Guy Lombardo - Auld Lang Syne (1953)

Since next week's poetry and art posted early, I thought I'd post a Music Monday in time for New Year's eve tomorrow. This is Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians doing Auld Lang Syne. My parents, sister and I would listen to him every New Year's Eve. It hasn't been the same without him.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Poetry Wednesday--Sr. Julimarie McDonald

Today's Poetry Wednesday features a prayer-poem by Sr. Juliemarie McDonald that is perfect for the Christmas season.  Once again, we see the image of the cave.

Innkeepers
A Prayer Poem by Sr. Juliemarie McDonald for December 25, 2011

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
(John 1:9)

We are the innkeepers of our soul.
Our souls are caves -- damp, dark, and dingy.
In the smelly stables of our souls,
we house our own stable's mice and spiders and crawly things.

Yet, Jesus, as in days of old,
still chooses such unlikely caves
in which to become incarnate.

Enfleshed once more in our humanness,
taking on our human limitations
of littleness, simplicity, and childlikeness,
he craves to be cradled and crooned to again
by human hands and voices.

Welcome, Lord Jesus.
Enter into the dark caves of our souls.
Be born again in our limitedness.
Infinity embrace our finiteness
to reach out through us
to others whose caves are also
dark, and damp, and dingy.
Shine through us, O Jesus,
into this dark world of ours.
Light up the spaces of our souls once more,
that we may be the stars that lead to new Bethlehems.

The Beloved Disciple

Today is the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist--the Beloved Disciple. Saint John actually gave himself that title; he called himself The Disciple whom Jesus loved.  Imagine having the level of faith that allows you to say that about yourself!

Can we say that we are the "disciple whom Jesus loved"--because, it's true.  We are.

Something to meditate on today.

Art and Beauty Tuesday--Neapolitan Presepio

Today's Art and Beauty Tuesday is all about the Neapolitan Creche a craft turned high art in Baroque Naples, Italy. The three dimensional figures are hand sculpted from terracotta, painted and "dressed" with luxurious fabrics.

Details in the manger scenes include local scenes such as butchers, shoe makers and fruit sellers.

You can see these in the U.S. at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, St. John the Evangelist Cathedral Museum in Louisiana, the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut, and at St. John  oantius Parish in Chicago.

You can find out more information on these beautiful works of art by visiting Napoli Unplugged.

Music Monday--Choir of Westminster Abbey

Good King Wenceslaus having ventured out into the snow and cold on "the Feast of Stephen", (which is today), I decided it was a good song to feature for Music Monday. This version is well-done (as only the British can do with Christmas Carols, it seems). I like the vintage British Christmas Card at the beginning.

Enjoy

A Christmas Poem

In the bleak midwinter

The Christ Child again 

asks to enter into our hearts

and melt the ice that insists 

on forming there

against our better judgment-- 

our attempts at thawing

only serving to set it afire

in a soul-consuming explosion--

our attempts at cooling 

turning it once again

to ice. 

Great Depression Cooking - Tomato Sauce

This is 96 year old Clara's last Depression Cooking video. In it she shows us how to make her family's tomato sauce recipe--just in time for Christmas!

A Christmas Carol (1951)

Every year I like to watch the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol in black and white. It is, IMO, the definitive version of the Dickens' story. The black and white cinematography only enhances the story about the plight of the poor in London at the time and the actors, especially Alistair Sim, have amazingly expressive faces throughout.

This version (below) is complete, showing portions often not seen when it is played on television.

After enjoying the movie, stop by this website to read all about the movie and how it was made.

The Saga of the Cave--A Poem

This poem is from The Well at the World's End via Vox Nova and links the cave of Jesus' birth with the one of His resurrection and man's past as the "cave man".  There are even hints of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. I love the idea that Jesus came to get us out of the "cave of shadows" and into beauty.

From a caveman, it is said, we came;
And yet, in salvation, we find the same.
From start to finish, Alpha to Omega,
Cave to cave, there is one long saga.
In the darkness of its hearth,
We felt protected by the earth.
Even Cain, that impious knave,
Had for his home an artificial cave.

Its darkness protected our vision,
From our disfigurement by sin.
Lights danced upon the wall,
And we hoped God would stall,
The wrath that we feared.
From the sun we fled, lest it sheared,
The conscience with its illumination:
We were afraid of its devastation.

Dancing with the shadows,
Mixing our dreams with sorrows,
We bound ourselves in the muck and mire.
In it all, God saw how dire
The need we had to be set free.
Thus, born in a cave amidst the sea
Of suffering, came the new man, the new creation:
The Godman offering us his jubilation.

