Nativity,
Master Francke; 1424

MAY THIS CHRISTMAS DAY FILL YOU WITH CONFIDENCE AND JOY.

ALL manner of silliness and irreverence have been embraced by the Novus Ordo Church since Vatican II. They say the law of praying is the law of believing. Disbelief in the supernatural reality of the Eucharist leads to barren prayer. So why not fill that time up with something at least entertaining or even useful?

Here’s more innovations that “Pope” Francis could probably get behind.

Okay, maybe that’s too extreme. The Elvis mess is more like it.

A 1954 recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Christmas cantata, Hodie, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra can be found here.

PAUL A. writes:

TIBERGE at Galliawatch recently posted an interview with the journalist Eric Zemmour who has spoken out against the Islamization of France and globalism in his book Le suicide francais. He was recently fired from his television job for answering favorably in the interview when the idea of deportation of Muslims was brought up. Having not read the book, I do not know how Zemmour addresses the issue of the low birthrate of the French, a major factor in the rise of foreign immigration. Does he believe mere nationalism could ever induce the French to have children?

Tiberge also posted this photo of Charles de Gaulle receiving children at the Élysée Palace in 1964. She contrasted it with a recent photo of François Hollande, surrounded by African children.

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BUCK writes:

I went with friends to help them pick up a Christmas tree. We quickly exchanged views. Debbie said that she grew up in a Catholic family, that she was raised Catholic, and made her case that that alone entitles her to a legitimate Catholic identity. She said that she considers the Bible a “fairytale,” especially the Virgin birth and the “Mary fanatics” as she put it (“I have family members like that.”) She dismissed the story of Jesus and made it clear that she doesn’t really believe in God; all said in a matter-of-fact tone. I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised by her utter disdain and the open charade.

She said it’s just tradition; “It really means nothing, but I like the tradition. That’s all I care about. I participate in the Eucharist even though I know that it is meaningless, and that it, and all of it, is just ritual, but it feels good. I enjoy it.”

We went back to her condo, unloaded and situated the perfect blue spruce into it’s Christmas tree stand. She was so excited. “I love Christmas.” She’d already pulled a dozen boxes of ornaments and decorations out of storage. “What can I help you with?” “No, no. You’ve done enough. I love decorating. I really look forward to doing this.” On Christmas Eve, her condo will be packed with friends, for her annual Christmas Eve party. Read More »

STEPHEN from the Gold Coast of Australia writes:

Your observation that Australia’s Prime Minister Abbott goes by the diminutive “Tony” rather than “Anthony” is not trivial at all and ties in nicely with what I consider to be one of your most telling observations when, on December 11, 2013, under the post  “A Study in Modern Leadership“ you linked to the infamous series of “selfie” photos taken at Nelson Mandela’s funeral by a giggling group comprising U.S. President Obama, British PM David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, each of whom was there, at great public expense, representing their respective countries at the solemn funeral of a major head of state.

You spoke for many of us in that earlier posting when you expressed your dismay at “the teenagers who lead us” and again recently when you lamented in your post about Mr. Abbott that: “Western leaders are overgrown children.“

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FRED OWENS writes:

To go along with Thomas Bertonneau’s images. I offer this image of St. Catherine, done by Caravaggio and hung at the Prado in Madrid. I had the good fortune to visit the Prado in October and see this painting, which absorbed my attention for a long time. What do you call it, pre-feminist self-assertion?

From the prayer book of St. Elizabeth of Hungary; 1220

FROM the Prophecy of Isaias, Chapt. 35:

The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise; the glory of Libanus is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God. Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees. Say to the faint hearted: Take courage, and fear not. Read More »

ACCORDING to Eric Holder, the Department of Justice must now interpret Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as barring employment discrimination against the “”transgendered.” In other words, if a employer does not like the fact that, say, a salesman he hired is now a “saleswoman,” or objects that the male teacher he hired to coach football at a private school is now wearing lipstick and a wig, he can be sued and lose big bucks.

This reminds me of the political notices students used to put up on bulletin boards in college, announcing some imminent and daring transformation of society. In this case, it’s the Attorney General of the United States with an adolescent worldview, not the head of a leftist campus club.

