HighRoad, "I Wonder As I Wander"

 

HighRoad, "I Wonder As I Wander".

Farya Faraji, "Staffan Var En Stalledräng"

 

Farya Faraji, "Staffan Var En Stalledräng"

The PNC Christmas Price Index for 2025

 The PNC Christmas Price Index for this year:

Total Christmas Price Index (CPI) 

Even with its small basket of goods and services, the PNC Christmas Price Index is not immune to the rising costs in the broader U.S. economy, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. 

$51,476.12 (+4.5%)

*****

True Cost of Christmas in Song 

$218,542.98 (+4.4%) 

 This represents the total cost of all the gifts bestowed by True Love when you count each repetition of the song, totaling 364 presents. Spreading cheer throughout the year in 2025 costs 4.4% more than in 2024.

****

"Core" Index (Excluding Swans) 

$38,351.12 (+6.1%) 

 This version of the CPI removes the most volatile gift from the index - the Swans-a-Swimming.

The most expensive gift in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is the Ten Lords A-Leaping, at $16,836.14. The sharpest rise in cost this year, percentagewise, was the Five Golden Rings, at a ringing 32.5%. 

Since 1984, the U. S. Consumer Price Index has increased 223%, while the PNC Christmas Price Index has increased 157%. The two have tended to rise together, more or less, but, of course, the Christmas Price Index is weighted very heavily toward entertainment services, and also birds.

Clamavi De Profundis, "See Amid the Winter's Snow"

 

Clamavi De Profundis, "See Amid the Winter's Snow".

Epephane he Charis tou Theou

 For the grace of God has manifested, salvific for all human beings, training us that, having disavowed irreverence and worldly cravings, we should live temperately and justly and reverently in the current eon, being ready for the happy expectation and manifestation of the great God and our Savior, Christ Jesus, who offered himself for us that he might ransom us from all lawlessness and might purify for himself a prized people eager for splendid deeds.

Tell these things, and exhort and reprove with full authoritativeness; let no one discount you.

[Titus 2:11-15, my rough translation. 'Wordly' is 'cosmic', i.e., 'of this world-order', and may connect with the 'current eon', an aeon being the world-epoch, a perpetuity, an age that has a unified structure and character, the world as a historical entity. 

This passage seems clearly to refer to the cardinal virtues -- temperance and justice are explicitly mentioned, and eusebeia, reverence, has often substituted for or been associated with prudence in the list of cardinal virtues; so perhaps we should see the 'being ready for', which can also mean 'awaiting', 'abiding', or 'enduring', as a reference to fortitude. 

Laon periousion, here translated as 'prized people', is used in several places in the Septuagint: Exodus 19:5 ('out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession'), Deuteronomy 7:6 ('The Lord God has chosen you out of all peoples on the earth to be his people, his treasured possession'), Deuteronomy 14:2, Deuteronomy 26:18. It has historically been translated as a 'peculiar people' because the Latin peculium means 'personal possession or funds'. Laon could also mean 'tribe', 'nation', or 'ethnicity'; it indicates a community with a common heritage. 'Eager for splendid deeds' is often translated as 'zealous for good works', but kalon means good in the sense of  'fine/splendid/noble' -- it's the kind of good associated with heroes and outstanding or exemplary people.]

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas to everyone!

Christmas-Greetings
by Lewis Carroll 

 Lady dear, if Fairies may
For a moment lay aside
Cunning tricks and elfish play,
'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

 We have heard the children say  --
Gentle children, whom we love --
Long ago, on Christmas Day,
Came a message from above.

 Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,
They remember it again --
Echo still the joyful sound
'Peace on earth, good-will to men!'

 Yet the hearts must childlike be
Where such heavenly guests abide:
Unto children, in their glee,
All the year is Christmas-tide!

 Thus, forgetting tricks and play
For a moment, Lady dear,
We would wish you, if we may,
Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

Lacey Brown, "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella"

 

Lacey Brown, "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella".

