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I learned, long ago, that being "pretty sure" about something wasn't necessarily the same as being right. Take what I was "pretty sure" about last month, for example: "...Folks living in the next block north of our house have inflatable yard decorations out and lit up for this Christmas season. So, on my way to Mass, I drove by Baby Yoda and SpongeBob SquarePants wearing a festive Santa hat. "Baby Yoda is holding what I’m pretty sure is an orange Halloween treat bag...." ("Christmas: Family, Lights, and a Little Weirdness" > Holiday Weirdness (December 28, 2024)) The neighbor's Baby Yoda/Grogu's Christmas stocking didn't seem as bright red as the one in that promotional photo. But the symbol on it was the same. And it was clearly a Christmas stocking.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Correcting what I said about an inflatable holiday lawn decoration and about the Christmas season. Includes a link to the...

This week I started writing about a holiday visit from family up in North Dakota. By Friday afternoon I was looking at depression and a prayer: Good Times, Good Visit Mass in Minnesota: Freezing Fog and Celebrating Anyway Babies and Expectations Holiday Weirdness Meanwhile, at Our House Two Incidents After Mass Desolation, Dissatisfaction, Depression, and a Prayer ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A family visit, freezing fog for Christmas, celebrating anyway. A little holiday weirdness. Depression, a prayer, and St. Ignatius of Loyola: very briefly.)

Get-togethers, family and community, are part of the holiday season. Take Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, for example. Thousands of folks, maybe a million or more, turned out Thursday morning, 1 standing in a cold New York City rain, cheering this celebration of consumerism. I could kvetch about folks buying stuff they don't actually need, the rampant waste of helium, or Snoopy being neither at the parade's head nor at Santa's side. But I won't. Fact is, I enjoyed an online broadcast — or is that stream? — of the parade. Watching the parade has become part of my holiday season routine. Instead, I'll talk about another holiday tradition I've enjoyed: family Christmas gatherings at the home of Aunt Jule and Uncle George. They lived, along with some of the rest of the family, in Grand Forks, North Dakota: about a two hour drive north from Moorhead, Minnesota, where I grew up. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Sharing memories of an annual family ...

"Urbi et orbi" is Latin for "to the city and to the world". Or, rather "To the city and to the world" is English for "urbi et orbi". Either way an "urbi et orbi" message is both for folks living in Rome and for everyone else. There's a plenary indulgence involved, too, and that's another topic.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (What Pope Francis said on Christmas Day: embedded video and a link to the text. And, VERY briefly, how I see what he said.)

One, maybe two, articles by C. S. Lewis reappeared about a half-dozen years back. Not that they'd been invisible. Collectors had the articles in their copies of The Strand Magazine, but "A Christmas Sermon for Pagans" and "Cricketer's Progress" hadn't made it into lists of work by Lewis. Maybe it's just one new 'Lewis' article. "Cricketer's Progress: A Famous Reputation and What Became of It", was written by a "Clive Hamilton". Sure, Lewis published his first book under the Clive Hamilton pseudonym. But Lewis isn't known as a sports journalist. 1 And that's another topic. Anyway, I'll be talking about "A Christmas Sermon for Pagans" this week. Or, rather, I'm sharing a few excerpts; and talking about whatever comes to mind. "A Christmas Sermon for Pagans": No Longer Forgotten "... 'Objective' Right or Wrong...." "...Nature is ... A Kind of Machine fo...

  Annunciation Alessandro Allori [ Web Gallery of Art ] And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”   (Luke 1:38; Gospel) Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Luke 1:26-38  ( English Standard Version Anglicised, India) In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,   to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary.   And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!”   But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.   And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.   And behold, you...

We're celebrating a very special birthday. (A little) more at A Catholic Citizen in America . (John 1:14. It's a big deal. Merry Christmas!)

I'll be sharing some very odd 19th century Christmas cards today. And rambling a bit about holidays, history and whatever else comes to mind. Briefly, for me. Christmas and New Year's Eve: a Double-Header Solstice Celebration Many if not all folks who experience non-equatorial seasons where they live have some sort of winter solstice celebration. My native culture has two: Christmas and New Year's Eve. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (My winter solstice celebrations, holiday greetings from the ISS, strange Victorian greeting cards and the first Christmas card.)

My culture's Christmas season begins with Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Our traditionally-frenzied holiday shopping season does, at any rate. That's not a particularly good thing, considering what stress can do to folks. On the other hand, America's shopping frenzy inspired "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas." I'll be talking about that, more-or-less-recent news, and events we're still celebrating, two millennia later.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Recent news, holiday stress and a hipster nativity. Yogi Yorgesson and C. S. Lewis: views regarding Christmas. Joseph, Mary and decisions.)

  Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town Written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie Arranged by Jim Clements Sung by Voces8 My Auntie Madge (Margaret Collins) would have been ten or eleven when this song first appeared in 1934. But she never heard the marvellous arrangement above of the song that has just been issued by Voces8, the British choir that I have often used in  Sunday Reflections , singing a different kind of music. Auntie Madge was the youngest of my mother's six sisters Jennie, Nan, Neita, Bridie, Eileen and Madge. I'm not sure where Bridie, who died in infancy, came in the sequence but I often heard my mother, Mary, talking about her. Three boys, Mick, Paddy and Jack, completed the family of my maternal grandparents, William Patrick Collins and Annie Dowd. My grandfather died early in 1945 when I was nearly two but I don't have any memories of him, though I am happy that he knew me, his third grandchild, and that he held me. He was only 59 when he died of lung cancer...

(From Casey and Corey Wright, via San Diego Union Tribune, used w/o permission.) As an American, my Christmas season starts on the fourth Thursday in November. That's when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade arrives at Macy's Herald Square in New York City. Thereafter, front yards bask in the glow of neon reindeer and electric snowmen, while a spirit of unbridled consumerism sweeps the land.... ...As a Catholic, my Christmas season starts December 25. We keep celebrating until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That's tomorrow.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From James Tissot, via Wikidata, used w/o permission.) (James Tissot's "Journey of the Magi." (1890s)) "We Three Kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and fountain, Moor and mountain, Following yonder Star...." (" We Three Kings ," John Henry Hopkins Jr. (1857)) As a child, "We Three Kings" was among my favorite Christmas songs. It still is. The song's gold, frankincense and myrrh are "Biblical," in the sense that they're mentioned in Matthew's Gospel. So is the star. As for the "Three Kings of Orient:" well, there were more than one of them, and Matthew says they were from the east. But he also called them magi.... More about Matthew's magi, Herod the Great, Bethlehem's dead boys, the Ark and more, at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(From James Tissot; via European Art Collection, Wikimedia Commons; used w/o permission.) ("Adoration of the Shepherds," James Tissot. (ca. 1890)) We're celebrating the birth of Jesus this weekend. Saturday night's Gospel reading starts with "...a decree went out from Caesar Augustus...." About halfway along, we hear that Joseph finally found a place to stay in Bethlehem: but not exactly five-star accommodations. When Jesus was born, Mary laid our Lord in a manger. Two millennia later, in my language, "manger" sounds a bit classy. But it's a feeding trough. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

I'm working on a "Christmas" post that should be ready by tomorrow morning. But in case it's not, here's something seasonal and slightly silly. Pip's Christmas 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the shop Nothing was stirring, you could hear a pin drop. The sleigh was not ready, the toys were not packed, Santa was fuming, quite lacking in tact.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

Our number-two daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter arrived shortly after noon. We're celebrating a belated/second Christmas and our granddaughter's birthday. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(The great convergence, probably behind those clouds. (December 22, 2020)) I could have put either of these two photos in an earlier post. But I didn't. So here they are now.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

As the song says, "I'll be home for Christmas...." Here's a 74-second video I enjoyed this Sunday morning. Maybe you will, too..... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

This is a bad situation. But it could have been a lot worse.... ...I'd hoped that three non-life-threatening injuries was the extent of casualties. As of early evening of Christmas Day, that seems unlikely. "...Possible human remains..." does not sound hopeful. Motive is also an apparently-unknown part of the puzzle.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(My corner of small town America around noon, Christmas Eve.) It's Christmas Eve afternoon here in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Weather, Wind Chill, Memory and Deciding Wednesday's blizzard became a wind chill advisory, which has since retreated to lands north and west of my home. ...What we do each year, and how we do it, matters. But it's not nearly as important as why we get together and celebrate.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America .

(Wednesday noon, December 23, 2020; my webcam's view of Sauk Centre's south side.) Tuesday afternoon's winter storm warning for my part of central Minnesota became a blizzard warning in the evening. We were promised a chance of freezing rain. But I didn't notice any Wednesday morning. On the other hand, wind was picking up and by noon snow wasn't coming down. It was coming across. I'd probably have got out to the Eucharistic Adoration chapel for my 2:00-3:00 Wednesday afternoon turn, if my wife hadn't said I should think about it. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .