From Shawn Tribe at NLM.
Built by Giorgio Vasari
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Light of the World: Being Pope
From Light of the World:
What does a Pope do in his free time, assuming he has any at all?
Yes, what does he do? Of course even in his free time he must study and read documents. There is always a great deal of work left over. But with the papal family, with the four women from the Memores Domini community and the two secretaries, there are meals in common, too; those are moments of relaxation.
Do you watch television together?
I watch the news with the secretaries, but sometimes we watch a DVD together as a group.
What films do you like?
There is a very beautiful film about St Josephine Bakhita, an African woman, which we watched recently. And then we like to watch Don Camillo and Peppone.
By now you probably know the whole series by heart.
(Laughter.) Not quite.
So there are people who share in the Pope's private life, too.
Of course. We celebrate Christmas together, listen to holiday music, and exchange gifts. The feast days of our patron saints are celebrated, and occasionally we also sing Evening Prayer together. So we celebrate feasts together. And then, besides our common meals, there is above Holy Mass in common in the morning. That is an especially important moment in which we are all with each other in a particularly intense way in the light of the Lord.
...
The Romans were a little taken aback when they say on the moving van the belongings with which you moved out of your residence into the Vatican after being elected the 264th successor of Peter. Did you furnish the papal appartments with your used furniture?
My study at least. It was important for me to have my study the way it has developed over the course of many decades. Gradually In 1954 I bought my desk and the first bookshelves. Gradually there were additions. In them are all my advisers, the books; I know every nook and cranny, and everything has its history. Therefore I brought the whole study along with me. The other rooms were set up with the papal furniture.
...
A Pope does not even have his own briefcase, much less a salary. Is that right?
Yes, that is right.
Does he then at least get more help and consolation "from above" then, let's say the average mortal?
Not only from above. I get so many letters from simple people, from religious sisters, from mothers, fathers, children, in which they encourage me. They write, "We pray for you, be not afraid, we like you." And they even enclose gifts of money and other little gifts...
The Pope receives monetary gifts?
Not for me personally, but so that I can help others with it. And I also find it very moving that simple people enclose something and tell me, "I know that you have to help so much, and I want to do a little, too." In this respect there are all kinds of consolations. And then they are the Wednesday audiences with the individual meetings. Letters arrive from old friends, occasionally visits, too, although of course that has become increasingly difficult. Since I always sense consolation "from above" as well and experience the nearness of the Lord while praying, and the beauty of the faith shines forth as I read the Church Fathers, there is a whole concert of consolations.
Has your faith changed since you have become responsible for Christ's flock as the supreme shepherd? Sometimes people get the impression that now it has become more mysterious somehow, more mystical.
I am no mystic. But it is correct that as Pope one has even more cause to pray and to entrust oneself entirely to God. For I see very well that almost everything I have to do is something I myself cannot do at all. That fact already forces me, so to speak, to place myself in the Lord's hands and to say to him: "You do it, if you want it!" In this sense prayer and contact with God are now even more necessary and also more natural and evident than before.
To put it in worldly terms: Is there now a "better connection" to heaven, or something like a grace of office?
Yes, one often feels that. In the sense of: Now I have been able to do something that did not come from me at all. Now I entrust myself to the Lord and notice, yes, there is help there, something is being done that is not my own doing. In that sense there is absolutely an experience of the grace of office.
John Paul II once recounted that one day his father put a prayerbook with the "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" into his hands and told him that he should pray it daily. He then gradually understood what it means when Jesus says that the true worshippers of God are those who worship him "in spirit and truth". What does that mean?
This passage in chapter 4 of John's Gospel is the prophecy of a worship in which there will no longer be any temple, but in which the faithful will pray without an external temple in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Gospel, in communion with Christ; where what is needed is no longer a visible temple but rather the new fellowship with the risen Lord. That always remains important, because it signifies a major turning point in the history of religion as well.
And how does Pope Benedict pray?
As far as the Pope is concerned, he too is a simple beggar before God - even more than all other people. Naturally I always pray first and foremost to our Lord, with whom I am united simply by old acquaintance, so to speak. But I also invoke the saints. I am friends with Augustine, with Bonaventure, with Thomas Aquinas. Then one says to such saints also: Help me! And the Mother of God is, in any case, always a major point of reference. In this sense, I commend myself to the communion of saints. With them, strengthened by them, I then talk with the dear Lord also, begging, for the most part, but also in thanksgiving - or quite simply being joyful.
What does a Pope do in his free time, assuming he has any at all?
Yes, what does he do? Of course even in his free time he must study and read documents. There is always a great deal of work left over. But with the papal family, with the four women from the Memores Domini community and the two secretaries, there are meals in common, too; those are moments of relaxation.
Do you watch television together?
I watch the news with the secretaries, but sometimes we watch a DVD together as a group.
What films do you like?
There is a very beautiful film about St Josephine Bakhita, an African woman, which we watched recently. And then we like to watch Don Camillo and Peppone.
By now you probably know the whole series by heart.