Home Free, "O Come All Ye Faithful"

 

Home Free, "O Come All Ye Faithful".

Life in 3D, "Angels We Have Heard on High"

 

Life in 3D, "Angels We Have Heard on High".

Links of Note

 * Rob Norton, Hymns of the Early Syriac Christians, on the Odes of Solomon, at "Discovering Early Christianity"

* Patrick Flynn, Is Aquinas's God an "Intelligible Blank"?, at "The Journal of Absolute Truth"

* Allan Arkush, In Memory of Judah Maccabee, at "Jewish Review of Books"

* Kevin Blake, The Penicillin Myth, at "Asimov Press", on the puzzles in Fleming's account of his discovery. In fact, I think Hare's proposed account is probably close to being the right one; I disagree with Blake about Root-Bernstein's being simpler and less improbable. 

* Miguel Garcia-Godinez, Making the state responsible: A proxy account of legal organizations and private agents acting for the state (PDF)

* Sally Thomas, Today's Poem: The Burning Babe, on St. Robert Southwell, at "Poems Ancient and Modern"

* Victoria, How to write a Christmas poem in early modern England, at "Horace & Friends"

* A tribute to the novelist Michael Flynn, at "Prometheus Blog" (hat-tip)

* Flame & Light, The Holy, on Otto's Idea of the Holy

* Yoon H. Choi & Alix Cohen, Feeling and Life in Kant's Account of the Beautiful and the Sublime (PDF)

* Lu'Ella D'Amico, Till This Moment, I Never Knew Myself:  Reading Austen's Pride and Prejudice During Advent, at "Church Life Journal"

* Lincoln Michel interviews Brandon Taylor on his recent novel, Minor Black Figures, at "Counter Craft"; I thought that this was a much more interesting author's interview than most author's interviews are.

* Travis McKenna, Laws of Nature and their Supporting Casts (PDF) -- this was a very nicely developed argument about how 'laws of nature' function in scientific explanation.

* Brad Skow, The first on the scene, at "Mostly Aesthetics", on the grounds of parental duty

* Amod Sandhya Lee, Who were the Magi?, at "Love of All Wisdom"

* Harald Høffding & Hans Halvorson, Høffding on Subject and Object (PDF)

Skillet, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

 

Skillet, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel".

Knowing Canisius

As today is not only the Fourth Sunday of Advent but the feast of St. Peter Canisius, here is a re-post from 2023. 

 Today is the feast of St. Pieter Kanis, better known in English as Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church. A major figure in the Catholic response to the Reformation, he is a major reason why a number of German-speaking regions stayed Catholic, for which reason he is sometimes called the Second Apostle to Germany. One of his major principles in discussions with Protestants was that attacks on them, especially personal attacks, were ultimately self-defeating; as he is said to have put it, by such attacks you are not curing anyone, just making them incurable, and therefore the best path was generally just to give an honest explanation to address any honest perplexities. He is most famous for his catechisms; 'knowing Canisius' is an old expression for having a solid catechetical education. From his Parvus catechismus (1558): 

 What does the first article of the Creed mean, "I believe in God the Father"? It shows first in the Godhead a person, namely the heavenly and eternal Father, for whom nothing is impossible or difficult to do, who produced heaven and earth, visible things together with all invisible things from nothing and even conserves and governs everything he has produced, with supreme goodness and wisdom. What does the second article of the Creed mean, "And in Jesus Christ his Son"? It reveals the second person in the Godhead, Jesus Christ, obviously his only begotten from eternity and consubstantial with the Father, our Lord and redeemer, as the one who has freed us from perdition. What is the third article, "Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit"? The third article proposes the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation: because the same Son of God, descending from heaven, assumed a human nature, but in an absolutely unique way, as he was conceived without a father, from the power of the Holy Spirit, born from the Virgin Mary who remained a virgin afterwards.

 [Peter Canisius, A Small Catechism for Catholics, Grant, tr., Mediatrix Press (2014) pp. 12-13.]