Happy New Year!

We wish for you and all our readers the broad, sunlit uplands of Christ's love and peace.  May God richly bless you in the year ahead.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

In Memoriam A.H.H.

President and Family on Another Multi-Million Dollar Vacation

From The Examiner

By Mark Tapscott

President Obama and his family are enjoying a delightful Christmas vacation with friends and family in the chief executive's home state of Hawaii.

Nobody questions a president's right or need to take take away from the White House, but an investigation by Hawaii Reporter has turned up some eye-opening information about the costs and other aspects of the Obama get-away.

Just consider these estimates on part of the costs of the latest Obama Hawaii trip:

Al Gore Set To Become First “Carbon Billionaire”

CO2 tax agenda front man lining his pockets on the back of global warming fearmongering

From Prison Planet

Paul Joseph Watson

The New York Times has lifted the lid on how Al Gore stands to benefit to the tune of billions of dollars if the carbon tax proposals he is pushing come to fruition in the United States, while documenting how he has already lined his pockets on the back of exaggerated fearmongering about global warming.

As is to be expected, the article is largely a whitewash and takes an apologist stance in defense of Gore.

However, the NY Times‘ John M. Broder does reveal how one of the companies Gore invested in, Silver Spring Networks, recently received a contract worth $560 million dollars from the Energy Department to install “smart meters” in people’s homes that record (and critics fear could eventually regulate) energy usage.

Popes, Atheists and Freedom

Secularists should recognize that the pope's fight is their fight.

From The Wall Street Journal

By Daniel Henninger

This being the season of hope, Islamic extremists of course have been engaged in their annual tradition of blowing up Christian churches. 

An attack by a radical Muslim sect on two churches in northern Nigeria killed six people on Christmas Eve. On the Philippines' Jolo Island, home to al Qaeda-linked terrorists, a chapel bombing during Christmas Mass injured 11. 

One of the central public events during these days at year's end is the Pope's midnight Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In his homily the pope invariably pleads for peace, but on Friday evening a viewer could not have missed the meaning when Benedict XVI twice mentioned "garments rolled in blood," from Isaiah 9:5.

The image, as befits Isaiah, is poetic and disturbing. Benedict surely intended it so: "It is true," he said, "that the 'rod of his oppressor' is not yet broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the 'garment rolled in blood' still remains." He was of course referring to the sustained violence against Christian minorities by Islamic fundamentalists.

EU Abolishes Christmas

From Cranmer

You might think this to be one of the ‘Euromyths’ – right up there with straight bananas, the re-classification of the carrot as a fruit and the EU-wide harmonisation of condom size.

Except that the European Commission really have produced a new religiously-correct daily planner (aimed, naturally, at school children) in which it really is always winter but never Christmas.

Or always Diwali, Hanukkah and Eid but never Christmas, to be precise.

His Grace is loath to exaggerate or distort this story in any way, lest it be classified as just another Euromyth.

These daily planners, of which three million have produced (courtesy of the taxpayer), include the holidays of Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, but there is not one mention of Christian holidays.

Despite Christians manifestly constituting the vast majority of the European Union.

You might expect them to omit Ascension Sunday, Lent and the Feast Day of the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman.

But Christmas and Easter?

The page for December 25th is completely empty, and at the bottom is the following message:

"A true friend is someone who shares your worries and your joy.”

That’s nice.

And evidence, if any were needed, that Christians have no true friends in the inner sanctuaries of the European Union.

It is even more astonishing that this planner not only includes the holy days of just about every religion except Christianity: it also mentions the secular key dates of significance to the European Union, like ‘Europe Day’.

Johanna Touzel, spokesperson for COMECE (the pathologically-federalist Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union) found the planner ‘unbelievable’.

It is even more incroyable when you consider that our President is a devout Roman Catholic who sees the EU as a ‘Christian club’.

Doubtless he will gloss over this a typo.

To omit one Christian festival may be regarded as an error; to omit two looks like carelessness.

But to omit all of them looks like conspiracy.

Or at least incontrovertible corroborative evidence that the EU is a God-less, Marxist, secular, religiously and politically-correct, totalitarian, omnipotent beast quite antithetical to Christians, Christianity and the message of Christ

Celtic Thunder - 'Christmas 1915'

Before anyone leaves a comment to tell us that the Christmas Truce took place in 1914, we know.  There were sporadic events like this throughout the war, at Christmas and Easter.

Happy Sixth Day of Christmas to all!

Bloomberg's Snow Job

"Our city is doing exactly what you'd want it to do -- having government provide the services that people want."

Michael R. Bloomberg

Michael Rubens Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City and 10th richest U.S. citizen, is second to none when it comes to big government, high tax, nanny statism.  This is a Mayor who holds news conferences to tell New York parents how to dress their children on particularly frigid days, and tells restaurateurs what the salt content should be in their food.  As with most liberals, his cause is mankind; individuals get in the way.  

The following video offers a perfect metaphor for Bloomberg's kind of nanny statism, the streets will be cleared even if the vehicles that use them are destroyed in the process.

Iraq's War on Christians

Oil and geopolitics prevent the United States and Western European countries from speaking out against what amounts to genocide against Christians in the Middle East.

From The Los Angeles Times

By Tim Rutten

As much of the world once more prepares to celebrate the birth of Christ, it is a melancholy fact that many of the most ancient churches established in his name are being pushed to the brink of oblivion across the region where their faith was born.

The culprits are Salafist Islam's increasingly virulent intolerance, the West's convenient indifference and, in the case of Iraq, America's failure to make responsible provisions to protect minorities from the violent disorder that has persisted since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

When America intervened to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Christians — mostly Chaldeans and Assyrians — numbered about 1.4 million, or about 3% of the population. Over the last seven years, more than half have fled the country and, as the New York Times reported this week, a wave of targeted killings — including the Oct. 31 slaying of 51 worshipers and two priests during Mass at one of Baghdad's largest churches — has sent many more Christians fleeing. Despite Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promises to increase security, many believe the Christians are being targeted not only by Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has instructed its fighters "to kill Christians wherever they can reach them," but also by complicit elements within the government's security services.

The United States, meanwhile, does nothing — as it did nothing four years ago, when Father Boulos Iskander was kidnapped, beheaded and dismembered; or three years ago, when Father Ragheed Ganni was shot dead at the altar of this church; or two years ago, when Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was kidnapped and murdered; as it has done nothing about all the church bombings and assassinations of lay Christians that have become commonplace over the last seven years.

The human tragedy of all this is compounded by the historic one. The churches of the Middle East preserve the traditions of the Apostolic era in ways no other Christian rites or denominations do. The followers of Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch Syria, and it was there that the Gospels first were written down in Koine Greek. For 1,000 years, the churches of Iraq and Syria were great centers of Christian thought and art. Today, the Christian population is declining in every majority Muslim country in the region and is under increasingly severe pressure even in Lebanon, where it still constitutes 35% of the population.

Putting aside America's particular culpability in Iraq, the West as a community of nations has long turned a blind eye to the intolerance of the Middle East's Muslim states — an intolerance that has intensified with the spread of Salafism, Islam's brand of militant fundamentalism. Our ally Saudi Arabia is the great financial and ideological backer of this hatred. In fact, when it comes to religion, the kingdom and North Korea are the most criminally intolerant countries in the world.

Oil and geopolitics prevent the United States and Western European countries from speaking out against what amounts to genocide, though something more sinister than self-interest also is at work. The soft bigotry of minimal expectation is in play, an unspoken presumption that Muslim societies simply can't be held to the same standards of humane, rational and decent conduct that govern the affairs of other nations.

Paradoxically, the one country in the Middle East whose Christian population has grown in recent years is Israel, where more than 150,000 Christians enjoy religious freedom. That lends a particular pathos to the way in which the current persecution of Christians mirrors that which destroyed most of the region's ancient Jewish communities following Israel's establishment in 1948. Iraq, for example, was home to one of the Mideast's largest and most vibrant Jewish populations, one that predated Christianity by many centuries. It was in the great Jewish academies along the Euphrates that the more authoritative of the two Talmuds was argued out and compiled after the Second Temple's destruction. All that was swept away in a wave of hatred, as were all but vestiges of the equally ancient Jewish communities in Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and, more recently, Iran.

As one of the recent Christian refugees from Baghdad told the New York Times this week, "It's exactly what happened to the Jews."

A world still dazed and distracted by a world war's aftermath stood by and did nothing then. The West has no such excuse now.


