Feast of St. Basil and St. Gregory
Today is the feast day of both St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa, who were brothers. They are as 4th century saints quite late compared to most of those whose feast days fall in the 12 days of Christmas (although Thomas Beckett is even quite a bit later); their role was in resisting the Arian heresy and developing the theology by which the exact nature of the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is understood.
The Feast Day of Sebastian I
The 31st of December was the death day of Pope Sebastian I, later canonized as St. Sebastian I. He was Pope at the time of the conversion of the Roman Empire under Constantine the Great, and as such was an important influence on the Roman Catholic Church as it assumed a new role at the center of Western life.
Also today marks the death day of Pope Benedict XVI. May his soul rest in peace.
Duet
It's hard to beat either Bonnie Raitt or Allison Krauss, but I wouldn't have guessed they'd sing so well together. "You and I were created to be true."
Feast of the Holy Family
This one of the 12 Days of Christmas travels around the calendar. It’s normally the Sunday after Christmas, but when Christmas itself falls on a Sunday it’s 30 December.
The intent of this feast is to celebrate the Holy Family, and to draw inspiration from them for your own family.
The Feast of Thomas a Becket
A martyr, St. Thomas of Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury. I assume that the story is well known here.
Crum’s Grim Hot Sauce
Continuing the theme of women buying me military-themed hot sauces, I received this Christmas the following entries from Crum’s Sauces of Alexandria, VA. This company is Veteran owned and donates 5% of profits to the Green Beret Foundation.
Crum’s Grim is I gather its flagship sauce, made of Carolina Reaper peppers. It’s nicely flavored, and is supported by an array of recipes at their website.
The Peach Habanero sauce is quite pleasant, though not killer-hot.
Recommended.
The Feast of John the Evangelist
The third day of Christmas is the feast day of the author of the Gospel according to John, the one most influenced by Greek philosophy.
"Bach Was A Hired Gun"
A strange line in a piece on sacred music.
Where Beethoven composed for eternity, Bach was a hired gun, concerned day-to-day with writing a banger for church on Sunday and providing for his huge family – 20 children from two marriages (his first wife died in 1720). We can guess, because Bach was hopeless at preserving the music of predecessors at his many postings, that he probably did not expect anyone to keep a record of his.
Bach wrote music of eternal beauty for all of that -- as well as some 'bangers,' as they say.
The High Feast of Christmas
The giant laughter of Christian men-Chesterton, "Ballad of the White Horse"
That roars through a thousand tales,
Where greed is an ape and pride is an ass,
And Jack's away with his master's lass,
And the miser is banged with all his brass,
The farmer with all his flails;
Tales that tumble and tales that trick,
Yet end not all in scorning—
Of kings and clowns in a merry plight,
And the clock gone wrong and the world gone right,
That the mummers sing upon Christmas night
And Christmas Day in the morning.
Merry Christmas
In the spirit of the Midnight Mass, I send you greetings on the earliest hour. Enjoy these songs from last year's Christmas.
Absurdities on Christmas Eve
The local county emergency services administrator has issued a ridiculous and overweening Declaration of Emergency, one forbidding travel on public highways and giving himself the power to issue mandatory evacuations.
The declaration is a classic government response, being too late and too much. It came out at 3:30 this afternoon, but the cold nights were last night and the night before. This afternoon was sunny and pleasant enough for twenty-something weather. Tonight it will be chilly -- teens -- but nothing like the below-zero weather with -20 wind chills we've been having. Tomorrow will be a pretty normal December day, weather-wise.
My favorite part is the order that all emergency services personnel should assist in carrying out this decree. In Canada? There's no way I am going to attempt to 'assist' in making one of the Old Men of the Mountains leave his nice, fire-warmed home on Christmas Eve. He's lived there for seventy years, and has seen cold weather and no power before. Some of the old ones lived up here before there was power. They're safe and warm in their homes, safer and likely warmer than they'd be in any shelter the county cared to throw up anyway. Their kin watch over them, but my experience is that they ask for nothing because they need nothing. There probably aren't enough deputies in the county to move three of them, let alone all the ones in the district.
Here's an equally ridiculous Christmas song in the spirit of the thing.
A Blast from Christmas Past
As usual, Right Click|Open in Separate Tab to get a larger image.
Merry Christmas, all.
Eric Hines
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