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)