We celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family yesterday and it was very good to mark the day with the singing of the great hymn of William Dix, set of course to Greensleeves, that tune at once noble, familiar, and gently reassuring.
What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
The days between the birth and the circumcision of Jesus must have been full ones for Mary and Joseph: crowded with activity, alive with promise, rich in wonder and thanksgiving. They had the full and grateful hearts of new parents. And the full hearts of an Israel that had watched and waited for centuries for the time of singing, in the words of another of Dix's hymns, Alleluia! not as orphans are we left in sorrow now.
Monday, December 30, 2002
I have a weakness for wordplay. I like the sound of language; I like clever puns; I'm one of those sick puppies who will open up Joyce at random just to hear the flow of words.
Russ Mayes writes Who Will Go For Us?, always worth visiting. Why not go now? He's reading Amalgamemnon by Christine Brooke-Rose and kindly posts an excerpt from its riches.
Russ Mayes writes Who Will Go For Us?, always worth visiting. Why not go now? He's reading Amalgamemnon by Christine Brooke-Rose and kindly posts an excerpt from its riches.
Friday, December 20, 2002
Samuel Johnson, in his life of Alexander Pope, refers to "the most painful of all reflections, the remembrance of a crime perpetrated in vain."
It's been in my mind as true of all our crimes, all our sins. All are ultimately in vain, not just at odds with, but mortal weapons aimed at, what we're called to be, and to think on them is to be consumed with shame and remorse. What a great gift and treasure it is to be reborn, to speak from Lamentations 3 in our own life and in our own experience of salvation: It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.
Out of his own dramatic experience of that rebirth, John Newton wrote the great and influential Amazing Grace, with its allusion to John 9:25: I was blind but now I see. Tomorrow is the memorial of Newton's death in London in 1807 and here is the epitaph he wrote and which remains on a marble plaque at St. Mary Woolnoth:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had long laboured to destroy.
He ministered,
Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty-eight years in this Church.
Newton died almost precisely 100 years after the birth of Charles Wesley. Here is another of Newton's hymns which, set to the music of Franz Josef Haydn, takes its place with the greatest of those of Wesley. On the text of Psalm 87:3: Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God!
He, Whose Word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.
See! the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love;
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove:
Who can faint while such a river
Ever flows their thirst t’assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,
Never fails from age to age.
Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear!
For a glory and a cov’ring
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from our banner
Light by night and shade by day;
Safe they feed upon the manna
Which He gives them when they pray.
Blest inhabitants of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, Whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
’Tis His love His people raises,
Over self to reign as kings,
And as priests, His solemn praises
Each for a thank offering brings.
Savior, if of Zion’s city,
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know.
It's been in my mind as true of all our crimes, all our sins. All are ultimately in vain, not just at odds with, but mortal weapons aimed at, what we're called to be, and to think on them is to be consumed with shame and remorse. What a great gift and treasure it is to be reborn, to speak from Lamentations 3 in our own life and in our own experience of salvation: It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.
Out of his own dramatic experience of that rebirth, John Newton wrote the great and influential Amazing Grace, with its allusion to John 9:25: I was blind but now I see. Tomorrow is the memorial of Newton's death in London in 1807 and here is the epitaph he wrote and which remains on a marble plaque at St. Mary Woolnoth:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had long laboured to destroy.
He ministered,
Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty-eight years in this Church.
Newton died almost precisely 100 years after the birth of Charles Wesley. Here is another of Newton's hymns which, set to the music of Franz Josef Haydn, takes its place with the greatest of those of Wesley. On the text of Psalm 87:3: Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God!
He, Whose Word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode.
On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.
See! the streams of living waters,
Springing from eternal love;
Well supply thy sons and daughters,
And all fear of want remove:
Who can faint while such a river
Ever flows their thirst t’assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,
Never fails from age to age.
Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear!
For a glory and a cov’ring
Showing that the Lord is near.
Thus deriving from our banner
Light by night and shade by day;
Safe they feed upon the manna
Which He gives them when they pray.
Blest inhabitants of Zion,
Washed in the Redeemer’s blood!
Jesus, Whom their souls rely on,
Makes them kings and priests to God.
