(A Not-So-Nice Homily for Christmas) Delivered Christmas 2019 Relations, sparing no expense’llSend some useless old utensil,Or a matching pen and pencil.“just the thing I need! how nice!”It doesn’t matter how sincere itIs, nor how heartfelt the spirit,Sentiment will not endear it,What’s important is the price. “A Christmas Carol” –Tom Lehrer–
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He [viz. John the Baptist] went throughout [the] whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of
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For he [i.e. Christ] assumed at his first coming the lowliness of human flesh, and so fulfilled the design you formed long ago, and opened for us the way to eternal salvation…. –Preface I of Advent– Have you ever wondered how craftsmen are able to put model ships inside
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Joseph stood alone at the entrance to the cave and saw the first light of dawn touch the eastern horizon. It had been a long night. The child had been born some six hours ago. The shepherds had come and gone, and now his wife Mary was in the
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Bright Gabriel’s voice the Virgin heard And was receptive to God’s word. The sleeping Joseph saw, it seems, Angelic visions in his dreams. Shepherds prompted by Heaven’s choir Sought newborn Christ with hearts afire. And wise men came from country far, Led on by light of natal star. How could
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