The Saturday Morning Post: Ubi autem festum Nativitatis?

 December 19, 2020

 

Good Morning, God and All! O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid!

 

By The Numbers:

It’s the 354^th day of the year, with 12 days remaining.

Days ‘til Yulfestimazaox: 2/4/6/7/7

Cost of the gifts named in The 12 Days of Christmas this year, according to The PNC Christmas Price Index, which this year includes adjustments for the pandemic’s impact on the cost of purchasing the presents in the renowned carol: $16,168.64

Percent decrease from Last Christmas (when I gave you my heart): 58.5%

This year’s index accounts for cancellations of many live performances. It’s a silent night at most symphonies and the lights have dimmed for many dancers this holiday season, which contributes to the year-over-year decline.

Specifically: A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE $210.18 (no change from 2019)

TWO TURTLE DOVES $450.00 (+50.0%)

THREE FRENCH HENS $210.00 (+15.7%)

FOUR CALLING BIRDS $599.96 (no change from 2019)

FIVE GOLD RINGS $945.00 (+14.5%)

SIX GEESE-A-LAYING $570.00 (+35.7%)

SEVEN SWANS-A-SWIMMING $13,125 (no change from 2019)

EIGHT MAIDS-A-MILKING $58.00 (no change from 2019)

Prices for the Nine Ladies Dancing, Ten Lords a-Leaping, Eleven Pipers Piping, and Twelve Drummers Drumming: Not Available (as live entertainment has been largely shut down due to the pandemic)

 

Start Your Day With A Song:

Where Are You, Christmas from the 2000 motion picture “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Writers: Mariah Carey, James Horner, and Will Jennings; performance: Faith Hill (for an equally moving performance by the acapella group Pentatonix, click here)

 

O Radix (Rod/Flower) Jesse:

Part of the great seven-day acclamations prayed by the Church in the last days before the celebration of Christmas, the “flower of Jesse’s stem” and its variations refers to the promised Messiah’s ancestry. In the New Testament the lineage of Jesus is traced by two of the Gospel writers, Matthew in descending order, and Luke in ascending order. Luke's Gospel's description in chapter 3 begins with Jesus himself and is traced all the way back, via Nathan to David and then on to "Adam, which was [the son] of God.". (Luke 3:23–38) Matthew's Gospel opens with the words: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." (Matthew 1:1) With this beginning, Matthew shows the Abrahamic and royal descent, passing through David, but then through Solomon.

 

Think About It…(the Message):

It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? Things sure went crazy in a hurry. The last thing resembling ‘normal’ was Christmas, twelve months ago. January started with a bang - the impeachment of the POTUS - and it never really got better. After that, the COVID-19 pandemic took over and never looked back. It’s shrouded every portion of life, and as we turn the page on a year we’d just as soon forget, who can say things are better now? The manner in which we’ve had to celebrate special days has radically changed. It remains to be seen how permanent those changes could be.

Unlike the entertainment media, which likes to present their rendition of what the holidays should be like - but cannot possibly be like - before the end of October, so that we’re completely fed up with it before December 25, I try to wait until just before Thanksgiving to start expressing the spirit of Advent, Christmas, and the many other festivals that warm the heart in the cold weather. Yes, the stuff that lights up the darkness inside and out while waiting for the brilliance of the Divine Light coming into the world. This year, as if on cue, one song in particular was destined to hold my attention; it’s the featured song this week. But as is also my desire to bring the true reason for the season to the forefront, the song needed a slight update. Nothing says more to me about Christmas 2020.

It’s right to lament that this Christmas will for most be different - subdued, even to the point where a few may wonder if it’s worth the bother to do anything to celebrate. But we who await Christ’s coming must also find the hope and joy and assurance that the season brings to those who seek the Holy Child.

But enough of that. With a nod to the writers above for a great song, one that just needs a little push to be even greater, I’ll let the lyrics do the talking. (My alterations are in italics.)

