In Dickens’ The Christmas Carol Martha Cratchet asks how tiny Tim was in church and Bob Cratchet responds:
As good as gold and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember, upon Christmas day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.
That line always strikes me. Christ came today to heal me, a beggar and blind man. He came for you too. God Bless.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your weekend has been lovely and that you and your family are all feeling blessed! Please feel free to check out today’s Letters of Faith Through the Seasons post on Luke the Evangelist, I enjoyed it. 
And now for your Christmas viewing pleasure:
Read more…
Have you ever heard someone say that? Do you ever write “X-mas”? Are you offended by the use of “Xmas”?
Well you oversensitive types have nothing to fear! The abbreviated form of Christmas is not some ploy by those darned atheists to remove Christ from the celebration of his own birthday.
?????? ???????
Notice something in the second word? The big “X”? That is the Greek capital letter Chi, the first letter in the word Christ.
? and/or ?P (P is the capital of ? [rho], the second letter in Christ) were/are common abbreviations used for Christ (at Regent I used ?/? and ?/? [Theta for ???? theos, God] a lot in taking notes). Saying “X-mas” is still saying Christmas. Even if some people are using the abbreviation to denounce Christ, they are, in fact, still proclaiming him. Enjoy the irony.
Some of you may still have to deal with Christmas being a reclamation of a pagan holiday, but at least you can still keep X-Mas.
Things have been even slower than intended around here ’cause I have had the flu, it sucks. I don’t often get sick, but when I do, it definitely sucks. I am feeling quite a bit better now, just fairly achy. Anyway…
Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper made an excellent statement about the possibility of peace talks with groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah (via LGF):
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canada will not hold talks with �genocidal� groups Hamas and Hezbollah to try to secure Mideast peace, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an interview with broadcaster CTV, to be aired Saturday.
�We will not solve the Palestinian-Israeli problem, as difficult as that is, through organizations that advocate violence and advocate wiping Israel off the face of the Earth,� Harper said.
�It�s unfortunate because with Hamas, and with Hezbollah in Lebanon, it has made it very difficult to have dialogue � and dialogue is ultimately necessary to have peace in the long term � but we are not going to sit down with people whose objectives are ultimately genocidal.�
�I think all of the civilized world is agreed � and it�s not just Canada � we can�t deal with organizations whose principle and only objective is terrorism and the eradication of the other side.�
Well said I think.
Is “Slow Down” one word or two? Hyphen? Whatever. I am down in the south of Washington, it is quite lively this time of year… Blogging will be light over the next two weeks as I spend more time with family and just slacking off in general. I do still plan on getting up posts on the Lonely Forest show at the Historic University Theater, the Late Tuesday show at the Q Cafe, dad’s side of the family Christmas party, and step-dad’s side of the family Christmas party… eventually. Pretty fun weekend! Even the Saturday at 8:30 am (!!!) UCF board meeting was extremely enjoyable! More to follow!
I hope that your Christmas seasons are blessed!
Recent Comments