Words 11.28

 Words Twice a Week        11.28

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Well so far no Advent wreath or calendar – I think I’m getting daily devotion emails from The Church of Heavenly Rest in NYC.  We’ll see how that goes -

Some days from the church calendar -

Nov 29 – Dorothy Day  She was a social activist and co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement.  She helped found 33 “Hospitality Houses” to feed hungry people.

Nov 30 – Saint Andrew One of Jesus’ earliest disciples, he brought his brother Peter.  Tradition says he preached in Eastern Europe after the Resurrection and according to Orthodox tradition, the apostolic successor to Saint Andrew is the Patriarch of Constantinople.    Tradition also says that some of his relics were transferred to a town  (now St Andrews) in Scotland and “his cross” is on the Scottish flag.  St Andrew’s Day is the national holiday of Scotland.

Dec 1 – Charles de Foucauld  His career went from being a cavalery officer in the French army, to being an explorer and geographer, to being a Trappist monk, to looking for an even more radical poverty, altruism, and penitence as a hermit.  Charles de Foucauld was declared “Venerable” on 24 April 2001 by Pope John Paul II, then “Blessed” on 13 November 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI. On 27 May 2020, the Vatican announced that he would be canonized, while later on 9 November 2021 it was announced by the Vatican that Pope Francis would declare the late Trappist as a saint on 15 May 2022.

Dec 3  - Francis Xavier  He met Ignatius of Loyola in college (sounds like a bowl game!) and became his disciple. He went as a Jesuit to India, where he was a successful evangelist, and then went as the first missionary to Japan.

Dec 4 – John of Damascus  He was a Christian monk, priest, and apologist, born and raised in Damascus c. 675 or 676.  Tradition says he died near Jerusalem on Dec 4, 749.  His education was well rounded, and he is said to have made great advances in music, astronomy and theology, soon rivaling Pythagoras in arithmetic and Euclid in geometry.  He was given the nickname “Golden Speaker” and wrote hymns still used in Eastern Christianity and Lutheranism, especially at Easter.

Dec 5 – Clement of Alexandria  He was an early (150?-215? AD) theologian and Church Father. “He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially stopped any veneration of Clement of Alexandria in the 10th century.“  There you go – it ain’t easy being/staying a saint!

   Some Protestant claim that Clement of Alexandria rejected the real presence, which is however disputed by Catholics. These quotes are used to support the view that Clement did not believe in the real presence:

And He blessed the wine, saying, ‘Take, drink: this is my blood’ – the blood of the vine. He figuratively calls the Word ‘shed for many, for the remission of sins’ – the holy stream of gladness (The Instructor, 2:2) brought this out by symbols, when He said: ‘Eat ye my flesh, and drink my blood,’ describing distinctly by metaphor the drinkable properties of faith and the promise (The Instructor, 1:6)

The Catholic response is that Clement believed it to be both symbolic and the real presence, the next quote is used to support the Catholic view:

Such is the suitable food which the Lord ministers, and he offers his flesh and pours forth his blood, and nothing is wanting for the children’s growth. O, amazing mystery!

Some days from the Earth/World calendar -

Nov 29

+ Atari released Pong in 1972.

+ George Harrison died in 2001.  He wrote Taxman, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, My Sweet Lord, and Here Comes The Sun.  That could be an Advent song!  Or maybe a solstice song after Dec 21 or so.  Harrison nudged the Beatles toward Indian music and culture, and he helped organize The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 – a forerunner to numerous benefit concerts.

Nov 30

+ The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union started after the USSR invaded and bombed Helsinki.  Jared Diamond used it in his book Upheaval as an example of how countries can recover after  - well, after upheaval!  He tells how after the four month war, Finland developed policies that allowed it to co-exist with it’s neighbor.  

+ Mark Twain was born in 1835, Winston Churchill in 1874.  Zeppo Marx died in 1979, Evel Knievel in 2007.

Dec 1

+ Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in 1955.

+ Colombian drug Lord Pablo Escobar was born in 1949.

Dec 2

+ Colombian drug Lord Pablo Escobar died in 1993.

+ Britney Spears was born in 1981.

+ John Brown died in 1859.  He was an abolitionist, active with the Underground Railroad.  He was the leading exponent of violence in the movement, believing that decades of peaceful efforts had failed.  Captured after leading the raid at Harper’s Ferry, he was tried and hanged, the first person executed for treason in the United States.

Dec 3

+ The Bhopal Gas Disaster happened in 1984.  A gas leak from a Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant killed over 2,000 people.  It is said to be the world’s worst industrial disaster.

+ It’s the birthday of Joseph Conrad in 1857.  Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent, Typhoon, Lord Jim.  I guess I read some of them, at least – not sure I really “understood” them!  There were a couple of TV shows/series and a one act opera based on some of his books.

Dec 4

+ The Observer, a British newspaper, became the first newspaper to be published and read on a Sunday.  Now we get The Mining Journal on Saturday.  Sometimes I read the funnies right away, sometimes I wait to read them on Sunday!

Dec 5

+ Prohibition ended in the United States in 1933.  I don’t use alcohol, but I’m sure it made a big difference in life.

+ Walt Disney was born in 1901.  

+ W.A. Mozart died in 1791, Dave Brubeck died in 2012.

That’s what I got for now…..

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