 

Where are you Christmas

Why can't I find you

Why have you gone away

Where is the laughter

You used to bring me

Why can't I hear music play

 

The world is changing

And rearranging

Does that mean Christmas changes too

 

Where are you Jesus

You do remember

The people that you know

I'm not the same one

See what our sins have done

Is that why you have let us go

 

Christmas is here

Everywhere, oh

Jesus is here

If you care, oh

 

If there is love in your heart and your mind

Jesus will be with us all the time, oh

 

I feel you Jesus

I know I've found you

You'll never fade away

The joy of Christmas

Stays here inside us

Fills each and every heart

With love

 

May every Christmas

Fill your heart with love

 

 

Memorable Moments:

1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1187 – Pope Clement III is elected.

1606 – The ships Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery depart England carrying settlers who founded, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".

1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

1828 – Nullification crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.

1907 – Two hundred thirty-nine coal miners die in the Darr Mine Disaster in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.

1972 – Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.

1974 – Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford under the provisions of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached by the United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.

 

Happy Birthday!!!

1925 – Robert B. Sherman, American songwriter and screenwriter (d. 2012)

1940 – Phil Ochs, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1976)

1942 – "Mean Gene" Okerlund, American sports announcer (d. 2019)

1944 – Tim Reid, American actor and director

1952 – Walter Murphy, American pianist and composer

 

We Remember:

401 – Pope Anastasius I

1123 – Saint Berardo, Italian bishop and saint

1370 – Pope Urban V (b. 1310)

1848 – Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet (b. 1818)

1915 – Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist (b. 1864)

1997 – Jimmy Rogers, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1924)

2012 – Robert Bork, American lawyer, judge, and scholar, United States Attorney General (b. 1927)

 

Parting Words:

It seems my ‘dance card’ has become quite full! In spite of the effects of the pandemic, I am very busy this coming week and next, spreading the musical message that through the Love that comes from God, somehow or other, Christmas comes just the same! As much as I wish I would find the time to write, I also wish to rest; because liturgically, next weekend is only halftime in a busy two weeks. I get to repeat much of the past week’s schedule this coming week and into the week following  Christmas! Therefore, I am not planning a Post for next weekend, but will share from my archives if I find a suitable reflection there. I plan on starting the new year moving forward, looking back only to get my bearings. Please stay healthy and safe wherever you are and whatever you do, and I will do my best to do the same!

Until we meet again, may God bless you with the fullness of Christmas joy! May peace and love surround you and your loved ones now and in the year ahead…and may God have mercy on us all…

+the Phoenix

The Saturday Morning Post: “And We Saw His Glory”

 December 12. 2020

 

Good Morning, God and All! From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace (John 1:16).

 

By The Numbers:

It’s the 347^th day of the year, with 19 days remaining.

Day among the annual Eight Crazy Nights we’re celebrating today: 2

Days ‘til YulFestiMaZaOx: 9/11/13/14/14

Likelihood that Donald Trump will ever concede the 2020 Presidential Election, as well as the likelihood of his getting the results overturned anywhere: 0%

Probability that Jesus Christ has ‘overcome the world’: 100%

 

Start Your Day With A Song:

Las Apariciones Guadalupanas (The Guadalupe Story) Traditional Mexican hymn

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of Latin America, Pray For Us!

Fifty-five year old (Saint) Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin met the Blessed Virgin Mary on the morning of December 9, 1531, as he hurried to Mass near Mexico City. She wished to have a church built and to be acknowledged as the Mother of the True God. After the local bishop deflected the Virgin’s request - something that bishops seem to have a tendency to do - Juan brought roses from her in his rough cloak as a sign. Roses in December are an unusual phenomenon in Mexico, even as the climate is warmer than that in the United States. Unfurling his cloak before the astounded bishop, Juan revealed a miraculous image of the Virgin wearing a black maternity belt and bearing the jasmine flower over her womb. The Aztec symbolism clearly showed Mary’s unborn Child to be the divine center of the cosmos. In 1999 Pope (St.) John Paul II declared Our Lady of Guadalupe the Patroness of the Unborn. (Magnificat)

 

All in the Family Matters (the Message):

The infancy narrative in St. Luke’s Gospel (chapters 1-3) contains much detail about Jesus’ extended family. There’s the detail about first cousin once removed Zechariah and his incredulity over the angel’s announcement that his wife Elizabeth would be giving birth to their son. Zechariah’s reaction would result in becoming speechless for nine months or so - but that obviously didn’t keep him from expressing his intimate love and affection for his wife. Then Mary meets Joseph, before her own encounter with the Archangel Gabriel and her awe-inspiring consent to bear God’s child. It’s unclear which came next - her explanation of this miracle to an astounded Joseph or her visit to Elizabeth to assist in the birth of John the Baptist. Luke tells us that after John is born. Mary goes home. My guess is: Mary visits Elizabeth, comes home beginning to show outward signs of pregnancy, explains this to Joseph who, after his own encounter with an angel in a dream, quickly takes Mary as his wife; and they all live happily ever after… or so we would have wanted to believe.

Mary certainly had some insight into what she had given her consent. Joseph likely also knew that the child to be born was going to stand the world on its collective end. I’ll come back to this in a bit.

Jesus had other extended family, not of this world. He is the Second Person of the Triune God who created all that is, who offered his mother-to-be a privilege no other human, man or woman, has had, before or since. Who also created Gabriel and all the other unnamed angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, who appeared at Jesus’ birth and whose Gloria in excelsis Deo! has outdone any rendition of Happy Birthday to You! Who knew Joseph to be an upright man, a man after God’s heart.

While Joseph has no speaking parts in the Gospels, St. Matthew’s Gospel gives us a picture of a man who prayed frequently, discerned in his heart and mind what God wanted of him, and lived his life that way. If Jesus needed to learn the art of manliness through his (earthly) father’s example, Joseph was certainly the model. We should not presume that Joseph didn’t say much, or took a passive role in raising Jesus through childhood and adolescence. I believe he was a very active - and proactive, as Matthew points out - father. A strong, silent type to us; just as strong, but hardly silent, before Jesus, Mary, or God.

We need to re-familiarize ourselves with this model of family, especially now. Joseph had to take every caution, listening and watching for signs, as there would be threats upon the lives his family. Mary would take it all in, knowing some of what it meant and where it was leading, but not to the extent that it inevitably did. Both placed themselves at the service of God, trusting in His direction. The family, the backbone of all society, is under spiritual attack as attempts to redefine what family is and means come repeatedly and with angry force. May we be granted the spiritual drive and determination to stand up to them. May we be given the resolve that Joseph had, the trust that Mary had, to do what is proper and pleasing in the sight of God.

 

Memorable Moments:

1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman.

1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.

1917 – Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.

1941 – Adolf Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.

1945 – The People's Republic of Korea is outlawed in the South, by order of the United States Army Military Government in Korea.

2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore, ending litigation surrounding the outcome of that year’s presidential election.

 

Happy Birthday!!!

1893 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (d. 1973)

1915 – Frank Sinatra, American singer, actor, and producer (d. 1998)

1923 – Bob Barker, American game show host and producer

1952 – Cathy Rigby, American gymnast

1962 – Tracy Austin, American tennis player and sportscaster

 

We Remember:

1999 – Joseph Heller, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright(b. 1923)

2006 – Peter Boyle, American actor (b. 1935)

2007 – Ike Turner, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1931)

2008 – Avery Dulles, American cardinal and theologian (b. 1918)

2008 – Van Johnson, American actor (b. 1916)

 

Parting Words:

My ‘dance card’ is filling up as Christmas Day approaches. Technology has finally figured out how I can be in two or more places virtually, at the same time. As the pandemic continues to drive forward, I hope we can all agree that it’s real. Please protect yourself and your loved ones! If you desire and are able, please follow your church’s procedure to sign up for attending Christmas services. If there are any serious issues that prevent your going, know that there will be many, many more choices to view service online in the comfort and relative safety of your home. I ask my friends to do so to help keep Christ in Christmas. 

