Do you hear what I hear?

The first called ...

Buon Natale amici!

Deep in thought ...

Gone are the days of instant romance 

And the nights of slow goodbyes 

That was a time of life when foxy was the dance 

But then you got wise to all my lies...

- Papillon

I didn't finish my Christmas cards.

I put the tree up, but I didn't finish decorating the house.

A friend asked if I was in

'the Christmas spirit'.

I am actually,

it's just different.

I've been thinking of the last Christmas of Margaret of Cortona.

She was hounded by gossip and rumors and suspicion to the end of her days.  The friars in Cortona sent her away to be near an isolated friary because of false accusations.  Seems timely in our day when so many are hounded by false accusations.  I mentioned this in a comment to someone on FB - I still can't articulate my thoughts on it very well, but I am reminded of St. Francis and his exposition of 'perfect joy' to Br. Leo.  It is good to keep in mind at Christmas.

The saints, in their abject poverty were especially open to understand the true meaning of Christmas.  Christ, born in the poorest conditions, no place to lay his head.  It wasn't at all cozy.

This is Christmas!

-source-

Angels surround the Word made flesh.

This is the perfect creche.   It is the focus, the center of the celebration - the Word made Flesh and dwells among us.  I wish our churches looked like this, I wish Mass was celebrated like this.

This is why I began to paint icons years ago, just when most of the images were removed from churches, and many of the altars desacralized.  I was trying to fill a hole ... I began collecting religious art and relics which had been tossed out and put up for sale online.  I looked for and began to paint Spanish Colonial and Baroque religious art. I was trying to replicate what had been removed from the churches; but even more deeply, I was trying to make present something only priests can do  - only priests can confect the Eucharist.  Only priests make Christ present among us as he truly was at Bethlehem, body, blood, soul, and divinity.

This is what we try to imitate at Christmas with our decorations and nativities - yet Christ is the Mass ... 'I AM the Bread of Life'.  The Mass is Christ's Mass.  We come to adore, to worship and to receive.  Our altars should reflect this splendor, this glory, that is Christ's Mass.

This is a splendid nativity

many of us would want,

yet we had it in our churches

when the Blessed Sacrament was 

reserved on a splendid altar

and the Eucharist was

solemnly

celebrated in mystery

and beauty.

This is fascinating: The Sufi mystic who spoke about Medjugorje.

Islamic Virgin Mary and Jesus.

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent ...

Days before Christmas.

This morning.

I came across an interesting article on Hasan Shushud, a Sufi mystic.  I don't know a lot about Sufism, but I know it is the mystical dimension of Islam, and of great interest to Christian contemplatives.  I've read a few stories and met religious people who are attracted to aspects of the spirituality, but I've never been attracted to such 'ways'.

What is so interesting in this story is how closely it echoes the events at Medjugorje.  I'm just taking it at face value.  With all the troubles in the world and the Church - the message of peace is so needed in our time.

Today's Gospel of the Visitation, as well as the Collect - which is in fact the Rosary prayer - we glimpse the meaning of the whole, as it were - we glimpse the meaning of Christmas.  Providentially, the announcement that Bl. Teresa of Calcutta will be canonized next year fits right in with what I've been trying to articulate.  It fits in with the purported messages of Our Lady at Medjugorje.

Mother Teresa's holiness - her contemplative union with God - seems to me to be perfectly suited to our times.  In fact, much is being made of her 'dark night' and doing so much for God without any consolation, without any spiritual experiences or sensible experience of faith.  That is a trait so much in keeping with the greatest saint of modern times, St. Therese of the Child Jesus.  Little Therese was Mother Teresa's patron - and she did pretty much what Therese said she would do if she hadn't been called to Carmel.  She would sit at the table of sinners and unbelievers, go into the brothels to demonstrate and tell of God's mercy.  Catholic theologians do a disservice to Christians in acting as if this 'living on faith alone' is somehow not THE WAY of perfection.  It animated Teresa as perfectly as it animated the Blessed Virgin who journeyed 'today' to visit Elizabeth.  Teresa of Calcutta lived the mystery of the Visitation, anticipating the changes in the Church and religious life, as well as the spirituality flowing from the phenomenon of Medjugore.

And she was poor - and her daughters remain poor, detached - never fundraising, renouncing private ownership - sharing the life of the poor ... praying the rosary as they go.

