Forgiveness

"Video caelos apertos, et Jesum stantem a dextris virtutis Dei:  Domine Jesu, accipe spiritum meum, et ne statuas illis hoc peccatum."

"I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of the power of God:  Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and lay not this sin to their charge."

--the Communion prayer for the Mass of Saint Stephen, taken from Acts 7. 55, 58, 59.

Saint Stephen, Protomartyr, pray for us!  (And a happy feast day to my son Stephen and to all of you Stephens/Stevens:  what a great patron you have!)

Christmas bells

“When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.”

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox