Autumn is ending and winter blusters in with the solstice at 12:11 p.m. Saturday,  Dec. 21, the shortest day of the year.

Throughout recorded time, the solstice has been observed with the lighting of candles and yule logs, and with celebrations as the days will thereafter become longer -- the rebirth of light.

The National Geographic notes that the word solstice comes from the Latin words for "sun" and "to stand still." In the Northern Hemisphere, as summer advances to winter, the points on the horizon where the sun rises and sets advance southward each day. But a few days before and after the winter solstice, the change is so slight that the sun's path seems to stay the same, or stand still. The sun is directly overhead at "high noon" on winter solstice at the latitude called the Tropic of Capricorn. The days around the solstice have the fewest hours of sunlight during the whole year.

Although we face the darkest days on the calendar, we are in the season of light. As you gather around a fire this week, be it a blazing hearth or a flickering candle, know that in the darkness shines an everlasting light and that the hopes and fears of all the years continue to meet in that good night.

For we are never alone in the dark; and in this Christmas season of magic and wonder, God continues to light the way and guide us to that perfect light.

~Frank Sayles Jr.