Just relaxing, will watch A Christmas Story at 8pm, and watch it almost all day tomorrow too.
Listening to Christmas music.
I'm here making the family cream cheese log. Since my mom's mom is no longer with us, I've made it the past two years. Nobody else can get it tasting just right, apparently. Granny would have been proud. :-)
Just hanging out.
I went to mass earlier, the 4PM mass. (Didn't seem as full as it used to be in the past.)
... But the relevantists miss the point; religion is supposed to be as unlike the world as possible.
Christmas services in England, in Italy, in Rome, in--so help me--the former socialist paradises, leave one open-mouthed in awe and wonder; Christmas services in America leave one open-mouthed, yawning.
I did that earlier this month, and the music is still circulating inside my head.
Because I can't hear, music is a "sometime" thing to me; it takes special audiological equipment that transmits sounds through the skeletal structure. I have to be alone, and in a darkened room, to "hear" it, because it takes a great deal of concentration.
And there's no guarantee that franksolich is "hearing" the same things other people are hearing.
But for whatever it's worth, I consider "Lo, a rose ere blooming" to be the finest Christmas music, ever.
Yup. Thats about how I'd sum it up too.
And yes, coach, I understand the whole issue with the cats fighting. You'd think they would be happy with different areas and no fighting, but nooooooo...
And yes, coach, I understand the whole issue with the cats fighting. You'd think they would be happy with different areas and no fighting, but nooooooo...
I love watching cats. One of our favorite "be entertained by the cats" activities is to get out three boxes for our three cats that squabble. They will all try to fit into the same one.
The oldest cat (18) has figured out to wait until all his associates have lost interest in the boxes, and then he has free pick of whichever one he wants.
I suspect part of the problem lies in secularization of the Catholic Church.
To me, it seems rather dry and humdrum, all this "audience participation".
One longs for the days (days which I alas never knew) when services were 99% music, Latin, candles, incense, and damned little yip-yapping. Hordes of choristers making the walls bend, people marching in solemn procession, pomp and pageantry reflecting the Glory of God.
There's been this deal the past 50 years, about making religion "relevant," and thus we have the hippie guitar-strummers and somesuch.
But the relevantists miss the point; religion is supposed to be as unlike the world as possible.
Christmas services in England, in Italy, in Rome, in--so help me--the former socialist paradises, leave one open-mouthed in awe and wonder; Christmas services in America leave one open-mouthed, yawning.
Do you know that it's near impossible to get a seat at a Latin Mass? many of us miss those days. Here's a site that lists Latin Masses all over the US and Canada:
http://web2.airmail.net/carlsch/MaterDei/churches.htm
Is that a Maine Coon? I like those fellas. :-)
You know, madam, I know many Protestants think it's silly--which is their prerogative, of course--this fixation with Latin, a "dead" language, but again, it goes back to this idea that religion is supposed to be as much unlike the temporal world as possible.
The workers and peasants in the socialist paradises apparently don't see anything wrong with the Orthodox churches using Old Church Slavonic, which is a "dead" language.
Quotation marks in both instances of course sarcasm.
There's a joke around here--which might, or might not, be true (only franksolich knows)--that I have it in my deathbed instructions that when a priest is summoned, he must know Latin, "so that God may understand what he's saying."
Being deaf, the matter of languages isn't as important to me as it is to hearing people, but it seems even in mere reading, that Latin has a certain rhythm, a certain pattern, that makes it ideal for feeling religious.
just got home after an excellent dinner and one long, boring movie. Damn dog bit me again... my leg hurts.
Everything's ready for tomorrow. Just getting a head start on some end-of year paperwork, listening to Dino, probably watch "Wall Street" later.
(http://www.australianhorserescue.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/christmas-horse.jpg)
:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: Horsey!
... which is when our parish does its' Midnight Mass. We had a full church, but no one was standing, soi I'd say about 850 people. We did nine Christmas carols before Mass, ...