JEWEL writes:
I wonder as I ponder the wretched state of music in the Church. Here is quite possibly one of the most obnoxious Advent songs ever. We sang it last Sunday in our Novus Ordo church. It was the processional hymn.
Listen and weep.
IN response to the entry on Chinese women giving birth on American soil, a reader sent the following comment, which was previously published at View from the Right.
Anti-Global Expatriate writes:
Despite all the various historical antipathies between various Asian nations, all Asians feel more kinship with one another than with Westerners or other outsiders.
Yes, the Koreans may hate the Japanese, and the Chinese may hate the Japanese (this perception is actually deliberately exaggerated by the Korean, Chinese, and Japanese governments and business conglomerates in order to confuse the West in trade negotiations and so forth), and the Chinese may think they’re superior to all, but Asians will work together to take advantage of/frustrate the designs of Westerners and other outsiders. (more…)
VENI, REDEMPTOR GENTIUM is an Advent hymn written by St. Ambrose in the fourth century. Below is the 19th-century translation by James Neale, and it shows what great poetry this chant is with its keen perception of the high drama of the Incarnation.
O equal to the Father, Thou!
Gird on Thy fleshly mantle now;
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.
Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness breathe a newer light,
Where endless faith shall shine serene,
And twilight never intervene.
In the video above, a simple version of it is rendered beautifully by Giovanni Vianini.
THIS is a view from within the Exhibition Hall of the main conservatory at Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Those are green and red apples floating in water.
HERE is a fascinating discussion from VFR of June, 2012 in which an Indian commenter explains how he identifies with the British Raj. He is what Indians call a “Macaulayputra,” or Macaulay’s Child.
On a related matter, a reader says we should welcome those Chinese who wish to give birth on American soil so their children can live here as citizens, and I respond.
A CATHOLIC priest explains one explicit heresy contained in Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium and states that this public defection from the faith means the papacy is vacant. The Rev. Paul Leonard Kramer wrote last week on his Facebook page:
I have been saying for years that when a “pope” will officially teach explicit and clear heresy flatly contradicting the infallibly defined dogma of the Catholic faith, then you will know that he is the false pope prophecied in many Church approved prophecies and Marian apparitions. St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Alohonsus Liguori, St. Antoninus and Pope Innocent III all teach that when the pope demonstrates himself to be a manifest heretic, i.e. a plainly manifested public heretic, he ceases to be pope (or, if already was a public heretic he was invalidly elected) because he is not a Catholic — not a member of the Catholic Church. (more…)
THOUSANDS of Chinese women come to America every year as tourists in order to give birth on U.S. soil. According to Time:
The U.S. is one of the few nations where simply being born on its soil confers citizenship on a newborn. That policy has spawned a birth-tourism industry, in which pregnant foreigners flock to American hospitals to secure U.S. passports for their babies. Although the foreign couple can’t acquire U.S. nationality themselves, once their American-born offspring turn 21 they can theoretically sponsor their parents for future U.S. citizenship. Another perk: these American-born kids can take advantage of the U.S. education system, even paying lower in-state fees for public universities, depending on where they were delivered. (California is a popular birth-tourism destination because of its well-known university system.)
MY husband and I recently stayed at a relative’s timeshare in New England. The mountain villa was in a town that has banned most franchises and chain stores, except for the supermarket, a couple of gas stations and a convenience store that is part of a regional chain. The town has a busy tourist economy, and it would presumably be highly attractive to chain stores. A woman who was visiting the local farmer’s market asked a vendor, “Is there a Dunkin’ Donuts around here?” The man said no, there was no Dunkin’ Donuts. “Oh,” she said, somewhat disappointed. “I do like their coffee.” Apparently, in the mind of this Philistine, it would be better for her to have her favorite coffee than for local entrepreneurs to run small businesses. She would rather see the ugly pink and orange Dunkin’ Donuts sign and smell the familiar aroma of cheap donuts with confetti than decipher the unfamiliar sign of a local coffee shop, of which there were several to choose from that had very good coffee.