Tim Rutten has been a journalist for more than 30 years. He participated in The Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning team coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He also won a 1991 award from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club for editorial writing.

Vietnam: Christmas Marked with Violent Crackdowns

From Catholic World News

Beatings, Church raids, arrests, forbidding Christmas Mass, bulldozing monasteries – are some of the violent incidents inflicted on Christians by authorities in Vietnam. 

An estimate of 2000 Protestants were locked out of a Christmas celebration scheduled to take place at the National Convention Center in the Tu Liem district of Hanoi on Sunday December 19. The organizers had rented the auditorium but at the last minute the managers of the state-owned facility unitarily terminated the contract.  Deeply disappointed to see the door locked and hundreds of uniformed police chasing them away, the Christians began singing and praying in the square in front of the building. Police called for reinforcements and started punching some Christians, striking some with nightsticks. Eventually police reinforcements wielding cattle prods dispersed the crowd the site, but not before at least six people including Rev. Nguyen Huu Bao, the scheduled speaker at the event, had been arrested. 

Eight Big Stories that Shaped 2010

Hat Tip to Wolf Howling

Political, societal, digital and natural happenings that shaped our world — and the faith — last year

From Our Sunday Visitor

By Elizabeth Scalia

As we ring in 2011 with prayers for the world, our nation, our towns, our jobs and our families — and a fervent wish for peace, balance and a chance to do some good where we can — let us look back at a teeter-totter of a year, where high-riding America suddenly found herself hitting the ground of reality with a thud. War is not over; the economic recovery is slow-to-stagnant and those who are not yet struggling themselves know someone, or love someone, who is.

We learned a few things in 2010: Service economies are hard to grow when housing markets are closed; Brett Favre is not unbreakable; your kids will hear you better if you text them; shooting a TV does not make “Dancing With the Stars” go away; the stock market doesn’t necessarily have any bearing on realities; a college degree in anything but the hard sciences really may not be worth it, after all; Russia is still a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; Christian oppression is not just for ancient Romans, anymore; reality TV has turned half the nation into voyeurs and the other half into exhibitionists; the wrong people want to be the exhibitionists; TSA patdowns may feel like a flashback to a bad dating experience; airport metal detectors are so graphic the only mystery left is your blood type; and no matter how many channels your cable package provides, you will not get away from the ubiquitous Sarah Palin!

Levity aside, 2010 may have been a mostly uncomfortable, disorienting year, but there were some hopeful notes: Adult stem cell therapies made promising gains in treating tumors, spinal-cord injuries and HIV infection; hardy Christmas retail sales made for a cheerful year-end; and polls show a growing opposition to abortion in America. As we move forward on those positive notes, let’s take one last look at the big stories of 2010.

Choir of King's College, Cambridge - 'What Sweeter Music' - John Rutter

What Sweeter Music

By Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.

Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.

We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.

Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.

What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?

Pope Benedict's Christmas Message Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World)

URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

CHRISTMAS 2010

“Verbum caro factum est” – “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14).

Dear brothers and sisters listening to me here in Rome and throughout the world, I joyfully proclaim the message of Christmas: God became man; he came to dwell among us. God is not distant: he is “Emmanuel”, God-with-us. He is no stranger: he has a face, the face of Jesus.

This message is ever new, ever surprising, for it surpasses even our most daring hope. First of all, because it is not merely a proclamation: it is an event, a happening, which credible witnesses saw, heard and touched in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! Being in his presence, observing his works and hearing his words, they recognized in Jesus the Messiah; and seeing him risen, after his crucifixion, they were certain that he was true man and true God, the only-begotten Son come from the Father, full of grace and truth (cf. Jn 1:14).

“The Word became flesh”. Before this revelation we once more wonder: how can this be? The Word and the flesh are mutually opposed realities; how can the eternal and almighty Word become a frail and mortal man? There is only one answer: Love. Those who love desire to share with the beloved, they want to be one with the beloved, and Sacred Scripture shows us the great love story of God for his people which culminated in Jesus Christ.

God in fact does not change: he is faithful to himself. He who created the world is the same one who called Abraham and revealed his name to Moses: “I am who I am … the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob … a God merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (cf. Ex 3:14-15; 34:6). God does not change; he is Love, ever and always. In himself he is communion, unity in Trinity, and all his words and works are directed to communion. The Incarnation is the culmination of creation. When Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, was formed in the womb of Mary by the will of the Father and the working of the Holy Spirit, creation reached its high point. The ordering principle of the universe, the Logos, began to exist in the world, in a certain time and space.

“The Word became flesh”. The light of this truth is revealed to those who receive it in faith, for it is a mystery of love. Only those who are open to love are enveloped in the light of Christmas. So it was on that night in Bethlehem, and so it is today. The Incarnation of the Son of God is an event which occurred within history, while at the same time transcending history. In the night of the world a new light was kindled, one which lets itself be seen by the simple eyes of faith, by the meek and humble hearts of those who await the Saviour. If the truth were a mere mathematical formula, in some sense it would impose itself by its own power. But if Truth is Love, it calls for faith, for the “yes” of our hearts.

And what do our hearts, in effect, seek, if not a Truth which is also Love? Children seek it with their questions, so disarming and stimulating; young people seek it in their eagerness to discover the deepest meaning of their life; adults seek it in order to guide and sustain their commitments in the family and the workplace; the elderly seek it in order to grant completion to their earthly existence.

“The Word became flesh”. The proclamation of Christmas is also a light for all peoples, for the collective journey of humanity. “Emmanuel”, God-with-us, has come as King of justice and peace. We know that his Kingdom is not of this world, and yet it is more important than all the kingdoms of this world. It is like the leaven of humanity: were it lacking, the energy to work for true development would flag: the impulse to work together for the common good, in the disinterested service of our neighbour, in the peaceful struggle for justice. Belief in the God who desired to share in our history constantly encourages us in our own commitment to that history, for all its contradictions. It is a source of hope for everyone whose dignity is offended and violated, since the one born in Bethlehem came to set every man and woman free from the source of all enslavement.

May the light of Christmas shine forth anew in the Land where Jesus was born, and inspire Israelis and Palestinians to strive for a just and peaceful coexistence. May the comforting message of the coming of Emmanuel ease the pain and bring consolation amid their trials to the beloved Christian communities in Iraq and throughout the Middle East; may it bring them comfort and hope for the future and bring the leaders of nations to show them effective solidarity. May it also be so for those in Haiti who still suffer in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and the recent cholera epidemic. May the same hold true not only for those in Colombia and Venezuela, but also in Guatemala and Costa Rica, who recently suffered natural disasters.

May the birth of the Saviour open horizons of lasting peace and authentic progress for the peoples of Somalia, Darfur and Côte d’Ivoire; may it promote political and social stability in Madagascar; may it bring security and respect for human rights in Afghanistan and in Pakistan; may it encourage dialogue between Nicaragua and Costa Rica; and may it advance reconciliation on the Korean peninsula.

May the birth of the Saviour strengthen the spirit of faith, patience and courage of the faithful of the Church in mainland China, that they may not lose heart through the limitations imposed on their freedom of religion and conscience but, persevering in fidelity to Christ and his Church, may keep alive the flame of hope. May the love of “God-with-us” grant perseverance to all those Christian communities enduring discrimination and persecution, and inspire political and religious leaders to be committed to full respect for the religious freedom of all.

Dear brothers and sisters, “the Word became flesh”; he came to dwell among us; he is Emmanuel, the God who became close to us. Together let us contemplate this great mystery of love; let our hearts be filled with the light which shines in the stable of Bethlehem! To everyone, a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Broadcast of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

St. Paul's Cathedral Choir - 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing'

Homily of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for Christmas Midnight Mass

SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI 

Saint Peter's Basilica
Friday, 24 December 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

“You are my son, this day I have begotten you” – with this passage from Psalm 2 the Church begins the liturgy of this holy night. She knows that this passage originally formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of Israel. The king, who in himself is a man like others, becomes the “Son of God” through being called and installed in his office. It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive act by which he grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into his own being. The reading from the prophet Isaiah that we have just heard presents the same process even more clearly in a situation of hardship and danger for Israel: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder” (Is 9:6). Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. As one newly born through God’s personal choice, as a child born of God, the king embodies hope. On his shoulders the future rests. He is the bearer of the promise of peace. On that night in Bethlehem this prophetic saying came true in a way that would still have been unimaginable at the time of Isaiah. Yes indeed, now it really is a child on whose shoulders government is laid. In him the new kingship appears that God establishes in the world. This child is truly born of God. It is God’s eternal Word that unites humanity with divinity. To this child belong those titles of honour which Isaiah’s coronation song attributes to him: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6). Yes, this king does not need counsellors drawn from the wise of this world. He bears in himself God’s wisdom and God’s counsel. In the weakness of infancy, he is the mighty God and he shows us God’s own might in contrast to the self-asserting powers of this world.

