visited the Christ child, a belief that comes from the fact that there were three gifts given: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Presumably, each man brought one gift. Some scholars, however, believe there could have been many more Wise Men, perhaps as many as 12 according to an early Christian tradition.


“What do we know about the Wise Men?” Insights: An Ancient Window: The Newsletter of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. Vol. 18 Issue 6. December 1998. Contributed by John A. Tvedtnes