On the Second Sunday of Lent – 2026

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The Temptation(s) of Christ – during His 40 days of wandering – which Lent emulates…

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by taking part in Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are key. They show that a healthy church has two sides, with the often-overlooked “mystic” side asking the question, “How do I experience God?” This blog tries to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance.(John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. (As Luke 24:45 says: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”) The fourth theme – another one often overlooked – is that Jesus wants us to do even greater miracles than He did. (John 14:12.) 

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

March 1, 2026 – The last post talked about Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday as marking the beginning of Lent. Which brings up something to keep in mind during this church season: While fasting and abstinence are the usual components of a Lenten discipline, Jesus said in Matthew 6:16-18, “Do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.” Instead, He said to basically put on a happy face. That way, “your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your Father who is in secret.”

In other words, the life-long Christian pilgrimage consists of both fasting and feasting:

Lent is about both fasting and feasting… And that’s what we Christians do during Lent. We retell our story of slavery to sin and death. We remember that we are dust and into dust we shall return. We remember our helplessness and hopelessness. We remember that we are utterly dependent on God’s gift of deliverance. And we celebrate, we feast.

As for the term itself, “Lent” comes from the old English meaning lengthen. That refers to the days getting longer as we move into spring. And just as spring means the rebirth and renewal of plant life, so the season of Lent means that Christians engage in spiritual renewal. Changes in church liturgy are designed to reflect that; many omit the usual “Alleluias” – from the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord” – until Easter Sunday. And hymns are more reflective while crosses are covered with veils. Everything turns inward until Easter Sunday, when “colors brighten, the veils are removed, and the Alleluias and praises break forth in joyous celebration.”

Now about those Lenten Disciplines. For many that means giving up something. On the other hand some choose a discipline “that would add to my spiritual life.” Other ideas? “Some find meditation to be a good Lenten discipline.” Or centering prayer, “taking time to follow your breath while praying a word or phrase, like ‘Love,’ ‘Peace,’ or ‘Jesus, Son of God, have mercy.'” Or a Screen Fast: “take one day without any screens: TV, iPhone, Blackberry, computer.”

For myself, in past Lents I’ve done contemplation, on projects like researching when, how (and indeed if) Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Torah. Such contemplation is “profound thinking about something.” As Wikipedia further explained, “In a religious sense, contemplation is usually a type of prayer or meditation.” And finally, there’s this:

Within Western Christianity contemplation is often related to mysticism as expressed in the works of mystical theologians such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as well as the writings of Margery Kempe, Augustine Baker and Thomas Merton.

So, in so “contemplating” you could say I was in pretty good company. As for this Lent, I’ll try to finish the novel I’ve been working on for some time; a novel I hope can bring Jesus closer to a bunch of pointy-headed liberals out in California. (I’ll also try to cut down on saying nasty things about a certain person we’re all too familiar with. “Let the reader understand.”)

Which could tie in to the Collect for this Second Sunday in Lent. “O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son.” Wouldn’t it be pretty to think that could happen, somehow?

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For a better translation of this dire warning, see the Notes below…

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The upper image is courtesy of Temptation of Christ – Wikipedia.  The caption: “The Temptations of Christ, 12th century mosaic at St Mark’s Basilica, Venice.” 

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from 2016’s My Lenten meditation, On the beginning of Lent – 2018, 2023’s On “Black Saturday” weddings in Lent – and other matters, and Welcome to Lent – 2024. I also borrowed from A HANDBOOK FOR THE DISCIPLINES OF LENT.

The “wouldn’t it be pretty“ is a take on the last line of Hemingway’s novel, “The Sun Also Rises.” See Quotes – Isn’t it pretty to think so? – Shmoop.

The lower image is courtesy of Sinner Penitent Image – Image Results. I should note that even in a bigger size it’s hard to see the commas that make all the difference, so here’s that better translation: “All the tears of a penitent sinner – should he shed as many [tears] as there have fallen drops of rain since the creation – cannot wash away one sin. The everlasting burnings in hell cannot purify the flaming conscience from the least sin.” (Imagine if there were many and great.)

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (See John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) This is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament, Psalm 9:10, “You never forsake those who seek you, O Lord.” (In the Book of Common Prayer version.) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

So in plain words, I take issue with what I call “Christian first graders.” Those who choose to stay in a kind of elementary-school first grade. See John the Baptist, ’24 – and “Christian First Graders,” for more. But the key point: “The Bible was designed to expand your mind,” not make it narrow. Also, there’s the idea that “Jesus was anything but negative. His goal was for you to grow and develop into all that you can be.” (For more on that see ABOUT THE BLOG, above.)

I’ve written on boot-camp Christians, the Literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible offers so much more than a narrow reading gives… (Unless you want to stay a buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians” see Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?” The gist of that post: Starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.”

Re: “mystical.” Originally the “liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“What the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the theological reflection method using four sources of spiritual development: scripture, tradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR?

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Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday – 2026

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“The Fight Between Carnival and Lent“ – a metaphor (by Pieter Bruegel the Elder…)

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February 17, 2026 – This week brings Shrove Tuesday, followed by Ash Wednesday on February 18 and the beginning of Lent. (Meaning this year Lent starts before the Feast Day for St Matthias, Apostle on Monday, February 24.) And Lent is the season leading up to Easter Sunday that’s devoted to almsgiving, atonement, self-denial, prayer and repentance of sins.

In turn, the forty-plus days of Lent mirror the actions of both Moses and Jesus. As for Moses, he went “into the mountains for 40 days and 40 nights to pray and fast ‘without eating bread or drinking water’ before receiving the Ten Commandments.” (From the Season of Lent):

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan. Lent originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter.

As for that “forty-plus days of Lent,” there are actually 46 days between February 18 and Easter Sunday, April 5. That’s because “Sundays are off.” They are special days exempt from the Lenten rules. Say for example, you’ve given up rye whiskey and two-dollar cigars for your Lenten discipline. On the six Sundays in Lent, you can take a take a break and enjoy both.

I’ll write more on Lenten disciplines later, including some of my own in the past, but meanwhile: For more information see the 2015 post On Ash Wednesday and Lent. (And the Wikipedia article on the subject.) That 2015 post explained the “Fight Between Carnival and Lent,” shown in the painting at the top of the page. (Actually, a close-up detail: The painting “contains nearly 200 characters … unified under the theme of the transition from Shrove Tuesday to Lent.”) The point is: Ash Wednesday always comes after Fat Tuesday, and as an aside, the French for Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras. That has now become a generic term for “Let’s Party!!” 

As for the origins, see A Brief History of Mardi Gras … TIME, which said Fat Tuesday used to be far more spiritual than the nudity and drunken debauchery for which it is now known:

In earlier times, people used Lent as a time of fasting and repentance. Since they didn’t want to be tempted by sweets, meat and other distractions in the house, they cleaned out their cabinets. They used up all the sugar and yeast in sweet breads before the Lent season started, and fixed meals with all the meat available. It was a great feast! Through the years Mardi Gras has evolved (in some places) into a pretty wild party with little to do with preparing for the Lenten season of repentance and simplicity.

Wikipedia added, “Popular practices on Mardi Gras include wearing masks and costumes, overturning social conventions, dancing, sports competitions, parades, debauchery, etc.” That “debauchery, etc.” has come to include “showing skin for beads” as part of an “alcohol-fueled, nudity-filled bacchanal,” especially in New Orleans. (Or so I’ve heard.) But because this party-time comes right before the start of Lent, there’s an object lesson. That lesson? “To everything there is a season… A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

That in turn is reflected throughout the whole liturgical calendar year, pretty much filled with such alternating seasons of celebration and penance. But while fasting and abstinence are the usual components of a Lenten discipline, keep in mind what Jesus said in Matthew 6:16-18, “Do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting.” Instead, He said to basically put on a happy face. That way, “your fasting may be seen not by others, but by your Father who is in secret.”

In other words, the life-long Christian pilgrimage consists of both fasting and feasting:

Lent is about both fasting and feasting… And that’s what we Christians do during Lent. We retell our story of slavery to sin and death. We remember that we are dust and into dust we shall return. We remember our helplessness and hopelessness. We remember that we are utterly dependent on God’s gift of deliverance. And we celebrate, we feast.

As for the day itself, many go to special Ash Wednesday services to get ash on their foreheads, “a sign of repentance since biblical times. The ash is typically made in the sign of the cross, and accompanied with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

That last in turn comes from passages like Genesis 3:19: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground, because out of it were you taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” Or more cheerfully in Ecclesiastes 12:7: “Then the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Which is actually pretty cheerful if you think about it. Especially if you also remember John 6:37, above, along with Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Emphasis added, meaning no if, ands or buts. So remember where you’re going to end up, and have a Happy Ash Wednesday.

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The upper image is courtesy of the “Fight Between Carnival” link in the Wikipedia article on Lent.  The full caption: “‘The Fight Between Carnival and Lent‘ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1558–1559).” Note the upper image shows a mere “detail;” see the whole painting at Wikipedia.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from Ash Wednesday and Lent – 2016, 2017’s The “Overlooked Apostle,” Ruth and Mardi Gras, On Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent – 2020, Ash Wednesday – 2022, not to mention 2019’s OMG! Is it time for Lent again?

Turn! Turn! Turn! – Wikipedia discusses the song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s, which “became an international hit in late 1965 when it was covered by the American folk rock band The Byrds.” The lyrics were taken “almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible,” at Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

Re: Mardi Gras. See A Brief History … Photo Essays – TIME, which added:

Mardi Gras’ reputation as an alcohol-fueled, nudity-filled bacchanal is not completely unearned. In 1973 … the tradition of showing skin for beads began. Native New Orleanians despise the reputation, and rarely venture into the Quarter during Carnival season.

Re: Fasting and feasting. See also Fasting and Feasting – Flowing Faith.

The lower image is courtesy of Ash Wednesday – Wikipedia. Caption: “Ashes imposed on the forehead of a Christian on Ash Wednesday.”

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The Presentation of Jesus – 2026

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Ecce homo by Antonio Ciseri (1).jpg
This could be the “Second Presentation” – on Good Friday, as Jesus is about to be crucified…

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by taking part in Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are key. They show that a healthy church has two sides, with the often-overlooked “mystic” side asking the question, “How do I experience God?” This blog tries to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance.(John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. (As Luke 24:45 says: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.”) The fourth theme – another one often overlooked – is that Jesus wants us to do even greater miracles than He did. (John 14:12.) 

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

February 1, 2026 – The next feast day is February 2, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. It’s part of the season of Epiphanytide, leading up to the Last Sunday after Epiphany on February 15, Ash Wednesday on February 18, and the First Sunday in Lent on February 22.

Counting forward from December 25 as Day One, we find that Day Forty is February 2. A Jewish woman is in semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son, and accordingly it is on February 2 that we celebrate the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem…

In other words, the day celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, “to officially induct him into Judaism.” (In many churches it’s also called Candlemas, as shown at right. Members take their candles from home to be blessed, and those “blessed candles serve as a symbol of Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the Light of the World.”) See Luke’s account of the Presentation at 2:22-40: “Mary and Joseph took the Infant Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem … to complete Mary’s ritual purification after childbirth.”

Luke explicitly says that Joseph and Mary take the option provided for poor people (those who could not afford a lamb … Leviticus 12:8), sacrificing “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Leviticus 12:1-4 indicates that this event should take place forty days after birth for a male child, hence the Presentation is celebrated forty days after Christmas.

In other words, Mary and Joseph were there “in obedience to the Torah (Leviticus 12, Exodus 13:12-15.” (On Purification after Childbirth, “if she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering.”)

Another note: Mary did this even though she’d “borne Christ without incurring impurity” – meaning the usual ritual impurity involved in conception – but “went to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses.” (To set an example, like Jesus insisting that John baptize Him.) Another tidbit: This first Presentation put Jesus on the long road to His second one, the one at the hands of Pontius Pilate, displaying Him to the mob.

A reminder that from the time of His first Presentation – at just over a month old – Jesus’ life was one long journey to that second presentation. (On the eve of making the sacrifice that would literally change history, if not “split history in two.”) 

And it all began with “Simeon and Anna recognizing the Lord Jesus.”

Which brings up the question: Who first recognized the baby Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, Mary, Anna or Simeon? Simeon and Anna were two old folk at the Temple when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to Jerusalem for the first time. Simeon approached first, as he’d been told he wouldn’t die until he saw the Messiah. And having seen Jesus, he is ready to die.

Anna also recognizes Jesus as Messiah but she has a far different reaction. (She’s the only New Testament woman explicitly called a “prophetess,” Luke 2:36.) And at the ripe old age of 84, she wants to live and spread the Good News. She, like the disciples, is driven to bear witness. So, while Mary was first to hear the good news, Simeon and Anna were the first to understand fully.

Which makes Mary all the more like us today. Unlike Simeon and Anna, she didn’t immediately understand fully. She couldn’t foresee the future, or that a sword would pierce her own soul. She could only, as noted in Luke 2:19, “treasure all these words and ponder them in her heart.”

The act of pondering suggests deep contemplation and meditation, and in the Bible the heart is seen as the center of thought and emotion. That indicates Mary would not only remember these events but also try for years to understand their full meaning. Such introspection is a common theme in the Bible, where individuals meditate on God’s works and words, as seen in Psalm 119:15: “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways.”

So, Mary’s pondering can be seen as an example of faith and obedience, as she seeks – for years – to comprehend God’s plan. An example of a “continuing search to understand” that seems especially appropriate now, since Lent will soon be upon us.

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“Simeon and Anna Recognize the Lord in Jesus…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Pontius Pilate – Wikipedia. The caption:  “Ecce Homo (‘Behold the Man’), Antonio Ciseri‘s depiction of Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.”