(Laughter.) Not quite.
So there are people who share in the Pope's private life, too.
Of course. We celebrate Christmas together, listen to holiday music, and exchange gifts. The feast days of our patron saints are celebrated, and occasionally we also sing Evening Prayer together. So we celebrate feasts together. And then, besides our common meals, there is above Holy Mass in common in the morning. That is an especially important moment in which we are all with each other in a particularly intense way in the light of the Lord.
...
The Romans were a little taken aback when they say on the moving van the belongings with which you moved out of your residence into the Vatican after being elected the 264th successor of Peter. Did you furnish the papal appartments with your used furniture?
My study at least. It was important for me to have my study the way it has developed over the course of many decades. Gradually In 1954 I bought my desk and the first bookshelves. Gradually there were additions. In them are all my advisers, the books; I know every nook and cranny, and everything has its history. Therefore I brought the whole study along with me. The other rooms were set up with the papal furniture.
...
A Pope does not even have his own briefcase, much less a salary. Is that right?
Yes, that is right.
Does he then at least get more help and consolation "from above" then, let's say the average mortal?
Not only from above. I get so many letters from simple people, from religious sisters, from mothers, fathers, children, in which they encourage me. They write, "We pray for you, be not afraid, we like you." And they even enclose gifts of money and other little gifts...
The Pope receives monetary gifts?
Not for me personally, but so that I can help others with it. And I also find it very moving that simple people enclose something and tell me, "I know that you have to help so much, and I want to do a little, too." In this respect there are all kinds of consolations. And then they are the Wednesday audiences with the individual meetings. Letters arrive from old friends, occasionally visits, too, although of course that has become increasingly difficult. Since I always sense consolation "from above" as well and experience the nearness of the Lord while praying, and the beauty of the faith shines forth as I read the Church Fathers, there is a whole concert of consolations.
Has your faith changed since you have become responsible for Christ's flock as the supreme shepherd? Sometimes people get the impression that now it has become more mysterious somehow, more mystical.
I am no mystic. But it is correct that as Pope one has even more cause to pray and to entrust oneself entirely to God. For I see very well that almost everything I have to do is something I myself cannot do at all. That fact already forces me, so to speak, to place myself in the Lord's hands and to say to him: "You do it, if you want it!" In this sense prayer and contact with God are now even more necessary and also more natural and evident than before.
To put it in worldly terms: Is there now a "better connection" to heaven, or something like a grace of office?
Yes, one often feels that. In the sense of: Now I have been able to do something that did not come from me at all. Now I entrust myself to the Lord and notice, yes, there is help there, something is being done that is not my own doing. In that sense there is absolutely an experience of the grace of office.
John Paul II once recounted that one day his father put a prayerbook with the "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" into his hands and told him that he should pray it daily. He then gradually understood what it means when Jesus says that the true worshippers of God are those who worship him "in spirit and truth". What does that mean?
This passage in chapter 4 of John's Gospel is the prophecy of a worship in which there will no longer be any temple, but in which the faithful will pray without an external temple in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Gospel, in communion with Christ; where what is needed is no longer a visible temple but rather the new fellowship with the risen Lord. That always remains important, because it signifies a major turning point in the history of religion as well.
And how does Pope Benedict pray?
As far as the Pope is concerned, he too is a simple beggar before God - even more than all other people. Naturally I always pray first and foremost to our Lord, with whom I am united simply by old acquaintance, so to speak. But I also invoke the saints. I am friends with Augustine, with Bonaventure, with Thomas Aquinas. Then one says to such saints also: Help me! And the Mother of God is, in any case, always a major point of reference. In this sense, I commend myself to the communion of saints. With them, strengthened by them, I then talk with the dear Lord also, begging, for the most part, but also in thanksgiving - or quite simply being joyful.
Light of the World: Becoming Pope
From Light of the World
Holy Father, on April 16, 2005, your seventy-eighth birthday, you told your co-workers how much you were looking forward to your retirement. Three days later you were the leader of the universal Church with 1.2 billion members. Not exactly a project that one saves for his old age.
Actually I had expected finally to have some peace and quiet. The fact that I suddenly found myself facing this tremendous task was, as everybody knows, a shock for me. The responsibility is in fact enormous.
There was the moment when, as you later said, you felt just as if "a guillotine" were speeding down to you.
Yes, the thought of the guillotine occurred to me: Now it falls down and hits you. I have been so sure that this office was not my calling, but that God would not grant me some peace and quiet after strenuous years. But then I could only say, explain to myself: God's will is apparently otherwise, and something new and completely different is beginning for me. He will be with me.
In the so-called "room of tears" during a conclave three sets of robes lie waiting for the future Pope. One is long, one short, one middle-sized. What was going through your head in that room, in which so many new Pontiffs are said to have broken down? Does on wonder again here, at the very latest: Why me? What does God want of me?
