Advent on my mind

As the Season of Advent is coming to a close, and the season of Christmas begins, I have read a few articles on line recently that struck a chord with me.  Two by George Weigel, and one by Bishop Robert Barron.

First was Bishop Robert Barron who begins by citing the Mass Readings from the Third Sunday of Advent.  He concludes his article:

Such love is a consequence of grace, of the adventus of Christ, of being dipped into the fire of the Holy Spirit.  To welcome this grace that transfigures nature, to pray for it with all our heart, is what the season of Advent is finally about.

Next, George Weigel wrote an article at First Things.  In his first paragraph he writes:

... First Corinthians and Luke-Acts are built on the same deep theological insight: the incarnation of the Son of God, and his birth, ministry, death and resurrection, turned the world upside-down.

Near the end of his article he writes:

Seeing the world with the world's eyes gets the world out of focus.  Seeing the world through the gospels and their unique optic on reality helps bring what the world mistakenly calls "the real world" into clearer focus.  That kind of "seeing" begins at Christmas.

Finally, at National Review Online, Weigel writes an excellent article about Advent, Christmas, and two figures that are the pivot between "God's revelation to Israel and God's revelation in his Son."

Before closing with a hymn attributed to St Ambrose he writes:

Christmas is a richly symbolic, evocative antidote to the ideology of the imperial, autonomous Self: John the Baptist and Mary bear witness to the Law of the Gift inscribed in creation by the Triune God — the moral truth that fulfillment and human flourishing come through the gift of self, not the assertion of self. 

I recommend reading all three articles in this order.

A Poem with many esses

One of the Psalms, ps 119, has a canto for every letter of the Jewish alphabet.  Each strophe in a given canto begins with that letter.  It is a psalm in praise of the Law of God.

A few years ago I wrote poetry for a few letters of the English alphabet.  Many, but not all, of the lines began with that letter.

I wrote one poem for the letter 'S,' and I titled it using a Jeopardy category scheme.  This is pronounced like eschatology (see eschatology).

The readings from Mass for the last few weeks of the Liturgical year focus on the end times, as they do during the early part of Advent when we are reminded of the two comings of Christ.

I was reminded of this poem repeatedly over the last several weeks, and thought today would be a good day to post it on this blog.

Peggy Noonan and the left's response to the San Bernardino assault

Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal writes an excellent article involving the assault in San Bernardino, the response by members of the political left and its' implications for our 1st amendment freedoms.

Near the end of the article she writes:

Why doesn’t some thoughtful candidate on the Republican side address the issue of shaming and silencing? Why doesn’t someone give a deep and complete speech on what the First Amendment means, how it must be protected, how we pay a daily price for it in terms of anger, hurt, misunderstandings and crudity, but it’s worth it. Why doesn’t someone note that you fight bad speech with better speech, you don’t try to tape up the mouths of an entire country.

You should read the entire article.