I have to push my favorite Christmas album, A Tapestry of Carols by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band.
Rock fans may recognize Maddy’s name as the one-time lead singer of the English folk-rock band Steeleye Span. This is not a rock album, but it isn’t your traditional Christmas fare, either. The Carnival Band plays a miscellany of instruments including fiddle and drums and various winds, and the album manages to be both rollicking and reverent. I push it on everybody I know. Not everyone likes it, but those who do like it a lot. The link above is to the album’s page on eMusic, a music subscription service. I’m not positive whether you can hear the samples without being a member. It’s on a small label and you may have trouble finding it in local stores unless you live in a big city, but Amazon has it.
Amy Welborn (of Open Book) has a fine, a very fine, Christmas meditation on National Review Online.
And here’s something of mine, which appeared in the National Catholic Register some twenty-plus years ago and which I always kind of liked.
I wish all a Christmas which is both holy and merry.
–Maclin Horton
Whether you or I or anyone else adheres to the Faith for inadequate reasons says nothing as to whether the Faith is true or not. If I know that you have an irrational fear of lions that’s no reason for me simply to disregard your warning that a lion has escaped from the zoo and is prowling around outside. I need to check out the truth myself – it could be true. So one can’t ignore the evidence for the Faith even if a particular believer may or may not believe for inadequate reasons.
And a very merry Christmas to all.
O magnum mysterium et admirabile sacramentum
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum
jacentem in praesepio.
Beata virgo cujus viscera
meruent partare Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
In my journey to the True Faith from atheism, I found it much easier to believe in Santa Claus than Christ Jesus. Of course I never came to believe in the literal aspects of the story of the reindeer and the elves, but several years before I came to the Faith, I came to beleve that Santa Clause was something real and was especially active this time of year. I came to see that he has real effects in the world and is able to obtain real gifts for real people. The palpable activity of Santa Claus I actually experienced opened a space in my intellect and in my heart that enabled me to come to know his Master.
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a powerful intercessor and evangelist; surely he is no less effective at spreading the Gospel from his heavenly home than he was in Myra. I have no doubt that he is able to use the American obsession with Santa Claus to introduce people to Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe you did really see him when you were young. I wouldn’t write it off. Many people have seen and interacted with the Saints.