WONDERFUL observations from The Clerk of Oxford: Since the late 20th century it's become common to invert the traditional relationship between fasting and feasting in the Christmas season. The ancient custom was to fast in Advent in preparation for the feast, and then to celebrate for at least twelve days after Christmas (and to some degree, all through January). Now we do it the other way around; for many people the feast is followed by a penitential fast, in the form of 'Dry January' or New Year's resolutions about eating less and going to the gym. As a manifestation of the desire for a fresh start, this 'New Year, new you' impulse is natural enough, but it does strike me as strange that it's so often framed in negative terms. There's an odd sense, encouraged mostly perhaps by journalists and advertisers, that the indulgence of Christmas is a 'sin' which has to be atoned for - as if eating and drinking with friends and family, to celebrate the turn of the year from darkness to light, is a moral lapse for which one must subsequently make amends by privation and self-punishment. We are much less kind to ourselves in these weeks after Christmas than the strictest confessor would have been in the Middle Ages. Feasting at Christmas is not something to atone for, but a proper observance due to the season; and that feasting is also the sustenance we need to…

 THOSE WHO sneer at Christmas and say it's just a pagan feast will never be able to explain its beauty. Those who point to the undeniable commercialization and sleaze of Christmas can't explain the gladness. Those who attack the expense and the excess of Christmas miss the sublimity. Those who say it's just a fairy tale don't hear the silence. Those who can't rejoice will never know the infinitude of Christmas.  

[Reposted and edited.]

CHRISTMAS is mostly a non-controversial phenomenon in what is otherwise a highly controversial world. Some complain about its commercialization and excesses or denounce its roots in pagan festivities, but it is still loved and enjoyed by billions. It is a unifying force. And what’s not to like? The tree, the decorated greens, the lights, the food, the presents, the music, the togetherness of friends and family, days off from work, the slackened pace for an entire week, the brief silencing of all commercial activity and, behind it all, the mystical backdrop of an infant birth unlike any other. All this is perfectly attuned to human sensibilities and joy. Christmas is by no means just for the religious.

But the strength and longevity of these traditions should not deceive us. Christian civilization is a shell of its former self, a termite-ridden house. A moderately heavy blow and it will tumble — and take the rest of the world with it.

The vast majority of the people who enjoy Christmas find much that is Christian deeply repugnant. The principles and doctrines are too ingrained and in conformity with reality to be cast off entirely. But the things rejected are hardly insignificant. The most serious things do not even pertain to morals. They pertain to Faith and the first of the Ten Commandments.

Christmas comes from the words “Christ’s Mass” and refers to a definite ritual, the highest form of prayer, instituted by God Himself. The Mass — what we Catholics call the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — is not just a prayer. It’s a form of propitiation, offering to God something of great value to repair the damage done by sin. In the ancient pagan and Hebrew worlds, live animals were offered — and sometimes humans. Our Lord instructed His disciples to end these practices and replace them with the most perfect of sacrifices, an infinite and unblemished sacrifice: Himself.  The idea that He was just a great ethical teacher or a sort of guru cannot be true. He claimed to convert material substances into His flesh and demanded that He Himself be worshipped, something no great prophet or spiritual master had ever done — or would ever in good reason do. He was a deceiver or a lunatic, and thus quite evil, or He was what He said He was. (more…)

KNOWN to the world as "Pope Emeritus" Benedict XVI since his retirement in 2013, Fr. Joseph Ratzinger is nearing the end of his life, according to news reports. At 95 years old, Benedict is extremely frail and is now confined to his bed on Vatican grounds. Though still hailed by some as a conservative Catholic and a force for "tradition," Benedict defected from the Catholic Church long ago and his death will bring to a close merely one chapter in a story of harrowing, unprecedented apostasy. Based on his public record, Ratzinger sadly cannot even be considered a Catholic, let alone a retired pope. Those who hold to the familiar, nostalgic image have not fully examined the record. Like the other Vatican II false popes he smiled and waved from countless photographs and traveled the world, creating a personality cult similar to those of Soviet Communism where enormous pictures of Uncle Joe Stalin assured the powerless they were loved. He was the perfect man for would-be Catholics hungry for a dash of intellectualism in an age of sentiment and longing for some of the old grandeur that had been replaced with ugly, Bolshevik worship and churches. Meanwhile Benedict openly and repeatedly denied dogmas of the Church, including the Resurrection, the indissolubility of marriage and Infant Baptism. He was a master of doublespeak. He never reversed the gutting of the liturgy by his predecessors. He promoted a Marxist social gospel while…

BRIAN Shilhavey at Created4Health.org addresses the ridiculous claims that computers are going to rule the world and human beings are going to become machines: Take a skeptical view of all the claims currently being made for this “new” technology, which actually is not all that new, and see if there is any evidence to all these claims of super quantum computers, AI intelligence exceeding the intelligence of man, human biology being intertwined with technology to “create” transhumans, etc. Where is the evidence for all this? I think you will find that the evidence is lacking, and that the more likely truth is that this is all a big hoax designed to control people and make them fear the technology. In preparation for writing this article, I did a few basic searches, including “what is the current highest functioning computer?” Read more here.  

From Ballade to Our Lady

— by François Villon (1431-1463), in the voice of the poet’s mother

Lady of Heaven and earth, and therewithal
Crowned Empress of the nether clefts of Hell,
I, thy poor Christian, on thy name do call,
Commending me to thee, with thee to dwell,
Albeit in nought I be commendable.
But all mine undeserving may not mar
Such mercies as thy sovereign mercies are;
Without the which (as true words testify)
No soul can reach thy Heaven so fair and far.
Even in this faith I choose to live and die.

Unto thy Son say thou that I am His,
And to me graceless make Him gracious.
Said Mary of Egypt lacked not of that bliss,
Nor yet the sorrowful clerk Theophilus,
Whose bitter sins were set aside even thus
Though to the Fiend his bounden service was.
Oh help me, lest in vain for me should pass
(Sweet Virgin that shalt have no loss thereby!)
The blessed Host and sacring of the Mass
Even in this faith I choose to live and die. (more…)

I WAS not able to get to the computer yesterday on Christmas Day. In my heart though I extended sincere wishes to readers of this site. May this season of gladness fill you with confidence and hope. Happiness is not incompatible with suffering. I know other readers have experienced tragedy and hardship this Christmas, as we have with the devastating loss of a young child in our family. True happiness consists in knowing the purpose of existence. The answer to all tragedy is to love God more and more. That's why we turn our gaze so lovingly to Bethlehem. My thoughts and prayers go out to you this Christmastide, and always.  

THE CHILD OF THE SNOWS ---- G.K. Chesterton THERE is heard a hymn when the panes are dim, And never before or again, When the nights are strong with a darkness long, And the dark is alive with rain. Never we know but in sleet and in snow, The place where the great fires are, That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth And the heart of the earth a star. And at night we win to the ancient inn Where the child in the frost is furled, We follow the feet where all souls meet At the inn at the end of the world. The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red, For the flame of the sun is flown, The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold, And a Child comes forth alone.  

“DID Our Lord write any part of the New Testament or command His Apostles to do so?  Our Lord Himself never wrote a line, nor is there any record that He ordered his Apostles to write; He did command them to teach and to preach. Also He to Whom all power was given in Heaven and on earth (Matt. 28-18) promised to give them the Holy Spirit (John 14-26) and to be with them Himself till the end of the world (Mat. 28-20).

“COMMENT: If reading the Bible were a necessary means of salvation, Our Lord would have made that statement and also provided the necessary means for his followers.

“How many of the Apostles or others actually wrote what is now in the New Testament?  A Few of the Apostles wrote part of Our Lord’s teachings, as they themselves expressly stated; i.e., Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude, Matthew, also Sts. Mark and Luke. None of the others wrote anything, so far as is recorded.

“COMMENT: If the Bible privately interpreted was to be a Divine rule of Faith, the apostles would have been derelict in their duty when instead, some of them adopted preaching only.

“Was it a teaching or a Bible-reading Church that Christ founded?   The Protestant Bible expressly states that Christ founded a teaching Church, which existed before any of the New Testament books were written. (more…)

FULL video here. (H/t Guide to Kulchur on Telegram)  

THE shepherds sing; and shall I silent be? My God, no hymn for thee? My soul ’s a shepherd too; a flock it feeds Of thoughts, and words, and deeds. The pasture is thy word: the streams, thy grace Enriching all the place. Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers Out-sing the day-light houres. Then we will chide the sunne for letting night Take up his place and right: We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should Himself the candle hold. I will go searching, till I finde a sunne Shall stay, till we have done; A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly, As frost-nipt sunnes look sadly. Then we will sing, shine all our own day, And one another pay: His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine, Till ev’n his beams sing, and my musick shine. --- from "Christmas," The Temple (1633), by George Herbert  

[Reposted]

ALAN writes:

A series of memories dating back many decades of Christmastime in St. Louis include:

The cold, pervasive, mysterious darkness that lay just beyond our living room windows on Christmas Eve nights in the 1950s and that stood in such contrast to the light, the warmth, the laughter, the conversation and the Christmas cheer that filled that room, and to the soothing voices of Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Gene Autry on the 78-rpm Christmas records I played at age five while seated on the floor;

My grandfather reacting gratefully and gracefully when he received a modest gift from one of his children; having never expected much from life and being content with the basic necessities, he appreciated even a few simple, utilitarian gifts;

The two, tall, glass-enclosed candles that stood alit on our mantel every Christmas Eve;

The big evergreen Christmas tree in Aunt Lydia’s apartment in 1955 that stood as high as the ceiling;

Christmas visits at the home of cousin Carmella and her family of six children, evenings ending invariably with Christmas cookies and milk and coffee at their kitchen table;

Being taken by my father to see the huge Christmas trees in the lobby of the Missouri Athletic Club and the German House in St. Louis in the 1950s; (more…)

 EV'RY star in heaven is singing, All through the night, Hear the glorious music ringing, All through the night. Songs of sweet ethereal lightness, Wrought in realms of peace and whiteness; See, the dark gives way to brightness, All through the night. Look, my love, the stars are smiling, All through the night. Lighting, soothing and beguiling, Earth's sombre plight: So, when age brings grief and sorrow, From each other we can borrow Faith in our sublime tomorrow, All through the night (A. G. Prys-Jones, Ar hyd y nos)  

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