Nun danket alle Gott

Some "thanksgiving" music played mit knapp 7000 Bläserinnen und Bläsern. And that is a lot of brass.  Massed bands, indeed.

A Bleeding Host?

Perhaps.  The only news story I've seen about it is here.  It's happened before; no reason it couldn't happen again.  Especially  with profanation of the Blessed Sacrament so much in the news, both from Spanish "artists" and German cardinals.

(I thought I got this cite from Rorate Cæli but I'm not finding it there.  So I'm not sure whom to thank.)

The Day That's In It

24 November

Today is not only the birthday in 1713 in Clonmel, County Tipperary of the Rev Laurence Sterne, the author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, upon which The Inn is not based, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, but also the old feast in the traditional Roman calendar of St John of the Cross.   The compilers of the Pauline rite for reasons best known to themselves moved St John up to December.

The soul that in aridity and trial submits to the dictates of reason is more pleasing to God than one that does everything with consolation, yet fails in this submission.  -- "Maxims" from S John of the Cross

Fr Mark, O.S.B. on S John of the Cross

A Useful New Blog-name

It's "rawgabbit".  It means "Someone who speaks authoritatively about something they know nothing about."  I give it freely; use it as you wish.  I, ahem, have no use for it of course.

I ran across that handy bit of linguistic treasure here along with a few other old English words whose numbers have been retired.  There is some lovely stuff here.  Although, I do think someone has accidentally switched the illustrations for snollygoster and anon.  (And by the way, what's so antique about anon?  I use anon all the time.  Hmm? Oh.  Yes.  I see your point.)

A Cognomial Theorem

My pursuit of the genealogical wheeze over the internet for the past few years has thrown light on a lot of family stories ("so that's what she meant by . . .") and thrown no light whatsoever elsewhere: i.e., was my great-grandfather deliberately trying to hide from his descendants or is his absence from vital records just a co-incidence?

One of the more  delightful sources has been John Grenham's column in The Irish Times.  This week's on the re-Gaelicization of Irish surnames includes this:

For example, the American pronunciation of the surnames Cahill (“KAY-hil”) and Mahony (Ma-OWN-ey) often has Irish people sniggering up their sleeves. But these pronunciations are much closer to the original Irish-language versions of the names. The fork in culture between Irish-America and Ireland preserved something over there that we over here have anglicised more thoroughly.

Aha!  So our American pronunciations are not automatically a barbaric degradation but perhaps a conservative preservation of tradition.  I have a new weapon in the pronunciation wars.  A chink has been found in the armor of She Who Must (almost always) Be Obeyed.

First Steps in Security

The news is full of the Paris massacre and what ought to be done now to protect against Islamic terrorism (which the bien pensant decline to call Islamic terrorism for some reason).

And I keep running across the 126th psalm.  Really.  Every day since Monday. In particular:  Nisi Dominus custodieret civitatem, frustra vigilat qui custodit eam. "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

Archbishop Sheen's Prophecy on Islam and the Modern World

At the present time, the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Moslem writers say, When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are Gods host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it. 

The problem is, how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity – and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teachings of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God.

Written in 1952 and reprinted in the October 2001 Mindszenty Report and republished here, where you can read the rest.

Found While Looking for Something Else

You've read the blurb at the top of the picture?  Good.  Now you know as much about it as I do.  If you listen to it, you'll find it's a beautiful piece of music also. I was actually looking for a melodeon recording of something else entirely so both the tune and the instrument are serendipitous.

Votin' Day

In the event you were not sufficiently depressed by the recent Kangaroo Synod, this handy reminder of what our national elections (which are not imminent, no matter what it seems like from the news reports) are really like may just put the tin lid on it.

From Mark Landsbaum's column in last Saturday's OC Register:

We . . .  will be on the verge of perhaps another massive vote fraud thwarting the will of the people. Just like many that preceded it. 

The scariest words in the English language are “large voter turnout,” because of the disconnect between most voters and the issues. Add to that the fact that almost every election is decided by what charitably can be regarded as the “muddled middle,” those least convicted, least informed and most easily swayed by eleventh-hour emotional pleas. 

If that weren’t discouraging enough, we also have a long-standing tradition of rigging elections. As always, shortly after Election Day 2016, headlines will proclaim the election was stolen.

And particularly relevant to Californians after recent enactments by the Sacramento Home for the Criminally Insane:

 On that point, we may have a preview of 2016. A recent George Mason University study concluded “that 6.4 percent of noncitizens voted in 2008, and 2.2 percent of noncitizens voted in 2010,” enough to provide Democrats the pivotal 60th Senate vote to overcome filibusters, and perhaps Obama’s victory in North Carolina. 

Those are illegal votes, by the way. 

Some fear that California is doing away with even the pretense, automatically registering people, perhaps including illegal immigrants, to vote when they get driver’s licenses.

More here.

Indulgentiam, absolutionem, et remissionem peccatorum

It's a little late, but not too late:  a plenary indulgence is still available each day until November 8 applicable to the souls in Purgatory.

Fr Phillips tells you how here.

Water, water . . . .

Well, perhaps not everywhere.  But certainly in places we hadn't known about before.  How about 400 miles beneath our feet?  Enough of it to fill the oceans three times over it says here.

And California can't get at any of it.

"There is very little in the popular culture of teens and tweens that is gentle and slow, gracious and warm."

From Peggy Noonan:

Here is my concern. There are not fewer children living stressed, chaotic lives in America now, there are more. There will be more still, because among the things America no longer manufactures is stability. And the culture around them will not protect them, as the culture protected me. The culture around them will make their lives harder, more frightening, more dangerous. They are going to come up with nothing to believe in, their nerves are essentially shot. And they’re going to be—they are already—very angry.

The above is from  her new book.  But I found it here.