Adam and his kin enslaved by the cave,
The new caveman came to save.
Into the darkest, cruelest depths of the cavity,
He journeyed, looking for all held in captivity.
To all who would follow, into the light he led:
By his love, all their fears were shed.
Up they went and out at last into the light,
They beheld a fantastic sight:

Beauty.

Art and Beauty Tuesday--The Nativity of Our Lord

I am re-running this Art and Beauty Tuesday post from last year since I have been getting some new comments on it.

Icons of the Eastern Church go a long way in explaining the theology behind a particular Feast Day.  The Feast of the Nativity has become so commercialized that even when we think we know about the theology behind Christmas, there is always more to explore.

In the center we see a star.  I think we know innately from the representation, that this is *the* star.  It seems to encompass many stars together, which, interestingly, is one theory on how the star of Bethlehem occurred. The sky is gold, showing the Divinity that is present.  We see the angels guiding both the magi and the shepherds, for it is God who sent the star and God who sends His messengers to each person in the Nativity story.

We notice in the center, that Jesus was born in a cave, not a barn the way we think of it today.  These caves were the home of the livestock and animals.  The inns were often built over the caves, using the heat of the animals to heat the building above.

Two things are apparent about St. Joseph.  The first is, he is shown on the lower left of the picture, away from Mary and Jesus, who are the true center of the Nativity story. Joseph is shown "entertaining doubt", represented by an old man.  Joseph has a halo.  He is holy and ultimately listens to God's direction.  But he doubts.  He has difficulty accepting what is occurring.  His position away from the Mother and Child also shows that he is not the biological father of Christ.  That is the Holy Spirit.

Joseph is also shown as a grey haired older man.  It has been known from ancient times that Joseph and Mary were not a "couple" in the traditional sense.  Tradition, both in the East and West, says that Joseph was an older man, possibly a widower, who may have been Mary's guardian. When Mary was too old to serve in the Temple, [i.e., after the ritual impurity associated with menstruation] Joseph was said to have become betrothed to her as a means of continuing that legal guardianship.  His concern and doubts regarding her pregnancy take on a new urgency in light of this type of relationship.

On the bottom right of the icon, we see midwives bathing the newly born Christ.  This reminds us that Jesus was born as all men are and needed care as any helpless infant would.

If we peel back another layer, we see an even deeper symbolism in the Nativity Icon.  The cave in which Christ is born is the same type of location as the cave from which He is resurrected.  Jesus was wrapped "in swaddling cloths" which echo the burial cloths that He is wrapped in after death.

The washing of the infant Christ from the midwives is a reminder that He will submit to baptism by John the Baptist at the beginning of His earthly ministry.

So many of us have lost so much of the Christmas Story--in fact, of the entire story of Christ.  So many of us have forgotten, or have never been taught, the endless richness that is in Scripture.

Let us never stop searching for continued meaning in our spiritual tradition.

Music Monday--People Look East

This hymn, People Look East, is the one I like to use to close the Advent Season. With it's anticipatory lyrics about trimming the hearth and setting the table, it makes a fitting transition to Christmas, which could be merely hours or days away depending on the year.

Christmas Love

This is the time of year when I lay out the various Christmas gifts I have bought for loved-ones, categorize and wrap them.

Almost every year, I have this awful feeling that it is not enough.

Not enough what? Not enough money spent? Not enough in terms of number or size?

Not enough love.

It is never enough, is it? It isn't a matter of number, cost or size of the gifts given. It is a matter of one day a year not being nearly enough to show the depth of our love. Perhaps this is part of the malaise that often surrounds us at Christmastime. We get the feeling that we have missed the mark, which, of course, we have.

This is why we need to open our hearts and reach out to the Baby in the manger who came down into our lives to show us how to love.

As the Christmas season draws to a close in the early days of 2012, let's resolve to show the love we struggle to show during Christmas, throughout the entire year. It is what we are called to do as Christians.  It is the Christian message: the promise of new beginnings in God-as-helpless-infant, ready for our love.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Sunday Snippets is brought to you each week by RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing.

This week's theme for our art, poetry and music was Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast was December 12th.

I also reviewed a book about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt's marriage and posted about Hildegard of Bingen becoming a saint and Doctor of the Church.

Pope to canonize and name Hildegard of Bingen as Doctor of the Church

I'm so excited to see this multi-talented music composer and philosopher to be named a Saint and Doctor of the Church!!!

