Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laborant qui aedificaverunt eam - "Unless the Lord built the house, they worked in vain who built it" Ps. 127
Antique Angel tree-topper at Principium et Finis World Headquarters
Happy 7th Day of Christmas! What with all this talk about The Twelve Days of Christmas, one might get the impression that Christmas ends after Epiphany (traditional date January 6th, the thirteenth day after Christmas Day itself). In fact, the Church's official Christmas Season extends until the Baptism of The Lord, which is the Sunday after Epiphany, and in some places (specifically, Eastern Europe), the informal celebration continues until the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd. During his pontificate, Pope St. John Paul II celebrated Christmas until the Presentation, and Pope Benedict XVI did the same; I haven't heard whether Pope Francis has followed suit (we do so in our home, in keeping with my Lovely Bride's Polish heritage . . . or, at least, that's our excuse).
The entire Christmas Season, then, is like a series of ripples of decreasing intensity emanating from the Feast of the Nativity itself on December 25th . . . (To read the entire post, please go to Principium et Finis HERE)
Now here’s a treat. I was looking for a song that involved the star of Bethlehem as a complement to my post on Principium et Finis, “Day 6 of Christmas: God Is Light.” My first thought was of the song “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, because it’s first verse goes:
Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see
Way up in the sky little lamb
Do you see what I see
A star, a star
Dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite
As I was perusing the various renditions available on YouTube, I found a clip of none other than Bing Crosby singing this delightful Christmas song back in 1963. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas! The Season is still young!
Happy 5th Day of Christmas! For very many people, it was back to work in a serious way yesterdayday; after Christmas and the weekend, it was a Monday not so different from any other, and today . . . well, just another working Tuesday. For the Christian, however, it’s still a holiday (that is, a Holy Day), a Solemnity, Tuesday in the Octave of Christmas. Even if nobody else seems to notice, you have every reason to go about your business humming “Gloria in excelsis Deo!” Here’s a Little Something to help you along. Merry Christmas!
Today, the 4th Day of Christmas, is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the slaughter of all male children in Bethlehem under two years old by King Herod's soldiers. Herod had learned from the Magi that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem, and feared that this Messiah would depose him. As it happened, the Messiah (Jesus) escaped, and Herod went to eternal reward while Jesus was still an infant. You can read my post on the Holy Innocents (and Holy Innocence) HERE at Principium et Finis.
At one time, the story of the thesis poor murdered children inspired a large number of songs. The best known today (the only one, in fact that is still regularly performed) is The "Coventry Carol" (lyrics below), dating from the 16th century. The spare, hauntingly beautiful rendition in the clip below is performed by Valeria Mignaco and Alfonso Marin.
1. Lullay, Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay. Lullay, Thou little tiny Child. By, by, lully, lullay.
2. O sisters, too, how may we do, For to preserve this day; This poor Youngling for whom we sing, By, by, lully, lullay.
3. Herod the King, in his raging, Charged he hath this day; His men of might, in his own sight, All children young, to slay.
4. Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee, And ever mourn and say; For Thy parting, nor say nor sing, By, by, lully, lullay. Lully, lulla, thou little tiny child, By by, lully lullay.
So the soldiers did this. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (John 19:25-27)
Merry 3rd Day of Christmas! The major feast today is the Solemnity of the Holy Family, but December 27th is also the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, author not only of one of the Gospels, but also three New Testament letters and the Book of Revelation. St. John has traditionally been represented by an eagle because he “soars” to greater heights, theologically speaking, than the other Evangelists. He is also known as “The Beloved Disciple” because in his Gospel he often refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.
"The Crucifixion" by Rogier van der Weyden: St. John, Mary, and Jesus
Many people have wondered over the centuries why John makes such a point of depicting himself as The Beloved Disciple. On one level, of course, it must reflect his actual experience. He mentions it frequently and pointedly enough, however, that it seems that there must be more to it. And so there is: as Edward Sri explains [full article here]:
He represents the ideal disciple. The beloved disciple is the one who is close to Jesus, leaning on his master’s breast at the last supper (John 13:25). He is the one Apostle who remains with Jesus even in the face of Christ’s suffering and persecution – while the other Apostles fled, only the beloved disciple followed Jesus all the way to the cross (John 19:26).
I want to focus on this last point, because so many people are suffering in various ways - in my home right now we are praying for a number of families who are experiencing illness, employment problems, divorce, and other hardships. Modern mental health professionals confirm the words that Charles Dickens put in the mouth of one of his characters in A Christmas Carol more than a century and a half ago: “it is at Christmastime that want is most keenly felt”. This is a very hard time of year for our brothers and sisters who are in distress. I think the passage from John’s Gospel at the top of this post has a special import for those who find themselves standing at the Foot of The Cross in the midst of this festive season: all who join their suffering to His are his Beloved Disciples; the Mother of Jesus is your mother, and Christ your Brother suffers with you. May God's blessing be on you all this Christmas! (See also "3rd Day of Christmas: The Feast of the Holy Family" at Principium et Finis)
But he [Stephen], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And Saul was consenting to his death. (Acts 7:55-8:1)
I’ve heard it said that the wooden manger, a couple of planks laid across two trestles, foreshadows the wooden beams of the cross. If that’s a little too subtle an indication of what the incarnation is about, there’s this: on the Second Day of Christmas, when the dishes from Christmas dinner have hardly had time to dry and be put away, we celebrate the Feast of St. Stephen, the Proto-martyr, the first Christian to die for the Faith after the death of Christ himself. Could there possibly be a more jarring reminder that our Joy is not care-free, that Grace is not cheap, and that the Nativity leads directly to the Crucifixion?