Actually at that moment one is first of all occupied by very practical, external things. One has to see how to deal with the robes and such. Moreover I knew that very soon I would have to say a few words out on the balcony, and I began to think about what I could say. Besides, even at that moment when it hit me, all I was able to say to the Lord was simply: "What are you doing with me? Now the responsibility is yours. You must lead me! I can't do it. If you wanted me, than you must also help me!" In this sense, I stood, let us say, in an urgent dialogue relationship with the Lord: if he does the one thing he must also do the other.
...
You did not want to become a bishop, you did not want to become Prefect, you did not want to become Pope. Isn't it frightening when things repeatedly happen quite against your own will?
It is like this: When a man says Yes during his priestly ordination, he may have some idea of what his own charism could be, but he also knows: I have placed myself into the hands of the bishop and ultimately of the Lord. I cannot pick and choose what I want. In the the nation that being a theology professor was my charism, and I was very happy when my idea became a reality. But it was also clear to me: I am always in the Lord's hand, and I must also be prepared for things that I do not want. in this sense it was certainly surprising suddenly to be snatched away and no longer to be able to follow my own path. But as I said, the fundamental Yes also contained the thought that I remain at the Lord's disposal and perhaps will also have to do things someday that I myself would not like.
Holy Father, on April 16, 2005, your seventy-eighth birthday, you told your co-workers how much you were looking forward to your retirement. Three days later you were the leader of the universal Church with 1.2 billion members. Not exactly a project that one saves for his old age.
Actually I had expected finally to have some peace and quiet. The fact that I suddenly found myself facing this tremendous task was, as everybody knows, a shock for me. The responsibility is in fact enormous.
There was the moment when, as you later said, you felt just as if "a guillotine" were speeding down to you.
Yes, the thought of the guillotine occurred to me: Now it falls down and hits you. I have been so sure that this office was not my calling, but that God would not grant me some peace and quiet after strenuous years. But then I could only say, explain to myself: God's will is apparently otherwise, and something new and completely different is beginning for me. He will be with me.
In the so-called "room of tears" during a conclave three sets of robes lie waiting for the future Pope. One is long, one short, one middle-sized. What was going through your head in that room, in which so many new Pontiffs are said to have broken down? Does on wonder again here, at the very latest: Why me? What does God want of me?
Actually at that moment one is first of all occupied by very practical, external things. One has to see how to deal with the robes and such. Moreover I knew that very soon I would have to say a few words out on the balcony, and I began to think about what I could say. Besides, even at that moment when it hit me, all I was able to say to the Lord was simply: "What are you doing with me? Now the responsibility is yours. You must lead me! I can't do it. If you wanted me, than you must also help me!" In this sense, I stood, let us say, in an urgent dialogue relationship with the Lord: if he does the one thing he must also do the other.
...
You did not want to become a bishop, you did not want to become Prefect, you did not want to become Pope. Isn't it frightening when things repeatedly happen quite against your own will?
It is like this: When a man says Yes during his priestly ordination, he may have some idea of what his own charism could be, but he also knows: I have placed myself into the hands of the bishop and ultimately of the Lord. I cannot pick and choose what I want. In the the nation that being a theology professor was my charism, and I was very happy when my idea became a reality. But it was also clear to me: I am always in the Lord's hand, and I must also be prepared for things that I do not want. in this sense it was certainly surprising suddenly to be snatched away and no longer to be able to follow my own path. But as I said, the fundamental Yes also contained the thought that I remain at the Lord's disposal and perhaps will also have to do things someday that I myself would not like.
Ordination
(http://freeforumzone.leonardo.it/lofi/ALBUM-FOR-JOSEPH-A-pictorial-chronology-of-his-life-from-1927-1977/D355153-2.html)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Why the News Makes Us Dumb
The product of the news business is change, not wisdom. Wisdom has to do with seeing things in their largest context, whereas news is structured in a way that destroys the larger context. You have to do certain things to information if you want to sell it on a daily basis. You have to make each day’s report seem important. And you do that by reducing the importance of its context.
This focus on change has a deleterious effect on all forms of conservatism—whether cultural, political, or religious. Once we believed an essential part of our mission as conservatives was, as William F. Buckley claimed, to “stand athwart history yelling ‘Stop.’” Change was something to be undertaken slowly and with reflection. After all, the important institutions—family, religion, government—shouldn’t change on a whim. But the focus on dailiness has led conservatives to adopt attitudes that were once the province of hyper-progressivism. We don’t just ask what government has done for us lately, we ask what it has done for us today. We don’t just ask for change when it is needed, we ask for it to change—for the better presumably—on a daily basis. We are addicted to the process of change.
...
Still dubious about all this? Consider the proposition: If it is no longer worth your while to go back and read the News of, oh, September 22, 1976, then it was never worthwhile doing so. And why should today be any different?
