O Dawn,
splendor of eternal light,
and sun of justice,
come, and shine
on those seated in darkness,
and in the shadow of death

Continuing Huw Raphael’s O Antiphon Challenge.

As someone who lives in a technologically advanced society, I tend to forget about the fact that we take for granted the ability to turn on a light switch and illumine our lives. This is something that our ancestors would consider to be decadent. In fact, we have ordered our lives around this ability and “burn the midnight oil” and consider as weak those who go to bed early.

Even in this society, we must remember that God and light are entwined. As we hear at Liturgy, God is the “Fountain of all light”. The feast of Theophany (the end of the Christmas Season) is the “Feast of Lights”. We light candles in the darkness of churches to honor God, the light of our world. An especially beautiful moment in the Presanctified Liturgy of Great Lent is when the priest brings out a candle and reminds us “The Light of Christ Illumines All”, and in fact, those newly baptized are called “The Newly Illumined”.

So, as we approach the Nativity of Christ, the Incarnation, the beginning of Christ’s life in our world, we ask him to “shine on those seated in darkness”.

Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae,
et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina
sedentes in tenebris,
et umbra mortis.

Twenty Five Years Ago Today – Today is the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. A quarter of a century. The majority of my life (I was 8 when he died). While I’m a Paul girl, I still can’t believe how much music the world lost with John’s death. I love the fact that he was just coming out of his 70s shell, coming back into the world, and love the songs on Double Fantasy. All of the musical trends that have come and gone since he died, and I can imagine him enjoying and trying them all.

While I have no illusions about John, I am aware of his flaws – he was wickedly sarcastic and enjoyed his words having bite, he was abusive to his first wife, a horrible dad to Julian, and he thought that Yoko could sing. I still admire his art; his love for Yoko and how he tried to do it right the second time, and his work for peace and justice.Photo from Jack Mitchell’s collection


And in words as timely today as the day they were written, one of my favorite secular Christmas songs.

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...




May his Memory be Eternal

Today is the Feast of St. Nicholas I've seen many hagiographies of him posted in his honor, most notably Ian and Presbytera Lisa, so I'll not repeat.

However, I really liked this reflection by St. Nikolai Velimirovch

In icons of St. Nicholas, the Lord Savior is usually depicted on one side
with a Gospel in His hands, and the Most-holy Virgin Theotokos is depicted
on the other side with an episcopal omophorion in her hands. This has a
twofold historical significance: first, it signifies the calling of Nicholas
to the hierarchical office, and second, it signifies his exoneration from
the condemnation that followed his confrontation with Arius. St. Methodius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, writes: ``One night St. Nicholas saw our Savior
in glory, standing by him and extending to him the Gospel, adorned with gold
and pearls. On his other side, he saw the Theotokos, who was placing the
episcopal pallium on his shoulders.'' Shortly after this vision, John the
Archbishop of Myra died and St. Nicholas was appointed archbishop of that
city. That was the first incident. The second incident occurred at the time
of the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea. Unable to stop Arius through
reason from espousing the irrational blasphemy against the Son of God and
His Most-holy Mother, St. Nicholas struck Arius on the face with his hand.
The Holy Fathers at the Council, protesting such an action, banned Nicholas
from the Council and deprived him of all emblems of the episcopal rank. That
same night, several of the Holy Fathers saw an identical vision: how the
Lord Savior and the Most-holy Theotokos were standing around St. Nicholas-on
one side the Lord Savior with the Gospel, and on the other side the
Most-holy Theotokos with a pallium, presenting the saint with the episcopal
emblems that had been removed from him. Seeing this, the fathers were
awestruck and quickly returned to Nicholas that which had been removed. They
began to respect him as a great chosen one of God, and they interpreted his
actions against Arius not as an act of unreasonable anger, but rather an
expression of great zeal for God's truth.


Even though Xavier’s behavior recently has deserved coals, he nonetheless found treats on his bed (we forgot to set out shoes last night) as did Cedric (although the treats didn’t find themselves to his bed until after he left for school). The boys met a special visitor at church on Sunday.

Explore more about St. Nicholas at this wonderful web site and Happy Feast Day!

My office Christmas party was on Friday night, and Eddie and I had a grand time. He’d not seen my dress, as I bought it for the reunion he didn’t go to, and when I put it on, he said “You look like Barbarella”. I’m assuming he meant stylistically, and not that I became, blonde, buxom, and half naked. (a side question – what band (one of my favorites) got their name from the movie Barbarella?)

We do a White Elephant gift exchange, where I became the proud owner of a string of Coors Light lights. For the first time in fifteen years, Eddie is strangely excited to decorate the tree now, which once again proves, be careful what you wish for, you just may get it!

Dancing with my love, it doesn't get better than that! Hope you have an awesome time at the holiday parties you attend this year!