On This Day: Clement Clarke Moore

Clement Clarke Moore was born July 15, 1779 in New York City; he grew in the family home in Elmhurst, Queens. This professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College had great effect on New York City. The neighborhood "Chelsea" is still named for his family estate, which he inherited from his mother's father and later divided and developed. He gave an apple orchard as land to develop the General Theological Seminary. He helped Trinity Church organize St. Lukes in the Fields. And, of course, children around the world who celebrate Christmas, know and love his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (better known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Sweet Singing...

Merry Christmas! Best wishes to all for a joyous Christmastide!

J S Bach - Christmas Oratorio BWV 248 - Part I 'For the First Day of Christmas' - "Jauchzet, frohlocket" Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists



Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, verses 1 to 20

The Birth of Jesus

About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books. These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David's hometown, and Joseph went there because he was from David's family.

Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby, and while they were there, she gave birth to her first-born son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds

That night in the fields near Bethlehem some shepherds were guarding their sheep. All at once an angel came down to them from the Lord, and the brightness of the Lord's glory flashed around them. The shepherds were frightened. But the angel said, "Don't be afraid! I have good news for you, which will make everyone happy. This very day in King David's hometown a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord. You will know who he is, because you will find him dressed in baby clothes and lying on a bed of hay."

Suddenly many other angels came down from heaven and joined in praising God. They said:

"Praise God in heaven!

Peace on earth to everyone

who pleases God."

After the angels had left and gone back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord has told us about." They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and they saw the baby lying on a bed of hay.

When the shepherds saw Jesus, they told his parents what the angel had said about him. Everyone listened and was surprised. But Mary kept thinking about all this and wondering what it meant.

As the shepherds returned to their sheep, they were praising God and saying wonderful things about him. Everything they had seen and heard was just as the angel had said.

HAPPY WAR, CHRISTMAS IS OVER

(Thanks to Lenin's Tomb.)

IN DULCI JUBILO

More music for the Octave of Christmas.

York Minster Choir
In Dulci Jubilo

"YOU SEE DIFFERENTLY WITH EYES THAT HAVE CRIED"

The theme of Queen Beatrix's Christmas address was the generation gap. As in many western societies, in the Netherlands there are more and more elderly people, who live longer as never before and fewer and fewer younger people. The burden of the solidarity within generations is a heavy one, for the smaller and smaller group of younger shoulders having to bear it.

Here is the full text (in Dutch - there is also a video of the queen delivering the address on that link). Her speech was well-meant; she was relaxed and caring. It was an intensely personal address. Here is a rough transation of the last paragraphs:

The advancing of years also sees a growing experience of sadness, disappointment and setback, of people hurting each other, of indifference or impotence to improve conditions and to create better relationships. Ordeals are part of life and forms a human being: no matter how heavy, we have to learn to handle them. You see things differently with eyes that have cried.

Also in the coexistence within the close and the extended family, reconciliation and peace with each other and with ourselves is important. Every word, every gesture of forgiveness contributes to peace. It is never too late to offer a hand, to overcome mistrust or to solve a disagreement. It is never too late to love. In love you hold people.

Christmas is the celebration of God's love in the birth of His son. Every child that comes in the world, may expect warmth and security. The creation of trust and a feeling of security is on the path of parents. In the relationship between the generations there remains a need for values and traditions to life for. By learning how to deal with good and evil, conscience is formed and young people will become more stronger in life.

In a bond, each generation thinks about what offers guidance and gives a meaning to life. Generations come, and generations go, but in God's love we last forever.

(Above photo: -/AFP/Getty Images)

ST STEPHEN, DEACON AND MARTYR

In this Octave of Christmas, today we celebrate the Feast of Stephen, Deacon and Martyr.

York Minster Choir
Good King Wenceslas

MAY ALL WALLS COME DOWN

With thanks to Moon of Alabama. Photo courtesy of Bethlehem Association.

FREUE DICH...

Junger Chor Ars Musica Ochtendung - Leise rieselt der Schnee/Softly falls the snow

MARY IN DRAG - AMSTERDAM'S PINK CHRISTMAS

From Beth Twiston-Davies in FAITH CENTRAL

This is Mary (though I wouldn’t hazard a bet on her virginity). In drag. Part of yesterday’s “Pink Christmas” tableau in Amsterdam. Mary is played, AP informs us, by a “male entertainer” known as Wendy Mills. Unfortunately this photograph doesn’t display the laced high-heeled boots which complete her outfit, but as you might have guessed, the man just behind her to the right, draped in the silver shawl, flashing a glimpse of black leather trunks and spectacularly tacky gold rose, is supposed to be Joseph.

Christian groups have naturally objected to the five-person tableau staged in the yard of an Amsterdam nightclub, and sponsored – to the tune of 15,000 euros – by Amsterdam City Council.

The independent group Christians for Truth says: "By portraying Joseph and Mary as homosexuals, a twisted human fantasy is being added to the history of the Bible.” However, Frank van Dalen, organiser of the “Pink Christmas” (which is accompanied by a Christmas sex toy market) wants the tableau to be an annual affair, a sort of winter complement to Amsterdam’s Summer gay pride parade. He says: "Our objective is not to be offensive. This is about visibility. Van Dalen referred to a report published last month that said homophobia was an ingrained problem in Amsterdam, and that Dutch gays feel the society they live is becoming more assertive about “classical values.”

Wouldn't Benny have a fun time with this? /sarcasm/

Kersttoespraak Koningin Beatrix 2007 | Queen Beatrix's Christmas Speech (on Youtube)

PUER NATUS EST IN BETHLEHEM

It's Christmas Day, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord. Zalig Kerstmis|Merry Christmas!

Denise Levertov (1923–1997)

On the Mystery of the Incarnation

It's when we face for a moment
the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know
the taint in our own selves, that awe
cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart:
not to a flower, not to a dolphin,
to no innocent form
but to this creature vainly sure
it and no other is god-like, God
(out of compassion for our ugly
failure to evolve) entrusts,
as guest, as brother,
the Word.

2 Poems for the Octave of Christmas

The Diocese of Washington's blog, daily episcopalian is offering several poems this week, in celebration of the Octave of Christmas - the feast is not over at the evening of December 25, but is celebrated for a whole week.

One poem is by my most favourite poet, Denise Levertov. I was introduced to Levertov by my English teacher at The Mountain School, Roberta Worrick - an author in her own right, writing about Africa as Maria Thomas; she died in a tragic airplane accident in Ethiopia in 1989 with Congressman Mickey Leland, who represented my Houston district. I still have my senior high school English project paper on Levertov!

An announcement -- Announcement is a very different word than annunciation. The connotations of the first are workaday, bureaucratic, while the connotations of the second are grand, even--in the poem excerpted below--sacred. Yet Denise Levertov wants us to undersand that the distinction obscures rather than illuminates. God is forever annunciating His presence, offering to be born in each of our lives. We may not get the angel, but we get the invitation.

from Annunciation
by Densire Levertov

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

The full poem can be read here.

Another poem is by Howard Thurman, whom I've never read until today. But I want to read more of him!

The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman

"When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart."
— The Mood of Christmas, 23

An Excerpt from Howard Thurman: Essential Writings