"IN 1828, as first Ambassador to the new Republic of Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett (Bio) while visiting the Taxco region, discovered the ruby red-bloomed plant and was so fascinated with it that he sent clippings to his home in Charleston, South Carolina. Poinsett, a doctor and soldier by trade, was also an amateur botanist. Upon his return to Charleston, he forwarded clippings to friends. Poinsettia Pulcherrima. Showy Poinsettia. This truly splendid plant was discovered by Mr. Poinsette, in Mexico, and sent by him to Charleston in 1828, and afterwards to Mr. Buist of Philadelphia; from Mr. Buist, it was brought by Mr. James McNab to the Botanical Garden Edinburgh, where it flowered twice last year, and again in February of the present year... (From "Paxton's Magazine of Botany" Published 1837)" Read more here. [Thanks to Joseph S.]  

PUTIN’S Russia is not a bastion of Christian values. It’s Communism with a new look — and Communism never was about liberating the people. Critics of the state are imprisoned and assassinated. It’s illegal to evangelize outside a state-recognized church. Highly-concentrated wealth (always a characteristic of Communism), taunting militarism and cruel power rule. Yegor Zhukov, 21, a university student heading to prison for dissident views, stated, according to Moscow Times:

“The only traditional value that the current Russian state truly honors and strengthens is autocracy. Autocracy that tries to break the life of anyone who sincerely wishes the best for their homeland, who doesn’t hesitate to love and take responsibility.”

“As a result, the citizens of our long-suffering country had to learn that no good deed goes unpunished, that the authorities are always right simply because they’re the authorities, that happiness here may be possible — but not for them.”

“Having learned that, they began to gradually disappear.” (more…)

“[I]n order to rid ourselves of  self, we must die to ourselves daily. That is to say, we must renounce the operations of the powers of our soul, and of the senses of our body. We must see as if we saw not, understand as if we understood not, and make use of the things of this world as if we made no use of them at all. This is what St. Paul calls dying daily, — Quotidie morior. “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone,” and bringeth forth no good fruit. (Jn. 12:24-25) If we die not to ourselves, and if our holiest devotions do not incline us to this necessary and useful death, we shall bring forth no fruit worth anything, and our devotions will become useless. All our good works will be stained by self-love and our own will ; and this will cause God to hold in abomination the greatest sacrifices we can make, and the best actions we can do; so that at our death we shall find our hands empty of virtues and of merits, and we shall not have one spark of pure love, which is only communicated to souls dead to themselves, souls whose life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God (Col., 3:3).

“We must choose, therefore, among all the devotions to the Blessed Virgin, the one which draws us most towards this death to ourselves, inasmuch as it will be the best and the most sanctifying. For we must not think that all that shines is gold, that all that tastes sweet is honey, or all that is easy to do and is done by the greatest number is sanctifying. As there are secrets of nature by which natural operations are performed more easily, in a short time and at little cost, so also in like manner there are secrets in the order of grace by which supernatural operations, such as ridding ourselves of self, filling ourselves with God, and becoming perfect, are performed more easily.

“The practice which I am about to disclose is one of these secrets of grace …”

— St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary (transl., Fr. Frederick William Faber)

 
Above, Ave Maria [Composer: Franz Biebl) (more…)

  "IT IS MARY alone who has found grace before God, without the aid of any other mere creature: it is only by her that all those who have found grace before God have found it at all; and it is only by her that all those who shall come afterwards shall find it. She was full of grace when she was saluted by the Archangel Gabriel, and she was superabundantly filled with grace by the Holy Ghost when He covered her with His unspeakable Shadow; and she has so augmented, from day to day and from moment to moment, this double plenitude, that she has reached a point of grace immense and inconceivable; in such sort that the Most High has made her the sole treasurer of His treasures, and the sole dispenser of His graces, to ennoble, to exalt, and to enrich whom she wishes; to give the entry to whom she wills into the narrow way of heaven; to pass whom she wills, and in spite of all obstacles, through the strait gate of life; and to give the throne, the sceptre, and the crown of the King to whom she wills. Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable tree, who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother, who produces it." --- St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary  

GABRIEL’S MESSAGE (arranged by Jim Clements) performed by Voces8

The angel Gabriel from heaven came
His wings as drifted snow his eyes as flame
“All hail” said he “thou lowly maiden Mary,
Most highly favored lady,” Gloria!

“For known a blessed mother thou shalt be,
All generations laud and honor thee,
Thy Son shall be Emanuel, by seers foretold
Most highly favored lady,” Gloria! (more…)

DURING  last week’s reported terror attack at London Bridge, police shot the knife-wielding Muslim terrorist Usman Khan execution-style while he was disarmed and lying on the ground. There was no safety reason for killing him. This is key evidence that the whole thing was staged. A dead assailant is a standard feature of staged terror events, which are part of a strategy of tension to keep people disoriented, agitated, fearful, compliant, and primed for social unrest. (more…)

"NOT TO oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.” --- Pope Saint Felix III, 483-492 A.D.  

   COMPOSED BY JOHN WILLIAMS, the soundtrack for the movie The Patriot is terrific. I've never seen the movie so I'm not making an endorsement, but the music is wonderful -- great Thanksgiving weekend fare.

NOTRE DAME, the formerly Catholic university, is under pressure by religious fanatics. A group of activists so militantly adores the chimera of racial equality, making of non-whites idols instead of human beings, that it wants half of the books in the curriculum to be chosen by purely racial criteria, excluding white authorship. End Hate at ND (clever name!) states: “Cultural competence is key in building empathy for marginalized folks. No course or program of study should have a view limited to white, western, and/or male voices. We demand that people who are of Color, Indigenous, Black, queer or not male are represented in the authorship of at least half course and major required readings.” Can you imagine what it's like in your budding youth, your mind aflame for knowledge, to come across the strident and deadeningly dull imperatives of people who judge the merit of a thinker primarily by the race (or sexual anomalies) he represents? I think it would be much, much better to work in a convenience store. James Murphy has more about these haters-of-hatred at New American. It's not surprising to see this fanaticism at Notre Dame. When Catholic worship became man-centered, a fixation on non-Western man was bound to follow. For human beings naturally crave a God that possesses otherness. Lawrence Auster makes this fascinating point in his book, Our Borders, Ourselves: American in the Age of Multiculturalism.  

  "THEME AND VARIATIONS on 'Red River Valley,'" a chamber piece by David Amram, is performed here by the New York Chamber Orchestra. I hope this beautiful music inspires you on this Thanksgiving Day. I hope it inspires you to love America --- and to keep gratitude in your heart for all this country has been given.  

KIDIST PALOUS ASRAT writes:

You might be hearing about the Calgary Flames head coach’s firing due to anecdotal accusations of “racism.”

Apparently, a “Nigerian Ukrainian” hockey player with a Nigerian Muslim name, Akim Aliu, was yelled at by the coach for listening to hip-hop music in the locker rooms — ten years ago!

Hockey is a fast and furious game. Even the players cannot contain their aggression, and fights on the ice have to be broken up by referees regularly. Coaches have to be equally fierce to reign in their players, on and off ice.

You can see the quote here as recalled by Aliu. Admittedly it was crude, but isn’t that common in locker rooms? The coach, Bill Peters, yelled at the player, but he never called him, Aliu, the “N” word, but rather referred to the music Aliu was listening to with that term (which is used by blacks also sometimes).  It must be disconcerting to these majority white players and coaches to hear this unexpected black culture in their midst. (more…)

"EVERYONE with a message nowadays is, like my venerable European friend, eager to take it to the masses. His first, last and only thought is of mass acceptance and mass approval. His great care is to put his doctrine in such shape as will capture the masses' attention and interest. This attitude towards the masses is so exclusive, so devout, that one is reminded of the troglodytic monster described by Plato, and the assiduous crowd at the entrance to its cave, trying obsequiously to placate it and win its favor, trying to interpret its inarticulate noises, trying to find out what it wants, and eagerly offering it all sorts of things that they think might strike its fancy. "The main trouble with all this is its reaction upon the mission itself. It necessitates an opportunist sophistication of one's doctrine, which profoundly alters its character and reduces it to a mere placebo. If, say, you are a preacher, you wish to attract as large a congregation as you can, which means an appeal to the masses; and this, in turn, means adapting the terms of your message to the order of intellect and character that the masses exhibit. If you are an educator, say with a college on your hands, you wish to get as many students as possible, and you whittle down your requirements accordingly. If a writer, you aim at getting many readers; if a publisher, many purchasers; if a…

  PIE LOVERS unite!! Some wish to fetishize pie. Others wish to demonize it. Some say it can only be made with the most precious of ingredients. Others make the claim that store-bought pies, which may be the best we can do at times, are just as good as homemade. Some say it is too fattening. Others say it's okay to have any time. Reject extremes. Love pie as the traditional and exceptional delicacy it is, unhealthy to eat every day or often, but so woven into our cultural history that to live entirely without pie is to live as a permanent exile, adrift and cut off from your own civilization with an existential hunger that cannot be satisfied. Pie is soul food, but don't put it on a pedestal. Please, don't ever be afraid to make it yourself! Lock yourself in a room with butter, shortening (or lard) and flour if you must. But make it!! Baking expert Abby Dodge explains in this excellent video how to use the French technique called fraisage to make a flaky pie crust. It's important to move quickly when doing this so the butter doesn't get too soft or start to melt from the heat of your hands. (Note: Wrap dough in wax paper rather than plastic wrap as she suggests.)

  "EVERY AGE is not as good as every other, but all ages are Christian ages, and there is one which for us, and in practice, surpasses them all: our own. In view of it, are our inborn resources, our graces of to-day and to-morrow, and consequently the efforts that we must make in order to correspond with them. "Let us not be like those people who always seem to be pallbearers at the funeral of the past. Let us utilize, by living, the qualities of the dead. Truth is ever new. Like the grass of morning moist with glistening dew, all the old virtues are waiting to spring up afresh. God does not grow old. We must help our God to renew, not the buried past and the chronicles of a vanished world, but the eternal face of the earth." ---- A.D. Sertillanges, O.P., The Intellectual Life  

SO MUCH has changed — but not pumpkin pie. The basic recipe, which is essentially pudding in a crust, was used by colonists in Early America. It is very easy to make. There are literally thousands of recipes online, most of them following the basic formula. (I prefer to bake the crust partially before filling and baking again.) The Library of Congress has a history by Ellen Terrell.

And here’s an ode to pumpkin pie by the fiery abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, who writes,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie? (more…)