“A statement released by the Director of the Holy See Press Office says the Pope Emeritus is in a stable condition.
“Responding to questions put to him by reporters, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, said ‘The Pope Emeritus managed to rest well last night, he is absolutely lucid and alert and today, although his condition remains serious, the situation at the moment is stable.’
“Concern for Benedict XVI‘s health was raised on Wednesday when Pope Francis concluded the General Audience with an invitation to the faithful to pray for his 95-year-old predecessor who, he said, is very ill.
“Bruni also said Pope Francis ‘renews his invitation to pray for him [Benedict XVI] and to accompany him in these difficult hours.’….”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has been living in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, about a hundred yards northwest of St. Peter’s in Vatican city. He’s still there, in serious but stable condition; with medicos on hand.
At age 95 — his age, not mine — hearing that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had a good night’s sleep and is “absolutely lucid and alert” is good news.
And Pope Francis renewing his invitation to pray for Benedict XVI makes sense.
I started doing so yesterday afternoon, adding it to my daily routine.
And that’s all I’ve got at the moment. I’ve been writing about horses, scientific method and recent — by my standards — history. And will be getting back to that, after a cup of coffee and today’s prayers.
“Do you know what damage you may cause by throwing stones with your eyes blindfold? “Neither do you know the harm you may cause — and at times it is very great — by letting drop uncharitable remarks that to you seem trifling, because your eyes are blinded by thoughtlessness or passion.“ (The Way > Charity > Number 455, “The Way,” Josemaría Escrivá)
A tip of the hat to padrejorge, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this quote.
Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City. (December 3, 2022) via CNA
We’re celebrating a very special birthday.
“And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
The Two Turkeys watching “Wayne and Wanda’s Eggnog Nightmare.” (2015)
I’ll be sharing some very odd 19th century Christmas cards today. And rambling a bit about holidays, history and whatever else comes to mind. Briefly, for me.
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: a Double-Header Solstice Celebration
Many if not all folks who experience non-equatorial seasons where they live have some sort of winter solstice celebration.
My native culture has two: Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Although decorations for each are distinctive, we celebrate both in about the same way: gathering in large groups and making a lot of noise. With a recovery period of about a week between them, most of us can thoroughly enjoy both.
Weather permitting, which it very likely won’t this year. And that’s another topic, which I may or may not get around to discussing.
Our Christmas celebration has changed over the years. I expect it will keep changing, except for parts of a very special birthday celebration. I talked about that a few days back. You’ll find a link to “Advent 2022: Remembering the Big Picture” near the end of this post.
Some of the changes involve technology: like television Christmas/holiday specials, which often present my culture’s “true meaning of Christmas.”
Then there’s a more recent development, which hasn’t become a fixed tradition. Not as far as I know, at any rate.
Anyway, here’s last year’s “Happy Holidays from Expedition 66” — a cool yule from low Earth orbit.
Celebrating a Secular Selection of Seasonal Salutations
“Holiday Viewing Marathon” (2015)
Holiday/Christmas videos from the ISS may not join traditions like ‘Freezeroni Saves Christmas’ and plum pudding: since the ISS is due to be deorbited in 2031.
And that’s yet another topic.
I’m giving myself a few days off this week, so today’s piece won’t have the usual ‘for more information’ footnotes. And I haven’t done nearly as much digital footwork, like tracing where each of these Victorian-era masterpieces (?) came from.
But, since you might feel like doing some sleuthing yourself, here’s where I got most of today’s stuff:
Sir Henry Cole’s Christmas Card: first of its kind. (1843)
The plum pudding’s origins may be obscure, or maybe they’re not. I haven’t checked.
But we do know who had the first mass-produced Christmas card printed, and when he changed at least one aspect of our holiday celebrations.
Sir Henry Cole was an assistant to Sir Rowland Hill. That’s a lot of “Sirs,” and obviously both lived in England.
Sirs H.C. and R.H. were implicated in the introduction of the penny post. I think making postal service affordable to folks in my economic class was a good idea: but I wouldn’t be surprised if some staunch Victorians saw it as the end of civilization as they knew it.
If so, they were right, and that’s yet again another topic.
Anyway, Henry Cole was a celebrity of sorts. He got a lot of letters around the Christmas season, which may have felt good. But his culture’s customs demanded that he answer each letter, which would have cut seriously into what little free time he had.
So Henry Cole had painter John Callott Horsley design a card, which was then lithographed in a print run of 1,000 cards. Then each card was hand-colored by Mason. Whether or not Mason had more than one name, that I don’t know.
Marching Frogs, a Dead Bird and Other Weirdness
Sir Henry Cole’s celebrity status, new printing technologies, and an increasing number of folks who had a bit of spare change left over at month’s end added a flood of these newfangled Christmas cards to the season’s celebrations.
I gather that many Christmas cards followed Sir H. C.’s sentimental lead.
Some did not.
“May yours be a Joyful Christmas.”
That dead bird and “Joyful” caption may have been an instance of Victorian passive-aggressive behavior. Or may have been seriously sentimental.
Killing a wren or robin for good luck on December 26th may have been a Victorian tradition, but that’s something I haven’t verified.
No, you’re not hallucinating. That’s a mouse riding a lobster and carrying a banner emblazoned with “Peace, Joy, Health, and Happiness” — in French.
“May all jollity ‘Lighten’ your Christmas hours.”
Whew! That’s a relief. It looked, at first glance, like an avian mob with torches — on their way to pick up pitchforks.
That’s a card with a moral message: mamma said “no,” and now the frogs know why.
More frogs. Being merry with insects this time. I’ve no idea why so many of these oddball Christmas cards involve frogs.
Maybe Victorians had a thing about frogs. Maybe these just happen to be the cards that got preserved, or maybe something completely different.
Another “joyful Christmas to you” card. I’m not sure which wins the strangeness race in this one: a fox that’s so slow that the two hunters are keeping up, the two hunters keeping up with a fox: or a wooden horse that’s breathing.
A wooden horse. That’s breathing. Now there’s an idea.
And that’s all I have this week.
I said I’d have a link at this point. Here it is, along with four others.
Pope Francis addressing the Roman Curia at the Vatican. (December 22, 2022)
When I saw “Vatican” and “elegant demon” in my news feeds, I cringed. Just a little.
But not because I feared that the four horsemen of the Apocalypse were saddling up and the Antichrist was running rampant.
Lurking Demons in the News, and a Pleasant Surprise
The self-described “Christian” radio of my youth left me with low expectations.
And some sympathy for folks who apparently believe that religion is a psychiatric disorder, and that Christians are ignorant and easily led — which is almost another topic.
So, between youthful experience and more recent encounters with clueless reporting of “religious news,” I was pleasantly surprised.
The AP and a couple other secular news media sources apparently understood what Pope Francis had said. So did Vatican News, but that wasn’t unexpected.
I checked, and Holy See > Pope Francis > Speeches > December 2022 has his “To the employees of Vatican City State for the exchange of Christmas greetings (22 December 2022)” — in Italian.
Previous experience suggests that an English translation will be available in a few days or maybe a week or two. The Vatican isn’t nearly as massively-staffed as my culture’s folklore suggests, and that’s yet another topic.
Meanwhile, CNA, Catholic News Agency, did a pretty good summary of today’s speech. Yesterday’s, actually, by the time I post this.
“Elegant Demons” and a Lurking Evil
Video at the Vatican, Pope Francis reminding that evil is still a problem. (December 22, 2022)
“Pope Francis warned the Roman Curia on Thursday that they need to be vigilant in the face of temptation by elegant demons and ‘the evil that quietly lurks among us.’
“In his annual Christmas address to the cardinals who work in Vatican offices on Dec. 22, the pope said that there is a temptation for those who serve ‘at the heart of the Church’ to think that they are ‘better than others, no longer in need of conversion.’
“‘Yet we are in greater danger than all others, because we are beset by the “elegant demon,” who does not make a loud entrance, but comes with flowers in his hand,’ Pope Francis said.
“The pope underlined that ‘it is not enough to condemn evil, including the evil that quietly lurks among us.’
“‘We need to respond by choosing to be converted,’ he said.
“‘Mere condemnation can give the illusion that we have solved the problem, whereas what really counts is making the changes that will ensure that we no longer allow ourselves to be imprisoned by evil ways of thinking, which are often those of this world.’
“Pope Francis added that one of the most helpful virtues to aid in temptation is ‘the virtue of vigilance.’…”
There’s more of what Pope Francis said in that CNA article. It’s a tad under 500 words, maybe a two-minute read, and worth the time. My opinion.
Part of “the virtue of vigilance,” the Pope said, is a daily examination of conscience.
That sounds like a good idea to me, but not one that I actually follow through on. So looks like that’s something I should add to my daily schedule.
A parish priest gave me, along with the rest of the household, an “Examination of Conscience for Adults and Teens” from The Fathers of Mercy (www.fathersofmercy.com).
It’s been sitting near my keyboard and mouse pad, so all that’s left is for me to actually start going through the thing. Which, again, strikes me as a good idea.
This particular “Examination of Conscience” is the first one that ‘clicked’ for me, probably because it had a modestly extensive checklist. And included short explanations of what specific virtues and vices are, in operational terms.
I’d suggest getting a copy from The Fathers of Mercy (Home > Store > Examinations) but they sell them in lots of 100, 500 and 1,000 — as a parish resource, I gather. So I don’t know if you’d think doing so made sense, or even if you’d be interested.
That’s about all I’ve got for the moment, apart from a list of allegedly-related posts.
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Life, the universe and my circumstances permitting. I'm focusing on 'family stories' at the moment. ("A Change of Pace: Family Stories" (11/23/2024))
Blog - David Torkington
Spiritual theologian, author and speaker, specializing in prayer, Christian spirituality and mystical theology [the kind that makes sense-BHG]
I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
At age 95 — his age, not mine — hearing that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had a good night’s sleep and is “absolutely lucid and alert” is good news.
