So very exciting...

The latest newsletter from KMSC:

http://www.kingsmeadow.com/downloads/01-07%20January%20Newsletter.pdf

O Tannenbaum!

It is a tradition at the Sadler household that our Christmas tree accomplishes one of three things before Christmas Day: be unexplainably crooked, fall upon a family member, or die from over-exposure to dry heat. Two years ago, our tree successfully achieved all three and this is where my story begins.

We are quite particular when it comes to buying Christmas trees. The tree must not be too skinny, too fat, too short, too tall, or have a gap on any side. Two years ago, we found a wonderfully shaped tree with none of the above. We purchased the tree and brought it into our home. Three Christmas tree stands later, we finally had our tree standing in our living room in front of the window. The first tree stand was too small to hold the tree and so the tree fall over. The second tree stand was the type of stand that holds the tree by use of a steel spike. The only problem with that second stand was that the tree was crooked. My dad had the wonderful idea of bending the tree to bend the steel spike in order to straighten the tree. As he bent the tree, the tree snapped and tree toppled over with the spike left within the trunk. We thought of cutting the bottom off in order to retrieve the spike, but the thought of a five foot tree disappointed us greatly. As a last ditch effort, my dad and I hopped in the car for an emergency Lowe’s visit where we purchased a “No Fail” tree stand. Alas, our beautiful tree stood straight and unwavering in our living room.

Weeks passed and we continued to water our tree, but the tree did not seem to drink as much as usual. As Christmas Day drew near, we noticed that our tree resembled the Charlie Brown tree, which when touched left a flurry of pine needles littering the floor. The day after Christmas, on our way to church, we noticed an abundance of discarded Christmas trees at our local recycling tree lot. We were shocked to observe fathers hurling beautiful, fresh trees onto the recycle pile because Christmas was already over at their house. For years, we have kept our tree alive through the Twelve Days of Christmas until Epiphany. This year, we were concerned about our tree making it to January 6th without the risk of our house becoming a great bonfire. We decided to take our tree to the recycle lot that Sunday afternoon. Upon returning home, we undecorated our tree and dad reluctantly headed towards the recycling lot. Dad arrived at the lot and found many other men pushing off seemingly fresh trees off the tops of their SUV’s. With few needles left on our tree, dad rolled off our dead tree in dismay. At the same time, he had a thought—why not roll this tree off and throw a fresh tree back on top? He looked around and found a beautiful, fresh Frazier fir and hurled atop his Forerunner. Dad returned from his adventure with an amusing story of how he rolled off the old tree and rolled on the new tree while receiving odd stares and hearing rude comments from fellow tree recyclers and onlookers. We redecorated our new tree and it lasted until Epiphany. It was the most beautiful tree we had ever owned.

My story ends in this simple manner. While some might think we are crazy to go to such lengths just for a Christmas tree, our purpose is to proclaim the importance of the whole Christmas season. We prepare in repentance for the incarnation, rejoice in the nativity, proceed in adoration with Magi, look to the cross, and the hope of the resurrection. Our dead tree provoked us to reflect upon the whole Gospel story—He died so that we might live.

Fall On Your Knees

After the penitential season of Advent, the celebration of Christ’s birth begins on Christmas Day and ends on Epiphany, January 6th. The celebration of Epiphany is the conclusion of the Twelve Days of Christmas. The word Epiphany literally means “a manifestation” or “unveiling”. On the day of manifestation, we venerate the adoration of the Magi. The Magi were wise men who are often portrayed as kings. This depiction derives from the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Psalms that 'all kings shall fall down before him' (72:11).The fact that the Magi bowed down before Jesus symbolizes the submission of earthly powers to a heavenly power. The Magi brought Christ symbolic gifts of kingly gold, priestly frankincense, and embalming myrrh as foreshadowing of Christ's death. The Magi “beheld the very glory of God that day—for in the city of David, the Savior was born. As a result, Epiphany is the celebration of the ultimate proclamation of good news.” (Christmas Spirit, 165)

The Epiphany Tree is a tradition that our family has enjoyed over the past five years. We began by commemorating the Twelve Days of Christmas. During these twelve days, our family gives gifts. The gifts are relevant and symbolic of the day in the well-known song. Obviously, these gifts are modest because it is twelve days of gifts. On the twelfth day, we conclude the celebration by taking down our Christmas tree. In Germany, families often have great bonfires on this night. The Germans have another tradition of blessing the home on this night. Carolers visit houses and mark the entrance door with the year and with the inscription CMB, the initial Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, the names of the three wise men. The inscription also stands as an acrostic for Christe mansionem benedic, which means "Christ, bless this home." The inscription remains above the doorway until Pentecost. Through these little yet significant recollections of the Magi on Epiphany, we acknowledge that the incarnation changed everything.