The purported messages from Medjugorje emphasize a similar way of prayer in ordinary, daily life.  It emphasizes the way of peace and accompanying one another, no matter our religion, no matter our station in life, or our 'worthiness', in seeking the Kingdom of Heaven.  I'm not a Medjugorje devotee, but the essential message seems to me to be played out right now - especially during the pontificate of Pope Francis who calls us to go out to the peripheries - as Our Lady did in her journey to Elizabeth, and her journey to Bethlehem, and her journey to Egypt and back again to Nazareth - until finally, she climbed Golgatha, to accompany her son unto death.

Long introduction to the story that caught my attention today - the Fourth Sunday in Advent.  

Click the source after the section I've reprinted below.  It doesn't mean I am promoting the apparitions or that anyone has to believe it.  I was simply impressed by this particular story - which coincided with a few things I've been thinking about - as noted above.  Otherwise, I await the decision of the Church.  That said, I don't think the contempt, scorn or condemnations coming from lay people against those involved in Medjugorje is pleasing to God, and is probably something that repels most people may be searching for God.

A long and decisive apparition predicted

With Medjugorje celebrating the 30th anniversary of the apparitions this year, Hasan Shushud’s prediction of a long apparition has also come true. So has his prediction that peace would be a main topic of the apparition:

“You will see that Mary will suffer, wait, hope and continue to call for a long time, as she is inviting to the way of peace. During this period Satan will get the opportunity for his plans of godlessness, chaos, suffering, death”, Hasan Shushud told Inger Jensen.

In recent years, the Virgin Mary’s suffering and waiting have been particularly expressed in messages passed on by visionary Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo.

“Mary needs a firm, truthful “yes!” to her plan, and this will not be given at the beginning. Therefore, Mary will be forced to take up a stand-by position. During the period when Mary suffers rejection, earthquakes the like of which have never been seen before will occur. Storms more violent than ever. Thunderstorms. Flooding. Fatal, contagious diseases. And egoism, materialism and violence will pervert societies”, Hasan Shushud continued.

“If Mary and her plans are accepted quickly, the suffering will be short-lived. If, however, Rome does not meet Mary with the needed firm, truthful acceptance when God grants to Rome the time and freedom to choose, then God once more will have offered peace, joy and love in vain, and mankind will feel the consequences of Satan’s plans”, Inger Jensen recounts Hasan Shushud’s words from 1980. - Source

Do not let sad Christians take your joy away...

And watch out for blog-rage.

The other day I closed comments because some people, convinced of their own self-righteousness, insisted upon denigrating others who disagreed with them.  When the Catechism says gay people must be treated/accepted with respect, it doesn't stipulate - "yeah but, only those gay people who live chaste and celibate lives in accord with Catholic teaching."

The rude, inflammatory comments are not limited to my blog by any means - most online Catholics know which sites advocate that stuff.  Last evening I came across a comment at Fr. Blake's blog very similar to the comments I get - the comment on Father's blog was in reaction to the controversy surrounding the Franciscan Friars of The Immaculate, the author of the comment spewed the following venom:

If I were to meet Fr Volpi I would spit in face, no more 'Holy Obedience', no more 'offering it up' the time has come to storm St Peter's and throw the diseased pieces of filth such as Fr.Volpi and the sodomite clergy into the gutter of Rome after being ritually humiliated (like Mr Banks in Mary Poppins).  - comment @ 1:48 am

Fr. Blake kindly admonished the author.

The other day, a friend of this blog, offered this:

[...] The time to be nice is over. The time to be truly Catholic and call out these heretics and evildoers, like ____, is now. I'm a fighter, and I will no longer take ____ crap, or crap from any other homosexual activists attempting to destroy my Church and my life. No more being nice to you and no more accepting any of your bullshit.

It is time to stand up to them. We need to lock arms and protect our Church like the brave men in Argentina. These vipers will not stop until they destroy the local Church. - comment removed from post Archbishop Nienstedt

After I removed the comment and closed the com box, my friend responded on another post with this:

Wow. No place for zealots. No place for those who choose to stand up to bullies and heretics, huh? Wow, Terry.

Fact is, there really is no room for zealots - especially when charity is lacking.  There is a good zeal and a bad zeal.  These examples, and the like I see elsewhere on angry blogs, which are also more or less encouraged by the blog administrator, are no longer permitted here.  It seems to me, such comments lack humility and charity. 

Maybe people are just not feeling in a 'Christmas mood'?

A few of my friends, online and off, tell me they just aren't into it.  I think that is what may contribute to their feeling sad - in part of course, because we all get sad from time to time.  We are so accustomed to having our way or taking some medication for sadness when we don't get our way, or feel real perky, we can blame it on all that is wrong with the world.  But listen - the world has always been wrong, life isn't a box of chocolates, Forest.

