Chesterton Quote of the Day

There are innumerable persons with eyeglasses and green garments who pray for the return of the maypole or the Olympian Games. But there is about these people a haunting and alarming something which suggests that it is just possible that they do not keep Christmas. If so, where is the sense of all their dreams of festive traditions? Here is a solid and ancient festive tradition still plying a roaring trade in the streets, and they think it vulgar. If this is so, let them be very certain of this: that they are the kind of people who in the time of the maypole would have thought the maypole vulgar; who in the time of the Canterbury pilgrimage would have thought the Canterbury pilgrimage vulgar; who in the time of the Olympian Games would have thought the Olympian Games vulgar. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that they were vulgar. Let no man deceive himself; if by vulgarity we mean coarseness of speech, rowdiness of behaviour, gossip, horseplay, and some heavy drinking: vulgarity there always was, wherever there was joy, wherever there was faith in the gods.

'Heretics' via Chesterton Day by Day.

Not for nothing am I known in some circles as Joe "D'Exciting Revelry" McDonough.

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In dulci iubilo

...let us our homage show;
our heart's joy reclineth
in praesepio,
and like a bright star shineth
matris in gremio,
Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O.

Yes, Aquinas, There is a Santa Claus (Touchstone)

O Jesu parvule,
I yearn for thee alway,
Hear me, I beseech thee,
O Puer optime!
My prayer let it reach thee,
O Princeps gloriae!
Trahe me post te, trahe me post te.

Hrodulf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Old English Pages)

O Patris caritas,
O Nati lenitas!
Deeply were we stained
per nostra crimina,
But Thou hast for us gained
coelorum gaudia;
O that we were there, O that we were there.

The House of Christmas (G.K. Chesterton)

Ubi sunt gaudia,
In any place but there?
There are angels singing
nova cantica,
There the bells are ringing
in Regis curia;
O that we were there! O that we were there.

-14th century German

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December at Williams...

is blurring through the last two weeks of classes, running from class to rehearsal to dinner to rehearsal to Rosary to homework to sleep; on Friday, the last day of class, dyeing my hair green and telling people that St. Patrick's day fell early this year (the Celtic church and their lunar calendar, you know); returning from dinner and collapsing onto my bed, exhausted; it is also getting up the next morning, a Saturday, to take a self-scheduled Greek exam at 8:30am so that it can be finished in time for a 10:30 rehearsal with an impromptu schola before a two-hour choir rehearsal at 11:00...

Later that day, it is singing carols up and down Spring Street with the Elizabethans, ducking into the post office for our yearly attempt at Handel's Hallelujah chorus (this year, for the first time, with sheet music) and then gathering around and closing our eyes to sing Rachmaninoff's Bogoroditse Devo because it's beautiful enough not to need a reason. That night, sledding down Bee Hill in the light of the not-quite full moon, the lights of Williamstown to the north, the wide dark expanse of Greylock southward, Orion askew in the east, Sirius twinkling madly above the horizon. Then, on Sunday, Lessons and Carols in Thompson Chapel, playing the organ and chanting with the schola and singing with the choir, twice; putting the choir robes away for the last time and hanging the jingle bell ribbon with the first three; I notice two are red, two purple.

Back in the Chapel on Monday for three hours of recording for the next Elizabethans CD, then gathering around the piano to plunk out Christmas carols because we don't want to stop singing if it means studying for exams, or maybe just because we don't want to stop singing. Tuesday and Wednesday, writing a paper, wishing I was more of a writer and less of an obsessive prose stylist; Thursday, two exams and the bittersweet feeling of another semester down. Then three days of throwing together the inaugural online edition of Dappled Things (q.v.), fussing over style sheets and applying endless html tags, searching through my files for appropriate winter photos to replace the autumn leaves motif, finally running outside to capture icicles and snowbound vistas, finally catching the sunlight as it broke through the clouds to illuminate the hills beyond the dark evergreens, administering a little artful cropping to eliminate the roof of the athletic complex just below. Publishing, finally, and settling down to clean my room and pack. Sic transit, indeed. Is it over already?

And how did it get to be almost Christmas so soon?

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Two from GKC

DECEMBER 10th

A MAN must love a thing very much if he not only practises it without any hope of fame or money, but even practises it without any hope of doing it well. Such a man must love the toils of the work more than any other man can love the rewards of it.

'Browning.'

DECEMBER 11th

AMONG all the strange things that men have forgotten, the most universal and catastrophic lapse of memory is that by which they have forgotten that they are living on a star.

'Defendant.'

Chesterton Day by Day

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Almost a Humorous Mystery

In honor of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. (John 8:3-8)

Suddenly a single stone came flying from the crowd. Jesus turned. "Mother, I was trying to make a point!" (apocryphal)

This story, while not found in most manuscripts of John and eventually excluded from the canon, shows that the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (not to be confused with the Virgin Birth) was already present in some form in the early Church. Apart from the admittedly problematic elements associated with Mary throwing stones, from which it is easy to see why it was condemned as apocryphal, the story itself is clearly an affirmation of Mary's immaculate purity and freedom from sin. Of course, a crucial strike against the story was the observation of some theologians that her sinlessness cannot be affirmed through a sinful action (throwing the stone), although others have argued that the action was not sinful, being prescribed by the Law and done in accordance with the literal words of Our Lord. (The Catholic Encyclopedia article inexplicably makes no mention of this debate).

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The Third Humorous Mystery

The Third Humorous Mystery is the Storm at Sea.

Then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When it was evening he was there alone. (Matthew 14:22-23)

Remember what Chesterton said about Jesus going up on a mountain to pray. Clearly it was in a moment of mirth on the mountain that Our Lord decided to go check up on his disciples. A little practical joke would show that there were no hard feelings about their lack of faith in the whole multiplication of the loaves business that afternoon. "You think that was a big deal? Look! Watch me walk on water!" He could just imagine their faces.

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came towards them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear. At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." (14:27-28)

Jesus knew he could count on Peter to blurt out something he'd immediately regret. And don't think He wasn't going to hold him to it.

He said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water towards Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried aloud, "Lord, save me!" (14:29-30)

Omniscience includes knowing when a joke has gone too far, and the Lord is "merciful and gracious... abounding in kindness" (Psalm 103:8).

Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" After they got into the boat, the wind died down. Those who where in the boat did him homage, saying "Truly, you are the Son of God." (14:31-33)

We laugh, of course, but at least Peter got out of the boat when he was called- however much he may have regretted ever speaking up in the first place. Would that we always had the courage to do as much, no matter how strong the wind or high the waves. Ora pro nobis.

(The First and Second Humorous Mysteries)

Photo Credit: Felicity

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Chesterton Quote of the Day

Our wisdom, whether expressed in private or public, belongs to the world, but our folly belongs to those we love.

from 'Browning' via Chesterton Day by Day.

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