Read more of this article, on the inconsequential nature of news, here`.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Singapore Christmas
This was the first Christmas I spent in Singapore. Last year I wrote about how the commercialized Christmas here was so opposed to the true spirit of Christmas. In that way, the quiet Christmases in Oman and the festive but not as commercialized Christmases in Sri Lanka seem truer to the spirit of Bethlehem. On the other hand, I think preparation for Christmas is easier here, if you are able to avoid being caught up in the chaotic din and rush of shopping. Advent is more intense here than in Oman. The feeling of Christmas joy is more palpable. Mass is much accessible, as is the Sacrament of Confession. My first Singaporean Christmas turned out to be a very happy one.
First of all though, Advent just flew past this year, and I didn't feel ready for Christmas. The usual feeling of anticipation was not so strong this time. Perhaps it was because the first few weeks of December were busy ones for me (I had a conference in Malaysia). Decorating the house and building the crib did help. As did the first Christmas Triduum Mass I attended at the Opus Dei Centre.
But it was on Christmas Eve that I really began to feel the spirit of Christmas. I attended Christmas Midnight Mass at the Opus Dei Centre. The Oratory, the adjoining study and even the corridor outside the Oratory were filled with friends of Opus Dei - mostly families. And, being generous Catholic parents, many of these were very big families - and so there were lots of children around.
After a very beautiful Mass celebrated by Fr Joe, we all had a good Christmas potluck dinner. Next came caroling and a magic show by Andrew Kong. Watching excitement and joy of about fifteen or twenty super-excited little kids was an excellent way to herald in Christmas.
When I got back, I spent some time, at midnight, placing the statue of the Baby Jesus in my nativity scene and praying in front of it. Then I exchanged gifts with my sis, and Ferdi, wished our parents over the phone, and went to sleep.
On Christmas day Ferdi, Prash and I went for Mass at the Cathedral, celebrated by Archbishop. The choir was excellent as usual!
Angie, my friend and colleague from when I interned at HSBC had invited Prash and me for lunch with her family. That was very enjoyable - it really provided the family spirit that goes with Christmas.
After that the two of us roamed about at Borders for a while.
Ferdi cooked Christmas dinner which we had with some good Italian wine.
So you see - it was a very happy Christmas day :)
First of all though, Advent just flew past this year, and I didn't feel ready for Christmas. The usual feeling of anticipation was not so strong this time. Perhaps it was because the first few weeks of December were busy ones for me (I had a conference in Malaysia). Decorating the house and building the crib did help. As did the first Christmas Triduum Mass I attended at the Opus Dei Centre.
But it was on Christmas Eve that I really began to feel the spirit of Christmas. I attended Christmas Midnight Mass at the Opus Dei Centre. The Oratory, the adjoining study and even the corridor outside the Oratory were filled with friends of Opus Dei - mostly families. And, being generous Catholic parents, many of these were very big families - and so there were lots of children around.
After a very beautiful Mass celebrated by Fr Joe, we all had a good Christmas potluck dinner. Next came caroling and a magic show by Andrew Kong. Watching excitement and joy of about fifteen or twenty super-excited little kids was an excellent way to herald in Christmas.
When I got back, I spent some time, at midnight, placing the statue of the Baby Jesus in my nativity scene and praying in front of it. Then I exchanged gifts with my sis, and Ferdi, wished our parents over the phone, and went to sleep.
On Christmas day Ferdi, Prash and I went for Mass at the Cathedral, celebrated by Archbishop. The choir was excellent as usual!
After that the two of us roamed about at Borders for a while.
Ferdi cooked Christmas dinner which we had with some good Italian wine.
So you see - it was a very happy Christmas day :)
Quote of the day
Me: How was your Christmas?
Ding Li: not too bad....caught up with sleep...sleep normally runs faster, but not this time
Ding Li: not too bad....caught up with sleep...sleep normally runs faster, but not this time
:D
Monday, December 27, 2010
St John, Apostle and Evangelist
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us -- that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And we are writing this that our joy may be complete."
- 1 John 1: 1-4
And we are writing this that our joy may be complete."
- 1 John 1: 1-4
El Greco, John the Evangelist
Mary looked downward
The one person, Jesus Christ, both true God and true man, stooped into our littleness to draw us up to the greatness of life eternal, which is not this life infinitely extended but is the very life of God. From the beginning and through the millennia, human beings looked upward in search of the divine. Mary looked downward, at the baby in her arms. She looked into the very face of God.
— Fr. Richard John Neuhaus
— Fr. Richard John Neuhaus
Rembrandt. Holy Family. 1645. Oil on canvas. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia. (Via Olga's Gallery)
Headlines
'The Sun was full of the most solemn matters treated in the most farcial way. William James figured there as well as "Weary Willie," and pragmatists alternated with pugilists in the long procession of its portraits.
Thus, when a very unobtrusive Oxford man named John Boulnois wrote in a very unreadable review called the Natural Philosophy Quarterly a series of articles on alleged weak points in Darwinian evolution, it fluttered no corner of the English papers; though Boulnois's theory (which was that of a comparatively stationary universe visited occasionally by convulsions of change) had some rather faddy fashionableness at Oxford, and got so far as to be named "Catastrophism." But many American papers seized on the challenge as a great event; and the Sun threw the shadow of Mr. Boulnois quite gigantically across its pages. By the paradox already noted, articles of valuable intelligence and enthusiasm were presented with headlines apparently written by an illiterate maniac; headlines such as "Darwin Chews Dirt; Critic Boulnois says He Jumps the Shocks" - or "Keep Catastrophic, says Thinker Boulnois."'
