Angels

Guariento di Arpo

Looking like clouds.

I was looking at clouds thinking of 40,000 Headmen - I love that song. I look at clouds and like to wonder about angels. Sometimes they look like thousands of cherubs. Although 40,000 Headmen sound like a lot, 40,000 angels would hardly be a large number. Imagine how many angels there are - so many we can't count them. There is a hierarchy of angels - nine choirs - and silly people want to name their angel guardian.

We know relatively nothing about angels - and of course, many people pay no attention to their guardian angel or even know they have one. I know the catechism and theologians tell us what they are - but I'm not talking about studies here.  I want to simply 'wonder' about angels, the angelic life. 

Corrado Giaquinto

Imagine an angel - imagine a cloud. Try to imagine that when you look at clouds on a cloudy day - or when you catch a glimpse of a few wisps of vapor, in an otherwise cloudless sky. There could be 40,000 angels in that little wisp.  "I know just where my feet should go and that's enough for me..."


We don't know what angels are - what are they?  Yes, they are spirits, but what is that?  What do they do?  What did they do before the test?   What is their name - does God know each by name?  Of course he does. Who is God and what is an angel?  What am I? "And soaring high above the clouds I found a golden shrine..."

And soaring high above the clouds ... don't look back.

Like a prayer.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas: Pope St. Sylvester sewed the mouth of a dragon shut.

Sylvester, Pompous Maximus

Yes he dee-id.

Thus as S. Peter had said, S. Silvester did. And when he came to the pit, he descended down one hundred and fifty steps, bearing with him two lanterns, and found the dragon, and said the words that S. Peter had said to him, and bound his mouth with the thread, and sealed it, and after returned, and as he came upward again he met with two enchanters which followed him for to see if he descended, which were almost dead of the stench of the dragon, whom he brought with him whole and sound, which anon were baptized, with a great multitude of people with them.

Story here.

Anyway.

Merry Christmas, dear, brave defenders of the true faith, embattled warriors on the front lines, saving the Church from Pope Francis and the Novus Ordo!

And now, for your listening edification, the solemn Christmas chant for the 7th day of Christmas, originally composed by Sylvester I ... click here.

New Year's Eve trivia:

The dragon's name was Bonnie.

(I bet you thought I'd say Tweety Bird, or Corky.)

Bonus:  Did you know St. Hyginus was the 9th pope?  He promoted good hygiene and mandated hand sanitizers at all the holy water fonts in the catacombs of Rome.

7th Day of Christmas

New Year's Eve.

Nothing.  Means nothing to me.

So anyway - still didn't get your card, Chevy.

Merry Christmas!

The feast of Pope St. Sylvester...

Pope.

Read more here.

"Dissent is opposed to ecclesial communinon."

"Opposition to the teaching of the Church's Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit's gifts."
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113. Teaching moral doctrine involves the conscious acceptance of these intellectual, spiritual and pastoral responsibilities. Moral theologians, who have accepted the charge of teaching the Church's doctrine, thus have a grave duty to train the faithful to make this moral discernment, to be committed to the true good and to have confident recourse to God's grace.

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While exchanges and conflicts of opinion may constitute normal expressions of public life in a representative democracy, moral teaching certainly cannot depend simply upon respect for a process: indeed, it is in no way established by following the rules and deliberative procedures typical of a democracy.  Dissent, in the form of carefully orchestrated protests and polemics carried on in the media, is opposed to ecclesial communion and to a correct understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the People of God. Opposition to the teaching of the Church's Pastors cannot be seen as a legitimate expression either of Christian freedom or of the diversity of the Spirit's gifts. When this happens, the Church's Pastors have the duty to act in conformity with their apostolic mission, insisting that the right of the faithful to receive Catholic doctrine in its purity and integrity must always be respected. "Never forgetting that he too is a member of the People of God, the theologian must be respectful of them, and be committed to offering them a teaching which in no way does harm to the doctrine of the faith".177 - Veritatis Splendor

Seventh Day of Christmas.

This year the Seventh Day of Christmas falls on New Years Eve.
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To be completely frank, I'm not sure why Christians even observe New Years.  However, I'm sure some of my readers can provide an adequate explanation for the adults who read this blog.

Zibn Schvans

Oy!  Looks like they kilt one!

Gettin' ready for New Year's Eve...

An unidentified Twin Cities blogger practicing for her New Year's party.