I don’t “do” New Year’s. It’s a lame un-holiday, notable only for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. We usually watch an old movie, eat snacks, and go to bed. It is, however, a useful time for looking back on the Year That Was, seeing who died, and remembering all the awful things that [...]
I’m finally home, and taking a couple days just to clean the house and soak up some time with family and presents, but Open Culture has a great 15 minute video full of ideas for kids on Christmas vacation. Jim Henson and friends teach you how to make puppets out of that fabled thing: “Ordinary [...]
Until December 31st, Logos is giving away the Documents of Vatican II and Verbum Domini. Use the coupon code MERRYCHRISTMAS2012. This is the perfect way to use these documents, and it’s a great deal. Swarm! Swarm! Read all about it.
From my family to yours, may you all have a very blessed Christmas. Gaudete, Gaudete! Christus et natus Ex maria virgine, Gaudete! Rejoice, Rejoice! Christ is born Of the virgin Mary, Rejoice! Tempus ad est gratiae, Hoc quod optabamus; Carmina laetitiae, Devote redamus. Now is the time of grace That we have desired; Sing songs [...]
All 24 days at once. You can find the daily picture in my Twitter photo section. Here’s the last day: Unresolved: why we got an extra, naked Santa (taking a shower, with a back brush no less). Mysterious.
I intended just to share one of Adelaide Procter’s Christmas poems, but “The Church in 1849″ seemed too relevant to skip. We all think we’re sailing through unique trials that will shake the church, but every generation faces such trials. We will have our difficulties, particularly since a majority of our coreligionists voted for a [...]
Adelaide Procter is almost forgotten today, but she was Queen Victoria’s favorite poet, and in her time (1825-1864) she was second only to Tennyson in sales and popularity. She was admired and published by Dickens, and if today she is remembered at all, it is either for their work together, or for Arthur Sullivan‘s setting [...]
From France to England, and a beloved Christmas song that takes on added poignancy this year. One of the things ultimately killed off in the English Reformation were the regional “mystery plays”: local pageant cycles in which the common folk performed dramatized Biblical stories. (The York cycle is the most famous.) Many of the surviving [...]
Okay, so I said I was signing off for the rest of the pre-Christmas season, but I think I’ll post some more uncommon Christmas songs and poems for the next few days, such as this dandy little French ditty. “Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabella” (also spelled Isabelle in some copies) dates to 16th century France, and [...]
I’m getting ready to sign off for Christmas in order to focus less on blogging and squabbling and news, and more on Jesus. I’d like to leave you with a little bit of music and beauty as I go. Latin is just a neat language. I don’t mean neat as in “cool,” like the kids [...]
Blogger with Johannes Gutenberg
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