From the Showings of Dame Julian of Norwich (long text), as translated by M.L. de Mastro:Of all the visions I that I saw, this one was the greatest comfort to me -- that our God and Lord, who is so worthy of reverence and so awesome, is so unassuming, homely and courteous. This most completely filled me with delight and security of soul ( Read more... )

You don't have to be Christian to appreciate this one (though it helps to know the basic elements of the story being parodied -- and to have a nodding acquaintance with a certain social media site):The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Facebook
Sniggled from nateprentice. Share and enjoy! (Note: It's a .pdf, not a web page.)

From the World Day of Peace address of Pope Benedict XVI:Respect for creation is of immense consequence, not least because “creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God’s works,” and its preservation has now become essential for the pacific coexistence of mankind. Man’s inhumanity to man has given rise to numerous threats to peace and to ( Read more... )

Biblical Archaeology Review has an interesting article here summing up for a popular audience the current state of the scholarship on why Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25. It's not what you might think:In the end we are left with a question: How did December 25 become Christmas? We cannot be entirely sure. Elements of the festival ( Read more... )

Happy belated Independence Day to my fellow Americans! I spent the day engaged in those two most patriotic of pursuits: shopping (bought me a ceiling fan on sale, yay!) and watching baseball (my team pulled itself out of a month-long slump to beat their divisional arch-rivals, yay redux!). The rest of the time I sat around with my feet up doing ( Read more... )

Sniggled from cornerofmadness:

Ding dong! verily the sky
Is riv'n with nebroadwe singing.

Ding Dong Merrily on High
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Hrmph. I don't carol that loudly, even when the score calls for fortissimo.

Sniggled from everywhere: what's your epitaph? ( Read more... )