O King whom all the peoples desire, you are the cornerstone which makes all one. O come and save man, whom you made from clay.
Month: December 2023
O Rising Sun, you are the splendour of eternal light, and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church’s enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith. (Saint Peter Canisius, +1597)
Cancer and the Jab-berwocky
A conversation between Dr. John Campbell and Dr. Angus Dalgliesh, highly recommended, the latter one of the top and most experienced oncologists in Britain, who explains the connection – in causal terms, beyond the correlative – between the mRNA ‘vaxx’ and the explosion of cancer rates – and often explosive cancers, especially in the young.[…]
Hobbit Virtues
For those who need a bit of a lift from all the dark and dreary news of late, in these dark days of December – there is light, and the Light, on their way! – here is a delightful podcast on ‘Hobbit Virtue’, as instantiated in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – and,[…]
O Key of David and sceptre of Israel, what you open no one else can close again; what you close, no one can open. O come and lead the captive from prison; free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
Handel’s Miraculous Messiah
Handel’s Messiah, first performed on April 13th, 1742 (in Dublin of all places) was Composed by a German, who had become a naturalised Brit, with a libretto in English. Handel’s Oratorio is customarily connected with Christmas, even though the work follows the whole life of the Saviour from His birth, through His Passion, to His[…]
O stock of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations; kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim. O come to deliver us, and do not delay.
St. John de Matha, the Forgotten Friar
Every year on December 17 the church intones the ‘O antiphons’ the joyous canticles in anticipation of the coming of Christ. But on the same day, the Church also commemorates the memorial of a seemingly forgotten friar, John de Matha, father of the Trinitarians (Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Captives) and[…]
Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile
I just finished reading Joseph Pearce’s biography of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, subtitled ‘A Soul in Exile’, a remarkable book, packing a very full life into a very readable pages, showing what the indomitable will of one man can do against a vast totalitarian regime. Solzhenitsyn’s life is almost a reverse 1984, and he the anti-Winston. Orwell’s[…]