By celebrating the adoration of the Magi, we proclaim the good news of the Gospel and the Christmas season is brought to splendid completion of the twelve days celebration. Samuel Johnson said, “The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.” In observe Epiphany, we recover what is often neglected at Christmas—the affirmation that Christ has come. Our response is to follow the Magi and fall on our knees in adoration.

Twelve Days of Christmas

A Partridge in a Pear Tree is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, whose birthday we celebrate on December 25, the first day of Christmas. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge that feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered you under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but you would not have it so . . . ." (Luke 13:34)

Two Turtle Doves are paralled to the Old and New Testaments, which together bear witness to God's self-revelation in history and the creation of a people to tell the Story of God to the world.

Three French Hens reflect the Three Theological Virtues: 1) Faith, 2) Hope, and 3) Love (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Four Calling Birds embody the Four Gospels: 1) Matthew, 2) Mark, 3) Luke, and 4) John, which proclaim the Good News of God's reconciliation of the world to Himself in Jesus Christ

Five Gold Rings stand for the first Five Books of the Old Testament, known as the Torah or the Pentateuch: 1) Genesis, 2) Exodus, 3) Leviticus, 4) Numbers, and 5) Deuteronomy, which gives the history of humanity's sinful failure and God's response of grace in the creation of a people to be a light to the world.

Six Geese A-laying symbolize the six days of creation that confesses God as Creator and Sustainer of the world (Genesis 1).

Seven Swans A-swimming represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and 7) compassion (Romans 12:6-8; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11)

Eight Maids A-milking correspond to the eight Beatitudes: 1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, 2) those who mourn, 3) the meek, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5) the merciful, 6) the pure in heart, 7) the peacemakers, 8) those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. (Matthew 5:3-10)

Nine Ladies Dancing symbolize the nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit: 1) love, 2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness,6) generosity, 7) faithfulness, 8) gentleness, and 9) self-control. (Galatians 5:22)

Ten Lords A-leaping represent the ten commandments: 1) You shall have no other gods before me; 2) Do not make an idol; 3) Do not take God's name in vain; 4) Remember the Sabbath Day; 5) Honor your father and mother; 6) Do not murder; 7) Do not commit adultery; 8) Do not steal; 9) Do not bear false witness; 10) Do not covet. (Exodus 20:1-17)

Eleven Pipers Piping stand for the eleven Faithful Apostles: 1) Simon Peter, 2) Andrew, 3) James, 4) John, 5) Philip, 6) Bartholomew, 7) Matthew, 8) Thomas, 9) James bar Alphaeus, 10) Simon the Zealot, 11) Judas bar James. (Luke 6:14-16). The list does not include the twelfth disciple, Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.

Twelve Drummers Drumming correspond to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed: 1) I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. 2) I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. 3) He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 4) He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell [the grave]. 5) On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 6) He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 7) I believe in the Holy Spirit, 8) the holy catholic Church, 9) the communion of saints, 10) the forgiveness of sins, 11) the resurrection of the body, 12) and life everlasting.

"You can't live on amusement. It is the froth on water - an inch deep and then the mud."

~George MacDonald

"I wish life was not so short. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about." ~J.R.R. Tolkien

"There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself." ~J.S. Bach

"The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost."

~G. K. Chesterton

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” ~Clive Staples Lewis

Long while I sought to what I might compare

Those powerful eyes, which light my dark spirit;

Yet found I nought on earth, to which I dare

Resemble th' image of their goodly light

Not to the sun, for they do shine by night;

Nor to the moon, for they are changed never;

Nor to the stars, for they have purer sight;

Nor to the fire, for they consume not ever;

Nor to the lightning, for they still persever;

Nor to the diamond, for they are more tender;

Nor unto crystal, for nought may they sever;

Nor unto glass, such baseness might offend her;

Then to the Maker's self the likest be;

Whose light doth lighten all that here we see.