When we feel good, and everything is going our way, we think we are sitting on top of the world.  We are so good, God is so good, I can see Russia from my house.  Squeaky clean good!  I've had very fervent religious, holy-holy friends who were so charitable they could gently correct me - out of charity - and it didn't even hurt.  A week later, when they were in the deepest stages of their dark night of the soul - not the purgative one, but the "I'm suffering for all the sins of the world expiation-reparation-victim-soul kind.  The same correction I might have received so sweetly the week before can be suddenly slapped across my face with a vengeance!  Sr. Mary Toonces is pissed off and Jesus is so not nice!  Get what I'm saying?  When you're in a good place - you are so good.  When you are in a bad place, you think you are better than you are.

You don't know of what spirit you speak.

Jesus told the Apostles that - after they asked if they should call down fire from heaven on their enemies.  He rebuked them.  Yet we little lay people imagine ourselves so holy that we can shout prayers at the top of our lungs in the Cathedral.  We can miss Mass on Sunday and on Monday tell off a heretic.  We can get drunk one night, and the next morning after we did the dirty-dirty with ourselves, call out a creepy fornicating SOB.

Homosexuality can make us nuts.

It may not be on APA's list of disorders any longer, but it sure seems to drive us all nuts.  Especially if you're religious, and even more so, if you are rigidly religious.  Many traditional Catholics fit that category as well - don't bend the rules, don't strain the rubrics - it is the only thing I have to support myself.  Not all trads are like that, TO BE SURE - but some are.  They do weird things and see things so much differently than other, normal mortals.  Sometimes they know better than the Church, they know so much they can tell the Church how to govern religious orders, such as the FFI.  But I digress.

The other day I told some one that zealously Catholic gays have a tough time of it because they are fighting the spiritual combat on so many fronts.  Though they can adhere strictly to tradition and prefer the loveliness of the Extraordinary Form of Mass with all of the rubrics and decorum, their preference cannot be their stability.  Sometime, as it happened in times of persecution, war, and history's disasters, our structures, our supports can be taken away.  We need faith, a deeper faith, and complete dependence upon God.  We need to accept from God whatever he permits to befall us.

Gay people who struggle and fall, who cling to this or that stage of freedom from unwanted same sex attraction wage a fierce battle in our culture.  We defend ourselves from innumerable assaults to the senses, the spirit, and most of all the emotions and the heart.  Our struggle for chastity and wholeness can sometimes make us feel totally nuts - wondering who am I?  What am I?  The saints asked the same questions.

That can scare us at times. 

When we are scared, we react, we do and say things to defend and protect ourselves.  The saints did too.  The saints struggled with their own demons.  What we can lack is charity, and without doubt - humility - and bam!  We fall.  If we don't fall into sin, we can fall into sadness and gloom - acedia.  All because we were scared we already failed in this or that, or we were afraid we might fall, or we just do not have the courage to go on.  Often because we were scared that we might be the only person in the world suffering.  Or because we were scared to admit we were envious that other people could be so happy and gay, yet we are so miserable because we can't accept that way of life for ourselves.

Maybe I'm way off, maybe it is just me - maybe the rest of you are already saints, already perfect, and already completely happy and content.  Good for you. 

If the house is all swept and cleaned and tidied, be on guard. - Luke 11:25

Over the years - the decades, especially before the grace of the Holy Year in 2000, I also vacillated from time to time on these issues the world has a way of bombarding us with on a daily basis.  Even today I can begin to second guess myself.  We are so deeply influenced by the culture and the general acceptance of homosexuality as normative.  We see or hear of others living wholesome lives with their partners, sharing benefits, while we can wonder to ourselves, how can they justify it?  How can they be so happy?  If they can do that, how can it be wrong? 

It's the times we live in - we can't help being influenced and questioning why we are like this.  I for one cannot understand gay Catholics who say - it doesn't matter how or why I'm gay - I'm just gay.  Nevertheless, that is their affair - maybe they don't want to know.  That said - these things impact us in our spiritual combat - which, as I said before, is fought on many fronts. 

However, as St. John of the Cross said, no one can escape drinking somewhat of the cup of the Whore of Babylon, and I might add, nor avoid accepting the Mark of the Beast.  Which means all of us live in a  constant struggle.  Sometimes we seek to protect ourselves in strict enclosures which offer stern adherence to rules and rituals - only to collapse from exhaustion and depression.  We need to pray very much, and get up from every fall.  God is humble and allows us to fall in order to become more humble after we repent and recognize that he alone can save us.