’Tis His love His people raises,
Over self to reign as kings,
And as priests, His solemn praises
Each for a thank offering brings.
Savior, if of Zion’s city,
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in Thy Name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure
None but Zion’s children know.
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Secretary of State William Seward issued the proclamation that incorporated the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing the institution of slavery, into the Constitution of the United States on this date in 1865.
More needed to be done to secure the blessings of freedom and the assurance of legal equality to all citizens, of course, as Frederick Douglass, among others, recognized and, to those ends, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were ratified during the next five years.
Not that the scars of so deep a wound, the disfigurement wrought by decade on decade of an economy of chattel slavery, don't remain on our country even now.
And how widespread through the world remains the enslavement of the human person.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Secretary of State William Seward issued the proclamation that incorporated the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing the institution of slavery, into the Constitution of the United States on this date in 1865.
More needed to be done to secure the blessings of freedom and the assurance of legal equality to all citizens, of course, as Frederick Douglass, among others, recognized and, to those ends, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were ratified during the next five years.
Not that the scars of so deep a wound, the disfigurement wrought by decade on decade of an economy of chattel slavery, don't remain on our country even now.
And how widespread through the world remains the enslavement of the human person.
Monday, December 16, 2002
Charlotte Elliott's great hymn of surrender and dedication, Just As I Am, is widely known and loved, and rightly so. There is another hymn on the same theme and with the same opening words, whose author Marianne Hearn was born 17 December 1834 and whose anniversary is tomorrow.
Just as I am, Thine own to be.
Just as I am, Thine own to be,
Friend of the young, Who lovest me,
To consecrate myself to Thee,
O Jesus Christ, I come.
In the glad morning of my day,
My life to give, my vows to pay,
With no reserve and no delay,
With all my heart I come.
I would live ever in the light,
I would work ever for the right;
I would serve Thee with all my might;
Therefore, to Thee I come.
Just as I am, young, strong, and free,
To be the best that I can be
For truth, and righteousness, and Thee,
Lord of my life, I come.
With many dreams of fame and gold,
Success and joy to make me bold,
But dearer still my faith to hold,
For my whole life, I come.
And for Thy sake to win renown,
And then to take the victor’s crown,
And at Thy feet to cast it down,
O Master, Lord, I come.
And on 17 December two years after her birth, John Rippon (1751-1836), pastor of the Carter’s Lane Baptist Church in London for more than sixty years and the foremost authority on the hymns of Isaac Watts, died full of years and was laid to rest near the graves of Watts and of John Bunyan. Rippon's own great hymn speaks in power and assurance to those like Charlotte Elliott, like Marianne Hearn, like us, "who unto Jesus for refuge have fled." The hymn was sung at the funerals of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert E. Lee.
How Firm A Foundation
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Just as I am, Thine own to be.
Just as I am, Thine own to be,
Friend of the young, Who lovest me,
To consecrate myself to Thee,
O Jesus Christ, I come.
In the glad morning of my day,
My life to give, my vows to pay,
With no reserve and no delay,
With all my heart I come.
I would live ever in the light,
I would work ever for the right;
I would serve Thee with all my might;
Therefore, to Thee I come.
Just as I am, young, strong, and free,
To be the best that I can be
For truth, and righteousness, and Thee,
Lord of my life, I come.
With many dreams of fame and gold,
Success and joy to make me bold,
But dearer still my faith to hold,
For my whole life, I come.
And for Thy sake to win renown,
And then to take the victor’s crown,
And at Thy feet to cast it down,
O Master, Lord, I come.
And on 17 December two years after her birth, John Rippon (1751-1836), pastor of the Carter’s Lane Baptist Church in London for more than sixty years and the foremost authority on the hymns of Isaac Watts, died full of years and was laid to rest near the graves of Watts and of John Bunyan. Rippon's own great hymn speaks in power and assurance to those like Charlotte Elliott, like Marianne Hearn, like us, "who unto Jesus for refuge have fled." The hymn was sung at the funerals of Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Robert E. Lee.
How Firm A Foundation
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Gerard Serafin, who has known it well for many years, asked yesterday whether many parishes still sang the following beautiful hymn of Abbé Simon J. Pellegrin, and I'm glad to say that it was the processional at the vigil Mass on Saturday at St. Laurence, Highland Park.
O come, divine Messiah!
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
O Christ, whom nations sigh for,
Whom priest and prophet long foretold,
Come break the captive fetters;
Redeem the long-lost fold.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
You come in peace and meekness,
And lowly will your cradle be;
All clothed in human weakness
Shall we your Godhead see.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
O come, divine Messiah!
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
O Christ, whom nations sigh for,
Whom priest and prophet long foretold,
Come break the captive fetters;
Redeem the long-lost fold.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
You come in peace and meekness,
And lowly will your cradle be;
All clothed in human weakness
Shall we your Godhead see.
Dear Savior haste;
Come, come to earth,
Dispel the night and show your face,
And bid us hail the dawn of grace.
O come, divine Messiah!
The world in silence waits the day
When hope shall sing its triumph,
And sadness flee away.
Friday, December 13, 2002
Santa Lucia Day
A thousand years ago King Canute (also known as Knud in Denmark and Knut in Norway) declared that Christmas would last a month, from December 13, the feast of St. Lucia until January 13, or Tjugondag Knut (St. Canute's Day). No one is quite sure why Lucia, a 4th century Sicilian saint, came to be so revered in Sweden. Some say she once visited the country, and others believe that Christian missionary stories of her life entranced the Swedish people. Whatever the origin, these new Christians who converted to Christianity around 1000 acquired a special fondness for the saint whose feast day marked the return of the sun and whose name itself means "light."
The celebration of the Feast of Saint Lucy today means that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of next week are the seasonal Ember Days. They are no longer required observances but still worth our remembering. Karen Marie Knapp at From The Anchor Hold writes of the tradition with her customary insight and sensitivity.
A thousand years ago King Canute (also known as Knud in Denmark and Knut in Norway) declared that Christmas would last a month, from December 13, the feast of St. Lucia until January 13, or Tjugondag Knut (St. Canute's Day). No one is quite sure why Lucia, a 4th century Sicilian saint, came to be so revered in Sweden. Some say she once visited the country, and others believe that Christian missionary stories of her life entranced the Swedish people. Whatever the origin, these new Christians who converted to Christianity around 1000 acquired a special fondness for the saint whose feast day marked the return of the sun and whose name itself means "light."
The celebration of the Feast of Saint Lucy today means that Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of next week are the seasonal Ember Days. They are no longer required observances but still worth our remembering. Karen Marie Knapp at From The Anchor Hold writes of the tradition with her customary insight and sensitivity.
Chris at Hotdogblog posted great news a few weeks ago about the sale prices on some Oxford University Press book titles. I meant to pass the alert along and didn't get around to it. The good news is that the sale at OUP's web site is still on. Well worth a visit and some browsing. I'll second Chris's view that $50 for a copy of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is a steal. I think I use it more frequently than any other reference book: impeccable scholarship beautifully produced. There are other treasures available as well.
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
The relationship—both personal and biological—between a mother and her unborn child is unlike anything in the world, one “marked by peculiar and cardinal distinctions which exist nowhere else.”
The “Peculiar” Being: The Rights of an Unborn Child in Iowa
Jason M. Steffens, whose weblog is Antioch Road, posts his interesting and compelling Iowa Law Review note.
88 Iowa L. Rev. 217 (2002)
The “Peculiar” Being: The Rights of an Unborn Child in Iowa
Jason M. Steffens, whose weblog is Antioch Road, posts his interesting and compelling Iowa Law Review note.
88 Iowa L. Rev. 217 (2002)
Infants Now Murdered As Often As Teens
The homicide rate for U.S. infants is now virtually equal to the murder rate for teenagers, according to a new analysis of government data that revealed a surprising demographic milestone.
A slow, 30-year rise in the infanticide rate, coupled with a sharp -- and more widely reported -- drop in teen homicides, means the two groups are now being murdered at almost equal rates, according to the study's director, Brett Brown, databank supervisor for Child Trends, the independent research organization that issued a report last week.
Eric Johnson at Catholic Light furnished the link to this story from the Washington Post, and offers insightful comment.
We'd do well to remember these grim statistics, and the broken bodies of these children, in a special way on 28 December, joining them in memorial to the Holy Innocents.
The homicide rate for U.S. infants is now virtually equal to the murder rate for teenagers, according to a new analysis of government data that revealed a surprising demographic milestone.
A slow, 30-year rise in the infanticide rate, coupled with a sharp -- and more widely reported -- drop in teen homicides, means the two groups are now being murdered at almost equal rates, according to the study's director, Brett Brown, databank supervisor for Child Trends, the independent research organization that issued a report last week.
Eric Johnson at Catholic Light furnished the link to this story from the Washington Post, and offers insightful comment.
We'd do well to remember these grim statistics, and the broken bodies of these children, in a special way on 28 December, joining them in memorial to the Holy Innocents.
Monday, December 9, 2002
It's a tribute to his adaptability and a measure of his talent and enthusiasm, how he seems to make a city his own after just a few weeks. Take a look at nic's Chicago.
John Milton was born in London on this date in 1608. In this season of Advent, this time of expectant hope and watching, of preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord as well as for Christmas, here is a hymn to fit the day, Milton's poem on the promise of Revelation 22:12.
The Lord will come and not be slow.
The Lord will come and not be slow;
His footsteps cannot err;
Before Him righteousness shall go,
His royal harbinger.
Mercy and truth, that long were missed,
Now joyfully are met;
Sweet peace and righteousness have kissed,
And hand in hand are set.
The nations all whom Thou hast made
Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before Thee, Lord!
And glorify Thy Name!
Truth from the earth, like to a flower,
Shall bud and blossom then,
And justice, from her heavenly bower,
Look down on mortal men.
Thee will I praise, O Lord, my God!
Thee honor and adore
With my whole heart; and blaze abroad
Thy Name forevermore!
The Lord will come and not be slow.
The Lord will come and not be slow;
His footsteps cannot err;
Before Him righteousness shall go,
His royal harbinger.
Mercy and truth, that long were missed,
Now joyfully are met;
Sweet peace and righteousness have kissed,
And hand in hand are set.
The nations all whom Thou hast made
Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before Thee, Lord!
And glorify Thy Name!
Truth from the earth, like to a flower,
Shall bud and blossom then,
And justice, from her heavenly bower,
Look down on mortal men.
Thee will I praise, O Lord, my God!
Thee honor and adore
With my whole heart; and blaze abroad
Thy Name forevermore!
Friday, December 6, 2002
Just to be is a blessing, just to live is holy.
Man's being in the world is, according to the Bible, preceded by man's being known to God. Human existence follows divine anticipation. 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you' (Jeremiah 1:5). We live in the universe of His knowing. What guides and sustains our thinking about afterlife is relatedness to God. Apart from such relatedness and trust, there is no ground for such a hope. The real issue is whether my existence here and now is exclusively being-in-the-world or whether it is also being-in-God's-knowledge, whether being in the world is not also living in the presence of God, transcended by His knowing, escorted by His radiance.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907-1972.
Man's being in the world is, according to the Bible, preceded by man's being known to God. Human existence follows divine anticipation. 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you' (Jeremiah 1:5). We live in the universe of His knowing. What guides and sustains our thinking about afterlife is relatedness to God. Apart from such relatedness and trust, there is no ground for such a hope. The real issue is whether my existence here and now is exclusively being-in-the-world or whether it is also being-in-God's-knowledge, whether being in the world is not also living in the presence of God, transcended by His knowing, escorted by His radiance.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907-1972.
Tuesday, December 3, 2002
God our Father, by the preaching of Francis Xavier you brought many nations to yourself. Give his zeal for the faith to all who believe in You, that your Church may rejoice in continued growth throughout the world. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Opening Prayer, printed in Magnificat, from the Mass for the memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, patron of missions and missionaries, celebrated today.
The hymn O Deus Ego Amo Te was long attributed to him and is translated as My God I Love Thee.
My God, I love Thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because who love Thee not
May eternally die.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
E’en death itself; and all for man
Who was Thine enemy.
Then why, O blessèd Jesus Christ
Should I not love Thee well?
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell.
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Nor seeking a reward,
But as Thyself hast lovèd me,
O everlasting Lord!
E’en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Solely because Thou art my God,
And my eternal King.
Addendum 12/6: Kensy Joseph at Lethargic IITian, writing in India, has posted several entries this week on St. Francis Xavier, among them a link to this excerpt from Saints For Sinners by Alban Goodier, S.J.
The Opening Prayer, printed in Magnificat, from the Mass for the memorial of Saint Francis Xavier, patron of missions and missionaries, celebrated today.
The hymn O Deus Ego Amo Te was long attributed to him and is translated as My God I Love Thee.
My God, I love Thee; not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because who love Thee not
May eternally die.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
E’en death itself; and all for man
Who was Thine enemy.
Then why, O blessèd Jesus Christ
Should I not love Thee well?
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell.
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Nor seeking a reward,
But as Thyself hast lovèd me,
O everlasting Lord!
E’en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Solely because Thou art my God,
And my eternal King.
Addendum 12/6: Kensy Joseph at Lethargic IITian, writing in India, has posted several entries this week on St. Francis Xavier, among them a link to this excerpt from Saints For Sinners by Alban Goodier, S.J.
Monday, December 2, 2002
God is the future of man and of the world. If the awareness of God is lost, humanity closes itself to the future and inevitably loses the perspective of its pilgrimage in time. Why be born, why die? Why sacrifice oneself, why suffer?
To these questions Christianity offers a complete response. For this reason, Christ is the hope of humanity. He is the real meaning of our present, because He is our sure future.
Advent reminds us that He has come, but also that He will come. And the life of believers is a continuous and vigilant expectation of His coming. The invitation to watch and wait today is underlined with insistence by St. Mark, who, throughout all the new liturgical year, will lead us to discover the mystery of Christ.
In today's passage, taken from the second of Jesus' great discourses, the Evangelist makes evident the ultimate meaning of history and of creation itself and he exhorts us to make of our whole existence an incessant search for Christ. From the encounter with Him and from the contemplation of His face springs that missionary vigor that makes us come out of our daily dullness to be courageous witnesses of His.
Pope John Paul II, from his Angelus address on the First Sunday of Advent.
To these questions Christianity offers a complete response. For this reason, Christ is the hope of humanity. He is the real meaning of our present, because He is our sure future.
Advent reminds us that He has come, but also that He will come. And the life of believers is a continuous and vigilant expectation of His coming. The invitation to watch and wait today is underlined with insistence by St. Mark, who, throughout all the new liturgical year, will lead us to discover the mystery of Christ.
In today's passage, taken from the second of Jesus' great discourses, the Evangelist makes evident the ultimate meaning of history and of creation itself and he exhorts us to make of our whole existence an incessant search for Christ. From the encounter with Him and from the contemplation of His face springs that missionary vigor that makes us come out of our daily dullness to be courageous witnesses of His.
Pope John Paul II, from his Angelus address on the First Sunday of Advent.
I listened last night to Music of St. Paul's Cathedral, which includes an anthem setting of Psalm 122, I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me, by Charles H.H. Parry. An earlier setting of the text was composed by John Blow, Minister of the Choristers, and was performed at the dedication of the rebuilt St. Pauls' Cathedral on this date in 1697.
The magnificent structure of that extraordinary and diligent man Sir Christopher Wren -- Si monumentum requiris, circumspice -- was built after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed its predecessor. Wren is entombed in the cathedral crypt, as are Wellington and Nelson.
As the cathedral was among the principal markers of London's renewal after the Great Fire, it's fitting that St. Paul's with its great dome also stands as a smoke-wreathed symbol of indomitability in the photographic record of the Battle of Britain.
The magnificent structure of that extraordinary and diligent man Sir Christopher Wren -- Si monumentum requiris, circumspice -- was built after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed its predecessor. Wren is entombed in the cathedral crypt, as are Wellington and Nelson.
As the cathedral was among the principal markers of London's renewal after the Great Fire, it's fitting that St. Paul's with its great dome also stands as a smoke-wreathed symbol of indomitability in the photographic record of the Battle of Britain.
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