Christmas has one more glorious day: the Twelfth Day. Jesus is born, angels have appeared, shepherds come to Bethlehem, and now the wise make it to worship the new King. The creche is complete at last as is our feast. We end in twelve . . . and that is fitting. We will, after all, end history with Twelve Patriarchs and Twelve Apostles and end this holy season after twelve full days of celebration. Yet a glorious, super-abundant God finishes one... Read more

In Symposium, the best part of the story is lost, because people went to sleep before the party was ended. Socrates kept teaching, but the other folk had not paced themselves and so they missed the best part of the discussion and the fun. Let’s not do that. We are nearly at the End of Christmas. Christmas is coming to an end . . . though that just means Epiphany is around the corner. The party continues, but just about a... Read more

A little bit of hunger makes me enjoy eating. Being thirsty makes drinking water wonderful. Sitting in a good conversation with friends and family where we see what we are missing, or even getting wrong, is first uncomfortable and then a great pleasure. We learn, we change, but only when we see our problem! A good party will often include spiritual hunger, a lack, that leads to satisfaction! A good holiday season will include thinking, physical pleasures, and spiritual growth. It... Read more

Scrooge understood Christmas and could not wait to go to work and celebrate with Cratchitt. Let’s imitate him this last quarter of Christmas. For many Americans, this is the first day of a “regular work week”  in some time. Secular America works in the week before Christmas, the week twixt Christmas and New Year’s, but often slowly. Hours are “adjusted.” Office routine gets filled with parties. No more of that. Like every farmer who lived for almost all of history (meaning... Read more

Eighth Day of Christmas is, with Twelfth Night, some of the best of Christmas. To some extent this is because only Christians, traditional Christians at that, are left at the feast. Those who merely wanted gifts, drinks, and meals are gone. Gluttony cloys and immoderation fails Those who think the Holiday is about “family” or time off are gone. Nobody can center their lives on a vacation or family. They are not sufficient for the size and grandeur of this holy... Read more

We are in the Seventh Day of Christmas and approaching the very best part of the Holiday. Soon our secular friends will have “moved on” and left for us the jollification. Advent was arduous, but Christmas is glorious. This is the most peaceful part of the Holidays, because the consumers and changelings have gone on to the next chance to buy and sell their souls. Seven is, of course, a number that represents completion. God took six days to make... Read more

Saint Anne birthed Mary and Mary was the mother of God. This is fecundity! This is the work of creation that forms the basis for the sixth day of Christmas. God made the world in six days and then God rested, but before entering the Sabbath Rest, God made man in His Image. This creation was a creature that could also create. JRR Tolkien called our human creations “sub-creations” to point out that our making is dependent on God’s making.... Read more

People have given numbers symbolic meaning over time and the Twelve Days of Christmas are as good a time as any to reflect on those meanings. Here on the fifth day, we need only look at our hands to see the meaning of five. Five is the number of a working man: we have five fingers on our hands and traditionally five senses. Bad men want more than human power, beware the man who thinks he is a six (!), or behaves... Read more

We are still early in Christmas and the great gifts of the third day (hope, faith, and charity) are followed by more. There is always more at Christmas, because God became man and the super-abundance spills out everywhere for always. If my true love gave me four things this Fourth Day of Christmas, I would hope that she would give me the four practical virtues: courage, wisdom, moderation, and justice. Most elusive, hardest to find, justice is needed now as justice... Read more

Let’s party virtuously.  If that seems odd, it is because we have made one mistake or another. Some have made otherwise harmless behaviors “naughty.” Go read Shakespeare and relax. Others glory in their shame and cannot have fun without decadence. Go read Shakespeare. Generally, go read Shakespeare, but if you insist on staying, then recollect that there are three great Christian virtues and the third day of Christmas is a wonderful time to remember them: hope, faith, love. The best party... Read more