We can never say, 'the time to be nice is over, no more obedience, no more offering it up'.

Therefore, always try to remember how incredibly patient God is to you and me, and remember how patient he has been over the years, even when the temptation to apostatize over some triviality seemed to overwhelm us, and maybe even swept us away for a time.  How many sinners have returned to their old way of life and sought to justify themselves and work out for themselves a religion easier to practice?  Sometimes they come back.

We must try never to fall into that trap wherein we believe we are so safe and secure, so spiritual and religious,  that we can condemn others.  I know we can condemn sin, and that it is a work of mercy to admonish the sinner, but we need charity and humility to do it efficaciously.  

A Harsh Christmas - A reflection from Alfred Delp, S.J.

"This year the temptations toward a picturesque Christmas are probably reduced."

The harshness and coldness of life have hit us with a previously unimaginable force. Some of us, whose homes cannot even offer the cold shelter of the stable in Bethlehem anymore, perhaps begin to forget the picturesque little ox and little donkey and to approach the quesiton of what Christmas is really all about. Is the world more beautiful and life healthier because of that first Christmas? Because the angels finally and publicly sang their Gloria? Because the shepherds awestruck, ran and adored? Because King Herod panicked and murdered little children?

Release of tension (whether through avoidance, indifference, resignation, insensitivity, physical atrophy, destruction of the metaphysical nerves, overexertion,or weariness with life) is one of the deadly wounds from which modern man is bleeding to death. Eliminating the tension that strained one to the last nerve may have seemed life a relief at first, like liberation from an uncomfortable burden. Yet over time, one cannot avoid recognizing that these burdens are among the fixed conditions and prerequisites of life. - Alfred Delp, Letters
 

Title and quotes taken from A Spacious Place, by Christopher Page, 2 December 2010.  Rev. Page wrote:

If we are to truly live, we need to be willing to hold the tension of the fact that things are not always as we might hope they would be. Life is often painful, difficult, and messy. “These burdens are among the fixed conditions and prerequisites of life.” We can rail against them, fight with all our might to make the world different than we know it is, or we can accept the realities of life as they present themselves and live from that place of honesty, openness and surrender.

Like Father Delp in Germany in 1944, many people in the world today can only anticipate a harsh Christmas. It is important, particularly for those of us for whom Christmas may be less of a struggle, to hold tenderly the reality of suffering that this season embodies for so many. - Christopher Page

 

A dusting of snow...

It is actually snowing in Minneapolis today - we've not had a significant snowfall for weeks - it has been warm and the landscape had returned to shades of brown and grey - but today there is snow.  Very Christmassy!

Art: Source

Pre-Christmas prep... the last day.

Christmas Cards.

I love them.  I think of them as little gifts - even the photo cards.  Maybe those especially.  I once disliked photo cards - but in these days when fewer and fewer people send cards - they are more special than ever.  They even appear on NYSD - which means they are now chic?  Nah.

 Smile.

Still time to get a tree...

I didn't do a tree this year - but I did decorate.  Garland on the mantel, with santos and candles; candles in every window, and garland around the Dresden embellished front door.  It's fun, but low key.

I think the secret of Christmas is to accept things as they happen - to avoid placing limits upon what and how the holidays are 'supposed' to be.  On the other hand, it's important to avoid the sometimes overwhelming tendency to place unreal expectations upon how Christmas should be celebrated - at home, in church, in the public square, and so on. 

Christmas happens.  Let it.

Photo: The last Christmas trees.  New York Social Diary  

The thing about e-card Christmas greetings...

They all land in my junk/spam box.

So a big thank you to all of you who have sent them - but I never see them.  Nope.  I do not even know who sends them.  But it's the thought that counts... so thanks.

Merry Christmas!

Hildegard of Bingers

It appears the Holy Father intends to canonize the 12th century mystic and declare her a Doctor of the Church.  Story here.

I'll drink to that!

What?

Poor Christmas: Making things.

Making things from scrap and Dresden trim.

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Dresden trim is made of embossed paper, gilded with metallic foil. This type of trim has been used as ornament in reliquaries from the 17th century, especially in Italy, although the Germans specialized in its production since the 18th century. Popular holiday uses include the application of trim on hen's eggs, or glass and papier-mache orbs to create Faberge-style ornaments; it has also been applied to garments worn by statues of saints, Neapolitan creche figures, or as embellishment upon Christmas cards and so on. Scrap is similar, again embossed paper figures depicting almost anything - from insects to people, buildings and flowers, but instead of the metallic finish, these are colorful. Uses for these materials in crafts is almost limitless.

