more to come. . . updated 1/9/2012
Archive for the ‘Christmas’ Category
My Christ’s Mass 2011 Pictorial
December 26, 2011“First Let Me Wish All Iowans A “Merry Christmas” And A Blessed “Christmas Season.” — Newt Gingrich Speaking At The Last Iowan GOP Debate — My Christmas 2011
December 25, 2011
90 foot Vatican Christmas Tree with Saint Peter's in the back ground
This was the first time I have ever heard these profoundly spoken words uttered by a politician. It’s usually called the holiday season so a few Jews, atheists, Kwanzaa followers and Muslims can be mollified, and one of the oppressive tenets of the evil religion of political correctness can be abided by.
Newt is a converted Roman Catholic (as was Einstein) and deserves my vote for his conversion alone shows a superior intellect. Romney is a long time member of a wounded cult like church and should know by now that Catholicism is the church started by Christ and not some thieving maniac as was his church.
My Christmas 2011 pictorial is on its way
Ah! Those Wonderful Christmas Season Foods & Meals (Part Five); New Years Eve
February 14, 2011We spend New Years Eve watching movies (it’s a Wonderful Life is mandatory), snacking and conversing about the year that was and the year to come. I love the informality of New Years Eve. It’s a perfect way to end the year and reflect on the fact that it is a wonderful life, now, and for those that “believe,” the truly wonderful life to come.
Ah! Those Wonderful Christmas Season Foods & Meals (Part Four); Christmas Day Dinner
January 29, 2011Other than for special celebrations like the birth of Christ, I think having beef tenderloin should be kept to a minimum for two reasons — fat content — cost. . .
. . . beef tenderloin is taken from the muscle of a steer, heifer or cow that does very little work, so it is the most tender part of the beef and therefore the most fatty. The best tenderloin is from a steer or heifer and can cost as much as $100 for six pounds. We only paid $13 a pound because we bought a large cut that was “unpeeled” (meaning the fat and silver skin still remains). To remove the silver skin takes knowledge, so if you don’t know what you are doing it’s best to pay a little more per pound and have a professional do it for you so the expensive meat is not wasted. If a good cut of meat is desired the beef tenderloin should be the first choice.
Ah! Those Wonderful Christmas Season Foods & Meals (Part Three); The Christmas Eve Feast Of The Seven Fishes
January 21, 2011The Feast of the Seven Fishes held on Christmas Eve honors and celebrates the Seven Sacraments of the Holy Roman Catholic Church — each fish served represents one of the key tenants of Christ’s teachings and mandates. My lovely wife and I carry on a family tradition that is at least over a century old and very well could be much older.
Ah! Those Wonderful Christmas Season Foods & Meals (Part Two) Gingerbread Cookies
January 17, 2011Made correctly a gingerbread cookie is unlike any other — a hard gingerbread cookie is a failure. The secret to a soft gingerbread cookie is adding molasses to your recipe and making the cookie thick enough so they don’t turn out to be teeth cracking rocks.
***1/8/11 Update*** Ah! Those Wonderful Christmas Season Foods & Meals
January 3, 2011Now I suspect that there are women out their that put as much time and love in the meals they create for their families as my wife does . . . however, I have only meet three; my mother; my mother-in-law; and my grandmother. Furthermore, I put my wife in a league all her own. My wife loves her profession, works hard and still insists on making spectacular meals all year long with a heightened level of time and love during the Christmas Holidays that includes Thanksgiving in my book . . . Without the birth of Christ there is no Thanksgiving, or for that matter an America that celebrates Thanksgiving day.
Many more photos of the 2010 Christmas Season meals to come . . .
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! . . . It’s Only The Second Day Of Twelve — Or Is It 16???
December 27, 2010The Twelve Days of Christmas are the days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25Th until January 6Th). On the updated calendar — since Epiphany is celebrated on a Sunday — these days may be more or less. We have 16 days on the tree this year because the Christmas season extends until the feast of the Baptism of Christ and we have decided to include them all.
The origin of the Twelve Days is complicated, and is related to differences in calendars, church traditions, and ways to observe this holy day in various cultures. In the Western church, Epiphany is traditionally celebrated as the time the three Wise Men or Magi arrived to present gifts to the young Jesus. In some cultures Epiphany is observed as Three Kings Day, or simply the Day of the Kings. Even though December 25Th is celebrated as Christmas in these cultures, Epiphany is often the day for giving gifts. In some places it is traditional to give Christmas gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
GO HERE AND CLICK ON THE NUMBERS FOR ALL THE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS IN THE CATHOLIC CULTURE
Christian, Remember Your Dignity — Let The Sinner Be Glad As he Receives The Offer Of Forgiveness. Let The Pagan Take Courage As He Is Summoned To Life . . .
December 25, 2010A sermon of Pope St Leo the Great
Christian, remember your dignity
Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.
No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.
In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.
And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?
Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.
Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.
Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.
December 23rd & 24Th Advent Scripture Readings. What God Promises He Delivers & The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Will Be Preached To All Mankind.
December 23, 2010
December 23 (Isaiah 51:1-11)
In the reading for December 23, the Prophet Isaiah assures us that what the Lord has promised, He will deliver. He chose Abraham for his justice, and from him, He raised a great nation. From that nation, a Child is born, Who will bring salvation to all mankind.
Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just, and you that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you are dug out. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sara that bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and multiplied him. The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise.
Hearken unto me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my tribes: for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment shall rest to be a light of the nations. My just one is near at hand, my saviour is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people: the islands shall look for me, and shall patiently wait for my arm.
Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice shall not fail.
Hearken to me, you that know what is just, my people who have my law in your heart: fear ye not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies. For the worm shall eat them up as a garment: and the moth shall consume them as wool: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice from generation to generation.
Arise, arise, put on strength, O thou arm of the Lord, arise as in the days of old, in the ancient generations. Hast not thou struck the proud one, and wounded the dragon? Hast not thou dried up the sea, the water of the mighty deep, who madest the depth of the sea a way, that the delivered might pass over?
And now they that are redeemed by the Lord, shall return, and shall come into Sion singing praises, and joy everlasting shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
•Source: Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition of the Bible (in the public domain)
December 24 (Isaiah 51:17-52:2, 7-10)
The long wait is almost over; our redemption is at hand. Tomorrow, Christ becomes a Man, but not just any man; He is the God-Made-Man Who cleanses us from our sins. Israel is restored, in the Church of the New Testament; and the Gospel is preached to all nations.
Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunk even to the bottom of the cup of dead sleep, and thou hast drunk even to the dregs. There is none that can uphold her among all the children that she hath brought forth: and there is none that taketh her by the hand among all the children that she hath brought up.
There are two things that have happened to thee: who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword, who shall comfort thee? Thy children are cast forth, they have slept at the head of all the ways, as the wild ox that is snared: full of the indignation of the Lord, of the rebuke of thy God.
Therefore hear this, thou poor little one, and thou that art drunk but no with wine. Thus saith thy Sovereign the Lord and thy God, who will fight for his people: Behold I have taken out of thy hand the cup of dead sleep, the dregs of the cup of my indignation, thou shalt not drink it again any more. And I will put it in the hand of them that have oppressed thee, and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as a way to them that went over.
Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the garments of thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One: for henceforth the uncircumcised, and unclean shall no more pass through thee.
Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O Jerusalem: loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign! The voice of thy watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they shah praise together: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall convert Sion.
Rejoice, and give praise together, O ye deserts of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people: he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath prepared his holy arm in the sight of all the Gentiles: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
•Source: Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition of the Bible (in the public domain)
Scroll down for the Advent Scriptures that are appropriate for December 17Th to the 24Th.
"Get Your Head Out Of The Sand" The Blog Of John Sandusky 