 

Until we meet again; Blessings of Our Lord, through the Love of Our Lady…

+the Phoenix

The Saturday Morning Post: O Come All Ye Faithful, Muted and Despondent

 December 5, 2020

 

Good Morning, God and All! Save thy people and bless thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever! --Psalm 28:9 (KJV)

 

By The Numbers:

It’s the 340^th day of the year, with 26 days remaining.

Days ‘til Nickmas: 1

Days ‘til Hanyulfestimazaaox: 6/16/18/19/20/20

Days until the Electoral College gathers to fulfill their constitutional duty: 9

Days ‘til Super Bowl LV is scheduled to play: 64

 

Start Your Day With A Song:

Prepare Ye and Save the People from “Godspell” (1971) Stephen Schwartz; 2011 Broadway Revival Cast

 

Saint Nicholas, Pray For Us!

Now more than ever, we need our beloved Santa Claus! But more than that, we need the iconic 4^th Century bishop and saint from whom the Jolly One evolved! And we might also beg his intercession that the Lord have mercy on us for commercial culture appropriation. From the red suit (similar to the traditional garb of a bishop) to candy canes (shaped like a shepherd’s staff and the bishop’s crozier), even to the use of his name (Santa Claus is the anglicized rendering of the Dutch Sinterklaas, a derivation of Saint Nicholas).

Saint Nicholas, a Roman Catholic bishop of the 4th Century in Asia Minor (present day Turkey), was benevolent toward those in need; but he was also a fierce defender of the faith. He would drop small sacks of coins down chimneys to provide poor girls dowries so they could marry. During the Council of Nicaea in 325, Nicholas argued fiercely against the Arian heresy - legends state that at one point the good bishop lost his temper and slapped the heretic Arius in the face (still others say Nicholas punched him), for which he was imprisoned “for love of” Jesus and Mary, who then released him.

Nicholas (270 - 343) is the patron saint of children, barrel makers, sailors, fishermen, merchants, broadcasters, the falsely accused, repentant thieves, brewers, pharmacists, archers, and pawnbrokers. (Post archives)

 

I Have My ‘Kicks’ on Year Sixty-Six (the Message):

Some thoughts as I start my 67^th turn on the merry-go-round of life…

1) At my age, it either spins too fast or not at all.

2) I recall my musings of a year ago, about being joy. I made a point of saying I was going to do my best not to lose that sense of joy in the year now ending. Then, I had no way to know or even anticipate what has happened in these last twelve months. I wasn’t figuring on having to move. I was pretty sure that being an election year, there would be a bitter campaign and claims of fraud from whoever didn’t win. I wouldn’t be surprised if the lame-duck occupant of the White House is going to be bodily evicted and escorted by armed guards next month.

3) I sure didn’t expect the development of the novel coronavirus now known as COVID-19. I don’t think anyone expected how fast it spread, how indiscriminate it has been, the growing number of lives lost, and its impact on everything. How it became yet another polarizing political issue in America; and while I’m at it, how foolishly we behave. And I daresay we didn’t need the President’s behavior as an example. We’ve exhibited that sort of behavior before 2016. Lives mattered before 2020, and some seem not to have mattered as much as others - but the level to which we have exposed our nation’s lack of conscience should never have become as socially or morally acceptable as it appears now.