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from 2017’s The FIRST “Presentation of the Lord,” The “Presentation of our Lord” – 2020, The Presentation of Jesus – 2/2/22, and The Presentation and the Poker player – 2025.

References to Simeon and Anna as the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah are from Mary, Simeon or Anna: Who First Recognized Jesus as Messiah?

Re: Psalm 119:15. I used the translation from the New King James Version. Other translations: “I will study your commandments and reflect on your ways,” and “I will meditate on Your precepts And [thoughtfully] regard Your ways [the path of life established by Your precepts].”

The lower image is courtesy of the “Simeon” link in the Wikipedia article on the Presentation, with caption: “Simeon the Godreceiver [sic] by Alexei Egorov. 1830–40s.”  The caption for that image is from Simeon and Anna Recognize the Lord in Jesus. That’s another interpretation of the event, by Rembrandt (van Rijn).  (Far better known than Egorov.)  You can see Rembrandt’s interpretation at “Wikigallery,” or at “Rembrandtonline.”

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (See John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) This is a consistent theme throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament, Psalm 9:10, “You never forsake those who seek you, O Lord.” (In the Book of Common Prayer version.) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

So in plain words, I take issue with what I call “Christian first graders.” Those who choose to stay in a kind of elementary-school first grade. See John the Baptist, ’24 – and “Christian First Graders,” for more. But the key point: “The Bible was designed to expand your mind,” not make it narrow. Also, there’s the idea that “Jesus was anything but negative. His goal was for you to grow and develop into all that you can be.” (For more on that see ABOUT THE BLOG, above.)

I’ve written on boot-camp Christians, the Literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible offers so much more than a narrow reading gives… (Unless you want to stay a buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians” see Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?” The gist of that post: Starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.”

Re: “mystical.” Originally the “liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“What the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the theological reflection method using four sources of spiritual development: scripture, tradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR?

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On PAUL’s Damascus Road Experience – 2026

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“Two Scholars Disputing“ – after one of them had HIS Damascus Road Experience…

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January 24, 2026 – The last post covered two major feast days in January, the Confession of St Peter on the 18th and the Conversion of St Paul on the 25th. It covered Peter confessing, so this post will cover “Paul’s converting.” Converting from a devout foe of the early Christian church to its most ardent spokesman. (Becoming second only to Jesus in helping spread the Good News.)

In plain words, they took different paths. Peter came to a position of authority from inside the church, but Paul got dragged kicking and screaming into his position of authority. Paul wrote of his former life as a zealous enemy of the budding Christian church in Galatians 1:13-14. (He said he was “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”) He “persecuted the church of God … and tried to destroy it.” But God changed his tune, and his name, from Saul to Paul.

As noted in Acts 7:57-8:3, “Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” Then came the Stoning of Stephen, and as the crowd threw their rocks “the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” But then he had his Damascus Road Experience (as illustrated below). In other words, Paul went through a profound life-changing experience that changed him from skeptic to believer and advocate. And he was literally struck blind, for three days.

Of that episode, Wikipedia noted three different accounts, including Acts 9, 9-19:

[The] third discussion of Paul’s conversion occurs when Paul addresses King Agrippa, defending himself against the accusations of antinomianism that have been made against him. This account is briefer than the others. The speech here is again tailored for its audience, emphasizing what a Roman ruler would understand: the need to obey a heavenly vision, and reassuring Agrippa that Christians were not a secret society.

So, as I said Paul was “dragged kicking and screaming into his position of authority.” And from there he became “the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity.” From that position of authority, Paul noted that above all we as good Christians are called on to be “ministers of reconciliation.” In following his lead, we Americans should not be as polarized as we are now. Because as Paul said in Galatians 3:28, in Christ “there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no liberal or conservative.” (Well, that’s what he would write if he was here today.)

And speaking of current events, can you think of anyone today who could bring lots of people to Jesus, if only “they” could have a Damascus Road Experience?

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The upper image is courtesy of www.canvasreplicas.com/Rembrandt.htm. See also Two Scholars Disputing by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn. (I used it in the previous post, on Peter Confessing, in part because the two feast days are only a week apart and in the past, I’ve combined them.)

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

Note that both feast days – January 18 and 25 – fell on a Sunday and so were transferred to the following Monday. See Precedence, Rules of – The Episcopal Church: “Sunday takes precedence over all other feasts and observances of the church year. When a feast of our Lord or other major feast appointed cannot be observed because it occurs on a Sunday, the feast is normally transferred to the first convenient open day in the following week.”

For this post I borrowed from 2016’s Paul restored – from the Damascus Road, Paul gets his sight back, Peter confesses – 2024, On Peter and Paul, working together – 2025, and links therein.

The actual link to Paul’s “DRE” is Conversion of Paul the Apostle – Wikipedia.

The lower image, by Caravaggio, is courtesy of Conversion on the Way to Damascus – Wikipedia.

The painting depicts this moment … except Caravaggio has Saul falling off a horse (which is not mentioned in the story) on the road to Damascus, seeing a blinding light and hearing the voice of Jesus. For Saul this is a moment of intense religious ecstasy: he is lying on the ground, supine, eyes shut, with his legs spread and his arms raised upward as if embracing his vision. 

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On Peter Confessing – 2025

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“Scholars Disputing” – but Peter and Paul worked together for the common good… 

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Two major feast days are coming up, January 18’s Confession of St Peter and January 25’s Conversion of St Paul. Taking the “confession” first, January 18 celebrates Peter confessing that Jesus is the Christ (the Jewish Messiah): “Thou art the Christ, Son of the Living God.” In other words we recall how Peter was “led by God’s grace to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ” And we join with him – and with all other Christians – in “hailing Jesus as our Lord, God, and Savior.”

[The] Apostle Peter proclaims Jesus to be Christ – the Messiah. The proclamation is described in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27–30 and Luke 9:18–20. The proclamation of Jesus as Christ is fundamental to Christology … and Jesus’ acceptance of the title is a definitive statement for it in the New Testament narrative.

Note that later this year, on June 29, we have a Feast Day that remembers both Peter and Paul, together. At that time we remember that both men were martyred at about the same time, in Rome, on or about 65 A.D. But here on the other side of the liturgical year – in the dead of winter – we remember both men separately. Or more precisely, we remember how these two “Pillars of the Church” took two completely different paths to the same destination.

On 18 January we remember how the Apostle Peter was led by God’s grace to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20), and we join with Peter, and with all Christians everywhere, in hailing Jesus as our Lord, God, and Savior.

(See Confession of St. Peter, from the Satucket website.)  Put another way, the January 18 Feast Day commemorates Peter being the first apostle “to confess Jesus as Messiah.”

But at as indicated by the painting at the top of the page, the two men did have their differences. See for example, Galatians 2:11-14, when Paul corrected Peter at Antioch: “When Peter came to Antioch, I told him face to face that he was wrong.” On the other hand, Peter wasn’t too crazy about Paul’s style of writing. See 2d Peter 3:16: “He writes the same way in all his letters.” (Pretty much like the lawyer Paul was.) “His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (Which is why God made John 6:37 and Romans 10:9.)

