By Larry Thornberry
I’ll risk cliché by saying it seems like we just did this a few months ago. Cliché perhaps, but true nonetheless. Hours and days last as long as ever, but the years whiz by.This isn’t a complaint. Christmas is joyous and I like it, even with its aggravations. There are fewer of those now as the family is smaller. Attendance at Christmas dinner at chez Thornberry, once a boisterous affair with young and old human celebrants in double figures and numerous dogs probing all perimeters for handouts, has dwindled, in the words of the song, to a precious few.
But these few are indeed precious. And recognizing this is a good part of what Christmas is for, even though carols, presents, decorations, and parties remain in the forefront of what has been largely a secular celebration. This was the case even before our cultural transmission belts and their keepers went post-everything.
For those who haven’t converted to celebrating the Winter Holiday (what thin gruel that is), Christmas is for reflection on salvation and redemption, on the meaning of life beyond the wrapping paper, Christmas cards, and that silly-looking red coat on Mom’s Maltese (which the dog has the good sense to dislike). There’s no time like Christmas and New Year’s for summing up and renewing. The renewals don’t always last, but this is when we give them a shot.
Speaking of shots, it’s a cheap one to carry on about gift-giving and the “over-commercialization” of Christmas. Just what is the seemly level of commercialization of a sacred day when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus? Those who manufacture and retail the gifts we find under the tree must make a living too, though the advertising barrage from before Thanksgiving through the year-end sales illustrates the maxim: Nothing succeeds like excess.
Continue reading here.
Showing posts with label The American Spectator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The American Spectator. Show all posts
Friday, December 20, 2013
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
An American Saint-Maker
by Thomas J. Craughwell
Katharine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of the much-married English king, Henry VIII, has a new champion. Gregory Nassif St. John, a retired New York stage actor now living in Georgia, has begun the process that he hopes and prays will lead to the Catholic Church declaring that Katharine (Nassif St. John uses the traditional English spelling) is a saint.
Nassif St. John learned of Katharine's story via The Six Wives of Henry VIII, the award-winning BBC series that aired in 1970. Katharine was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (the royal couple who bankrolled Columbus' voyage to what turned to be the Americas). In 1509 she married Henry. It was a love match, at least at the beginning, but after 18 years of marriage and the birth of six children, only one of whom, Mary, survived to adulthood, Henry grew tired of his wife. Infidelity was commonplace among kings, and Henry was no better than his brother monarchs, but about the time Katharine stopped conceiving, he became particularly infatuated with one his wife's ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. Anne was intelligent, ambitious, vivacious, sexy, and she was candid about her terms: she didn't want to be Henry's concubine, she wanted to be his wife and queen.
As a Catholic, Henry could not divorce Katharine, so the only alternative was to have their marriage annulled. Only the pope could declare that what had appeared to all the world as marriage had been invalid from the beginning. In presenting his case Henry argued that because he had married his elder brother's widow their union was cursed by God -- they had no child (by "child" he meant a boy; Mary, as a girl, didn't count). Katharine countered that she and Henry's elder brother Arthur had been married only three months before the sickly fourteen-year-old died, and during that time they had never consummated their marriage. When he married Henry, she said bluntly, she was still a virgin -- a fact well known to him.
The case dragged on as Pope Clement VII dithered about what to do. After four years of waiting, Henry took matters into his own hands. He had his obliging archbishop of Canterbury annul his marriage with Katharine. He married Anne Boleyn. Then he severed England's ties with Rome and proclaimed himself head of the Church in England. In short order Anne was crowned queen and Parliament declared her children would be heirs to the throne of England. As for Katharine and Mary, they were shipped off two different castles. Katharine was stripped of her title, "Queen of England," henceforth she would be known as "Dowager Princess of Wales." As for Mary, she was declared illegitimate. Katharine absolutely refused to accept such a settlement. Her marriage was valid; her daughter was Princess of Wales; and the pope did have authority over such matters. But under Henry's new political and religious order, such sentiments were treason. Those who supported Katharine, including Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were beheaded. Other supporters were hanged, drawn, and quartered; starved to death in the Tower of London; or in the case of Katharine's confessor, roasted to death over a slow fire. When Henry sent two envoys to threaten Katharine with death if she did not conform to the king's will, she fully expected that she would die a martyr like her friends. (Read the whole article here.)
Katharine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of the much-married English king, Henry VIII, has a new champion. Gregory Nassif St. John, a retired New York stage actor now living in Georgia, has begun the process that he hopes and prays will lead to the Catholic Church declaring that Katharine (Nassif St. John uses the traditional English spelling) is a saint.