Truly, the words of Israel’s coronation rite were only ever rites of hope which looked ahead to a distant future that God would bestow. None of the kings who were greeted in this way lived up to the sublime content of these words. In all of them, those words about divine sonship, about installation into the heritage of the peoples, about making the ends of the earth their possession (Ps 2:8) were only pointers towards what was to come – as it were signposts of hope indicating a future that at that moment was still beyond comprehension. Thus the fulfilment of the prophecy, which began that night in Bethlehem, is both infinitely greater and in worldly terms smaller than the prophecy itself might lead one to imagine. It is greater in the sense that this child is truly the Son of God, truly “God from God, light from light, begotten not made, of one being with the Father”. The infinite distance between God and man is overcome. God has not only bent down, as we read in the Psalms; he has truly “come down”, he has come into the world, he has become one of us, in order to draw all of us to himself. This child is truly Emmanuel – God-with-us. His kingdom truly stretches to the ends of the earth. He has truly built islands of peace in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist. Wherever it is celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God’s own peace. This child has ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to overcome the tyranny of might. This child builds his kingdom in every generation from within, from the heart. But at the same time it is true that the “rod of his oppressor” is not yet broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the “garment rolled in blood” (Is 9:4f) still remains. So part of this night is simply joy at God’s closeness. We are grateful that God gives himself into our hands as a child, begging as it were for our love, implanting his peace in our hearts. But this joy is also a prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in blood come to an end. Fulfil the prophecy that “of peace there will be no end” (Is 9:7). We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to show forth your power.  Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in the world – the “kingdom of righteousness, love and peace”.

Westminster Cathedral Choir - 'O Magnum Mysterium'

The choir of Westminster Cathedral sing Morten Lauridsen's stunningly beautiful setting of "O Magnum Mysterium" during Christmas Midnight Mass 2009.  As one of the comments posted with this video stated, "this must be what heaven sounds like."

Dame Joan Sutherland - 'O Holy Night'

Pope Gives Christmas Eve Talk on BBC

Addresses Great Britain "and indeed every part of the English-speaking world"

Pope Benedict has set a new precedent by speaking specifically to one nation in a Christmas Eve broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 “Thought for the Day” program.  The BBC's David Willey says "it is the Pope's way of saying thank you for what he regarded as a hugely successful trip to England and Scotland in September."  The video and text follow:

 

"Recalling with great fondness my four-day visit to the United Kingdom last September, I am glad to have the opportunity to greet you once again, and indeed to greet listeners everywhere as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. Our thoughts turn back to a moment in history when God's chosen people, the children of Israel, were living in intense expectation. They were waiting for the Messiah that God had promised to send, and they pictured him as a great leader who would rescue them from foreign domination and restore their freedom.

God is always faithful to his promises, but he often surprises us in the way he fulfils them. The child that was born in Bethlehem did indeed bring liberation, but not only for the people of that time and place - he was to be the Saviour of all people throughout the world and throughout history. And it was not a political liberation that he brought, achieved through military means: rather, Christ destroyed death for ever and restored life by means of his shameful death on the Cross. And while he was born in poverty and obscurity, far from the centres of earthly power, he was none other than the Son of God. Out of love for us he took upon himself our human condition, our fragility, our vulnerability, and he opened up for us the path that leads to the fullness of life, to a share in the life of God himself. As we ponder this great mystery in our hearts this Christmas, let us give thanks to God for his goodness to us, and let us joyfully proclaim to those around us the good news that God offers us freedom from whatever weighs us down: he gives us hope, he brings us life.

Dear Friends from Scotland, England, Wales, and indeed every part of the English-speaking world, I want you to know that I keep all of you very much in my prayers during this Holy Season. I pray for your families, for your children, for those who are sick, and for those who are going through any form of hardship at this time. I pray especially for the elderly and for those who are approaching the end of their days. I ask Christ, the light of the nations, to dispel whatever darkness there may be in your lives and to grant to every one of you the grace of a peaceful and joyful Christmas. May God bless all of you!"

Advent Vespers - December 23 - "O Emmanuel"

Five minutes of daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and to more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great "O Antiphons."

Nation’s Intelligence Chief Unaware of Significant U.K. Terror Plot

James Clapper, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, was unaware of the largest counterterrorism raid in nearly two years. 

News of the London terror plot was in our "Sunlit News" feed hours before this interview took place.  Perhaps if the Director of National Intelligence were to read  Sunlit Uplands, he would be as well informed as our readers.  Just a suggestion.

Advent Vespers - December 22 - "O Rex Gentium"

Five minutes of daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and to more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great "O Antiphons."

Advent Lessons and Carols at Providence College

Providence College's Advent Service of Lessons and Carols featuring the Providence College Liturgical Choir and the Schola Cantorum, directed by Sherry Humes Dane, Director of Liturgical Music, St. Dominic Chapel. And I Cantori, the Concert Chorale, and the Women's Chorus, directed by Dr. Todd J. Harper, Assistant Professor, Department of Music.

Scriptural readings from Genesis, Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, and John.

Christmas Message of His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

Below is the full text of the 2010 Christmas Message from His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem:

"I welcome all of you journalists present here and thank you for your role in providing information and conscience formation, and for your commitment to the truth".

The message of the recent Synod recognized your role: "We appreciate the role of the means of social communication, both printed and audio-visual. We thank you journalists for your collaboration with the Church in broadcasting her teachings and activities." (Nuntius 4.4)

To all of you and all the people of Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year full of surprises at the global, local, and personal levels, and a year of peace and prosperity.

I greet the Bishops here present: Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, our Patriarchal Vicar in Israel, and our new Auxiliary Bishop and Patriarchal Vicar for Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories, Bishop William Shomali, who was ordained last May and comes with a new energy to help us in our mission. I also welcome Rev.Fr. David Neuhaus, SJ, our Patriarchal Vicar in Israel for the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community.

Like last year, I would like to present the important events that have happened this year, here in our Patriarchate. I would like to emphasize above all the positive events without, however, excluding the suffering and the concerns that remain.

1 -We thank our Holy Father for having convened the Synod for the Middle East, held in Rome from the 10th to 24th of October 2010. During that time, we were able to put our fingers on our wounds and our fears, and at the same time express our expectations and our hopes. The Synod called on Christians in the Middle East to live as true believers and good citizens, not distancing from public life, but involved in the development of our communities, whether in Arab countries or in Israel. The Synod also stressed the importance of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. We hope that this dialogue will advance not only within intellectual circles, among scholars and theologians, but be a dialogue of life, for all segments of society. The Synod condemned violence, religious fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, anti-Judaism, anti-Christianity and Islamophobia, and called on religions “to assume their responsibilities in promoting dialogue among cultures and civilizations in our region and in the entire world.” (Nuntius 11)

2 - Religious tourism and pilgrimages in the Holy Land are experiencing record numbers. In November 2010, three million people have visited the Holy Places. This number could still increase to arrive at nearly 3.4 million visitors, a figure never reached before, even in 2000, the Jubilee Year, which recorded very significant results. This reflects the universal dimension of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, the welcoming reception extended to pilgrims by our people and our Churches, and the good work of the Ministries of Tourism in Israel and Palestine.

3 - I wish to highlight the improvement in the process of obtaining visas for religious, seminarians and volunteers. I thank all those who worked to achieve this result. We still have a long way to go.

4 - On December 7th, talks resumed between the Holy See and the Palestinian Authority for the application of the basic agreement signed in 2000. The deliberations focus on religious freedom and fiscal legislation. We pray for the success of these negotiations and those already under way with Israel.

5 - Last November, I had the joy of visiting several countries in Latin America: Chile, Argentina, Colombia, and Honduras. I met with the bishops of these countries, top government and civilian authorities, and especially our faithful living in the ‘diaspora.’ In Chile alone, there are over 400,000 who emigrated between 1900 and 1950, because of poverty and security problems. Now they are all well integrated into the local society, and many have expressed their willingness to support our projects in the Holy Land and come on pilgrimage.

