Holidays

St. Francis and Christmas The picture is St. Francis of Assisi Preparing the Christmas Crib at Grecchio [http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/giotto/st-francis-of-assisi-preparing-the-christmas-crib-at-grecchio-1300] . I've long been a St. Francis fan (who isn't?), but I never

Drunken Waiting Advent starts in two days or, depending on your Semitic predilections, tomorrow evening. Advent is a season of peaceful waiting, meditation, penance . . . and drinking. As every traditionalist Christian realizes, our culture has kicked the holiness of Advent in the teeth by creating one large holiday season from Thanksgiving

“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton “Gratitude is characteristic only of the humble. The egotistic are so

Happy Halloween If you want to see the difference between adults and children, look no further than Halloween. For little kids, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year after Christmas. When kids get older, Halloween fades in importance. My first child was old enough to enjoy Halloween when I

The Petty Souled In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle wrote about the megalopsychos, a term that Nassim Taleb translates as "the great-souled," a condition that excludes all pettiness. What's the opposite of the megalopsychos? I don't know, but it's on display in

As always on March 17th, I present one of my favorite GKC verses: For the great Gaels of Ireland Are the men that God made mad, For all their wars are merry, And all their songs are sad.

Gearing Back Up I have returned from my trip to the in-laws in Detroit, and now the Christmas festivities are over, except for the 12 days of Christmas presents that we give the kids. We give each kid a small present every day until the Epiphany, at which time