A Happy New Year to One and All
May our eternal God, who transcends our understanding of time, be with you in this New Year and always
Learning to See Christmas and Holy Saturday: How Stories Form Us
Prologue I was setting up the Christmas crib with my five-year-old grandson. As we placed the figures, he stopped and looked at the scene for a moment. Then he said, quietly, "This really isn't very joyful for baby Jesus." He was not confused. He was attentive. Taken on its own, the crib is not a joyful image. A child lies in a feeding trough. It becomes joyful when one knows what has gone before and what is to come; as one understands the full pattern of Eden, the Cross, and the Resurrection; the promise, cost, and vindication. The Nativity is joyful. The angels announce "good news of great joy," the shepherds rejoice, and the Magi worship. But it is a paradoxical joy, a joy in anticipation, precisely because it's joy despite poverty, vulnerability, and impending persecution. Joy is not deferred until Easter. It is joy under the shadow of the cross. It is the Father's love breaking into the world, the Word made flesh, already Emmanuel. God ha...
Yes indeed. Happy new year to one and all. Sing with me:
ReplyDeleteShould auld Aquinas be forgot and never brought to mind...
Only if we also forget the Trinity, metaphysics, and why chairs are still chairs!
DeleteAh, but we'll take a cup of Aquinas yet,
Deletefor auld lang syne... go on go on go on!
Aren't chairs chairs because they conform to the eternal Form of a chair?
DeleteHappy new year to you too (although I don't really understand why we celebrate starting a new calendar, bah humbug),
Well, according to nominalism, it’s only a chair until we stop believing in it—then it’s just a rebellious pile of wood.
DeleteHmmm .... arbitrary units of time, but do you still accept cake and chocolate on your birthday?
Up to now we've had the competing Julian, Gregorian and Pirelli calendars, but now maybe it's time for one global calendar so all the peoples of the world can live in peace.
DeleteWhen is chair a chair? You'll have to ask Joseph Kosuth.
DeleteMy birthday at least marks a full revolution around the sun from a fixed (and most auspicious) date, and I accept cake and chocolate so as not to cause my weaker, temporally-blinkered brethren to stumble.
Lunar new year is at least tied to natural cycles. It would make more sense for the new year to mark, say, the start of the seasons and begin in spring. Or, in a Christian country, to begin at the nativity. Or the annunciation, as it did in England from 1155 until 1752 (Gadjo, you omitted the Lady Day calendar!).
Kosuth asks: when is a chair a chair? Metaphysics answers: before the gallery opens.
DeleteFair points. Still, even Aquinas allowed for convenient signs, and January 1st seems a perfectly serviceable one, if only to keep cake consumption synchronised.
I imagine that the Angelic Doctor would not have been averse to synchronised cake consumption!
DeleteIndeed. Ubi communis mensa, ibi pax. One might argue that cake is a natural law; written on the heart, frosted on the top.
DeleteHello again, Chef, and a happy New Year to you too!
ReplyDeleteWe need the holy water!
DeleteHappy new year to Jack and all here.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you, Joe. You've been in my prayers. Have a blessed New Year.
DeleteGreat to see you back here, Mr Bell, if only to post a brief salutation. Here's to a blessed 2026, somehow or other.
DeleteThank you, Jack, and everyone else here. Your prayers are appreciated and I hope to be back more regularly in the future.
DeleteHappy New Year Jack ! Great pic of the bridge. Didn't venture out watched it on tv. Still a sombre mood about after the Bondi massacre especially for those of us who live in the area. Hope all is well with you and yours. The Caracas moment has put a cloud over things. ...Prayers and more prayers . All we can do is just keep praying for some sanity to re enter the world....Cressie
ReplyDeleteAll the best, Cressie, wishing you a happy new year.
DeleteHappy New Year to you and yours, Cressie.
DeleteHappy New Year, Jack and friends!
ReplyDeleteAthbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh, Mr Neanderthal!
Delete.... and Chef of Sinners!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Irish Neanderthal.
Happy Jack, you'll have noticed that tomorrow (Saturday) it's United v. City at Old Trafford. The bookies are offering shorter odds on City. What are your expectations?
ReplyDeleteUnited to win .... 2 - 0
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