But despite their differences, Peter and Paul managed to work together, just like Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill. As one site noted, despite starkly different ideologies, Reagan and House Speaker O’Neill offered a model of political friendship. That was especially evident after the assassination attempt. O’Neill was one of the first people Reagan let in to see him at George Washington University Hospital. When O’Neill entered the room he walked over to the bed, “grasped both the president’s hands, and said, ‘God bless you, Mr. President.’”

The president still seemed groggy … with lots of tubes and needles running in and out of his body. But when he saw Tip, he lit up and gave the speaker a big smile, and said, ‘Thanks for coming, Tip.’ Then, still holding one of the president’s hands, the speaker got down on his knees and said he would like to offer a prayer for the president, choosing the 23rd Psalm.” Then O’Neill kissed Reagan on the forehead.

Another tidbit: Reagan often answered O’Neill’s calls, “Tip, is it after 6 p.m.?” The point being that Reagan and O’Neill might fight like cats and dogs during work hours, but “after 6, these two enemies enjoy each other’s company.” So, wouldn’t it be wonderful if making America great again meant a return to those “traditional family values?” On the other hand, you might say that’s all part of being a good Christian. (Romans 5:6 and Matthew 5:44.)

Reagan and Ted Kennedy were also able to do that, despite their intense political differences. Kennedy said of Reagan: “He’s absolutely professional.  When the sun goes down, the battles of the day are really gone.” Or as one writer said, “Heated rhetoric was part of the game of government. [But w]hen the day was over, win or lose, everyone could have a drink together.”

I’ll write about God giving Paul his Damascus Road Experience in a week or so. (Turning him from an enemy of the church to its most ardent advocate.) In the meantime, wouldn’t it be nice if we could go back to this kind of working together, in religion and politics?

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The upper image is courtesy of www.canvasreplicas.com/Rembrandt.htm.  See also Two Scholars Disputing by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from Paul gets his sight back, Peter confesses – 2024, On Peter and Paul, working together – 2025, and links therein.

On Paul’s style of writing see Understanding Paul’s Difficult Scriptures. On Paul as lawyer see Topical Bible: The Lawyer: “In the context of the Bible, the term ‘lawyer’ refers to an expert in the Mosaic Law, often synonymous with a scribe or teacher of the law… The Apostle Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, was a Pharisee and well-versed in the law. His background as a lawyer-like figure provided him with a deep understanding of Jewish law.” 

Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Period, no ifs, ands or buts. To me that’s pretty much sums up the whole point of the Bible.

The quote about Kennedy and “heated rhetoric” is courtesy of Battle for Justice: How the [Robert] Bork Nomination Shook America, by Ethan Bronner, Anchor Book edition (1989), at pages 103-104. 

The lower image is courtesy of the Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill link in the main text of the January 2025 post noted above.

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On Epiphany ’26, Plough Monday and Plough Pudding

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January 6 – the last of the 12 Days of Christmas – leads in time to “Plough Monday…”

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January 12, 2026 – The last post talked about Christmastide – also called the 12 days of Christmas – that begins on December 25 and ends on January 6 with the Feast of Epiphany. (Which also celebrates the visit of the Wise Men – the Magi – and their bringing gifts to the infant Jesus.) But January 6 also marks the start of the Season of Epiphany, which typically ends with Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. (This year Ash Wednesday comes on February 18, and Lent ends on April 5, Easter Sunday.) But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Each year, January 6 is the traditional day to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.  (In this sense, an “annual religious celebration.”) See also the Satucket piece on Epiphany:

“Epiphany” is a word of Greek origin, related to such English words as “theophany,” “phenotype,” and “phenomenon.”  It means an appearance, a displaying, a showing forth, a making clear or public or obvious.  On this day, Christians have traditionally celebrated the making known of Jesus Christ to the world.

Note that “making Jesus known to the world.” In other words, the Epiphany celebrates the world getting “first introduced to Jesus.” And aside from this feast day, January 6 and others close to it – which sometimes overlap – have other names like Plough Monday, Three Kings Day (as in, “We Three Kings of Orient are”), and Twelfth Night. And now for some lesser-known details.

Plough Monday comes right after Plough Sunday, of which more below. And Plough Monday – following the first Sunday after January 6 – once marked the start of the agricultural work year in Merry Olde England. (References to it go back as far as the 15th century.) And as noted that first Sunday after the Epiphany is Plough Sunday, when a ploughshare was brought into the local Christian church, with prayers for blessing human labor, tools, and the land. However:

Plough Monday customs declined in the 19th century. The advent of mechanised farming meant that agricultural workers were less numerous and relatively better paid, and thus did not have to beg for money in the winter. Additionally, the rowdy and threatening behaviour of the plough gangs was increasingly controversial in this period, and there was pressure from authorities to stop, or moderate their excesses. (Emphasis added.)

All of which bears some explaining. For starters, the Church of England had a long church service on Plough Sunday, with prayers especially for a bountiful harvest in the season to come. The service included a prayer for the Blessing of the Plough: “By your [God’s] blessing, let this plough be a sign of all that you promise to us. Prosper the work of our hands, and provide abundant crops for your people to share.” It also helps to remember that back then life was generally “nasty, brutish and short.” Mostly living hand to mouth, meaning if the harvest was bad, people starved. Which helps explain the rowdy behavior authorities looked down on.

So Plough Sunday was a way to celebrate – and maybe boost – farming and farm workers. (“On whom” the community relied on to survive.) But since you couldn’t work on Sundays – back in the good old days – the new agricultural year didn’t really start until the next work day, Plough Monday. (When the farm-workers could start plowing again.)

The point of all this – Twelfth Night, Plough Sunday, Plough Monday, etc. – was to give those hard-working farm-workers one last big blast before getting back to work. (Resuming work after the long winter holiday season when little farming could be done.) And as such it was a good occasion for the general tomfoolery shown in the image at the top of the page. (Which included enough rowdy, boisterous behavior to get the celebrations banned in some places):

In some areas, particularly in northern England and East England, a plough was hauled from house to house in a procession, collecting money. They were often accompanied by musicians, an old woman or a boy dressed as an old woman, called the “Bessy,” and a man in the role of the “fool.”

And finally, people celebrated Plough Monday with Plough Pudding, shown below: A “boiled suet pudding, containing meat and onions. It is from Norfolk and is eaten on Plough Monday.” But again, the Epiphany “celebrates the revelation of God the Son as human in Jesus Christ:”

The observance [of Epiphany] was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. It included the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi[and] all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist…

And the Epiphany starts the Epiphany Season, the four to nine weeks from January 6 through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. The season’s Gospel readings describe events manifesting the divinity of Jesus, including the coming of the Magi and Jesus’ baptism. The gospels for the other Sundays of the Epiphany season describe the wedding at Cana, the calling of the disciples, and various miracles and teachings of Jesus. The Last Sunday after the Epiphany is always devoted to the Transfiguration. Jesus’ identity as the Son of God is dramatically revealed.

And that’s the Reason for the [Epiphany] Season. In the meantime, enjoy the Plough Pudding.

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The upper image is courtesy of the December 28, 2015, post, “Here’s to Plough Monday!”

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

Re: Magi. From the original Greek μάγοι or ‘magoi,’ the term originally referred to the Iranian priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. “Within this tradition, priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and astrological abilities caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic.”

For this post I borrowed from posts including 2017’s To Epiphany – “and BEYOND,” Happy Epiphany – 2018, and “Happy Epiphany (season) – 2025!” For a more personal, maybe morbid note see Epiphany ’23, the end of Christmas and “farewell Mi Dulce.” The latter included links to both Infinite Frogs and the Infant [Jesus] of Prague – Wikipedia. And the quote, “as they say, ‘in teaching you will learn.'” And that through the lady in question, “I learned that there actually are websites for Infinite Frogs.”

Re: “Olde England.” See Merry England Explained: In one sense it “was not a myth. They really did used to dance around the maypole, feast all day and drink beer all night. And not only was it more merry, the merry-making was actually encouraged by the Church, particularly in the later medieval period.” But in another sense, it “may be treated both as a product of the sentimental nostalgic imagination and as an ideological or political construct, often underwriting various sorts of conservative world-views. Favourable perceptions of Merry England reveal a nostalgia for aspects of an earlier society that are missing in modern times.” The link goes into great detail.

The link Twelfth Night (holiday) – Wikipedia details some of the confusion around deciding which night was “twelfth,” as in January 5 or 6. It also noted that “Twelfth Night in the Netherlands became so secularised, rowdy, and boisterous that public celebrations were banned by the Church.”

Note: Although “reason for the season” is usually applied to Christmas, I’d say it applies to all seasons in the Liturgical year, “each with their own mood, theological emphases, and modes of prayer.” They all culminate in Easter Sunday, per Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Emphasis added.)

The lower image is courtesy of Norfolk Plough Pudding for Plough Monday – Lavender and Lovage.

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On 2025 and its “12 days of Christmas”

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“Twelfth Night (The King Drinks)” – One way to celebrate the end of Christmastide…

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December 31, 2025 – Ten years ago I wrote that I was driving up north “to face the icy arctic blasts of Yankee-land for Christmas.” Meaning before I left, I needed to post an ode to the 12 days of Christmas. (Which is both a “festive Christian season and title of a host of songs and spin-offs, including one on a Mustang GT,”) And lo and behold, this year I’m once again “enjoying” a festive Christmas season up here in the icy arctic blasts of Yankee-land.* (And frankly, after days of too-cold-to-hike I’m getting a bit of cabin fever.) But back to the festive Christmas season:

The Twelve Days of Christmas is the festive Christian season, beginning on Christmas Day (25 December), that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God. This period is also known as Christmastide… The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus. In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day overlap.

See Twelve days of Christmas, included within the article The Twelve Days of Christmas (song) – Wikipedia. The song is said to have begun as an English Christmas Carol – thought to be of French origin – first published in 1780. It’s a “cumulative song,” meaning each verse “is built on top of the previous verses.” Each verse describes a gift from “my true love” on one of the 12 days of Christmas. And as most people know – hearing them ad nauseum starting weeks before Thanksgiving – there are “many variations in the lyrics.” (Like the Redneck 12 Days version.)

One common theory is that the original lyrics were part of a “secret Catholic code:”

In 1979, a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh D. McKellar, published an article, “How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas”, claiming that [the] lyrics were intended as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith… McKellar offered no evidence for his claim and subsequently admitted that the purported associations were his own invention. The idea was further popularized by a Catholic priest, Fr. Hal Stockert, in an article he wrote in 1982…  In 1987 and 1992, Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York, repeated these claims. None of the enumerated items would distinguish Catholics from Protestants, and so would hardly need to be secretly encoded.

See Twelve Days (above), and also 12 Things You Might Not Know About “The Twelve Days”. The latter noted the story that “from the 16th to the 19th century, when being a Catholic was a crime in Protestant England,” Catholic children used the song to learn their faith.

And speaking of the 12 days of Christmas, the one celebrated tomorrow – January 1 – is called The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. But there’s another, more earthy name for it:

On January 1st, we celebrate the Circumcision of Christ. Since we are more squeamish than our ancestors [ – “easily shocked, offended, or disgusted by unpleasant things” – ], modern calendars often list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, but the other emphasis is the older. Every Jewish boy was circumcised (and formally named) on the eighth day of his life, and so, one week after Christmas, we celebrate the occasion when Our Lord first shed His blood for us. It is a fit close for a week of martyrs,* and reminds us that to suffer for Christ is to suffer with Him.

(See the Holy Name link, emphasis added.) Which is pretty much a theme for those 12 Days, many of which have such different names. For example, the last of the 12 days – by church reckoning, January 6 – is Epiphany the day, not the season. (Which “celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ.”) It’s also known as the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, but to confuse things a bit, the evening of January 5 is called Twelfth Night. (?) But there’s one more name for January 6: It’s also called Three Kings Day. (As in, “We Three Kings of Orient are.”)

A note: The Three Kings were originally called Three Magi, and in its original sense that meant “followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster.” But starting about 1200 A.D., the term commonly referred to the “‘μάγοι’ [‘magoi‘] from the east who visit Jesus.” (As noted in Matthew 2, verses 1-12. And incidentally, these “Three Wise Men” were mentioned only in Matthew’s Gospel.) The idea that there were three seems to have arisen because they brought three gifts: Gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And while one view of the story indicates they arrived at the manger shortly after the birth of Jesus, the truth of the matter seems a bit harder to pin down.

The Bible specifies no interval between the birth and the visit [by the Magi, but] artistic depictions … encourage the popular assumption that the visit took place the same winter as the birth…  [L]ater traditions varied, with the visit [said to occur] up to two winters later. This maximum interval explained Herod’s command at Matthew 2:16–18 that the Massacre of the Innocents included boys up to two years old.

But now we’re ranging far afield, and the main thing to remember is: The season of Christmastide celebrates the birth of “something new under the sun.” It celebrates a new – non-conservative – way of thinking about God. It celebrates the birth of a new – and I think better – way to approach God. It celebrates the birth of a new way to get closer to God.

Which brings up the question, “What is this ‘Christmas Spirit’ anyway?” Last year I Googled the phrase and got 4,180,000 results. One answer: Christmas Spirit – Its Real Meaning | 7th Sense: It shows in three simple actions: Giving, Appreciating, and Doing service. Another answer came from the link, “What is Christmas Spirit?” – Scientific American Blog Network:

The code of generosity, kindness, and charity toward others is enforced by no one other than ourselves. There are places where this code is strong, and these places (or people) are said to have strong Christmas spirit… After all, we are the sum of the individuals around us who generate the collective force that governs and organizes our social structure… When we “act out” Christmas spirit, we’re making visible this collective force, and we give it power.

