When I see stories like this, I think even the New York Times can be redeemed. A wonderful tribute to Benedict Groeschel, a man whose podcasts have become one of the high points of my week. Excerpt:
And so, when Father Groeschel and his crew of helpers went to the South Bronx for the 45th year on Saturday, this time with around 700 boxes of food and thousands of presents, the message was not just about the importance of service to the poor. It was also about the huge things that can come from tiny ones.
“As a psychologist, I have to say I have a Santa Claus complex,” Father Groeschel said on Friday, the calm day between the loading and delivering of the food and toys and their distribution. “But I never, ever anticipated that this would become anything like this.”
__________
David Warren recounts Bethlehem's un-interrupted Christian history, and it's non-Christian plight currently. Warren is one of the best writers out there, and this story is one of saddest out there.
__________
Don't expect much at TDE this week. I will put up something new every day, but full-blown blogging won't resume until 2008. I thoroughly enjoy this gig and am buoyed by my increased traffic figures, but Christ's birth, family, friends and other joys (okay, beer) take priority.
A few Christmas Eve words of wisdom:
“For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne.” Book of Wisdom. "[This] passage, brimming with the mystery of the Incarnation, is wonderfully expressive of the infinite stillness that hovered over Christ's birth. For the greatest things are accomplished in silence”“not in the clamor and display of superficial eventfulness, but in deep clarity of inner vision; in the almost imperceptible start of decision, in quiet overcoming and hidden sacrifice. . . . The silent forces are the strong forces." Romano Guardini
_____
“He rules the world with truth and grace.” –Isaac Watts ++ “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” –Charles Dickens ++ “The Incarnation”¦illuminates and orders all other phenomena, explains both our laughter and our logic, our fear of the dead and our knowledge that it is somehow good to die, and which at one stroke covers what multitudes of separate theories will hardly cover for us if this is rejected.” –C.S. Lewis ++ “Regarding not the day, let us give God thanks for the gift of His dear Son”¦ If it be possible to honor Christ in the giving of gifts, I cannot see how while the gift, giver and recipient are all in the spirit of the world”¦ [B]ut we have a Christ gift the entire year.” –Charles Spurgeon ++ “Holiday and Holy Day, Christmas is more than a yule log, holly or tree. It is more than natural good cheer and the giving of gifts. Christmas is even more than the feast of the home and of children, the feast of love and friendship. It is more than all of these together. Christmas is Christ, the Christ of justice and charity, of freedom and peace.” –Francis Cardinal Spellman ++ “The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths allegorized or dissected or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true.” –G.K. Chesterton
(Disclosure: The above are repeats from 2005)