- G.K. Chesterton, "The Strange Crime of John Boulnois", Father Brown Stories
"Headlines apparently written by an illiterate maniac" have migrated across the Atlantic too. f you want to observe what Chesterton is talking, about take a look at most news reports about the Church and the Pope.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Nigel Havers on global warming
Excellent point about the Hollywood types and their supposed concern for the environment.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Isaiah's prophecy fulfilled
The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen....For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace. His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom; to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
- Isaiah 9:2,6-8
Angel's Carol
So beautiful! I love the chorus.
-------------------------------------------------------
Have you heard the sounds of the angel voices
Ringing out so sweetly, ringing out so clear?
Have you seen the star shining out so brightly
As a sign from God that Christ the Lord is here?
Have you heard the news that they bring from heaven
To the humble shepherds who have waited long?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels sing their joyful song.
He is come in peace in the winter's stillness,
Like a gentle snowfall in the gentle night.
He is come in joy, like the sun at morning,
Filling all the world with radiance and with light.
He is come in love as the child of Mary.
In a simple stable we have seen his birth.
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels singing 'Peace on earth'.
He will bring new light to a world in darkness,
like a bright star shining in the skies above.
He will bring new hope to the waiting nations.
When he comes to reign in purity and love.
Let the earth rejoice at the Saviour's coming.
Let the heavens answer with the joyful morn:
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Gloria in excelsis Deo!
Hear the angels singing, 'Christ is born'.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas time is here
Cartoon Christmases bring back memories of all the Christmas specials they used to show on Cartoon Network when we were younger. :)
A lesser-known teaching of our Lord
because it is not to be found in the Gospels, Fr Marin said, and was related to us by St Paul:
"...remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, `It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:35)
Christmas is a time when we remember to be generous - and giving of ourselves, to God and the world, like Mary did at the Annunciation and all throughout Her life, fills our hears with joy.
May you have a Marian generosity and a Marian joy this Christmas.
"...remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, `It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (Acts 20:35)
Christmas is a time when we remember to be generous - and giving of ourselves, to God and the world, like Mary did at the Annunciation and all throughout Her life, fills our hears with joy.
May you have a Marian generosity and a Marian joy this Christmas.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Google Christmas
I like the artwork on the Google logo of Christmas around the world. Very colourful.
As Eugene pointed out, though, it's a pity they don't also feature the most important Christmas of all:
As Eugene pointed out, though, it's a pity they don't also feature the most important Christmas of all:
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Christmas truce 1914
This is so beautiful.
The men of Europe back then - even in the midst of a most horrendous war - had something great in common. I wonder whether there would be a Christmas truce in today's Europe. I hope they still do share this common bond, stronger than nationalism.
The men of Europe back then - even in the midst of a most horrendous war - had something great in common. I wonder whether there would be a Christmas truce in today's Europe. I hope they still do share this common bond, stronger than nationalism.
The Christmas Creche
I'm building the stable for my nativity set. Here are some photos of a collection of nativity scenes that I came across at Milan's Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio (St. Ambrose) on the 5th of July.
And this was taken at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of the Angels - the original one!) at Assisi on 27th of June.
St Francis is intmately linked with the nativity scene:
Read the rest here.
I'd love to be in Italy at this time of the year:
Source: Italian Notebook
More from Naples:
Close up of Presepe Scene in Santa Chiara Church
(James Martin, Europe Travel )
More photos.
And this was taken at the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Saint Mary of the Angels - the original one!) at Assisi on 27th of June.
St Francis is intmately linked with the nativity scene:
In the year 1223, St. Francis, a deacon, was visiting the town of Grecio to celebrate Christmas. Grecio was a small town built on a mountainside overlooking a beautiful valley. The people had cultivated the fertile area with vineyards. St. Francis realized that the chapel of the Franciscan hermitage would be too small to hold the congregation for Midnight Mass. So he found a niche in the rock near the town square and set up the altar. However, this Midnight Mass would be very special, unlike any other Midnight Mass.
St. Bonaventure (d. 1274) in his Life of St. Francis of Assisi tells the story the best:
It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem.
Read the rest here.
I'd love to be in Italy at this time of the year:
In 18th century Naples, creating presepi developed into a fine art, with figures carved in wood or formed in terracotta by leading sculptors and included entire villages, with houses, food, musicians, all the shops and artigiani (artisans) and craftspeople of that time period:
Source: Italian Notebook
More from Naples:
Village Scene in Via San Gregorio Armeno
(James Martin, Europe Travel)
Santa Chiara Church Presepe
(James Martin, Europe Travel )Close up of Presepe Scene in Santa Chiara Church
(James Martin, Europe Travel )
More photos.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
"A mere toenail in the body politic"
"Done-and-dusted", "the great tinkling smithy of policy", "the blessed sponge of amnesia has wiped the slate of memory"
What an eccentric speaker! :D
Hahaha. I love how turns on Paxman at the end, although in a very joking way. Even Paxman's amused.
