Cacciaguida |
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Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st. Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff. "Very fun." -- J. Bottum, Editor, FIRST THINGS "Too modest" -- Elinor Dashwood "Perhaps the wisest man on the Web" -- Henry Dieterich "Hat tip: me (but really Cacciaguida)" -- Diana Feygin, Editor, THE YALE FREE PRESS "You are my sire. You give me confidence to speak. You raise my heart so high that I am no more I." -- Dante "Fabulous!"-- Warlock D.J. Prod of Didsbury Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII. E-mail me Site Feed Syndicate this site  MilitaryHonors.com LINKS: Axis of Eve: The Cigarette Smoking Blog, by Helen E-Pression, by Zorak Eli's Coffer, by TKB Eve Tushnet Iqra'i, by Kate et al. MarriageDebate.com Mommentary, by Elinor The Old Oligarch Otto-da-Fe The Rat The Reactionary Epicurean The Yale Free Press: Vast. Right. Winged. Crusaders' Corner: Blackfive Buscaraons Catholics in the Military Lepanto Group Long War Journal, by Bill Roggio Michael Yon Small Wars Journal Blog Stop the Islamization of Europe Catholic blogs: A (Little) Light from the East Against the Grain The Anchoress Cnytr, by Lauren B. The Curt Jester Dawn Patrol Dyspeptic Mutterings Erik's Rants & Recipes Fiat Lux! Five Feet of Fury, by Kathy Shaidle Holy Smoke, by Damian Thompson Jelly-Pinched Theatre Laodicea (straight from Scotland!) Mark Shea Patum Peperinum Pertinaceous Papist Philokalia Republic A Plumbline in the Wind The Truth Will Make You Free (Fr. Bob Connor) What Does That Prayer Really Say? by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf Yurodivi(Catholicism, opera...) Law blogs: How Appealing Lex Communis Mirror of Justice Ninomania Conservative blogs: Belmont Club Desperate Irish Housewife Eschatological Psychosis Never Yet Melted Power Line WorldwideStandard Medievalist blogs: Another Boring Academic Has a Blog? Cranky Professor LiveJournal Medieval Studies Rogueclassicism The Few, the Proud, the On-Line: From the Halls to the Shores, by Mike the Marine Morristown, by Jonathan Lee One Marine's View Opera and other arts blogs: About Last Night Box Five Prima la musica, poi le parole OTHER SITES, MOSTLY NON-BLOGS: Catholicism: Catholic World News Eastern Ortodoxy Compared Hebrew Catholics InsideCatholic New Advent (includes old Catholic Encyclopedia) Opus Dei Remnant of Israel SSPX suxx Conservatism: Claremont Institute National Review RealClearPolitics.com The Weekly Standard Law: Federalist Society Founders' Constitution JURIST Nat'l Lawyers Ass'n (alternative to ABA) Overlawyered.com Supreme Court decisions The Middle Ages: Divina Commedia Lectura Dantis Medieval Academy of America Medievalist Weblogs ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies Pontifical Inst. of Mvl. Studies, U. of Toronto Yale Medieval Studies Department Opera: Bayreuth Festival The Met Met archives New York City Opera OperaCast: b'casts on the Net The Opera Critic Opera-L archives Opera magazine, a.k.a. "English Opera" Opera News Special interest: Courage Dreadnought The Gay Priest Problem, by Fr. Paul Shaughnessy, USN NARTH Sed Contra, by David Morrison "Less easily classified": Arts & Letters Daily Blondie.net Rolling Stone article on Blondie The Historical Society Manolo for the Men MercatorNet Society for Military History Mugglenet The Leaky Cauldron The Snitch 
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Monday, December 26, 2011
Now burn, new born to the world,
Double-naturèd
name,
The heaven-flung, heart-fleshed,
maiden-furled
Miracle-in-Mary-of-flame,
Mid-numberèd He in three of the
thunder-throne!
Hopkins Saturday, December 24, 2011
St. Francis and Saint Benedight
Bless this house from wicked wight;
From the night-mare and the goblin,
That is hight good fellow Robin;
Keep it from all evil spirits,
Fairies, weazles, rats, and ferrets:
From curfew time
To the next prime.
Cartwright
Christmas Anguish
The dad of a close friend of mine died about a week ago. (Permit me for a moment to write as myself and not as a 12th century warrior.)
I've been developing a theory since my own father died on Dec. 18, 2007 (25th anniv of my reception into the Church, & don't think that didn't hurt) that Christmas - if it isn't actually about grief - at least has a lot of grief built into it. St. Joseph must have been anticipating how he would welcome the Child, & he must have been sick, sick, that when it came to it he couldn't protect his family from being jostled by the authorities, and could find no better spot for the birth than a cave or stable. He didn't have any concept of posing for Christmas cards, though of course we do when we think of him.
The legitimate role of decorating homes and buying presents is to console the Holy Family for the deprivation that hung about the first Christmas. And sometimes, on particular Christmases, we get called not to mitigate that deprivation but to share it.
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