So, one message from all this Christmas spirit – in spite of all the obstacles life throws at us – could be that “A ‘time of pestilence’ can show there are more things to admire in people than to despise.” (A quote from Camus’ 1947 novel The Plague that seems appropriate these days.)

Which brings up this time last year, when Jimmy Carter died at the ripe old age of 100. In response to Jimmy’s death, Donald Trump – not known for sensitivity – called Carter “’a truly good man’ who will be missed.” He also ordered flags to fly at half-mast in Carter’s honor at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Who knows, in a 2026 Christmas miracle our president may find his way back to such a frame of mind, when he can honor “a truly good man who will be missed.”

Maybe with a bit of next-Christmas Magi?

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The Adoration of the Magi, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo…

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The upper image is courtesy of The Twelve days of Christmas, with the full caption, “Twelfth Night (The King Drinks) by David Teniers c. 1634-1640.” 

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

Re: Yankee-land. On Sunday December 21, 2025, I left the sunny-south ATL and got to the Springfield (MA) Metropolitan Area two days later.

For this post I borrowed from 2015’s On the 12 Days of Christmas, 2016’s Epiphany, circumcision, and “3 wise guys,” The 12 days of Christmas, 2018-2019, The 12 DAYS of Christmas – 2021-22, and 12/31/24 – Ten years of “12 days of Christmas.”

Writing this I checked the link Cabin Fever: Definition, Symptoms, Causes, and Ways to Cope, on the “relatively common reaction to being isolated or confined for an extended period of time.” Among the ways to cope: Create a Routine, Normal Eating Patterns, Set Goals, Use Your Brain, and Exercise. Over the last week I’ve created a bit of a routine, but my eating patterns are way different. (No more “normal” breakfasts of organic egg whites mixed with kale, spinach, wheat germ, flax seed and a dash of olive oil, but when I get home, I’ll resume my “normal” Spartan kosher diet.) As for using my brain I’ve resumed doing my blog posts, along with crossword puzzles and book-reading; you know, with real books? And I manage a semblance of my normal high-intensity aerobics, though not as much outdoor hiking as I like.) On the other hand, the “cabin fever” is really a bit of hyperbole, so far anyway.

“Week of martyrs.” The Daily Office Readings – see the link below, What’s a DOR? – for the days following Christmas are generally the same each year. For December 26, St. Stephen; for December 27, St. John; for December 29, the Feast of the Holy Innocents. See e.g. The 8 Days of Christmas: Understanding the Christmas Octave.

Re: The Camus quote. See What we learn in time of pestilence – PMC.

The lower image is courtesy of Epiphany (holiday) – Wikipedia. The full caption: “Adoration of the Magi by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 17th century.”

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On the REAL St. Nick – 2025

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“Saint Nicholas” – the bearded guy in the middle – “saves three innocents from death…”

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December 20, 2025 – This time of year many parents wonder: Should [We tell our kids] the Truth About Santa? (As in, “When does a fun, fanciful tradition risk becoming harmful deception?” Or as in, “do parents risk harming their children when they pretend that he exists?”)

Fortunately, Christians have a good short answer: There really is – and was – a Saint Nicholas. (Actually, several foundational prototypes for today’s “Santa Claus,” a name that comes from Sint Klaas, the Dutch for Saint and also “from a hypocoristic form of Nicholas.”) Anyway, one of the first prototypes was Nicholas of Myra. He was a bona fide 4th-century saint and Bishop of Myra (part of today’s Turkey). People called him “Nikolaos the Wonderworker,” thanks to miracles attributed to his intercession. See also Saint Nicholas … Britannica:

Saint Nicholas, also called Nicholas of Bari or Nicholas of Myra [is] one of the most popular minor saints commemorated in the Eastern and Western churches and now traditionally associated with the festival of Christmas. In many countries children receive gifts on December 6, Saint Nicholas Day.

Which brings up the fact that officially his day came last December 6. Then there’s the question whether – as a saint – he is so “minor” these days. (Considering the money spent ostensibly in his honor.) Anyway again, old stories told of Nicholas of Myra’s love for God and neighbor, like providing dowries for three poor unmarried daughters. (He walked by the man’s house on three successive nights and each time threw a bag of gold in through a window, thus saving them from a life of prostitution.) Or of three children killed and “pickled” by a butcher – in a time of famine and cannibalism – who planned “to sell them off as ham.” But Nicholas both saw through the butcher’s horrific crime and resurrected the three children from the barrel.

And a side note: “Myra” is now the city of Demre, in Turkey, where it doesn’t get that cold in the winter. But when the story of this St. Nick got repeated in colder northern climes, they had to tweak it a bit. (No one “up there” would have their windows open in December.) Once the story got tweaked, St. Nick started delivering his gifts by coming in through the chimney. (On a related note, “In pre-Christian Norse tradition, Odin would often enter through chimneys and smoke holes or fire holes on the solstice, which marks the beginning of winter.”)

As to the image atop the page, here’s how the first St. Nick “saved three innocents:”

Nicholas was visiting a remote part of his diocese [when he heard of the three men. He set out and] found a large crowd of people and the three men kneeling … arms bound, awaiting the fatal blow. Nicholas passed through the crowd, took the sword from the executioner’s hands and threw it to the ground, then ordered that the condemned men be freed from their bonds. His authority was such that the executioner left his sword where it fell…

Then there’s the story of how “Santa Claus” was basically a gift to America from Holland. It seems Dutch colonists took the tradition of St. Nicholas with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century. After that:

Sinterklaas was adopted by the country’s English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents.

And so, back in 1897 – when Francis P. Church of The (New York) Sun responded to a letter to the editor – he was pretty much telling the truth when he wrote, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” (The letter responded-to was written by eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon.)

Of course, the whole idea of “Santa Claus” – and Christmas itself – has gotten glossed over and commercialized over the years. See How Christmas Became the Most Commercialized Holiday. Or as Lucy Brown (of Peanuts) once told Charlie Brown: “Let’s face it… We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate, you know.”

Simply put, Christmas became big business, and as such spawned a host of cottage industries: Books published, woodsmen “heading into the forests each December to cut evergreens to sell on street corners,” tinsel, toys, candleholders, candles, candies, garlands, ornaments, and hand-colored Christmas cards, to name a few. All of which is great for the economy, but Christmas is also a good time to go back to the original source. To go back to the jolly – and brave – original St. Nick, and of course, to remember Jesus, The Reason for the Season.

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The upper image is courtesy of Saint Nicholas – Wikipedia, with the caption:  “Saint Nicholas Saves Three Innocents from Death (oil painting by Ilya Repin, 1888, State Russian Museum).”   See also St. Nicholas Center … Saint Who Stopped an Execution.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I borrowed from 2014’s On the original St. Nicholas, 2015’s On St. Nick and “Doubting Thomas,” 2016’s On the REAL “Jolly Ol’ Saint Nick,” 2017’s There really IS a “Saint Nick” (Virginia…), and On the real “Saint Nick” – 2023.

