FROM The Christmas Holly (Sheldon & Co, 1897) by Marion Harland, in which a wife speaks to her husband as the children overhear: “I have mince-pies and turkey for tomorrow!” was the curt reply. “I knew you would not be satisfied unless you had as good a dinner as your neighbors. But as for dough-nuts—they are oily, rank, indigestible abominations, fit only for an ostrich’s stomach, and one doesn’t get the smell of the hot fat out of the house in two weeks after they have been cooked. I never mean to make another while I live.” Two pairs of sorrowful eyes stole a glance of mutual pity at one another, when this announcement was made; two pairs of cherry lips took a piteous curl, for a second; two curly heads bent lower over the plates set before their owners. Not that there was any dearth of sweet things in the Dryden larder, or that Ally and Nettie, the proprietors of the eyes, lips, and heads aforesaid, were gormandizers. But this matter of frying doughnuts was great fun to them, as it is to most other small people who have ever been permitted to stand by and see the rings, leaves, birds, circles, triangles, and the endless variety of nondescript figures leave the kneading-board pale, flat surfaces of soft dough, and, upon being thrown into the bubbling fat, sinking, like leaden shapes, with a tremendous splutter and “fizz,” arise slowly and majestically…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, Kidist Paulos Asrat at Reclaiming Beauty in a post titled "The Three Wise Men in the Modern World" wrote about the anti-American flavor of E. Michael Jones's references to the Magi who visited Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. Miss Asrat's points are consistent with the recent essay of Andy Sloan at Fitzpatrick Informer which raises deep and legitimate concerns about the popular author's agenda. Miss Asrat wrote on January 12, 2020: E. Michael Jones is referring to the Three Wise Men as "The Three Wise Persians." This is both biblically and historically incorrect. It appears that Jones' insistence on the Persian origin of ALL the magi may be to give credence to the current, Islamic, anti-American, regime in Iran and to connect the birth of Christ with a Persian legacy, and to legitimize the "Death to America" chants of Iranians in Tehran. The Persians after all acknowledged the birth of the Messiah, and even brought him gifts. The world is becoming anti-American, anti-West, and anti-Christian. Jones should know this. No ancient gift would expiate the ruthless aggression of this "Death to America" or its subtext, "Death to Christian America," proclamation. And why doesn't Jones understand, or acknowledge this? Perhaps he does wish "death to America," in an innocent desire to abate what he believes is now a sinful, Godless, country, and to start afresh with a country which he believes could be re-positioned closer to God. Here are some…

AN unidentified restaurant owner in Pennsylvania, where all restaurants have been "ordered" closed to indoor business until at least January 4th (Jan. 15th in Philadelphia), tells others in the business at a meeting of Entrepreneurs Against Tyranny that things are only going to get worse unless there is organized resistance. In fact, these "orders" are not orders at all. Governors and health departments do not have the authority to make laws. And there is no law in Pennsylvania or any other state prohibiting businesses from remaining open during the outbreak of a flu.  

  THIS version of the French Christmas carol "Il Est Né, Le Divin Enfant" ("He Is Born, the Divine Child") is sung by opera tenor Roberto Alagna. This charming carol was first published in the 19th century but is older in origin. A translation can be found here.  

“HE WAS was taken to Rome in the year 95, during the reign of the cruel Emperor Domitian, and cast into a kettle of boiling oil; by divine assistance he was preserved in a wonderful manner, but was banished by the emperor to the island of Patmos, now called Palmosa. Here he received those marvellous revelations, called the Apocalypse, which are included in the holy Scriptures, and foretell the fate of the Church of God. After the death of Domitian, St. John returned to Ephesus, where at the prayer of the faithful, and to refute the heresy which denied the divinity of Christ, he wrote his gospel, in which he soars like an eagle to the subject of Christ’s divinity, and proves it indisputably against the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus. (more…)

By St. Alphonsus Liguori

Mary sings, the ravished heavens
Hush the music of their spheres;
Soft her voice, her beauty fairer
Than the glancing stars appears;
While to Jesus, slumbering nigh,
Thus she sings her lullaby:

“Sleep, my Babe, my God, my Treasure,
Gently sleep; but ah! the sight
With its beauty so transports me,
I am dying with delight;
Thou canst not Thy mother see,
Yet Thou breathest flames to me. (more…)

SB writes:

It was a tiny, old, one-story building with foggy windows that looked closed. The place was near the corner of a nondescript commercial side street on the outskirts of town. I found it while walking with my oldest daughter as we waited on the day before Christmas for her sister to stand outside with a mask in a long line to get (another) ear piercing (viruses only live inside small places with too many people).

The “open” flag hung outside. As I entered the warm shop on a grey winter day, my face shield and glasses also fogged up, and I could not see. I removed them apologetically to wipe them off, finding a gentle older shopkeeper with impeccable English surrounded by foods and crafts from her native Poland. She wore no mask. I explained that it was hard to see, and she, without missing a beat, said it’s been hard for all of us to see. (more…)

I WISH you peace and joy this Christmas day. May God's love for our frail human nature give you courage and hope.  

"ONE Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six. "All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find. In goes my hand into that wool-white bell-tongued ball of holidays resting at the rim of the carol-singing sea, and out come Mrs. Prothero and the firemen. "It was on the afternoon of the Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs. Prothero's garden, waiting for cats, with her son Jim. It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas. December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers." --- Dylan Thomas, "A Child's Christmas in Wales"  

  "DURING this Octave before Christmas, monks in medieval monasteries would receive extra treats or gifts each day. At the Saint Benedict Abbey of Fleury (now Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire), the antiphons were recited each day by monks of different rank beginning with the Abbott. "When the chanting was finished, one monk would offer a gift to each of his fellow monks. Often the gift would be associated with the antiphon of the day. "The monk assigned to December 19 might have been the gardener so that he could give a gift from the garden in honor of Our Lord the 'Root of Jesse' (O Radix Jesse). The Abbott would always give the gifts on the last day of the O Antiphons (December 23), and his gifts were often very generous. "Medieval expense records show that the foodstuff the Abbott brought to the table on this day of the Expectation were no meager gifts." --- "The Golden Nights," Rachel L. Lozowski