Once in a blue moon...

...the moon is full twice in the same month: the second full moon is called the "blue moon", though it isn't really blue. Tonight the blue moon shines on New Year's Eve. I think that it's an auspicious beginning to the new year.

(The next blue moons will be on August 31, 2012 and July 31, 2015.)

As the angels give

"If, instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give."

--George MacDonald

Patience

“The principle part of faith is patience”

--George MacDonald

Saint Thomas of Canterbury

"On 29 December, 1170, Thomas Becket was murdered by four knights in this spot, which came to be called The Martyrdom. Above the altar is a sculpture of two swords and a broken sword point, a reminder that one of the knights broke his sword tip when striking a blow to Becket's head. "

--from http://www.britainexpress.com/photos.htm?attraction=111&page=2

Saint Thomas of Canterbury, pray for us.

Great little One!

Great little One! whose all-embracing birth


Lifts Earth to Heaven, stoops Heaven to Earth.

--Richard Crashaw

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