Recta Ratio

A cool Christmas List

A very interesting pre-Christmas questionairre. There are no categories your answers will put you in. But I like it.

1. Egg nog - yum or yuck?
MAJOR YUM. The dairy kind, and the boozed up kind (recipe at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group)

2. Stay up until midnight on New Years?
Yes, with a nacho dish at 6, and a plate of chocolates, champagne and chambord, and a comedy marathon on the TV

3. Prefer white or colored lights?
Multicolored without pink, and lots of 'em: 2500 minis on a 7.5 foot tree.

4. Favorite holiday song.
The Gloucestershire Wassail, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.

5. What is your tackiest holiday decoration?
Little angels made out of yarn, styrofoam balls, felt, glitter and sequins in 7th grade and on the tree every year since.

6. Do your kids have too much and you wonder just WHY you are getting more??
No kids, but when my niece and nephew were young, I could say yes to that.

7. If you celebrate Christmas, when does your tree go up and come down?
The tree usually goes up between the 8th and 17th of December, and comes down after January 6th (usually the Sunday after).

8. Christmas again - open presents on Christmas eve, morning, or other?
One present opened on Christmas Eve after dinner, the rest Christmas morning first thing (unless there are guests coming, whose gifts are opened later).

9. Favorite holiday tradition?
Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with mashed spuds and gravy and shrimp cockatail and mince pie and eggnog on Chirstmas Eve.

10. What do YOU want for Christmas?
A special, private grace.

Two bonus ones I've added.

11. Fruitcake: joy or bane?
Major Joy.

12. How many Nativity sets in the house?
Four, with the most elaborate in the living room.

Steven Riddle over at Flos Carmeli does an excellent job utilizing the example of Ebenezer Scrooge to discuss acedie, or despair, or sloth, or depression as it is otherwise known. Also here and here.

I have been doing quite a bit of reading in the last year about monastic life, and have, again and again, come across the term "noon-day devil" for a feeling of despair or depression that seems to manifest itself most strongly between 11am and 3pm.

I must admit that, before then, I had no idea about it. But once I understood it, I looked back and could see how questioning the worth of even living does tend to come out at about that time of day. And I must admit, I have had a major problem with acedie myself, secondary to pride.

I never thought myself particularly slothful, because I always have something coming up to get ready for. But the noon-day devil has become a constant of my day.

Read Roberta Bondi in a Beliefnet.com discussion of some of Flannery O'Connor's characters:

As solitaries, they struggle, as do the monks, against the temptations and illusions of the devil and of their own pride-filled wills, which, in the words of the desert father Abba Poemen, "have become the demons" for them. They fight or languish under acedie, despair, spiritual and emotional emptiness, self-satisfaction, judgmentalism, anger, self-indulgence, and blindness.

At least if one recognizes it, one can deal with it, or try to anyway. But as the desert fathers would testify, the noonday devil is very persistent.

From The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:
Abba Poemen said, 'The beginning of evil is heedlessness.'

The Red Sox picked up 42-year old lefthander David Wells (who was 12-8 last year) as a number 3 starter, replacing Derek Lowe.

They are said to still be in the ballpark with Pedro Martinez.

And they are talking to Pavano, who was 18-8 for the Marlins last year.

A starting rotation of Schilling, Martinez, Pavano, Wells, and Wakefield?

Too good to be true?

Probably.

I think they will be very serious about Pavano if talks with Martinez break down. Just a guess, but I think it is an either/or, not both/and situation.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

WBZ Radio Boston's long-time nightly stalwart David Brudnoy died yesterday after a long battle with AIDS and diseases brought on by the lack of an effective immune system, at the age of 64.

Brudnoy had hosted a politcal talk show on WBZ (and before that on WHDH) since the 1970s. He was also a professor at Boston University and a movie reviewer of some note, as well as a political columnist for the Boston Herald and later for the Tab.

May God have mercy on him.

Requiescat in pace.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

I'm feeling under the weather, with either another winter cold, or a touch of the flu.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org

No, this is not a 9-day novena.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.(

Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

Today is the anniversary of the death of one of the Church's shining lights of the 20th Century, Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Sheen was perhaps the greatest American Catholic evangelist, always prefering in mass-public situations the low-key approach.