Among the major projects that the Latin Patriarchate is trying to accomplish, I would like to mention: the new pediatric hospital in Bethlehem which will be named after Pope Benedict, the University of Madaba, which will open in October next year, and the new Pilgrims’ Center in Jordan, on the site of the Baptism of Christ.

6 - We were very concerned about the fire that destroyed entire forests in the Haifa area. We offer our condolences to the families of victims, and our admiration for the courage of those who died in the line of duty. This sad event made us experience international solidarity. The fact that the Palestinian Authority made available their team of firefighters was a very significant gesture and may be a beginning of a fruitful collaboration in the future, when peace will be stablished in this troubled land.

7 - We suffer from the failure of direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This should not lead us to despair. We continue to believe that on both sides, and in the international community, there are men of goodwill who will work and put their energies together in their commitment for peace. We believe that nothing is impossible with God and we want to carry out the wishes sang by the angels on Christmas night : "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”(Lk.2 :14) We also wish Europe to play a more significant role in this process.

8 - We were shocked and troubled by the massacre of Christians in Baghdad in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. These innocent victims are added to the thousands of victims of fundamentalism and violence afflicting our world. Readily, I echo the words of Pope Benedict: "Given the violence that continue to tear the peoples of the Middle East, I would like to renew my urgent appeal for peace. Peace is a gift of God. It is also the result of efforts by men of good will, of national and international institutions, all working together to put an end to all violence! "

Dear friends, let me conclude this message with my good wishes for a reconciliation between our peoples, the Israelis and the Palestinians. It is time to commit ourselves together for a genuine, true and long-lasting peace.

May the joy of Christmas be in our hearts and peace upon all of you. Merry Christmas!

+Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch

Listen to Chris Altieri's report: 

South Carolinians Celebrate 150th Anniversary Of Secession

In the tragic but unlikely event that Barack Hussein Obama is reelected in 2012, our advice to our beloved South Carolina would be: "if at first you don't secede, try, try again!"  Such an outcome would surely be the result of voter fraud and would be the final "nail in the coffin" of the old republic.

From TPM

David Taintor

South Carolinians literally had a ball last night celebrating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. The secession ball, organized by the Confederate Heritage Trust -- and sponsored by the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- reportedly featured a 45-minute theatrical play re-enacting the signing of the Ordinance of Secession, where South Carolina declared its intention to secede from the union.

According to the event's website, the original Ordinance of Secession was actually on full display at the event, and the South Carolina Senate's interim president Glenn McConnell -- an avid Civil War re-enactor himself -- was expected to attend. The event's dress code called for modern black tie, period formal or pre-war militia, and tickets cost $100.

The gala's website describes it as an "EVENT OF A LIFETIME"!!! (emphasis theirs). But South Carolina NAACP president Lonnie Randolph told The State he thinks the event is more about celebration than history, and he planned on boycotting the ball. About 120 protesters marched in opposition to the event.

"We are not opposed to observances," he said. "We are opposed to disrespect. This is nothing more than a celebration of slavery."

Thomas Hiter, of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, appeared on Hardball last night, along with Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. Hiter defended the event, called the state's secession an "act of immense political courage" and went so far as to claim the Civil War didn't start over slavery.

But Robinson, of course, rejected Hiter's premise. "If it had not been for slavery, there would not have been the Civil War," he said. "There's no other reading of history."

Hiter continued to sidestep any questions regarding any potential celebration of slavery, but he was sure of one thing: "Had I found myself alive in those days, I think, I hope, to pray to God, I would have fought the way my ancestors did ... for the South."

Organizers were not available to speak to TPM before the event.

Advent Vespers - December 21 - "O Oriens"

Five minutes of daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child, and to more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great O Antiphons.

Gloucester Cathedral Choir and Congregation - "In the Bleak Midwinter"

Beautiful lyrics by English poet Christina Rossetti, evocative music by Gustav Holst, and angelic voices of the Gloucester Cathedral Choir and congregation, make this a gem.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Advent Vespers - December 20 - "O Clavis David"

Five minutes of daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and to more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great "O Antiphons."

Over 200,000 Lapsed Catholics Return to Church through 'Come Home' Outreach

From EWTN News

TV ads aimed at bringing lapsed Catholics back into the fold have enjoyed enormous success recently with an estimated 200,000 returning to churches throughout the U.S. as a result of the campaign. 