Poetry Wednesday--Anne B. Quinn

Mary, Virgin of Guadalupe

Dark lady, you smile at me across the mountains
The secret smile of ancient people.
What thoughts do you send me, dark beautiful lady?
Will you someday tell me when I come with great
armfuls of roses
Over the mysterious mountains to your feet?
Dear, dark queen will you give me too
Lovely roses in December?

Book Review--Franklin and Eleanor: an Extraordinary Marriage

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage makes a good case for the continuing closeness of the Roosevelt's marriage while acknowledging what can only be described as its unconventionality. Both, more than likely, had affairs of one kind or another throughout their marriage, beginning with FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer prior to his contracting polio in the 1920's.

Those 2 events (his affair and the polio) changed both their lives, and their marriage, deeply, forever but it did not, as many historians are quick to assume, signal the end of their love for each other. As with any tragedy, both had to come to terms with changed assumptions and dashed dreams.

But neither Franklin nor Eleanor let their individual (or their shared) dreams die. In fact, they went on to become the most influential people in the world during the most difficult part of the 20th century.

There is much that is, and will always be, left unsaid in any book about the marriage of Franklin and Eleanor because most of the letters they wrote to the other loves in each of their lives were destroyed.

But this book leaves you with the impression that you have spent a great deal of time in their company and come away realizing, in some small way, the depth of their love for each other.



View all my reviews

Yesterday was a very important feast day for the Hispanic community--Our Lady of Guadalupe.  This painting by Stephen B. Whatley is full of the gorgeous colors so popular in that community. The are mostly primaries, occasionally combining to form purple and green and burst forth from Mary in a joyful way that reminds us of the joy of  those who celebrate this feast day.

To purchase the original, click here.

Music Monday--Mannheim Steamroller

This is Manheim Steamroller's version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, the quintessential Advent song. It contains the "O Antiphons", traditionally sung beginning with Vespers on December 16th.  

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Sunday Snippets is brought to you each week by RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing.

This week we listened to "Every Valley Shall be Exalted" from Handel's Messiah, read "Let This Hill Rest" by James Still and looked at "Purple Mountain Majesty", a painting by Karen Margulis.  

I also wrote a book review of Beth Webb Hart's Adelaide Piper and a post about God speaking to us in our depression. 

Finally, I wrote a post about praying for those to whom you send Christmas cards.  

Book Review--Adelaide Piper

Adelaide Piper by Beth Webb Hart

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"Adelaide Piper" by Beth Webb Hart is the coming of age story of a young woman. We see her intense wish to leave her small southern town and follow her to college where her idealism is shattered by the "Lord of the Flies" atmosphere--not at all what she expected it to be.

Even her acceptance of Christianity doesn't take root very deeply as various tragedies of life begin to overwhelm.

This is a book that, in spite of its inclusion in the "inspiration" genre, does not candy-coat the reality of living away from the only home you've ever known for the first time. The take-away message that "there's no place like home" comes across as realistic rather than saccharine.

View all my reviews

Poetry Wednesday--James Still

This poem by James Still speaks of fatigue and rest.  The imagery of the fallen leaf and "this purple hour" makes me think of late Fall and Advent.  Let our masks fall away as we learn to rest in Christ.


Let This Hill Rest

Let the roots crawl into this failing earth,
Let the leaf fall, let day descend
On untilled slopes.  Let oak's girth
Strain and increase, vine drown the rock
And paling blossoms flow in creeping wind.

Let my heart rest this purple hour
With slow wandering in dull passages of breath,
In unwoven air, in sleep withdrawn from death,
And voiceless span the mountain's crumbling tower.
Let me lie here unstirred, unwaked and still,
Let my heart lean against this fallow hill.

Art and Beauty Tuesday--Karen Margulis

Purple Mountain Majesty by Karen Margulis spoke to me of  meeting expectations while still "coloring outside the lines", of the mountains and valleys of Advent, both majestic and ordinary.  I loved her energetic, painterly--almost abstract--style.

God Speaks to us in the Midst of our Depression

Our priest gave an interesting homily this morning.  He said that the Jewish people were depressed because they had been in exile and were waiting for their Messiah when the prophet Isaiah gave them a message of hope:

Strengthen the hands that are feeble,make firm the knees that are weak,Say to those whose hearts are frightened:Be strong, fear not!Here is your God,he comes with vindication;With divine recompensehe comes to save you.