~Edmund Spenser

"Translation is the art of failure. " ~Umberto Eco

"The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured cosiness." ~ P.G. Wodehouse

"The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since therewas no-one in the room but the corpse." ~Charles Williams

Yo-Yo Ma playing Six Cello Suites by Bach. The first Cello Suite is played with a Baroque Cello. Enjoy!

http://athome.harvard.edu/programs/yym/index.html

No Mere Puppet On A String

Thomas Hobbes once said that, “God is the ultimate cause of every action, but as long as a person is not physically forced to do an act, the act is free.” Tim Powers juxtaposes the choice between life and death and the freedom of will throughout the course of his novel, On Stranger Tides. Combining history, fiction, fantasy, and adventure, Powers weaves a tale of a puppeteer, a horde of swashbucklers, and the mysteries of the vodun.
John Chandagnac, a puppeteer, sets sail from England upon the Vociferous Carmichael for Haiti to claim his rightful inheritance. Aboard the ship, John meets a beautiful yet sickly young woman named Elizabeth Hurwood and her father Benjamin Hurwood, a widower. Benjamin Hurwood is a well-known philosopher who wrote a defense of Thomas Hobbes entitled, The Vindication of Free Will. Since his wife’s death, Hurwood spends his time using pendulums, tuning forks, and emerging from his cabin smelling of hot metal. His companion, the physician, Leo Friend, accompanies ailing Elizabeth. On course to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Philip Davies commandeers the
Carmichael with the help of his miscreant piratical horde. Davies shoots the captain of the ship, and engages in a swordfight with John. “Join us,” says the pirate, Philip Davies to John Chandagnac, “wholly adopt our goals as your own, or be killed right now where you stand” (31) John severs Davies with his sword and Davies gives John a choice, but it is not just “a choice between death on one hand and three weeks of free food and drink on a tropical island on the other” (65). Davies forcefully explains, “You owe me hard service…and I’m not letting you out of the bargain you made” (65). On these strange tides, John Chandagnac’s voyage shifts from a mission to gain his inheritance to journey aboard a pirate ship where he is renamed Jack Shandy. Beth Hurwood, Benjamin Hurwood, Dr. Leo Friend, and Jack become common captives to the Caribbean brigand empire, ruled by the historic buccaneer, Blackbeard.
Powers uses underlying mystical forces to explain the unrecorded actions of the historical figures in his novel. Some of Blackbeard's actions are documented, but much is lost to history. Therefore, Powers takes the liberty to invent a fictional history for his historically based characters. Powers’s fictitious Blackbeard practices vodun. The pirate-king performs a higher level of vodun or voodoo that can only be attained by the shedding of blood at the Fountain of Youth. The fountain, used to discard ghosts from the body and resurrect the dead, is also called, “the hole in the wall between life and death” (142). Befriended by Blackbeard, Jack accompanies Dr. Friend and the Hurwoods into the jungly labyrinth filled with animate vegetation, talking fungi, and a multitude of ghosts to find the Fountain of Youth. Dr. Friend disappears with Beth Hurwood, leaving only part of the crew returning safely to shore. Realizing Friend’s desire to physically force and manipulate Beth’s will, Jack and Davies resolve to find him. According to vodun, manipulating the will can only come from the mingling of blood between male and female. Jack finds Beth and Dr. Friend on a resurrected ship crewed by zombies. Leo desires to “control people thoroughly…as to manipulate their will…In order to define the present, he would have to be able to revise the past—dictate the future—become, in effect, God” (216). Aboard the ship, a zombie kills Philip Davies, and Jack abandons his pursuit of Beth.
The tide shifts and Powers’s novel turns to Blackbeard’s death by the Royal Navy. Blackbeard picks a fight with the Navy, who in turn take his smoldering head as décor for their mast. All the while, Jack sails ashore to New Providence, where he encounters a man named Sawney, also known as the historical, Ponce de Leon. Sawney tells Jack how to break a manipulated will by using cold iron and blood linked to a sword. “Link your blood to the cold iron of the sword. Make the atoms of blood and iron line up the way a compass needle lines up to face north…A working magical force will add energy to it, to its own undoing” (284).
Jack finds Hurwood, sequesters his ship, and learns that Beth is no longer aboard. Benjamin Hurwood informs Jack that he left his daughter ashore with a man named Joshua Hicks, another practitioner of voodoo, whose particular specialty is exorcizing unwilling souls from victims of vodun. All Hurwood must do to release her is to wave to Hicks at the Jamaican port, where Beth is being held against her will. Before Hurwood reaches the port, he releases his own spirit and dies aboard the ship. Jack’s only choice is to physically force Hurwood’s lifeless hands to wave to Hicks. He performs the feat by tying of marionette strings to Hurwood’s hands, which releases Beth and saves her life.
After fleeing Hicks, Jack and Beth depart for the Jamaican dock to purchase a boat. On the dock, Jack and Beth meet with an apparition of Blackbeard, who smells like Dr. Friend. Jack remembers Ponce de Leon’s counsel that “any magically resurrected consciousness is damaged by proximity to cold iron” (282). Jack finds his compass, forces the cold iron needle into his own hand and links his blood and the sword. Beth grips the razor blade so that her blood mingles with Jack’s in order to impede Blackbeard. The couple begins to mutter the words of the institution of a covenant vow between bride and groom—completing their bloody union. Jack offers Blackbeard an option of life or death: “Join us, wholly adopt our goals as your own, or be killed right now where you stand.” Blackbeard refuses. Jack finds “himself rushing at Blackbeard… he could almost feel hands far above him deftly rocking the stick and crosspiece making the willing marionette which was himself spring toward the bald man” (368) The narrative closes with the death of Blackbeard and long-expected marriage of Beth Hurwood and Jack Shandy.
Powers’s work sets up a dichotomy between life and death and freedom of the will. Man is no mere puppet on a string; God is the ultimate cause of every action. Left to the freedom of his own devices, the fallen men of Powers’ novel choose the piratical life of sin and death. On Stranger Tides is a tale in which Tim Power’s reveals the depravity of man through the use of pirates and very strong and often vulgar language and actions. His charismatic use of language keeps apace with his mysterious storytelling of pirates upon the strange Caribbean tides.

German Coast Guard

What are you sinking about?

Soon to come: A real blog written by Rialb

On Liturgy

by: C.S. Lewis

Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best—if you like it, it “works” best—when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you do not notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.
But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. The important question about the Grail was “for what does it serve?” “Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.”
A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even Teach my performing dogs new tricks…”
As to the words of the service—liturgy in the narrower sense—the question is rather different. If you have a vernacular liturgy, you must have a changing liturgy: otherwise it will finally be vernacular only in name. The ideal of “timeless English” is sheer nonsense. No living language can be timeless. You might as well ask for a motionless river.
I think it would have been best, if it were possible, that necessary change should have occurred gradually and (to most people) imperceptibly; here a little and there a little; one obsolete word replaced in a century—like the gradual change of spelling in successive editions of Shakespeare.

Whence Come The Seasons Of The Year?

Whence come the seasons of the year?

They come with joy and colors bright,

The blowing winds tell what is near.

The birth of color that will fight,

With rainy days and stormy nights.

North winds begin their hasty blow,

And all the beauty passes slow.

The darkened skies and frigid days,

Make all the bright mirth fade away.

The trees stand tall in fog and haze,

To cold they fall in great dismay,

And hope soon for a vivid day,

When at last they are reborn.

All bliss is lost on winter's morn.

The chilly air must briskly face.

And soon the fertile hills ascend,

In eager hope that blooms invade.

The towering trees that soon amend,

From the dead state that they once were in,

And soon will thrive as healthy trees,

Which bud ever so verdantly.

The sun shines bright all summer long,

Strong showers soon will come and go,

And make the wav'ring boughs grow strong.

Yet lo, the rapid north winds blow

And make dead leaves drift off so slow.

Autumn has come with colors bright,

Painting the leaves, a splendid sight!

The frigid breeze sweeps in at last,

And whispers low the threat of death,

With merely one swift frosty blast.

The north wind blows its deadly breath,

And leaves the autumn plains bereft.

Yet shan't remain withered and dark.

Another season must embark.

Whence come the seasons of the year?

Do seasons come only by birth?

Perhaps death brings a season near?

For all the seasons bring us mirth.

And death cannot be so forlorn,

For all must die to be reborn.

~Blair Sadler

12 October 2004