December 2010
28 posts
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New Year's Titanic Gods
David Bentley Hart in First Things on New Year’s Eve:
Since other writers on this site have already declared their indifference to or hostility towards New Year’s celebrations, I suppose I should avoid doing the same, if only for variety’s sake. The truth is, though, that my family never observed the day when I was growing up, and always made a point of going to bed well before midnight on...
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“To watch the corn grow, and the blossoms set; to draw hard breath over...”
– John Ruskin
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“A mass of legend and literature which increases and will never end has repeated...”
– G. K. Chesterton
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Gloria in Profundis
There has fallen on earth for a token A god too great for the sky. He has burst out of all things and broken The bounds of eternity: Into time and the terminal land He has strayed like a thief or a lover, For the wine of the world brims over, Its splendour is spilt on the sand. Who is proud when the heavens are humble, Who mounts if the mountains fall, If the fixed stars topple and tumble And a...
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A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols →
Playing now on WETA.
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A Christmas Truce →
World War I, Christmas Eve, 1914 and soldiers from both sides are laying down their arms. From the BBC.
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“Writing a book is like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle, unendurably slow at first,...”
– James Richardson
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The Tassels from Newman's Hat →
Eamon Duffy, reviewing John Cornwell’s Newman’s Unquiet Grave: The Reluctant Saint, in the New York Review of Books
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WatchApropos of nothing
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The most magical 77 seconds in all of television
From Michael Cavna’s “Schulz and Co. took a risk, created a classic” in Sunday’s Washington Post. Hat tip to Billy Shand.
Schulz insisted on one core purpose: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” had to be about something. Namely, the true meaning of Christmas. Otherwise, Schulz said, “Why bother doing it?”
Mendelson and Melendez asked Schulz whether he was...
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“Another of the king’s chief men, approving of his wise words and exhortations,...”
– —The Venerable Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (II.xiii)
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From a brief and moving essay by Susan Orlean, Facts of Life, in The New Yorker. Hat tip to Alan.
Sometimes I’m dazzled by how modern and fabulous we are, and how easy everything can be for us; that’s the gilded glow of technology, and I marvel at it all the time. And then my mom will call, and in the course of the conversation she’ll say something disjointed that disturbs me and reminds me of...
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Beloved in Christ, in this season of Advent, let it be our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the Angels, and in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem, to see the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the tale of the loving purposes of God from the first days of our disobedience unto the glorious Redemption brought us by his holy Child;...
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http://www.truegritmovie.com →
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Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news My head’s been wet with the midnight dew I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee He spoke to me in the voice so sweet I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet He called my name and my heart stood still When he said, “John go do My will!” Go tell that long tongue liar Go and tell...
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Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 1, Pathetique, 2nd...
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Dear Boy: A company composed wholly of men of learning, though greatly to be valued and respected, is not meant by the words good company; they cannot have the easy manners and tournure of the world, as they do not live in it. If you can bear your part well in such company, it is extremely right to be in it sometimes, and you will be but more esteemed in other companies for having a place in that;...