I had never heard the word "depression" used in this context before, but as someone who struggles with depression,  I appreciate the connection.  The Lord is always there to bring us out of our dark days, whether through a word,  a smile, or a helping hand.   


I know I have to remind myself often not to give into feelings of despair and despondency.  Knowing that God is ready to listen makes a difference.  

Music Monday - Handel

Handel's "Every Valley Shall Be Exalted" from The Messiah is perfect for the second week of Advent when the readings for Sunday were all about St. John the Baptist announcing the coming of Christ.

We need to, with God's help, try to make our "rough places plain" in preparation for the birth of Our Lord.

Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us!

Praying with Christmas Cards

I had an inspired idea that I'd like to share with my readers.  

Do you sometimes dread the task of sending Christmas cards?  Do you swear this will be the year you stop sending them out?  Are you sometimes sad because special people on your list have passed away? 

This year, with each Christmas card you address, pray to that person's guardian angel or patron saint for an increase in God's grace in their lives. 

For those who have passed away, say a quick prayer for their souls' when you think of them at Christmas time.  Include a prayer for their families who miss them. 

 

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Sunday Snippets is brought to you each week by RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing.

This week we listened to the beautiful Gabriel's Message, looked at a colorful crocheted tree cover and read a moving poem about Cynicism.

I also wrote a piece about Quantum Physics and God.

We also have a link on the top of the side bar to St. Margaret's Advent Calendar.

Quantum Physics and God

I know as much about Quantum Physics as would fit on the head of a pin, but what little I understand is intriguing.

No Time Like the Present
Time, as Einstein explained, is relative. That is, time is not constant between people. If 2 people synchronize their watches exactly and one remains still while the other one runs around a predetermined and roped-off space, when they come back together, their watches will be quite a number of minutes apart. Time, it seems, slows down for the person in motion and speeds up (relative to the person running) for the person who is standing still.

An Atomic Experiment and Free Will
It has been shown that if an atom is split so that half of its wave function is in one box and half in another, a scientist can open both boxes at once and the respective waves will both exit their respective boxes and interact.

If you were to take the same 2 wave functions in the same 2 boxes and let them out one at a time, one box will ALWAYS be empty. Where did the other wave function go? How did the split atoms “know” whether you were going to open both boxes at once or open one at a time?

Some physicists, apparently, think that the above experiment proves that everything is predetermined in some way--that there are, perhaps, infinite numbers of universes housing infinite numbers of possibilities for each of the infinite number of choices we make every day. In some universe, somewhere, we have decided not to make our customary cup of tea, but to drink coffee instead. In another, we decide against drinking anything.

In this way, some scientists say that this then disproves free will and therefore God, (or at least traditional religion) but I disagree. If we as Christians see God as existing from all eternity and outside of time, then, in a sense, He houses all these infinite possibilities within Himself. For God, there is no “yesterday” or “tomorrow.”

God sees what is reality: The eternal now.

We humans have free will in the sense that we do not have within ourselves the outside-of-time perspective that God does. We can imagine different scenarios (in the sense that most animals probably cannot) but we do not actually experience these possible scenarios as having happened. Therefore we have to choose everything, minute-by-minute.

Another Experiment--Do You Hear What I Hear?
Somewhere along the line a scientist slowed down Beethoven’s 9th symphony so that it takes a full 24 hours to listen to. The result, to our ears, is a whale-song-like series of sounds that are imperceptible as the original symphony.

Those who listened to it commented that the musical climax never occurred--although of course, it did--they just were unable to perceive it, even after listening to the piece all the way through. To their ears, it sounded like a slow series of sounds peppered with periods of silence. But, somewhere within that recording was Beethoven’s 9th symphony.

To extend the metaphor, God can hear and perceive--in fact He has written--the symphony of the universe. Our poor ears do not understand it. We rant and rail against the happenings of our lives because to us, they contain random boredom peppered with too-short periods of joy and agonizing periods of tragedy.

To make God into a sweaty small-town Sherriff who delights in abusing His power is to dumb down Christianity and cause people to run screaming to atheism. God is awesome in the largest sense of the word--He is awe-inspiring, awe-creating and Awe Itself.

We must trust that God exists and that what seems to us as nonsensical is really a symphony in God’s ears that is imperceptible to us while on earth. He is, as the Eastern Christians say, “Everywhere present and filling all things”--He is “uncreated energy”.

Our spiritual task is to unite with Him and become (again, as the Eastern Christians say) “deified”. Then, we will no longer “see in a glass, darkly” but see things as they are, through the eyes of Love.