What an eccentric speaker! :D
Hahaha. I love how turns on Paxman at the end, although in a very joking way. Even Paxman's amused.
Changing Labour
I'm reading John Rentoul's biography of Tony Blair - I'm still only halfway through the book, and Blair hasn't yet been elected Prime Minister. But I think many of the very interesting parts are already behind me: his rise through the ranks of the Labour Party, his battle to change the party and his strategy to win the 1997 elections.
Here's part of a documentary that shows some clips from this period of Blair's career.
Here's part of a documentary that shows some clips from this period of Blair's career.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Le March des Rois
I haven't been posting many Christmas hymns this year. Advent just blew past this time around. Very unusual :(
I'll be posting some of the songs I heard at yesterday's excellent concert at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.
The choir processed to the front of the cathedral singing La Marche des Rois. It's an awe-inspiring tune. Very regal - which is fitting since it tell of the march of the three magi:
I'll be posting some of the songs I heard at yesterday's excellent concert at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.
The choir processed to the front of the cathedral singing La Marche des Rois. It's an awe-inspiring tune. Very regal - which is fitting since it tell of the march of the three magi:
Rationalism
'It is not a good thing when man overstrains his reason and tries to reduce to rational order matters that are not susceptible of rational treatment. Then there arise ideals such as those of the Americans or of the Bolsheviks. Both are extraordinarily rational, and both lead to a frightful oppression and impoverishment of life, because they simplify it so crudely. The likeness of man, once a high ideal, is in process of becoming a machine-makde article.'
- Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, Basil Creighton tr. (London: Penguin, 1927), 219.
- Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, Basil Creighton tr. (London: Penguin, 1927), 219.
The bourgeoisie
Now what we call 'bourgeois', when regarded as an element always to be found in human life, is nothing else than the search for a balance. It is the striving after a mean between the countless extremes and opposites that arise in human conduct. If we take any one of these coupled opposites, such as piety and profligacy, the analogy is immediately comprehensible. It is open to a man to give himself up wholly to spiritual views, to seeking after God, to the ideal of saintliness. On the other hand, he can equally give himself up entirely to the life of instinct, to the lusts of the flesh, and so direct all his efforts to the attainment of momentary pleasures. The one path leads to the saint, to the martyrdom of the spirit and surrender to God. The other path leads to the profligate, to the martyrdom of the flesh, the surrender to corruption. (64)Now it is between the two, in the middle of the road, that the bourgeois seeks to walk. He will never surrender himself either to lust or to asceticism. He will never be a martyr nor agree to his own destruction. On the contrary, his ideal is not to give up but to maintain his own identity. He strives neither for the saintly nor its opposite. The absolute is his abhorrence. He may be ready to serve God, but not by giving up the fleshpots. He is ready to be virtuous, but likes to be easy and comfortable in this world as well. In short, his aim is to make a home for himself between two extremes in a temperate zone without violent storms and tempests ad in this he succeeds though it be at the cost of the intensity of life and feeling which an extreme life affords. A man cannot live intensely except at the cost of the self. Now the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self (rudimentary as his own may be). And so at the cost of intensity he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire. The bourgeois is consequently by nature a creature of weak impulses, anxious, fearful of giving himself away and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.
It is clear that this weak and anxious being, in what ever numbers he exists, cannot maintain himself, and that qualities such as his can play no other role in the world than that of a herd of sheep among free roving wolves. Yet we see that, though in times when commanding natures are uppermost, the bourgeois goes at (65) once to the wall, he never goes under; indeed at times he even appears to rule the world. How is this possible? Neither the great numbers of the herd, not the virtue, nor common sense, nor organization could avail it from destruction. No medicine in the world can keep a pulse beating that from the outset was so weak. Nevertheless the bourgeois prospers. Why?
The answer runs: Because of the Steppenwolves. In fact, the vital force of the bourgeois resides by no means in the qualities of its normal members, but in those of its extremely numerous 'outsiders' who by virtue of the extensiveness and elasticity of its ideal it can embrace. There is always a large number of strong and wild natures who share the life of the fold. Our Steppenwolf, Harry, is a characteristic example. He who is developed far beyond the level possible to the bourgeois, he who knows the bliss of meditation no less than the gloomy joys of hatred and self-hatred, he who despises law, virtue, and common sense, is nevertheless captive to the bourgeois and cannot escape it. And so all through the mass of the real bourgeoisie are interposed numerous layers of humanity, many thousands of lives and minds, every one of whom, it is true, would have outgrown it and have obeyed the call to unconditioned life, were they not fastened to t by sentiments of their childhood and infected for the most part with its less intense life; and so they are kept lingering, obedient and bound by obligation and service. For with the bourgeoisie the opposite of the formula for the great is true: He who is not against me is with me.
- Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, Basil Creighton tr. (London: Penguin, 1927), 63-65.
It is clear that this weak and anxious being, in what ever numbers he exists, cannot maintain himself, and that qualities such as his can play no other role in the world than that of a herd of sheep among free roving wolves. Yet we see that, though in times when commanding natures are uppermost, the bourgeois goes at (65) once to the wall, he never goes under; indeed at times he even appears to rule the world. How is this possible? Neither the great numbers of the herd, not the virtue, nor common sense, nor organization could avail it from destruction. No medicine in the world can keep a pulse beating that from the outset was so weak. Nevertheless the bourgeois prospers. Why?
The answer runs: Because of the Steppenwolves. In fact, the vital force of the bourgeois resides by no means in the qualities of its normal members, but in those of its extremely numerous 'outsiders' who by virtue of the extensiveness and elasticity of its ideal it can embrace. There is always a large number of strong and wild natures who share the life of the fold. Our Steppenwolf, Harry, is a characteristic example. He who is developed far beyond the level possible to the bourgeois, he who knows the bliss of meditation no less than the gloomy joys of hatred and self-hatred, he who despises law, virtue, and common sense, is nevertheless captive to the bourgeois and cannot escape it. And so all through the mass of the real bourgeoisie are interposed numerous layers of humanity, many thousands of lives and minds, every one of whom, it is true, would have outgrown it and have obeyed the call to unconditioned life, were they not fastened to t by sentiments of their childhood and infected for the most part with its less intense life; and so they are kept lingering, obedient and bound by obligation and service. For with the bourgeoisie the opposite of the formula for the great is true: He who is not against me is with me.
- Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, Basil Creighton tr. (London: Penguin, 1927), 63-65.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
At its worst
Last year I complained about how the meaning of Christmas is hijacked by commercialism and greed. Here's an example of this at its very worst:
This is not Christmas. It's the very opposite of Christ, his message, and the actual meaning of this holy season.
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Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, O my God, to hear our prayers and grant our desires. Through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Emirates Palace hotel, the luxury Abu Dhabi hotel, has unveiled what is thought to be the world’s most expensive Christmas tree, valued at more than $11m.
The 13-metre fake evergreen tree is located in the hotel’s lobby, and is decorated with silver and gold bows, ball-shaped ornaments and small white lights.
However, the record value of the tree is due to the necklaces, earings and other jewellery draped over its branches.
Khalifa Khouri, owner of Style Gallery, which provided the jewellery, said that the tree held 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones.
This is not Christmas. It's the very opposite of Christ, his message, and the actual meaning of this holy season.
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Hail and blessed be the hour and moment In which the Son of God was born Of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, O my God, to hear our prayers and grant our desires. Through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Here's an excerpt from God and the World - a conversation between Peter Seewald and Cardinal Ratzinger, in honour of today's feast.
Non-Catholics are accustomed to regard devotion to Mary as encroaching upon the position of Jesus", wrote the great English Cardinal John Henry Newman. And even today, sceptical persons believe that an overflowing Marian devotion will supplant the true essence of Christianity, the gospel of Christ himself.
There is one thing we must not forget: it has always been the Mother who reached people in a missionary situation and made Christ accessible to them. That is especially true of Latin America. Here, to some extent, Christianity arrived by way of Spanish swords, with deadly heralds. In Mexico, at first, absolutely nothing could be done about missionary work - until the occurrence of that phenomenon at Guadalupe, and then the Son was suddenly near by way of his Mother.
This was the remarkable discovery of an image of the Madonna. You can say it turned things around completely, and without it the christianizing of the continent would have been unthinkable.
Yes, and suddenly the Christian religion no longer wears the terrible face of the conqueror but the kindly face of the Mother.
In Latin America, even today, these two foci of the popular piety are influential: first, a love for the Mother of God; second, identifying oneself with the suffering Christ. In these two figures, in which faith is able to express itself, people have been able to grasp that this is not a God of Conquerors, but the true God, who is also their Redeemer. That is why Mary is so dear to Catholics in Latin America especially. And we ought not to accuse them, from our rational perspective, of having thereby distorted Christianity. On that point in particular they have understood it aright. They have, that is, recognized the true countenance of God, who wants to save us, who is not on the side of the destroyers. Thus they were able to become Christians on the basis of their own seeing and understanding, without having to suffer the gospel, so to speak, as a religion of colonialism.
Non-Catholics are accustomed to regard devotion to Mary as encroaching upon the position of Jesus", wrote the great English Cardinal John Henry Newman. And even today, sceptical persons believe that an overflowing Marian devotion will supplant the true essence of Christianity, the gospel of Christ himself.
There is one thing we must not forget: it has always been the Mother who reached people in a missionary situation and made Christ accessible to them. That is especially true of Latin America. Here, to some extent, Christianity arrived by way of Spanish swords, with deadly heralds. In Mexico, at first, absolutely nothing could be done about missionary work - until the occurrence of that phenomenon at Guadalupe, and then the Son was suddenly near by way of his Mother.