4) The Church is not immune from making questionable decisions, either. It seemed the whole nation shut down in March - except for Walmart - and it immediately included anything held in a large indoor facility, including public worship. Out of an abundance of caution, most houses of worship - and all Catholic churches in America - closed their doors. Lent had just begun. To paraphrase Monty Python, Easter and Pentecost took a pass and we jumped all the way to late June. Those places already tech savvy began to stream services online. More came online in the ensuing weeks. Most are still doing so now, as the pandemic brought surges in new cases after each major American holiday. Religious denominations were initially considered non-essential. This managed to change under constitutional grounds, but there are still occupancy caps in place. How long this will go on is anybody’s guess. I expect it will get worse before it gets better, as the newly elected leadership in America bears the paradox of free practice of religion as long as it stays within the walls of the church building; and a president who is Catholic in name only.

5) I was relieved when I was offered the opportunity to take part in streaming services. I was even happier when music was reintroduced, even though limited, into the ‘live’ services. Only recently have I been troubled by a temptation that what we do in front of a camera isn’t real - like the conspiracy theories that abound saying that the lunar landing fifty years ago was faked in some studio backlot. As my mind continues to sift through all this, I’m feeling besieged with thoughts - temptations that leave me wondering what, if anything, of all that I am, do, and aspire to be - is real.

6) I grew up with a sense that the holy men and women who are recognized as saints were wholly devoted to God. Our patron for Advent - St. John the Baptist, the last of the Bible’s prophets and the only one of the New Testament - is described as wearing coarse garments of camel’s hair, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. He indeed was wholly devoted to his ministry. He called upon everyone to live simply and honestly, to prepare for the Lord’s coming. Have I done that? Am I balancing my commitments as minister, musician, and father fairly? Is what I do God-serving or self-serving?

And while there is always some joyous anxiety surrounding the coming of Christmas, there is the call to continue to live in quiet, humble, patient…darkness, and wait, wait…don’t tell me…for the brilliant light to illuminate everything, everywhere.

 

Memorable Moments:

63 BC – Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations.

1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1776 – Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary.[1]

1831 – Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.

1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the U.S. Senate.

1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.

1931 – Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow was destroyed on orders from Joseph Stalin.

1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution , ending Pohibition, is ratified.

1952 – Beginning of the Great Smog in London. A cold fog combines with air pollution and brings the city to a standstill for four days. Later, a Ministry of Health report estimates 4,000 fatalities as a result of it.

1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL–CIO.

1955 – E. D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery bus boycott.

2007 – Westroads Mall shooting: Nineteen-year-old Robert A. Hawkins kills eight people, including himself, with a WASR-10 at a Von Maur department store in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

Happy Birthday!!!

1666 – Francesco Scarlatti, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1741)

1687 – Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1762)

1697 – Giuseppe de Majo, Italian organist and composer (d. 1771)

1782 – Martin Van Buren, American lawyer and politician, 8th President of the United States (d. 1862)

1839 – George Armstrong Custer, American general (d. 1876)

1886 – Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and author (d. 1968)

1901 – Walt Disney, American animator, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1966)

1932 – Little Richard, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (d. 2020)

1946 – Andy Kim, Canadian pop singer-songwriter

1947 – Jim Messina, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

1963 – Doctor Dré, American television and radio host

1969 – Morgan J. Freeman, American director, producer, and screenwriter

 

We Remember:

1791 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer and musician (b. 1756)

1870 – Alexandre Dumas, French novelist and playwright (b. 1802)

1931 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)

1951 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, American baseball player and manager (b. 1887)

2002 – Roone Arledge, American sportscaster and producer (b. 1931)

2010 – Don Meredith, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (b. 1938)

2012 – Dave Brubeck, American pianist and composer (b. 1920)

2015 – Chuck Williams, American businessman and author, founded Williams Sonoma (b. 1915)

 

Parting Words:

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” -Walt Disney

 Emphasis mine. Indeed, we must do so and refrain from looking back or longing for a past that is no longer possible; the path to God is always before us. Thanks, Walt, for the reminder that no matter how your heart is grieving, if you go on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true.

 Until we meet again, stay safe, keep the faith, may God be with you…and may God have mercy on us all…

+the Phoenix