Yet, in Nearer, My God, William F. Buckley, Jr. reported a private instance of Archbishop Sheen not being so low key.

The readio personality Heywood Hale Broun was a well-known atheist. One day his phone rang, he asked who was there. "My name is Fulton Sheen>

"Oh, Bishop Sheen. Howd'ya do? What would you like?"

"Your immortal soul."

Eventually, through Sheen's auspices, Broun entered the Church.

Here is the link to the official site for Archbishop Sheen's beatification.

Boston radio personality David Brudnoy, who has been battling the effects of AIDS for many years, is said to be dying and has only a few days to live.

I've been listening to Brudnoy since I was a kid, and often enjoyed his show. His libertarian views on economics and hawkish foreign policy I found (and find) agreeable.

But Brudnoy was the pioneer of what has been known as "Andrew Sullivan Disease," the tendency of a homosexual person to view all issues of ual morality through the prism of the perceived needs of his Mr. Happy.

Thus anything or anyone who in any way disparaged homosexuals or homosexuality, or even tended to suggest that it was not God's great gift to mankind, was, of course "EVIL," or "ignorant." So the Catholic Church was one of Brudnoy's big enemies, along with the Moral Majority and its succesors on the Evangelical Right, as well as orthodox Jews (Brudnoy himself was born Jewish but drifted towards atheism, as he found organized religion getting in the way of Mr. Happy).

Brudnoy used libertarian "principles" to cover this blatant ualization of his politics. His position came down to a "Let anyone do whatever they want, whenever they want, with anyone they want to, as long as both consent." And from a societal and cultural perspective, that way madness lies.

One prays that God's grace will engulf Bruds in his final days. Perhaps now he will embrace the reality he denied in his health. God is merciful to sinners. All He asks is that we not reject Him.

God, have mercy on Mr. Brudnoy, give him a happy , and console his loved ones.

Are people with MBAs really so stupid, as to not realize the enormous and justifiable outcry that an ad campaign like this is sure to bring?

Or are the corporate big guys carelessly negligent in supervising advertising campaigns?

Or is it a case of "we can get free publicity in the news if we use this crudely offensive campaign"?

This blog will now feature, at the top of the Links column, the image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that was in our home as I grew up. I found it by chance cruising the internet. It is also the homepage image today at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group.

The only difference is that, in the image in our home back in the 1960s and 1970s, the dagger in her heart obviously did not pulsate, as it does in this gif file.

I have also moved the Accuweather Boston forecast box to the top of the Archives column, so that the title again appears at the top.

The St. Blog's parish link is right under the Immaculate Heart of Mary image.

"Gone Fishin' Blogs" is the new category where I have placed all the blogs that I link to that have either closed up shop or have gone on hiatus.

I put A Catholic Blog For Lovers in this category, because I don't know if Gerard left instructions with regard to his blog or whether someone will step into his shoes there.

Obviously, some will come back to "Blogbud" status someday, and some will not. Only time will tell which are which.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin, in a stable, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

My little experiment in posting an image in the blog worked, as you can see in the Immaculate Conception post below.

I posted my favorite image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. I think you will see more images here, now that I know I can do that.

.

V. O Mary conceived without sin
R. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.

What I read at Through the Narrow Gate.

Do you believe that a sacramental marriage is indissoluble only by death?

If so, go and sign the Catholic Marriage Petition.

This is something more Catholics ought to embrace. Divorce is a cancer in our society, disrupting families and really screwing up children and adults. When one takes the vow to love, honor, amd cherish another person, "in sickness and in health, in good times, and in bad, for richer or for poorer, for better or for worse, until death do you part" that is a commitment to stick together no matter what.

Our deranged society works against marriage in som many ways, from restraining orders to divorce, to encouraging second marriages. The Church must make the battle against easy divorce a priority (and it can start by obeying the Vatican with regard to easy annullments).

Made by Father Sistare over at Not So Quiet Catholic Corner.