This was the remarkable discovery of an image of the Madonna. You can say it turned things around completely, and without it the christianizing of the continent would have been unthinkable.
Yes, and suddenly the Christian religion no longer wears the terrible face of the conqueror but the kindly face of the Mother.
In Latin America, even today, these two foci of the popular piety are influential: first, a love for the Mother of God; second, identifying oneself with the suffering Christ. In these two figures, in which faith is able to express itself, people have been able to grasp that this is not a God of Conquerors, but the true God, who is also their Redeemer. That is why Mary is so dear to Catholics in Latin America especially. And we ought not to accuse them, from our rational perspective, of having thereby distorted Christianity. On that point in particular they have understood it aright. They have, that is, recognized the true countenance of God, who wants to save us, who is not on the side of the destroyers. Thus they were able to become Christians on the basis of their own seeing and understanding, without having to suffer the gospel, so to speak, as a religion of colonialism.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
"And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh"
I attended Jason's and Regina's wedding this morning. It was simple, genuine, intimate, and I also was glad to see so many old faces, people I had got to know in my first few years in NUS.
I think Regina was head of CSS Science Comm when I was in Year 1. I remember her being very kind and friendly - and I remember the lunchtime Rosaries that were organized in the month of October. Such friendly seniors helped a lot when I was a freshman.
A few photos. More here.
Nice photo:
Paul was the best man. Another great photo:
God bless Jason and Regina as they start their lives as a married couple.
I think Regina was head of CSS Science Comm when I was in Year 1. I remember her being very kind and friendly - and I remember the lunchtime Rosaries that were organized in the month of October. Such friendly seniors helped a lot when I was a freshman.
A few photos. More here.
Nice photo:
Paul was the best man. Another great photo:
God bless Jason and Regina as they start their lives as a married couple.
Friday, December 10, 2010
"This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate"
In the centrepiece of a simple, moving ceremony watched by an audience of 1,000 people, among them Norway's king and queen and a clutch of fellow Chinese dissidents, the chairman of the Nobel committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, placed the citation and medal on a simple, blue upholstered seat on a small row of chairs to the right of the hall's stage.
"We regret that the laureate is not present here today," Jagland told the audience, who stood several times during the ceremony to applaud.
"He is in isolation in a prison in north-east China. Nor can the laureate's wife, Liu Xia, or his closest relatives be here with us. No medal or diploma will therefore be presented here today. This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate. We congratulate Liu Xiaobo with this year's peace prize."
From the Guardian.
China has distinguished itself even against the standards of Nazi Germany
This morning, in Oslo city hall's marble auditorium, an empty chair will stand in for a man who could not get there: Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A glittering ceremony will acknowledge Liu's fight for human rights and democracy in his homeland, but he will learn nothing of it. He will remain locked up in a Chinese prison for another 10 years for "subversion against the state." Even his relatives were prevented from leaving China to attend the ceremony in Oslo. Liu's wife is under house arrest; other family members are under police surveillance.
China has managed to distinguish itself even against the standards of Nazi Germany, a feat unmatched since 1936, when Germany prevented journalist Carl von Ossietzky from leaving the country to accept the Peace Prize.
The Nazi regime made do with keeping Ossietzky (or anyone representing him) away from the award ceremony, but China has gone further. It has demanded that other countries boycott the Oslo ceremony and then for good measure it hastily minted its own peace prize.
Read the entire story here.
Carl von Ossietzky
Liu Xiaobo
Both photos from Getty, about 75 years apart.
Bloviating
The Political Zoology Field Guide - I loved these when I saw it several years ago. Check them all out here.
Lipus Blatherus can apparently be found outside the Senate too:
.
I'm not judging the content of his diatribe. But gosh why does he have to talk so much??! He could have said what he was trying to say in half the time, and subjected us to less of that nauseating smugness and pomposity. From the way he ends, it's obvious that he's trying to imiate another very famous journalist. But Olbermann, you're no Edward R. Murrow.
Lipus Blatherus can apparently be found outside the Senate too:
.
I'm not judging the content of his diatribe. But gosh why does he have to talk so much??! He could have said what he was trying to say in half the time, and subjected us to less of that nauseating smugness and pomposity. From the way he ends, it's obvious that he's trying to imiate another very famous journalist. But Olbermann, you're no Edward R. Murrow.
Roman graffiti
Came across this from Time:
Farther from the centre of the city:
The trains, decked in graffiti - they even manage to paint very inaccessible parts of the metro tunnels:
Sometime during our trip I commented that there should be some Christian graffiti too. And then, two days before we left, just outside the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Wall:
Viva il Papa Ratzinger!
Farther from the centre of the city:
The trains, decked in graffiti - they even manage to paint very inaccessible parts of the metro tunnels:
Sometime during our trip I commented that there should be some Christian graffiti too. And then, two days before we left, just outside the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Wall:
Viva il Papa Ratzinger!
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