December 27

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by gerryadmin

images

1911 The first performance of the Indian national anthem

Written in Bengali by Nobel Prize winning poet Rabindranath Tagore, the song  “Jana Gana Mana” was first sung at a meeting of the Indian National Congress. After independence, it was adopted as the Indian national anthem. In English the first verse proclaims:

Thou art the rulers of the minds of all people,

Dispenser of India’s destiny.

Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindh , Gujarat and Maratha,

Of the Dravida and Orissa and Bengal;

It echoes in the hills of the Vindhyas and Himalayas,

mingles in the music of Yamuna and Ganga and is chanted by

the waves of the Indian Sea.

They pray for the blessing and sing thy praise.

The saving of all people waits in the hand,

thou dispenser of India’s destiny,

Victory, victory, victory to thee.

Time for some poetry around here

Home / Something Wise / Time for some poetry around here
by gerryadmin

For life, larger music

    wilder laughter

       louder drums

  greater struggles

       shorter sorrows

    deeper passions

       stranger dreams

For freedom, brighter magic

    stronger witches

        endless nights

  unknown allies

        slower dances

    grand delusions

        deadly fights

For blood, more mysteries

    crueler tyrants

        harder choices

  faster rhythms

        higher voices

And if you’re like me, choose what remains,

    more fear

        deeper danger

  and death as the truest advisor.

Willis Eschenbach

December 25

Home / Today in History / December 25
by gerryadmin

Some interesting folk beliefs about Christmas:

From a curious old song preserved in the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, we learn that it was thought peculiarly lucky when Christmas-day fell on a Sunday, and the reverse when it occurred on a Saturday. 

Lordinges, I warne you al beforne,
Yef that day that Cryste was borne,
Falle uppon a Sunday;
That wynter shall be good par fay,
But grete wyndes alofte shalbe,
The somer shall be fayre and drye;
By kynde skylle, wythowtyn lesse,
Throw all londes shalbe peas,
And good tyme all thyngs to don,
But he that stelyth he shalbe fownde sone;
Whate chylde that day borne be,
A great lord he shalbe.

If Crystmas on the Saterday falle,
That wynter ys to be dredden alle,
Hyt shalbe so fulle of grete tempeste
That hyt shall sle bothe man and beste,
Frute and corn shal fayle grete won,
And olde folke dyen many on;

Whate woman that day of chylde travayle
They shalbe borne in grete perelle
And chyldren that be borne that day,
Within half a yere they shall dye par fay,
The summer then shall wete ryghte ylle:
If thou awght stele, hyt shel the spylle;
Thou dyest, yf sekenes take the.’

December 25

Home / Today in Church History / December 25
by gerryadmin

An astonishing number of church-related actions took place on December 25. Here are a few of them:

  • 336 earliest recorded celebration of Christmas in Rome
  • 567 Beginning of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” as decreed by Council of Tours
  • 597 Augustine baptizes thousands of Saxons in Kent
  • 634 Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, warns of Islamic menace
  • 1000 St. Stephen crowned first Christian king of Hungary
  • 1100 Baldwin of Edessa crowned King of Jerusalem in Bethlehem
  • 1131 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle uses “Cristemesse” for first time as one word
  • 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket preaches in Canterbury Cathedral and prophesies his own murder (he is killed 4 days later)
  • 1223 St Francis of Assisi assembles first live Nativity crèche at Greccio, Italy
  • 1430 Joan of Arc imprisoned in a tower at Rouen
  • 1521 Protestant Reformer Andreas von Carlstadt shocks Wittenberg by performing Mass in German
  • 1535 Jacques Cartier and crew celebrate first Christmas in Canada at Stadacona
  • 1648 Riots break out in Canterbury over attempts by the Puritan government to suppress Christmas; King Charles I spends his last Christmas under guard at Windsor Castle.
  • 1667 Kateri Tekakwitha, Iroquois mystic, has her first communion at the church in Kahnawake, Québec.
  • 1734 J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” first performed at Leipzig with Bach conducting.
  • 1760 Jupiter Hammon, New York slave and first black American poet, published “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries”.
  • 1781 First lighted Christmas tree in Canada erected by Baroness Riedsel
  • 1818 “Silent Night” sung for first time in Oberdorf, Austria
  • 1836 Alabama becomes first US state to recognize Christmas as a legal holiday.
  • 1867 Christmas a holiday in Canada for federal workers
  • 1902 Pope Leo XIII endorses European Christian Democratic movement as alternative to socialism
  • 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador murdered
  • 2005 Benedict XVI issues his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est”

 

Merry Christmas from a real Grinch

Home / Something Wise / Merry Christmas from a real Grinch
by gerryadmin

In our racist, sexist society, Christmas is the 8 hours when we stop killing each other and gratutious over eating is encouraged so that the starving and other people in the world can die!
— Lloyd Kaufman

Let’s see if we can do better than that for Christmas:

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

— Pope Francis

December 22

Home / Today in Church History / December 22
by gerryadmin

 

dominicspanish

1216

The Dominican Order is officially confirmed.

In the early thirteenth century the power of the papacy was at its height but the reputation of the Church was not. New heresies were springing up among the people and the clergy had a reputation for being rich, unlearned and aloof. Two young men responded: in Italy, Francis of Assisi; in Spain, Dominic de Guzmán.

As a priest Dominic encountered the Cathar heretics of France who were well supported by local nobles and popular with the poor. This led Dominic to realize that the Church required itinerant, well-educated preachers who could combat religious heterodoxy and that this new sort of clergy should embrace poverty. Living off charity and working among the common people was the ideal of this new order, called Dominicans after its founder, but chartered by the papacy in 1216 as the Order of Preachers. Clad in white robes with a black cloak they became highly effective exponents of Catholic doctrine in markets and churches. They also came to staff the great new universities of Europe, especially Paris where its members included Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and to be among the directors of the Inquisition. In Italy they produced famous mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Henry Suso; in Italy they included fierce opponents of papal corruption such as Girolamo Savonarola.

A Latin pun on their name, Domini canes, has caused them to be known as the “Hounds of the Lord”.