Hypocorism, usually used to refer to a pet name, means a name used to show affection for a person; “It may be a diminutive form of a person’s name, such as Izzy for Isabel or Bob for Robert.” Wikipedia.

The lower image is courtesy of Jesus Reason For The Season – Image Results.

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Advent ’25 – and “Buy your way into heaven?”

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Can you say, “Those Who Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It?”

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December 6, 2025 – Sunday, November 30 was the First Sunday of Advent. It began a four-week church season calling us to look in four directions: “back to the past, forward to the future, upwards to heaven, and downwards to earth.” A time of anticipation, and not just for Christmas:

The first Sunday of Advent is the start of a new liturgical year, and yet there is a continuity with the end of the liturgical year just finished… One does not have to be a prophet of doom to recognize that this year [ – going back to 2020 – ] has been filled with terrible events… We need God to come and fix a broken world. The season of Advent is about [the] “devout and expectant delight” that God will do that.

Those comments – from 2020 – were perhaps a Foretaste of the Not-so-Heavenly Banquet to Come, considering the events of this past year of 2025. (Though perhaps a Closer-to-Heavenly Banquet is nearer than we could hope?) Which is being interpreted: The year 2020 certainly challenged us, and yet the year 2025 presented us with newer and more daunting challenges. (Not to mention the years coming up.) And yet – if we have that peace of God which passes all understanding – we can think that the coming year(s) offer us new opportunities as well.

More on that in a bit, but for now: Back to Advent, which actually starts with the Feast of St. Andrew. He’s the disciple who met Jesus first, then brought his brother (Saint) Peter along to meet Him too. As such he is called the “First Apostle,” and this year his feast day came last Sunday (which meant his feast day got transferred to the following Monday).

There’s more on him in the last post, but this one is about Advent, which as a church season has been around a long time. For example, starting about 300 A.D. Advent was “kept as a period of fasting as strict as in Lent.” But then around 1917 the Catholic Church “abolished the precept of fasting … but kept Advent as a season of penitence.” And it’s also a time of “joyful anticipation.”

Another thing to note is that for three of the four Sundays of Advent, the Old Testament readings – in many churches – will be from the prophet Isaiah, shown below:

Isaiah is the prophet who guides our journey through Advent as we prepare for Christmas. Advent is a season of joyful anticipation, and Isaiah invites us to look forward to the coming of the Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord.

Beyond that, “Isaiah urges us to straighten out our crooked ways, tear down our mountains of misdeeds, and fill in the valleys of our bad habits.” Which brings up the part about “trying to buy your way into heaven.” It seems that Donald Trump has sparked new controversy with a fundraising email that frames small donations as part of his personal bid to reach Heaven. (Blending “religious language with political solicitation in a move the White House insists was sincere.”) The email, from late August and early September, opened with a line “‘I want to try and get to Heaven’ before asking supporters to contribute $15 (£11) to a 24-hour fundraising drive.”

And just to be sure, Snopes and other fact-checkers verified the authenticity of the message after screenshots spread across social media, confirming the campaign genuinely used salvation-themed language to solicit donations. And see for example, Trump Fundraising Email Claims Donations Will Help Him ‘Get to Heaven’ as Campaign Defends Spiritual Appeal.

Which prompted my thought, “It’s Like Déjà Vu All Over Again.”

But I wasn’t the only one wondering, “Where do I begin?” For one answer I found this: Priest shares whether Trump and his MAGA cronies can actually get into heaven. There Professor Michael Halcomb, a pastor, noted Trump’s saying – while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One – “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me into heaven. Okay? I think, I’m not, maybe, really heaven bound.” As happens frequently, Trump said he was joking, but he did take the step of soliciting help, in the form of monetary donations.

Which brings us back to Professor Halcomb, who explained, “Could Donald Trump enter God’s Kingdom? Could Kristi Noem or Mike Johnson? The biblical answer is yes, but only in the same way anyone else can, only in the same way that you and I can.” He then elaborated, “Sin, in this framework, is not just bad behavior. It is a form of high treason against the rightful King, namely, Jesus. This means forgiveness is not just about feeling sorry. It is about renouncing rebellion against the King and swearing loyalty to him, that is, to Jesus.” (Hmmm.)

For other answers you could Google “can you buy your way into heaven?” I did that and found Acts 8:20 (NIV), where Peter answered Simon the Sorcerer: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!” But for me the strange thing is that for months now I’ve been praying for Trump’s immortal soul. (Trying to do my Christian duty under Ezekiel 33:7-9, mostly because I think it and he are in great danger. In the alternative I’ve been praying that God will bring him to a Damascus Road Experience, like Paul’s.)

So maybe it’s a good sign that our current president is at least now thinking about maybe he needs to change his ways a tad? (And I thought my prayers weren’t making any difference. And as I’ve discovered in old age, “God answers prayer but often not the way we expect.”) Then there’s one other factor: he may not have that much time left. (Estimates vary from three to five months – with the three months up next March 2 – to “he won’t serve out his full second term.”) Meaning those of us trying to do our Christian duty under Ezekiel 33:7-9 should get busy.

In the meantime, and for whatever reason, “Happy Advent, full of joyful anticipation!”

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The prophet Isaiah, featured in this season’s Advent O.T. readings…

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The upper image is courtesy of Martin Luther 95 Theses – Image Results. It was included in a page, The Good News Today – 95 Theses to the Modern Evangelical Church. (Review the editorials contained with it yourself to see if they display a bit of irony.) See also Explainer: What are indulgences? – Catholic Review, Selling Forgiveness: How Money Sparked the Protestant Reformation, and How Did Indulgences Inspire the Protestant Reformation? The latter said that in the eyes of the Church at the time, the financial cost of an indulgence would discourage people from further sin.

However, over time, monetary purchases of indulgence became the sole method of penance. These purchases became viewed as the penitential act itself, for which one would receive penance and absolution. In essence, the sacrament of penance dissolved into solely purchasing indulgences, thus eliminating any elements of real repentance, as people knew they could do whatever they pleased and just pay to receive a pardon from the Catholic Church.

(Emphasis added.) As for the quote in the caption, see Quote Origin: Those Who Cannot Remember the Past, on the question whether it can be attributed to “American philosopher George Santayana, Anglo-Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, and British statesman Winston Churchill.” Or see George Santayana – Wikiquote.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

For this post I also borrowed from Advent 2023 – “Happy New (Liturgical) Year,” and On Advent ’24 – and “Woe unto you Israel?” For a sidelight see also Advent ’22, Tradents, and “Scriptio continua,”

Re: Heavenly banquet. See The Lord’s Supper: A Foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet, A Foretaste Of The Feast To Come Revelation 21:1-6, and Revelation 21:1-6 (NIV).

