Fr. Philip Powell has gotten around to recording his homiles live so we can expect is homily podcast to be much more timely. RSS Feed.
As always you can read the text of his homilies here.
The Virginia Pilot has a nice story of the woodworker creating a replica crucifix that is to be used as a gift.
This picture is via Father Stephanos, O.S.B.
This is obviously a collector set of Franciscan nuns since they have not yet been take out of their packaging decreasing their retail value. You can tell though that these are faithful nuns because progressive ones would obviously be wrappedn in tinfoil.
Well, I’ll be.
For the longest time, I thought "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was a song from the Elizabethan era that contained seemingly secular symbols used by English Catholics to teach their children the Faith during a time of great persecution.
Boy, was I wrong. According to Sister Carol Gaeke, O.P., I wasn’t nearly perceptive enough. Thankfully, she sets the record straight in a December 15 editorial in Cincinnati’s Catholic Telegraph.
For instance, I had always thought that the "partridge in a pear tree" was Christ. Had I looked deeper, I would have discovered a "gold mine" beneath the pear tree "signifying the precious minerals of our planet."
In my benighted understanding of things, the "eight maids a’milking" represented the beatitudes. It’s not as simple as that. As it turns out, the cows being milked are "symbols of our earth that needs to be tended and nurtured, not used up and destroyed by greed."
What’s more, had I looked "beyond the surface gaety" of these symbols I would have discovered they form a puzzle, along the border of which are "global warfare, nuclear weapons, domestic violence, sexual, class and racial violence."
Thank goodness I now have both a deeper understanding and such incredibly rich imagery to go forth this Christmas and teach all nations.
Well actually Rich and the Nun are both wrong. The Twelve Days of Christmas was not a secret catechism song that Catholics used because of Anglican oppression. For one thing as the snopes article points out the origin of the song is probably French in the first place and second the items that supposedly had to be hidden are common to both Catholics and Anglicans in the first place.
Though I much prefer the Elizabethan urban legend to the politically correct version that says things like "Those three French hens in the tree have come from afar, like immigrants seeking to build a safe shelter in this wonderful place, far from horrendous war or grinding poverty that they have fled." Now I can easily believe that French hens would be running away from war. Besides things like the five golden rings obviously refer to the Olympics – duh.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue released these remarks today on the latest round of anti-Christmas incidents:
“Like most Jews, Olympic skater Sasha Cohen is not offended by Christmas carols. But that didn’t stop a government employee from trying to protect her. While Cohen was skating at a rink in Riverside, California, a high-school choir started singing ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,’ immediately sending Michelle Baldwin into orbit. She summoned a cop and got him to institute a gag rule: he ordered the choir to stop singing. Baldwin maintained that because Cohen was Jewish, she would be upset by the carol. But she never bothered to ask the skater if she objected. As it turns out, Cohen couldn’t have cared less. As usual, those who say we must be careful not to offend non-Christians at Christmastime are the ones who object to Christmas—not those whom they falsely claim to represent.
“Like Baldwin, Sandra Byrne, principal of an elementary school in Delray Beach, Florida, has a need to show how inclusive she is. That’s why she has no Christmas tree, nativity scene or menorah in her office. Instead, her spot is adorned with teddy bears wearing sweaters. Moreover, only ‘winter parties’ and ‘winter celebrations’ are tolerated. ‘We’re very careful about this,’ she says. No doubt she is.
“Here’s another example of anti-Christmas fever. In a Detroit suburban school district, they’ve instituted a quota system on religious songs that can be sung at school concerts. That’s right, only 30 percent of the songs at Howell Public Schools can be religious. It’s not certain whether the choir director will be fined or imprisoned if a multicultural monitor finds that 31 percent of the songs are religious. We recommend incarceration.
“After Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, Castro made a good-faith gesture by allowing Cubans to celebrate Christmas again. Maybe we should hire Fidel to talk to these madmen.”
If only they had hired the singers from my last years parody and none of this would have happened.
PORTLAND, OR (Roto Reuters) A new children’s choir groups is getting lots of attention and bookings during the winter season. The Silent Night Seasonal Semi-Singers sidestep the problems inherent in a multi-cultural society and what has been called the "Christmas wars." Secularists are upset with the lyrics of explicitly Christian carols and Christians become upset when these carols are left out. To solve this problem Ms. Giesel of the the Glencoe school elementary choir decided instead of hymns to do hums. Students are gagged while performing to ensure no actual Christian carols are ever sung. The instrumental portions of traditional Christmas carols are slightly altered to ensure no one in the audience might attempt to sing along. Silent Night is sung just as intended – totally silent. To ensure fairness winter holiday songs are also hummed.
Parents at first were hesitant to endorse the idea until they found out how enthusiastic their kids were. Now even students with no musical talent can join the choir and hum along. The provided humnal makes it very easy for kids to learn songs since they do not have to memorize any lyrics. When the audience is invited to join in and hum along nobody ever feels bad or put down since they don’t know the words or only know the first refrain.
The idea is catching on in neighborhoods where kids bundle up and go around the neighborhood from door to door humming or what some have called humoling. People are thrilled to find hummers at their door humming along to slightly familiar tunes invoking the winter season. So if you see a group of humolers approaching your door this season then open your door to the joys of holiday humoling.
I received this email promoting The Shepherd’s Prayer a new Christmas novel revolving around the time of Jesus.
“A young man orphaned as a baby sets off to discover the truth about the circumstances of his birth, the fate of his parents, and his heritage. Having been raised in a culture where bloodlines mean everything, he seems forever condemned to live as an outsider on the fringes of society until he discovers hi true heritage. His only clue is a cryptic message on a lambskin blanket about a child born in a stable in Bethlehem. Who is this mysterious child? And what could such a child have to do with his own birth and destiny?”
Interestingly they are also making it available free as a live stream, mp3 audiobook, and PDF. Of course they also offer a hardcover of the same. I will listen to it next on my iPod after I have finished A Christmas Carol (also a free audiobook via LibriVox). So if you are looking for a Christmas gift that actually includes Christmas this might be it.
John Allen Jr. has a great piece today on the recent death of Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo and the story of Fr. Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi.
At the end of the day, bishops and saints need one another – bishops, to remind saints that no force in the church ever exists for itself; and saints to remind bishops that ultimately the church exists for the gospel, and not the other way around.
The whole article is interesting especially the quip about criticizing the Church.
Ignatius Insight has a partial chapter from Fr. Thomas Dubay’s Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel-On Prayer This is one of my favorite books and I owe a great debt of gratitude to Fr. Dubay for introducing me to the Carmelites first through his EWTN show on St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross and for his excellent book on them Fire Within
Remember act now and you can also get the Dark Night of the Soul Night Light.