Nassif St. John learned of Katharine's story via The Six Wives of Henry VIII, the award-winning BBC series that aired in 1970. Katharine was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (the royal couple who bankrolled Columbus' voyage to what turned to be the Americas). In 1509 she married Henry. It was a love match, at least at the beginning, but after 18 years of marriage and the birth of six children, only one of whom, Mary, survived to adulthood, Henry grew tired of his wife. Infidelity was commonplace among kings, and Henry was no better than his brother monarchs, but about the time Katharine stopped conceiving, he became particularly infatuated with one his wife's ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. Anne was intelligent, ambitious, vivacious, sexy, and she was candid about her terms: she didn't want to be Henry's concubine, she wanted to be his wife and queen.
As a Catholic, Henry could not divorce Katharine, so the only alternative was to have their marriage annulled. Only the pope could declare that what had appeared to all the world as marriage had been invalid from the beginning. In presenting his case Henry argued that because he had married his elder brother's widow their union was cursed by God -- they had no child (by "child" he meant a boy; Mary, as a girl, didn't count). Katharine countered that she and Henry's elder brother Arthur had been married only three months before the sickly fourteen-year-old died, and during that time they had never consummated their marriage. When he married Henry, she said bluntly, she was still a virgin -- a fact well known to him.
The case dragged on as Pope Clement VII dithered about what to do. After four years of waiting, Henry took matters into his own hands. He had his obliging archbishop of Canterbury annul his marriage with Katharine. He married Anne Boleyn. Then he severed England's ties with Rome and proclaimed himself head of the Church in England. In short order Anne was crowned queen and Parliament declared her children would be heirs to the throne of England. As for Katharine and Mary, they were shipped off two different castles. Katharine was stripped of her title, "Queen of England," henceforth she would be known as "Dowager Princess of Wales." As for Mary, she was declared illegitimate. Katharine absolutely refused to accept such a settlement. Her marriage was valid; her daughter was Princess of Wales; and the pope did have authority over such matters. But under Henry's new political and religious order, such sentiments were treason. Those who supported Katharine, including Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were beheaded. Other supporters were hanged, drawn, and quartered; starved to death in the Tower of London; or in the case of Katharine's confessor, roasted to death over a slow fire. When Henry sent two envoys to threaten Katharine with death if she did not conform to the king's will, she fully expected that she would die a martyr like her friends. (Read the whole article here.)
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Limits of Self-Hate
by Lisa Fabrizio
It started decades ago in this country; the hammering away at the notion that ours is a noble and commendable history. From the demonization of Christopher Columbus and our founding fathers to the endless recriminations concerning reparations -- both moral and pecuniary -- for past sins that are due those who never suffered directly under them. And now our president has the uncontrollable urge to apologize for every action by the United States that may or may not have caused pain to anyone, anywhere around the globe.
Some of us who take a more charitable view, have tried to explain this attitude away as an erosion of the concept of American exceptionalism; but the simple truth is that what most liberals are selling is a program of national self-hate. But liberal logic is never lacking in irony. These very same feelings of patriotism and pride in our heritage that they disparage are, of course, lauded in others; particularly our Muslim enemies. And it is this kind of thinking that is finally catching up to them.
Read the whole article.
It started decades ago in this country; the hammering away at the notion that ours is a noble and commendable history. From the demonization of Christopher Columbus and our founding fathers to the endless recriminations concerning reparations -- both moral and pecuniary -- for past sins that are due those who never suffered directly under them. And now our president has the uncontrollable urge to apologize for every action by the United States that may or may not have caused pain to anyone, anywhere around the globe.
Some of us who take a more charitable view, have tried to explain this attitude away as an erosion of the concept of American exceptionalism; but the simple truth is that what most liberals are selling is a program of national self-hate. But liberal logic is never lacking in irony. These very same feelings of patriotism and pride in our heritage that they disparage are, of course, lauded in others; particularly our Muslim enemies. And it is this kind of thinking that is finally catching up to them.
Read the whole article.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Does God Favor an Unlimited State?
by Mark Tooley
The Religious Left sacramentalizes nearly every proposed expansion of the Welfare State, with government-controlled health care its favorite sacrament. Supporting arguments are usual superficial: Jesus loved the poor, therefore the state must displace all other human institutions and provide every human need.
Read the whole article.
The Religious Left sacramentalizes nearly every proposed expansion of the Welfare State, with government-controlled health care its favorite sacrament. Supporting arguments are usual superficial: Jesus loved the poor, therefore the state must displace all other human institutions and provide every human need.
Read the whole article.
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