The original quote had Trump saying he might not be “heaven-bound,” with a hyphen between the two words, but spell-check on my new laptop had a fit with that so I corrected it.

See The Unexpected Answers of God – Desiring God.

On Trump’s time left see such sites as Healthcare Specialist Claims Donald Trump Has Dementia and – from June 2025 – Trump health concerns: Trump won’t last in office for four years, according to Republican strategist Rick Wilson and as reported by The Economic Times, which probably doesn’t count as a “pointy-headed liberal rag,” as some on the far-right may say. (The site Economic Times – Bias and Reliability said its policy leanings were “Center.”)

The lower image is courtesy of Isaiah – Wikipedia, with the full caption, “Isaiah, by Michelangelo, (c. 1508–1512, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City).” See also, on “the prophet who guides our journey”: Isaiah: Old Testament prophet for the Advent season.

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St. Andrew – and the start of Advent 2025

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Caravaggio: The calling of Sts Peter and Andrew
“The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew” – the two brothers – by Caravaggio…

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November 27, 2025 – This year Thanksgiving fell on Thursday, November 27th. Three days later comes the First Sunday of Advent and the feast of St Andrew. (Both on November 30, but officially “Andy’s Day” got transferred to Monday, December 1st, as detailed in the Notes.)

The First Sunday of Advent and St. Andrew’s Day also fell on the same Sunday back in November 2014. My post back then said Andrew was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, but few know much about him. So: He was St. Peter’s brother and is regularly mentioned after him, which suggests he was the younger brother. And like Peter and his partners James and John, Andrew was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. (One note: The name Andrew is Greek, which may reflect a “mixed Jewish-Gentile environment” in Galilee in the time of Jesus.)

He was one of four disciples closest to Jesus but seems to have been the least close of the four. That’s ironic because Andrew found Jesus before Peter. (He was an early disciple of John the Baptist who saw Jesus at the beginning of John’s Gospel: “From the Fourth Gospel we know [that] Andrew had previously been a disciple of John the Baptist: and this shows us that he was a man who was searching, who shared in Israel’s hope, who wanted to know better the word of the Lord, the presence of the Lord.”) And because he was first to find Jesus he is called the Protoclete or ‘First Called’ apostle.” On that note see John 1:35-42:

The next day John [the Baptist] was … with two of his disciples, when he saw Jesus walking by. “There is the Lamb of God!” he said. The two disciples heard him say this and went with Jesus. Jesus turned, saw them following him, and asked, “What are you looking for?” They answered, “Where do you live, Rabbi?” (This word means “Teacher.”) “Come and see,” he answered. (It was then about four o’clock in the afternoon.) So they went with him and saw where he lived, and spent the rest of that day with him. One of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. At once he found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah.” (This word means “Christ.”) Then he took Simon to Jesus. 

So, you might say Andrew was sine qua non; “Without which there is none.” Then there’s his death: Early tradition told of his death at Patras, in Greece, where he too was crucified.   

At that supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be nailed to a cross different from the Cross of Jesus. In his case it was a diagonal or X-shaped cross, which has thus come to be known as “St Andrew’s cross.”

That x-shaped cross – called a Saltire – is a “heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross, like the shape of the letter X in Roman type. Saint Andrew is said to have been martyred on such a cross.” See Saltire – Wikipedia, which added the Saltire is featured in national flags of Scotland and other countries. (Andrew is also the patron of Scotland, and of fishermen.)

The notes have more detail on him, but now a word or two about Advent. (I’ll write more about it in the coming weeks, in part because the next feast day doesn’t come until December 22 and St Thomas, Apostle; officially it’s the 21st but it too got transferred to the following Monday.)

For starters, Advent Sunday (the First Sunday of Advent) is the first day of the liturgical year in Western Christian churches. It marks the start of the season of Advent. The symbolism of the day is that Christ enters the church. Advent Sunday is also the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, and the Sunday nearest St. Andrew’s Day, 30 November. (And the Sunday following the Feast of Christ the King.) Another thing to remember is that for those four Sundays of Advent, the Old Testament readings will be from the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah is the prophet who guides our journey through Advent as we prepare for Christmas. Advent is a season of joyful anticipation, and Isaiah invites us to look forward to the coming of the Messiah, to prepare the way of the Lord.

The theme of the season is getting ready for the Second Coming of Jesus and the Last Judgement, as reflected in the Sunday readings. The season’s liturgical color is violet (since the 13th century or so). Yet another tradition is the Advent Wreath, with three blue candles, one rose candle and a central “Christ Candle.” The candles are said to symbolize the stages of salvation before the Second Coming of Jesus, exemplified by 1) the forgiveness of Adam and Eve, 2) the faith of Abraham, 3) the joy of David and his lineage (leading to Jesus), and 4) the teaching of the prophets who announce a reign of justice and peace. (Let’s hope…)

So here’s wishing you a happy Advent – after you finish all those Thanksgiving leftovers…

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The upper image is courtesy of Caravaggio: The calling of Sts Peter and Andrew – Art, which added:

A beardless Jesus gestures Peter (who was still called Simon at the time) and his brother Andrew to follow him: “Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” According to the gospel Peter and Andrew were out fishing on the lake when they were called. Caravaggio gives his own interpretation. Because of his prominence, the man on the left is thought to be Peter. It is only since 2006 that this painting is attributed to Caravaggio…

On the painting see also The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew – Wikipedia.

The Book of Common Prayer reference: The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

Feast days are designated days on the liturgical (church) calendar “set aside to commemorate events, saints, or doctrines that are important in the life of the Church. These can range from Solemnities, which are the highest-ranking feast days like Easter and Christmas, to optional memorials that celebrate lesser-known saints.” Feast Days: Celebrating the Church’s Calendar.

On St. Andrew’s Day transferred to the following Monday, see Precedence, Rules of – The Episcopal Church: “Sunday takes precedence over all other feasts and observances of the church year. When a feast of our Lord or other major feast appointed cannot be observed because it occurs on a Sunday, the feast is normally transferred to the first convenient open day in the following week.”

For this post I borrowed from 2014’s St. Andrew, the “First Apostle,” 2016’s On Andrew – “First Apostle” – and Advent, On Advent 2022 – and St. Andrew, and On Advent 2023 – “Happy New (Liturgical) Year!”

The lower image is courtesy of Wikipedia on Advent. The full caption: “An Advent wreath with three blue candles and one rose candle surrounding the central Christ Candle.” The symbolism in full:

The candles symbolize, in one interpretation, the great stages of salvation before the coming of the Messiah; the first is the symbol of the forgiveness granted to Adam and Eve, the second is the symbol of the faith of Abraham and of the patriarchs who believe in the gift of the Promised Land, the third is the symbol of the joy of David whose lineage does not stop and also testifies to his covenant with God, and the fourth and last candle is the symbol of the teaching of the prophets who announce a reign of justice and peace. Alternatively, they symbolize the four stages of human history; creation, the Incarnation, the redemption of sins, and the Last Judgment.

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