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I have trouble finding these little treasures locally, although I have found several resources online. The best happens to be Blumchen's Dresden Trim Shop. Another very good resource is Victorian Scrap - their inventory appears to be a bit more extensive. The term "scrapbook" derives from this material. It was a popular hobby to collect scrap and arrange it in a book, with poetry, stories, and reminiscences.

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Image: A page of Dresden Santa's, the stamped, die-cut figures need to be cut and trimmed from the stock.

Christmas meme.

Superficial question: What are your favorite things at Christmas, and that kind of stuff?

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I get to go first! (I invented it.)

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1) What"s your favorite Christmas music - you can only name 3 different genre, style, songs, what have you:

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*Motown, Beach Boys, and Renaissance Christmas.

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2) Favorite Christmas Carol:

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*Angels we have heard, or whatever that title is.

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3) Favorite Christmas movie:

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*"Christmas Vacation" - what else!

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4) What makes you cry at Christmas?

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* Beautiful Italian Bambinos, and old people and young men or women kneeling and praying before the creche - oh, and little kids and babies at Mass - even if they are misbehaving, loud, crying or commanding attention.

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5) Do you have a real tree or an artificial tree?

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*Both.

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6) What is your favorite type of decoration?

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*Old World European traditional.

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6) What is your favorite Christmas Eve food?

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*Bacala - Italian breaded and fried cod. Angel hair pasta sauteed in olive oil with garlic, anchovies, and pine nuts - served with greens, while popping lupine, and stuffing down Italian bread.

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7) Favorite style of creche?

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*Authentic Neapolitan - I just cannot afford it. Once I had an antique shepherd which I sold in order to get money to pay medical bills - and that was when I had insurance.

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(8) Do you believe in Santa?

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*YES! He is St. Nicholas and is in disguise in modern times because of creepy people who can't tolerate any mention of saints. - some guy named Luther f-ed that up for kids.

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(9) Do you go to Church Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? And the same question can be applied to when you open gifts.

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* I once went to church on both days, now I usually go to the earliest Mass on Christmas morning.

* When I did gifts, it was always after Mass on Christmas Eve.

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10) What do you think of commercial Christmas?

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* Thanks for asking. First off - many people today would never even know it was Christmas without the ads, the movies, the programs on TV, despite the fact that most of the people who work in these industries turn to alcohol to cope - while feeling more holiday-ish, even though they are on thee verge of a nervous breakdown from constant replay of bad Christmas music and mandated "Happy Holidays!" while uttering "Bitch" under their breath. Yep - and then, thank God that even with pagans and secularists, they too keep the Christmas spirit alive for many. many people. Though they bitch about the holiday and public displays, even the biggest air-head on the planet has to wonder what all the fuss is about - and wow! They investigate the matter and realize that Christmas is really all about the birth of Christ. So yeah. I like commercial Christmas. No one does it like NYC either.

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11) What is your favorite Christmas memory? (This has been asked in other meme but for me it can change from moment to moment... So don't ask again.)

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*When I was in high school and visited my friend's houses on Christmas Eve - I made the trip after my family was safely passed out, and my little brother was asleep. All of my friends were Italian and we would go to midnight Mass and return to one of their houses - usually Linda's. This is how I found out about my favorite foods, and we got to drink home-made vino, and we listened to Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. Then we went downstairs with our own bottle of wine and listened to Motown, the Beach Boys, and believe it or not, more Dean Martin and Sinatra when Linda's dad came down to drink with us.

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12) When do you consider the holidays are over? (Take down decorations and stuff?)

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* Easy - the day after 12th Night, or Epiphany (not liturgical Epiphany).

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That is it folks - my own meme. Do it if you are so inclined. Does ANYONE ever read this blog? Whatever. Happy Christmas!

Poor Christmas: Working without pay...

Heavenly gifts...

Or almost.

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Abbey-Roads recommends online shopping at monk e-gifts. All the product is made by monks and nuns around the United States. How cool is that? I think I may order the Illuminated Lettering Kit.

Christmas Card: Attempt #1

St. Francis at Greccio.
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I don't know if it is too plain and cold for a proper Christmas card? The scan is bad of course - in reality the colours are softer, and the wreath is not cut off. Perhaps if I added a thin gold edging to the composition it would be enough to enrich the card.
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(The figure is after a painting attributed to Antonio Carracci)