Christmas
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If we had been told merely to fear [the coming of Christ], we should have mistaken a slavish dread, or the gloom of despair, for godly fear; and if we had been told merely to rejoice, we should perhaps have mistaken a rude freedom and familiarity for joy; but when we are told both to
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Not about, but on the occasion of: the complaint I made last year about the thing called "Holiday": The American Christmas has always, or at least since the middle of the last century or so, had its secularized aspect. That was fine: we were a predominantly Christian country, but plenty of people who did not
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One from Joseph Ratzinger, as he was then (1959): It is the birthday of the undefeated Light, the winter solstice of world history, which gives us the certainty amid the rise and decline of this story that here, too, the light will not die, but has already achieved the final victory. Christmas drives out of
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Christ the King church, Daphne, Alabama.
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And not much liking "the holidays." Every year I get more annoyed with the de-Christianized winter festival formerly known as Christmas. Unfortunately the advertising for that season begins in mid-November, which means that it's during football season, which is almost the only time I watch standard TV and am exposed to any great number of
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EPIPHANY POEM The red kingCame to a great water. He said,Here the journey ends.No keel or skipper on this shore. The yellow kingHalted under a hill. He said,Turn the camels round.Beyond, ice summits only. The black kingKnocked on a city gate. He said,All roads stop here.These are gravestones, no inn. The three kingsMet under a
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It must be close to twenty years ago that I wrote a science-fiction story in which Christmas had been replaced by "Holiday." (That wasn't a major part of the story, just a passing remark by a character.) I thought it was clever at the time, but it soon became an interesting and personal reiteration of
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I hate to admit it, but for four or five years now I've been slowly turning into one of those people who feel depressed at the approach of Christmas. Still, I usually find that I snap out of it, more or less, by the time the day itself arrives–if I don't feel so very good,
Light On Dark Water 