St. Stephen himself was one of the original deacons, who were chosen in the following way:
And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." (Acts 6:2-4)
Despite being appointed “to serve tables”, Stephen, like his fellow Deacon Philip (see here), was in fact also called upon to preach the word of God (Acts 7), which is what leads to his death. St. Stephen’s story is a reminder that we all have different roles to play, but all of us are called upon to witness to the Gospel (μάρτυς, the Greek word from which we get the word martyr, means “witness”).
The very origin of that word shows us that the simple fact of being a witness to Christ provokes strong, sometimes violent, opposition. But note the young man Saul (the future St. Paul, Apostle and Martyr), who looks on in approval, maybe even as a leader or instigator of St. Stephen’s stoning. It’s possible that the example of the Proto-martyr helped to prepare him for his eventual conversion, and that the ferocity of his persecution of Christians between Stephen’s death and his own encounter with the risen Christ was borne of a desperate resistance to the gentle promptings that were stirring in his heart. In any case, we see that we should not be discouraged even by the strongest opposition, because the power of Christ is stronger still. We need to do our part, and trust Him to do the rest.
And so if we take the long view, commemorating the death of the First Martyr at this time is not at all strange. The Liturgical Calendar reminds us, on the Second Day of Christmas, that we need to embrace the Gospel in its entirety: the joy of the Nativity leads to the sorrow of Cavalry, which itself prepares the way for the still greater glory of Easter. I’ll give St. Peter the final word:
There is cause for rejoicing here. You may for a time have to suffer the distress of many trials; but this is so that your faith, which is more precious than the passing splendor of fire-tried gold, may by its genuineness lead to praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears. (1 Peter. 1:6-7) (See also at Principium et Finis: Christmas is just beginning: “2nd Day of Christmas: Joy to the World!”)
Merry Christmas, everybody – may the Lord bless you on the feast of his Nativity!
I have especially loved “O Holy Night” for a long time. I am particularly fond of a lush orchestral arrangement with a world-famous operatic soprano sending chills down the spine – but for today I was looking for something a little more modest, but just as beautiful, to honor the little child born in a stable and lying in a manger. This is what I found:
What’s more, the video was produced for a great cause; here are the notes from the YouTube page:
A brand new Celtic version of O Holy Night arranged and performed by Irish Classical Crossover group Affinití in aid of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Oh Holy Night has been our favourite Christmas song for many years and we decided to compose our own celtic arrangement of it this Christmas to help raise awareness and funds for the wonderful work of the SVP. www.svp.ie
We really hope you enjoy it and if you do, please share!
With heartfelt thanks to all those who gave their time to produce this track and video. Mark Cahill, Blanaid Murphy, Germaine Carlos, The Palestrina Boys Choir, Carlow Choral society, Army of Id, Lucy Nuzum, Empower Studio and St. Mary's church Haddington Road for the use of the church in the video.
The hymn "Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming", with its quiet, understated intensity, beautifully captures the spirit of Advent. The song starts out recalling Isaiah's humble image of the shoot from the stump of Jesse and the people waiting in darkness:
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung,
of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung.
It came, a flow’ret bright, amid the cold of winter,
when half-spent was the night.
Isaiah ’twas foretold it, the Rose I have in mind . . .
We then turn our attention to the Blessed Mother, and see that tender shoot come forth in the person of Jesus:
With Mary we behold it, the virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright, she bore to men a Savior,
when half-spent was the night.
Finally, we are shown how God uses that seemingly small beginning to bring about great things:
This flow’r, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
dispels with glorious splendor the darkness ev’rywhere.
True man, yet very God; from sin and death he saves us
and lightens ev’ry load.
Today, the last day of Advent, the night is more than half-spent, and we wait in joyful anticipation of God Himself, Emmanuel, coming among us in the form of a little human baby. O come, o come Emmanuel!
(See also: We all get the conversion experience we need: “The Christmas Conversion of St.Thérèse”http://goo.gl/YSc1dh)
Today, Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Advent, we anticipate the Nativity of Our Lord in a few short days. The (seemingly) unexpected appearance of the Lord of Creation in the form of a human infant in a stable reminds me of the following passage from the Old Testament, in which God comes to the prophet Elijah as he hides in a cave:
And he [the Lord] said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice; And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings: 11-13)
This, in its way, is as clear a foretaste of the Messiah as the "messianic" passages we read in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel throughout advent . . .
To read the rest of this post, please visit Principium et FinisHERE
I was powerfully reminded recently of the old saying, “Never underestimate the power of prayer”. I had just been reading about the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, who has been urging people not to pray for France or for the victims of the recent Islamic terror attacks in Paris (a theme that has been taken up, much less gracefully, by more secular sources after the terror attack in San Bernadino California). Bemused by the apparent incongruity of a renowned religious leader discouraging prayer, I tracked down this news article, which quotes the Dalai Lama as saying:
We cannot solve this problem only through prayers. I am a Buddhist and I believe in praying. But humans have created this problem, and now we are asking God to solve it. It is illogical. God would say, solve it yourself because you created it in the first place . . . We need asystematic approach to foster humanistic values, of oneness and harmony. If we start doing itnow, there is hope that this century will be different from the previous one. It is in everybody’sinterest. So let us work for peace within our families and society, and not expect help from God,Buddha or the governments.
To be fair, the concept of an omnipotent Creator God who really hears our prayers appears to be foreign to the tradition in which the Dalai Lama was formed; we should not expect him to embrace a Christian concept of prayer. At the same time, St. Peter tells us to “to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15), and therefore it is proper to point out several false assumptions implicit in the Buddhist leader’s remarks . . . To read the rest of this post, please visitPrincipium et Finis HERE