BTW, someone asked me why I don't put the quotation marks around "Not So Quiet" as Father does. The reason is simple. If I do that, it moves the link within my list of links automatically to the first position, taking it out of the "N"s, where I think it belongs. Just a housekeeping consideration.

Update: There is also a good discussion of this over at Father Keyes' The New Gasparian. Father Keyes appears to be doing a great job at his new parish, as expected.

The long and the short of it is that, based on GIRM and years and years of tradition, blue is never an appropriate liturgical color in the US.

IGMR § 346
346.
As to the color of sacred vestments, the traditional usage is to be retained: namely,

a. White is used in the Offices and Masses during the Easter and Christmas seasons; also on celebrations of the Lord other than of his Passion, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Angels, and of Saints who were not Martyrs; on the Solemnities of All Saints (November 1) and of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (June 24); and on the Feasts of Saint John the Evangelist (December 27), of the Chair of Saint Peter (February 22), and of the Conversion of Saint Paul (January 25).
b. Red is used on Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion and on Good Friday, on Pentecost Sunday, on celebrations of the Lord's Passion, on the feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and on celebrations of Martyr Saints.
c. Green is used in the Offices and Masses of Ordinary Time.
d. Violet or purple is used in Advent and of Lent. It may also be worn in Offices and Masses for the Dead (cf. below).
e. Besides violet, white or black vestments may be worn at funeral services and at other Offices and Masses for the Dead in the Dioceses of the United States of America.
f. Rose may be used, where it is the practice, on Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent) and on Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent).
g. On more solemn days, sacred vestments may be used that are festive, that is, more precious, even if not of the color of the day.
h. Gold or silver colored vestments may be worn on more solemn occasions in the dioceses of the United States of America.

Does it say anything about blue? No. Does that mean we can use blue? No.

>
As a nation, we must never forget the damage our own lack of preparedness caused us on that day, including the loss of more than 1,100 crewmen on the USS Arizona. Today at Pearl Harbor, survivors gathered to remember, yet again.

Even with September 11, 2001 fresher in our minds, the lessons of December 7th, and the heroism and patriotism of those who died there, must never be forgotten either.

# posted by G. Thomas Fitzpatrick : 9:49 AM

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.
Amen.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

This great bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church is recalled today.

Here is his Prayer before Communion, which can also be said as a spiritual communion prayer.

O gracious Lord Jesus Christ, though I, who am a sinner, in nowise presume on any merits of my own, and put all my trust in Thy goodness and mercy, yet do I fear and tremble in drawing near to the Table on which is spread Thy banquet of all delights. Many a sin has sullied me in body and in soul because I did not restrain my thoughts nor guard my lips: nevertheless it is to Thee, O God of majesty and love, that I turn in my extremity, for Thou art the fount of mercy; to Thee, as quickly as I may, I speed: for Thou alone canst heal me; I take refuge under Thy protection. I dare not face Thee as my judge, but I cleave to Thee as my saviour.

Thy mercy is above all Thy works. Though I fear, because of my sins, yet I trust in Thee on account of Thy mercy. Turn, then, those pitiful eyes of Thine upon me, O Jesus Christ, our everlasting king and Lord, Who art God and man, and Who for man wast crucified. Have mercy upon me, full of misery and of sin though I be, upon me, whose only hope is in Thee, because of Thy loving-kindness.

Hail! Thou saving victim, offered up for me and for all mankind upon the gibbet of the cross! Hail! thou glorious and most Precious Blood, that flowest from the wounds of Jesus Christ, my crucified Lord; to wash away the sins of all the world! Forget not, O Lord, that I am one of those whom Thou hast created, and with Thine own blood hast redeemed.

I repent me of my sins: I will strive to amend my ways. O most merciful Father, put far from me all my iniquities and all my offences; so that, by Thee made whole in body and in soul, I may be accounted worthy to approach the Holy of Holies. Grant, in fine, that the holy foretaste of Thy body and blood, which thou vouchsafest to me, a poor sinner, may be a pledge of the full remission of my sins and of the washing away for evermore of all my guilt. From my mind may it chase away every sinful thought: in my will may it foster all holy desires: may it spur me on to the doing of works well-pleasing to Thee; and may it be to me, of body and of soul, a very sure protection and defence against the craft of all my enemies.
Amen.