All human differences are now officially meaningless if they in any way impede the rule of social engineers.

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ALL THE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

— By Phyllis McGinley

What shall my true love
Have from me
To pleasure his Christmas
Wealthily?
The partridge has flown
From our pear tree.
Flown with our summers
Are the swans and the geese.
Milkmaids and drummers
Would leave him little peace.
I’ve no gold ring
And no turtle dove,
So what can I bring to my true love?

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BREITBART has the story.

The Chief of the General Staff General Sir Nicholas Carter says:

If the research recommends that women are physiologically suited to close combat roles then we will be able to make as many ranks and roles open to all our soldiers, within a flexible career structure.

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JAMES P. writes:

They really, really seem to want black and Asian women to join the Navy. Front and center in just about every picture.

Message to young white men: don’t bother.

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JEWEL A. writes:

I found this version of Silent Night. From what I know about music and Arab culture, the Western scales, chord progressions and harmonies are utterly alien to Arabic culture, having only been assimilated in the last 100 years. If you listen to Byzantine Orthodox or Catholic music from the Middle East, you are listening to something that predates Western music notation and theory by more than a thousand years or so. The adaption of very European musical science into a very incompatible Arab musical science is, well, interesting to say the least.

Now here is Byzantine Orthodox singing in Arabic. Absolutely ethereal and heartfelt. Not alien to its own culture at all. It isn’t difficult to imagine at all that Mary and Joseph would have heard music like this in their own time. 

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CHURCHES in Paris desecrated in observance of Advent.

(Entry heading comes from Novus Ordo Watch.)

CH writes:

I don’t want socks. I’m tired of pizza. I’d like home-cooked meals. I’d like someone to share life with. Unfortunately, I’m tied into the Pizza Hell Matrix myself, what with there being hardly naught but cranky, ‘unfulfilled,’ “I Ain’t Cookin’ Crap for No Man” little girls running around in women’s bodies out there. The Pizza Industrial Complex has me sorely within its grip. The bastards know I’m like any other bachelor—I want to eat but I’m not the chef type and, despite all the things I could offer one of the women-children running around, I can’t find a single one who doesn’t seem to find the idea of cooking for me to be anything within her realm of things that don’t make her nauseated.

So Totino’s, DiGiorno or Tombstone it is, more often than naught.

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FROM Socksmith:

Cheesy, saucy, hot and delicious – how can you say no? Show your love for America’s favorite food with our men’s Pizza crew socks! Made of a soft, breathable cotton, nylon and lycra blend, these socks are perfect for a night of snacking and gaming with the guys.

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THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

This is an image from the Greco-Roman city of Pompeii, on the slope of Mt. Vesuvius, showing Terentius Neo and his wife, equally literate, equally civilized, equally real and actual.  The house of Terentius Neo was buried under volcanic ash in AD 79 during the famous eruption. This image, two thousand years old, is a refutation of every “progressive” or “post-modern” claim about the “oppressiveness” of Western Civilization, in which women have enjoyed historically unprecedented parity with men.  It helps in understanding Islam to grasp that, for the Koranic consciousness, this household portrait is an obscenity, down to the degree that it is an image, images being forbidden under sharia and under Islam generally.

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Dr. Bertonneau adds:

Here is another image, also from Pompeii, showing a woman, in company with two friends, painting a picture.  Like Terentius Neo and his wife, or the young woman, this lady is cultured and elegant.

In respect of the young woman: Notice her coiffure and dress, both immaculate and decorous, bespeaking a deeply held idea of form and appearance; notice also the pensive facial mien, bespeaking an active and deliberate inner life and the search for the mot juste.

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Paul T. writes:

I’ve admired those Pompeiian images for decades now. It’s sobering to consider that Graeco-Roman pagan society — gladiatorial contests and all — could still evoke so much more dignity, so much more of a sense of ‘man made in God’s image’, than modern and postmodern Western art could muster 2,000 years later. Any notion of human history as unequivocally ‘progressive’ founders on that alone.