Featuring high-resolution TV ads with lush colors and powerful imagery, Catholics Come Home – an initiative of business entrepreneur Tom Peterson – has teamed up with local dioceses in the U.S. to bring people back into the Church.

Peterson told EWTN News Dec. 16 that Catholics Come Home “has been blessed with amazing results” over the last two and a half years as over 200,000 individuals, whether lapsed Catholics or otherwise, have joined their local parishes. 

The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom

'Net neutrality' sounds nice, but the Web is working fine now. The new rules will inhibit investment, deter innovation and create a billable-hours bonanza for lawyers.

From The Wall Street Journal

By Robert M. McDowell

Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government's reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling.

How did the FCC get here?

For years, proponents of so-called "net neutrality" have been calling for strong regulation of broadband "on-ramps" to the Internet, like those provided by your local cable or phone companies. Rules are needed, the argument goes, to ensure that the Internet remains open and free, and to discourage broadband providers from thwarting consumer demand. That sounds good if you say it fast.

Religious Practice on the Rise in Great Britain

The number of Anglican churches in Britain has risen for the first time in more than a decade, according to new research. 

From The Telegraph

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones

New congregations are being formed to take over old redundant church buildings or to provide more youth-friendly services, helping church membership numbers to rise.

The figures, to be published this week by Christian Research, also reveal that the Roman Catholic Church is continuing to enjoy a rise in attendance at Mass, that the number of Pentecostal worshippers is increasing rapidly and that Baptist churches are also enjoying a resurgence.

Advent Vespers - December 19 - "O Radix Jesse"

Five minutes of daily prayer and contemplation to better recognize the Christ Child and to more fully receive His boundless blessings. Based on the seven Great "O Antiphons."

Russia Poised to Control 50% of U.S. Uranium Output, FT Says

What does it mean when the U.S. President is an anti-American Marxist?  This:

From Bloomberg

By Alan Purkiss

ARMZ, the uranium-mining unit of Rosatom Corp., Russia’s state-owned nuclear-energy company, may soon control as much as half of U.S. uranium production, after U.S. authorities approved its purchase of 51 percent of Canada’s Uranium One Inc., the Financial Times reported. 

The purchase of the stake in Uranium One, which owns mines in Wyoming, was approved in October by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. and last month by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the newspaper said. 

Eighty percent of uranium used in the U.S. is imported and Russia is one of the biggest suppliers; the uranium price has risen from $40 to $60 a pound since the summer, the FT said.

From the Pastor: Contemplation of Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell . . .

A Weekly Column by Father George Rutler

As there would be no concept of darkness if all were light, no sense of vertical if all were horizontal, no notion of male if all were female, so would there be no intimation of separation from God if all were united with him. Because Christ is the Lord of Heaven, his warnings about Hell become more understandable, and because Christ is the Logos, the “Word” which holds all things together, his mysteries are perfectly logical, and among those mysteries is the state of separation from him.

Heaven is perfect “life” and the “state” of supreme, definitive happiness (Catechism, n. 1024). Logically, Hell is the opposite: imperfect life and the state of misery. Both are conditions and not places as we refer to geography in time and space. They are real, but cannot be located on any map, except by the longitude and latitude of the soul’s love for God. “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18-19).

The cruelest people in history have tended to be extravagant sentimentalists, accepting flowers from children while they destroy infants, and glorifying mankind while despising men. The Prince of Lies is the definitive sentimentalist because he would have us live in a state of feeling instead of fact. He rejects the divine logic of Hell as the contradiction of Heaven and says they are the same. But logic wins in the end, as it did at the end of the twentieth century when the utopias of tyrants were exposed as earthly hells.

“Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the ‘sad and lamentable reality of eternal death,’ also called ‘Hell.’ Hell’s principal punishment consists of eternal separation from God in whom alone man can have the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs” (Catechism, nn. 1056-57). In these “darkest days” of the year, the Light of the World begins to be seen, in order to “cast off the works of darkness” (Romans 13:12). Contemplation of Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell in the season of Advent, dignifies the human intellect by showing how to know the Christmas joy of the “Word Made Flesh,” not as amiable nostalgia, like Civil War battle re-enactments or dressing up like Washington crossing the Delaware, but actually realizing Heaven in that daily Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost which is the Holy Eucharist:

Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Fr. George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, is available from Crossroads Publishing.