What if it had been cloudy when the Wise Men were looking for Jesus? What if the sky had been a total blank, with no star visible? Although with today’s light pollution, a cloudy night sky may be lit up by reflected light from the city, the Magi would not have had even that artificial [...]
Category Archive for 'Christmas'
One of Us
Posted in Christmas, God Among Us on Dec 23rd, 2011
God has become one of us. “And therefore,” says Karl Rahner, “everything is different from what we imagine it to be.” God is here, and all creation is being led toward its fulfillment in love. When we say, “It is Christmas,” we mean that God has spoken into the world his last, his deepest, his [...]
The Soul’s Finest Song
Posted in Christmas on Dec 24th, 2010
From Karl Rahner, “Understanding Christmas,” Theological Investigations, Volume XXIII (New York: Cross Road Publishing Company, 1992): The eternal future has entered our time. Its brightness is still dazzling, so that we believe it to be night. But it is a blessed night, a night that is already warmed and illuminated, a beautiful night, cosy and [...]
The Christmas season continues through Epiphany (January 6, but celebrated this year on Sunday the 3rd) and the Baptism of the Lord (January 10). May the peace that passes all understanding, the peace of Emmanuel, God-with-us, be yours during this holy season. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; [...]
I was delighted to discover, in the Atlantic Monthly a few years ago, W. S. Merwin’s lovely translation of the last Canto of Dante’s Paradiso. Canto XXXIII presents the final vision of the poet, and concludes with the famous line about “the love which moves the sun and the other stars” (l’amor che move il [...]