While Boston's Christmas Tree on the Common is a little on the small and meanly-lit side, Mother Nature seems to be planning some genuine Christmasy weather for later today and tonight. it is a few degrees below freezing now, and we are going to get snow, sleet, and freezing rain, which is supposed to turn to rain tomorrow, after little accumulation.

Last year on this date, we had a howling blizzard that produced the greatest single-storm snowfall amounts in Boston's recorded history.

So we can count ourselves lucky to get by with just a dusting, though the prospect of ice terrifies me, with my two trick knees and well-known propensity for slipping on snowy, icy surfaces.

I think animated Christmas store window displays are cool, generally. We are not going too deep, here. One would not expect religious content in this setting, and there is none.

But walking around Boston, I noticed in the last week that Downtown Crossing's Filene's and Jordan Marsh (oooppps, they call it Macy's now: a rolling eyes emoticon would work here) have animated displays.

Filene's went for something pretty staid, the Virginia O'Hanlon story (you know, of "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" fame). Now I saw a movie with Richard Thomas as Virginia's father some years ago, and believe you me, the O'Hanlons have come up the world from the way they were depicted in the movie. They passed "lace-curtain Irish" and look positively prosperous in Filene's window. The animation is not particularly imaginative, but the display succeeds in inspiring warm feelings about Christmas past.

But old Jordan Marsh across Summer Street has the better windows this year. They depict scenes from A Christmas Story, including the kid with his tongue stuck to the icy metal flagpole, the Bumpus hounds tearing apart the Christmas turkey, the front window with the shapely stockinged leg lamp, and the Santa throne and the slide down (with little Ralphie being kicked down the slide). Much more interesting than what is going on across the street (though A Christmas Story is not a big favorite of mine).

These window displays are another thing to see if you come into town to Christmas shop (though I don't know why you would, as the North Shore Shopping Center branches of both Filene's and Jordan Marsh, OK, the New York "M" name, are bigger, better and cleaner than the Boston stores).

A couple of blocks away is the rather sparsely-lit Boston Common Christmas tree (apparently a 40-footer from Halifax). But don't despair, since Filene's has a tree lit just the way I like, thousands and thousands of multi-colored lights.

If you go to the Prudential Mall, there are lots of musical performances and other events (including a Sees Candies kiosk) from now until Christmas. The Hynes Convention Center is hosting The Enchanted Village, the grandfather of animated window displays, which used to grace the windows of Jordan Marsh, before that great name was erased by the corporate know-nothings at Macy's, through New Year's Day.

And outside of Boston, the LaSallette shrine in Attleboro has, as always, a marvelous Christmas lights display. Stoneham's Stone Zoo has a Christmas light display, the basis of which was the collection that used to bring thousands and thousands of visitors each year to a tiny neighborhood home in South Peabody.

But what the Mayor of Denver and his cohorts needs is not a lump of coal, but one of Howie Carr's patented "felony canings" (based on the Indonesia penal custom of beating with a bamboo cane various nuisances).

Hickenlooper has to be in the running for Grinch of the Year.

I think we all need something positive and enduring just now. I know I sure do.

Today the Church celebrates Saint Nicholas. He is one of the most popular of all the saints. He apparently was born in Lycia. He may have visited the Thebaid, ruled a monastery, spent time imprisoned for the Faith, and died as Archbishop of Myra in present-day Turkey around 324.

Much of what we know about Saint Nicholas appears to be legendary. The story of his restoring to life three children who had been killed and dismembered is probably in this category. A depiction of this miracle from the Hours of Henry VIII that accompanied the Suffrage to St. Nicholas is the homepage image today for Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group.

There may be more of a basis to the story of the three daughters of the poor man, whom he rescued from a likely life of prostitution by providing dowries for them secretly. The story of his tossing bags of gold through the window of their house is the basis for his role as gift-bringer.

The cult of Saint Nicholas is widespread. He is the patron of sailors, travellers, pawn-brokers, spice-dealers, and, of course, children and young people.

The Saint Nicholas Center has more information.

Historian Stephen Nissenbaum, co-author of a ground-breaking work on the Salem Witch Hysteria of 1692, has written a compelling book called The Battle For Christmas, which describes the process of transformation of Saint Nicholas into the figure we now call Santa Claus.

The Dutch cult of Saint Nicholas appears not to have migrated to New Amsterdam before the American Revolution. This is because almost all the Dutch immigrants to New York were protestant, not Catholic.

In the 1820s, three patrician protestant New Yorkers combined to create the modern incarnation of the old saint.

Washington Irving created elements of this modern myth almost out of whole cloth, though he did draw on Dutch sources.

John Pintard, exasperated by the rowdy, drunken, Carnival-like celebration of Chritmas by the lower classes of New York, began promoting Saint Nicholas first as a patron for New York, and then as a symbol for a domestic celebration of Christmas centered around a gift-bringer and the children of the household.

Clark Clement Moore put all the earlier elements together to give us the image of Santa Claus we are all familiar with. His was the poem known to all now as 'Twas the Night Before Chritmas, but originally titled A Visit From Saint Nicholas.

Moore's Saint Nicholas is a "jolly old elf." Later, New Yorker Thomas Nast gradually made Saint Nicholas a full-sized figure.

Haddon Sundblom (painting for Coca Cola) and Norman Rockwell (for the Saturday Evening Post) virtually completed the transformation in the 20th century. Just add in Gene Autry's peripheral tale of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the modern incarnation of Saint Nicholas is complete.

While much of the Saint Nicholas Day tradition has been grafted unto Christmas, in recent years celebration of Saint Nicholas Day itself has begun to be revived, not instead of Christmas, but in addition to it. It is pleasant to see the original understanding of the saint being restored to some extent.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.

Amen.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Dale Price gives a hostile Jesuit review of George Weigel's superb Letters To A Young Catholic the rough handling it deserves.

Today is the 228th anniversary of an organization that I hold in great esteem and am proud to be a member of. On December 5th, 1776, in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern of Williamsburg, Virginia, William and Mary undergraduates formed Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest undergraduate honors society and the leading honors society devoted to promoting excellence in the liberal arts.

Famous members have included John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams, Henry Adams, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, Joseph Story, Daniel Boorstin, Robert Frost, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Calvin Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, Lynne Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, William Rehnquist, Learned Hand, Henry Kissinger, Dean Rusk, Phyllis Schlafly, Jonas Salk, Caspar Weinberger, Alexander Graham Bell, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Evans Hughes, Washington Irving, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry James, Horace Mann, Eli Whitney, William Howard Taft, Avery Cardinal Dulles, Edward Everett Hale, Gale Norton, Irving Babbitt, John C. Calhoun, Richard Henry Dana, James Russell Lowell, Paul Elmer More, George Bancroft, John Greenleaf Whittier, George Santyana, Francis Parkman, Alfred North Whitehead, Jeb Bush, Edward Everett, Henry Cabot Lodge, Booker T. Washington, Carl Sandburg, Bret Harte, Rufus Choate, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Bernard Baruch among many others.

Lest we be too proud of ourselves, other members include Bill Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Jimmy Carter, Betty Friedan, Kris Kristofferson, Eleanor Smeal, Susan Sontag, Paul Wellstone, and E.J. Dionne.

Even 19 years after admission I am still awed by it (and also by the fact that 19 years have gone by). I just got in by being a whiz at history and taking a great number of classes in my major. I am in no way the generalist many of these famous people are or were, or even in the same ball park as they.

Sad to say my education was notably less rigorous than that of people who graduated 50, even 20 years before I did. But it is a thrill to have once been considered worthy of membership in the same organization, even given the dilution of academic standards between their time and my own.

From the Franciscans at AmericanCatholic.org.

Say this novena prayer 15 times a day between St Andrew's Day and December 24th:

Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.

(Mention your intentions here)

Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother.