Ghost of Christmas Present

The Ghost of Christmas Present
from the original edition of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843

More Christmas Punny Stuff

Last week I ran some Christmas jokes. Here's a second set which made me laugh just as much.

What nationality is Santa Claus?

He's North Polish!

Why does Santa Claus insist that all the elves wash their clothes in Tide?

Because at the North Pole, it's too cold to wash them OUT tide.

What did the reindeer say before launching into his comedy routine?

This will sleigh you!

Good King Wenceslas phoned Domino's for a pizza.

The salesgirl asked him: "Do you want your usual? Deep pan, crisp and even?"

And with that Irish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve: Considering the Incarnation

Looking through old Christmas posts, I came across this bulletin insert that I wrote a few years ago. I found it good to reread and you may also so I present it again here.

Considering the Truth of the Incarnation

No worldly mind would ever have suspected that He Who could make the sun warm the earth would one day have need of an ox and an ass to warm Him with their breath; that He Who, in the language of Scriptures, could stop the turning about of Arcturus would have His birthplace dictated by an imperial census; that He, Who clothed the fields with grass, would Himself be naked; that He, from Whose hands came planets and worlds, would one day have tiny arms that were not long enough to touch the huge heads of the cattle; that the feet which trod the everlasting hills would one day be too weak to walk; that the Eternal Word would be dumb; that Omnipotence would be wrapped in swaddling clothes; that Salvation would lie in a manger; that the bird which built the nest would be hatched therein—no one would have ever suspected that God coming to this earth would ever be so helpless. And that is precisely why so many miss Him. Divinity is always where one least expects to find it. ...

No man can love anything unless he can get his arms around it, and the cosmos is too big and too bulky. But once God became a Babe and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, men could say, “This is Emmanuel, this is God with us.” By His reaching down to frail human nature and lifting it up to the incomparable prerogative of union with Himself, human nature became dignified. So real was this union that all of His acts and words, all of His agonies and tears, all of His thoughts and reasonings, resolves and emotions, while being properly human, were at the same time the acts and words, agonies and tears, thought and reasonings, resolves and emotions of the Eternal Son of God.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ

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PMRMaeyaert, Sint-Walburgakerk, Oudenaarde, Belgium
via Wikipedia, Creative Commons License 3.0

In our meditations upon the Incarnation we encounter many familiar images. This is natural and to be expected. It is automatic to think sentimentally and comfortably about the little babe, the adoring parents, singing angels, startled shepherds, and Magi with gifts, while traditional carols echo in our ears.

However, as Fulton Sheen reminds us, the reality of the Incarnation is not comfortable at all. It is God breaking into human time and nature and history to effect a miracle so outrageous that no one would have thought it up in their wildest dreams. The Second Person of the Trinity willingly takes on our limited human nature, purely for love of us. Shocking? Yes. Amazing? Yes. But comfortable? No.

This also is a good reminder that it is very easy to read into Scripture what we would like to see. Pulling the truth out of Scripture, also called exegesis, is considerably more difficult. That truth may prove quite a bit more surprising than we expect. God does have a habit of showing us truth in surprising ways.

To think of the Christ child at Christmas is natural. Undeniably those are the images of the season. However, the meaning of this baby for us and for all mankind is far from a sentimental picture. Jesus comes to us as a baby so we will learn something of his real nature and of the beginning of the path that he will tread and that we must follow.

Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898), The Nativity

Pope Benedict XVI helps us to consider further the layers of meaning in the Incarnation. In a Christmas homily* he said:

God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. … God’s sign is simplicity. … God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. … He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. ...

In our meditations upon the Incarnation we encounter many familiar images. This is natural and to be expected. However, let us not settle for comfort. Let us dig deeper and discover the true nature of the Lord, he who is Love incarnate, who came to show that love for you and for me.

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* Read online Pope Benedict XVI’s entire homily from Midnight Mass 2006, Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord 

Christmas Jokes

Repeating this because these made me laugh ... again!

I love hollandaise sauce. It caused a lot of cavities. My dentist told me I would need a plate made of chrome if I wanted to continue my hollandaise habit. I said, “Really?” He said. “Oh yes. There’s no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise.”

What do you call a bunch of grandmasters of chess bragging about their games in a hotel lobby? Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!

Why does Santa have 3 gardens?
So he can ho-ho-ho.

What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
Snowflakes.

There was once a great czar in Russia named Rudolph the Red. He stood looking out the windows of is palace one day while his wife, the Czarina Katerina, sat nearby knitting. He turned to her and said, "Look my dear, it has begun to rain!" Without even looking up from her knitting she replied, "It's too cold to rain. It must be sleeting." The Czar shook his head and said, "I am the Czar of all the Russias, and Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"

Why do mummies like Christmas so much?
Because of all the wrapping!

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright
By Karin Jurick

An Advent Story

Brandywine Books posted this true story  years ago. I liked it so much that I am reposting it now. Just a little something to remind us of why we are standing at that window, waiting for the light ...

When Marvin was a young teenager (around the 1930s or early ‘40s, I imagine), he asked his father if he could go with the other kids to some entertainment event (he didn’t say what kind). His father said it wouldn’t be appropriate and told him no. Marvin said he was going anyway, and headed out.

“If you go out without my approval,” his father told him as he reached the door, “this house will be locked when you get home, and you’ll have to sleep somewhere else.”

Marvin refused to back down. He left. He enjoyed the event.

That, he said, was the short part of the night.

When he got home he found the house dark, the doors locked. Even that window in the basement that the kids could sometimes work loose was locked tight.

Marvin stood in the dark, thinking about his options. It wasn’t winter, but it was fall and the night was getting cold.

He remembered a sort of loft in the chicken coop which his brother and he had appropriated as a “secret place.” It had a sort of a mattress and a ratty quilt.

He went into the chicken coop and climbed up. The “mattress” was there, but the quilt was gone.

Lacking other options, he lay down on the mattress and curled up in a fetal position. The cold wind blew in through the cracks. The coop stank of chicken droppings. There was no way to sleep. He lay there in the darkness hugging himself, shivering. The hours passed slowly. He wondered if he could make it through the night.

Then, at last, he heard a door open. He heard a creaking sound as someone climbed the board ladder to the loft. Someone put a pillow under his head, lay down and held him close, and pulled a quilt over both of them.

In the darkness, he heard his father say, “Marvin, when I said that if you disobeyed me you’d have to find another place to sleep tonight, I didn’t say that I would sleep inside.”

And so that pastor taught his son the true meaning of the Incarnation.

Wish I’d had a dad like that.

Wait. I do.

Magi

Carving of the Magi from the Romanesque Cathedral of Saint Lazare/Autun

Yes, it is too early to really think of the Magi arriving, but let's just think about the fact that they had to be on the road for a while. So we may surely think of the angel inspiring them to get underway.

A Thought for Advent

There will be those who say: "that is exactly why I don't go to Communion more often, because I realize my love is cold ..." If you are cold, do you think it sensible to move away from the fire? Precisely because you feel your heart frozen you should go "more frequently" to Holy Communion, provided you feel a sincere desire to love Jesus Christ. "Go to Holy Communion," says St. Bonaventure, "even when you feel lukewarm, leaving everything in God's hands. The more my sickness debilitates me, the more urgently do I need a doctor."

St. Alphonsus Liguori, The practice of love for Jesus, 2
Quoted in In Conversation with God by Francis Fernandez
Daily Meditations Vol. 1: Advent and Christmastide

Collecting the Tree

Father and son with their dog collecting a tree in the forest,
painting by Franz Krüger (1797–1857)

Santa and The Print Collector

Santa and The Print Collector
by Santa Classics

Perusing my back files, I rediscovered Santa Classics. Ed Wheeler, an artist and photographer, shows Santa entering into great artistic masterpieces. Somehow he pulls this off both with humor and reverence for the originals. Drop by and take a look around!

An Advent Reflection on the Child Who Made His Mother

Of every other child that is born into the world, friends can say that it resembles his mother. This was the first instance in time that anyone could say that the mother resembled the Child. This is the beautiful paradox of the Child Who made His mother; the mother, too was only a child. It was also the first time in the history of this world that anyone could ever think of heaven as being anywhere else than "somewhere up there"; when the Child was in her arms, Mary now looked down to Heaven ...

Life of Christ by Fulton J. Sheen

Beautiful.

Nativity on Japanese Christmas Card

Nativity on a Japanese Christmas Card via J.R.'s Art Place

The Nativity as depicted on a Japanese Christmas card, from the collections of the Marian Library at the University of Dayton, Ohio. Isn't this great? I especially love finding Christian art as depicted by different cultures.

Art: Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on 34th Street. Valentine Davies.
via Books and Art

Now that's a gorgeous cover — the sort they don't make these days.

Advent Meditation: Prayer While Shopping During Advent

I try to keep this in mind when battling the crowds, looking for that hard-to-find toy, or viewing with astonishment that person who snapped up the parking place I'd clearly been waiting for. It helps me focus on the right reason for shopping, keeping perspective, and keeping my eyes on Christ.

Prayer While Shopping During Advent
(source)

Dear God, as I look through my gift shopping list,
I hold up to you each person listed on it.
Slowly, one by one,
I ask that the fire of your abundant love burn within each of them.
I pray that the gift I find for each person
will bring joy into that life.

But, help me to keep a balance this season, Lord.
Let me keep my buying in perspective,
not to spend more than I need to or can afford.
Let me not give in to the pressures of this world
and not equate love with money spent.
Let me always remember the many, many people
who have so much less in material things.

And finally, loving God,
help me to find time in the frantic moments of each day
to become centered on you.
Walking through a store,
riding on the bus,
hurrying down a street:
let each of these times be moments
when I can remember your incredible love for me
and rejoice in it.

Amen.

What I'm Reading for Advent — The Art of Advent by Jane Williams

 

I really love Jane Williams' art/devotional books books and I've used this book for Advent off and on over the years. This year I'll be reading it again. (Others of hers I can recommend are Faces of Christ: Jesus in Art, Angels.) 

Every day of Advent I find food for thought and inspiration. Sometimes the art leads to other reflections than directly on the painting but it is the way that Williams opens up the art, connecting it with Advent, that I love most.

Here's a bit on the Holman Hunt painting, Light of the World.

Holman Hunt's picture is full of symbolism, all of it taking us more deeply into Advent reflection. There are three light sources in the painting, but they all cluster around Jesus. Behind him is the dawn light, struggling to make its way through the dark woods, towards that central figure. Then there is the lantern that Jesus is carrying, a bright, homely light to welcome wandering travelers. And finally, there is the light that shines around Jesus' head, his own inner brightness, from which the other lights take their meaning. Behind Jesus are threatening, twisted trees, shedding rotting fruit to the ground. They are the trees that Adam and Eve ate from, and the tree on which Jesus dies, and all our long family trees, waiting to be lit up and filled with life again. The lantern that Jesus is holding throws a reddish light back on to his cloak, which makes it look similar to the wood of the door. After all, Jesus said that he is the door or the gateway (John 10:7). So we have two doorways, facing each other, as we wait to see whether one will open to the other. ...

Advent Comes ... and With It Comes the New Church Year

The Son of Man is coming, and we are to look forward, get ready, and keep traveling the pilgrim way as we watch for the light, for our deliverance, for Jesus Christ. Advent begins on Sunday!

Interior Of The Mezquita Cathedral Virgin Mary Icon

Everybody knows, even those of us who have lived most unadventurously, what it is to plod on for miles, it seems, eagerly straining your eyes toward the lights that, somehow, mean home. How difficult it is, when you are doing that to judge distances! In pitch darkness, it might be a couple of miles to your destination, it might be a few hundred yards. So it was, I think, with the Hebrew prophets, as they looked forward to the redemption of their people. They could not have told you, within a hundred years, within five hundred years, when it was the deliverance would come. They only knew that, some time, the stock of David would burgeon anew; some time, a key would be found to fit the door of their prison house; some time, the light that only shows, now, like a will-o'-the-wisp on the horizon would broaden out, at last into the perfect day.

This attitude of expectation is one which the Church wants to encourage in us, her children, permanently. She sees it as an essential part of our Christian drill that we should still be looking forward; getting on for two thousand years, now, since the first Christmas Day came and went, and we must still be looking forward. So she encourages us, during advent, t take the shepherd-folk for our guides, and imagine ourselves traveling with them at dead of night, straining our eyes towards that chink of light which streams out, we know, from the cave at Bethlehem.

R.A. Knox, Sermon on Advent 1947
quoted in In Conversation with God, Vol. 1, Francis Fernandez

With Advent the liturgical year begins in the Western churches. We switch to a new book of the gospels for Mass reading. In this year (Year A) it will be Matthew who will instruct us every week.

Before Christmas we spend time in contemplation and preparation for the coming of Christ on three levels: as memorial of his incarnation as the babe in Bethlehem, to his coming with grace in our souls, and in looking forward to when he comes as the Judge at the end of time.

Those who celebrate Advent do so with various private devotions during this time. Some read a specific book to think about, some go to regular adoration, some try to avoid excessive focus on Christmas preparations, and such things.

I like this Advent Litany which may be helpful as we school ourselves to wait in patience to wait for Our Lord and contemplate what that means.

Advent Litany

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world.
Come, Lord Jesus.

You are light in our darkness.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Son of God, save us from our sins.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Son of Mary, deepen our love.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Bring hope into the lives of all people.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Give your peace to all nations.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Be the joy of all who love you.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Bring unity among all who believe in you.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Bless us as we gather here in your name.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Lord Jesus, stay with us always.
Come, Lord Jesus.

Let us pray:

May Christ give us his peace and joy,
and let us share them with others.
All peace and glory are his for ever.

Amen.

The Greatest Journey, part 6

I love to reread this each year, journeying through Advent, so I'm reposting it.

Ending our examination of chapter five of  Go to Joseph, Father Gilsdorf leads us to consider Joseph when he first sees Jesus.

Guido Reni, St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus

In the depth of the night, Mary gives birth. The purest eyes on earth, undimmed by sin, look with maternal ecstasy into the eternal depths of the little eyes of her Divine Son, Who is also the Son of God, eyes now looking outward with infinite love into the world He created in the beginning.

Then Joseph approaches. His chaste fatherly eyes gaze in rapture on the face of the Christ Child. As a sure guide of the journey to Bethlehem, that "House of Bread," he has accomplished his first task. Soon there would be more journeys of pilgrimage and exile: the Presentation of the Infant, the coming of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, and years later, the finding of his Boy in the Temple. How can we not give to this Christmas procession the title of "The Greatest Journey?" And Joseph led the way.

What a powerful lesson to youth of all times. If we hold the more common modern view of the age of the Holy Couple, does it not become irresistibly appealing to the good young people living among us? Will they not perhaps be astonished and thrilled to discover how God entrusted the salvation of the world into the care of a very young man and woman? Will they not open their hearts to the call and challenge of God to undertake great missions that He has in store for them in the Church?

That is the end of chapter five but hopefully you can see why I found this little book so good. Tom and I are reading it together, a bit at a time, after dinner each evening.

Christmas Eve Lagniappe

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

Dr. Seuss 

The Greatest Journey, part 5

I love to reread this each year, journeying through Advent, so I'm reposting it.

Continuing our examination of chapter five of  Go to Joseph, Father Gilsdorf considers the need for shelter, Jesus' impending birth, and the closed doors. An interesting theory is in the footnote so do not skip it.

Saint Joseph Seeks a Lodging in Bethlehem, James Tissot

Then, as the afternoon shadows lengthened into evening, Joseph began his search for a proper place for Mary, whose hour had come. Some scholars have suggested reading "the inn was no place for them," rather than "there was no place for them in the inn."(Luke 2:7)v The need was admittedly not just for any shelter, but for privacy and propriety. Yet the traditional meditation is forever valid: The heartsick Joseph on the first Christmas Eve knocking on doors and hearts was repeatedly rejected; Mary waiting prayerfully, quietly abandoned to God's providence, astride that blessed noble donkey; the Child within her abut to be born. "He came to His own, and His own received Him not." (John 1:11) People closed their doors in the face of the Creator, Savior, and Judge of the universe. It was a prophetic forecast of so many rejections in all the generations yet to come.

The Advent application good Christians have always drawn was to listen for Joseph's knocking and his plea to open the doors of our homes and hearts for Mary and her Child. "To those who did receive Him, He gave them power to become children of God."(John 1:12)

We move now in spirit to the refuge, probably a combination cave/stable used by shepherds like those still seen in the area, a place to shelter themselves and their flocks. We see Joseph busily and artfully preparing the place of delivery and the manger/crib for the Infant.

At this point we return to our opening reflections--Joseph the patriarch of the new and everlasting covenant, guardian and custodian of the Bread from heaven. God has appointed him "Lord of His house and prince of all His possessions." (CF Ps 105:21)

v Some scholars go beyond this. they say that the word commonly translated as 'inn"--katalyma--is actually best understood as a room set apart, a private room. The same word is used in Luke 22;11 ("And you shall say to the goodman of the house, 'The master says to you: Where is the guest chamber [or guest room] where I may eat the pasch with My disciples.'"). The theory here is that such a room was needed for childbirth, since, due to the blood loss associated with delivering a baby, a woman was ritually unclean for 40-80 days after a birth (depending on whether she bore a boy or a girl). furthermore, anyone who came in contact with a childbearing mother was also ritually unclean. Since Bethlehem was Joseph's town, and since he likely would have had relatives there, and since those relatives would have likely been inundated with other relatives like Joseph, the house would have been quite full. According to this theory, anyone in it would have risked ritual contamination by Mary's delivery. As a result, Mary and Joseph actively sought a less intrusive place (such as the stable attached to the house) and had the baby Jesus there. Again, this is only a theory, but it is an interesting one.

In part 6 Jesus is born.

The Greatest Journey: Part 4

I love to reread this each year, journeying through Advent, so I'm reposting it.

Continuing our examination of chapter five of  Go to Joseph we continue with Mary and Joseph on their trip to Bethlehem. I love Father Gilsdorf's idea that Mary and Joseph might have planned little side trips on the way to Bethlehem. That's just the way that Tom and I do our trips, so it makes the whole thing suddenly come alive for me. And it gives me a glimpse of Mary and Joseph as a married couple, which is also a lovely "coming alive" moment.

Saint Joseph, José de Ribera (1591–1652)

We may conjecture further about the last miles as they approached their destination. Would Mary and Joseph have chosen to bypass Ein Kerem, which was directly on their path? It was situated two miles north of Jerusalem. Can we suppose that, had they stopped there, the place where Mary had so recently aided her cousin in her own recent pregnancy, that there would have been a grand reception? Can we permit ourselves to picture the possibility of a reunion of the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth with Mary and Joseph, with little John sleeping in their midst? If this happened -- and again Scripture doesn't mention it -- Mary and Joseph would have had a day or so of rest and comfort in the generous company of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They also would have had the chance to replenish their supplies.

Despite the silence of the Gospel account, we will dare add one more rather plausible conjecture, Jerusalem lay directly on the path to Bethlehem. Would Mary and Joseph have failed to enter the Holy City? If so, would they not have paid a visit to the Temple? What a fulfillment that would have been it! The Holy of Holies had been vacant for centuries. The Ark of the Covenant vanished when the Temple was destroyed at the time of the deportation in 587 BC.

But dare we imagine that Mary, the new Ark of the Covenant, enters the new Temple? Within her womb resides the Shekinah of the Tabernacle.iv God's only begotten Son fills the Temple with a real incarnate divine Presence. He was in His Father's house.

One might construct another scenario. Perhaps a departure from Ein Kerem in the early morning, a visit to the Temple later in the morning after a two mile walk, about noon, and a final dealine to be met -- five miles of rather desolate travel slightly southwest to Bethlehem!

And thou, Bethlehem, of the land of Judah, art by no means least among the princes of Judah; for from thee shall come forth a leader who shall rule My people Israel. (Mic 5:2 as cited in Matt 2:6)

iv The Shekinah--or Sh'cheenah--was the dwelling or the very Presence of God.

In part 5 Mary and Joseph arrive at Bethlehem.