The Holy Innocents, by Giotto di Bondone
Posted on 12/22/2005 11:46:42 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
About a year ago, my husband and I traveled across the chilly cornfields of Indiana to have our younger son baptized...Babies, love, and family. Comfort, joy, and peace...
But perhaps not so fast...
What [we]forget, neglect or conveniently ignore is what we can not-too-dramatically call the Dark Side of Christmas.
The really traditional Christian remembrance of the Nativity is not about sweetness. It is about awe, fear, and trembling, and it is shot through with hints of suffering to come.
Mary, with a scandalous pregnancy. Joseph, courageous enough to take her on despite it. A birth among farm animals. The threat of death, from the very start, necessitating flight. Mary, told by the prophet Simeon that because of her son, her soul will be pierced by a sword (Luke 2:35).
We view the elements of the story in a nostalgic haze — how sweet to be born with the goats. But is it? Is it sweet? Would you want to give birth among goats? ...the doors shut in the face of a heavily pregnant woman, the threat of death from a jealous king.
Look at it closely, with clear eyes. At every turn in this story of this baby there is threat and fear and powers circling, attempting to strike at the light.
We might forget, we might wrap up Christmas in good cheer, but Christian tradition doesn't. It's striking that the next day — the very next day — after Christmas, the Church remembers ...a bloody death by stoning. St. Stephen it is, the first Christian martyr.
...Merry Christmas indeed. But without awareness of the risk of discipleship, and the reality that the baby in the manger ends up hanging on a cross, those words have about as little power to change the world as "Happy Holidays."
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Holy Innocents ping.
I've always felt a sense of sadness at Christmas. Starting after Thanksgiving, I listen to a lot of Christmas music, mainly versions of traditional carols. Many of them seemed tinged with sadness. While this is a season of "joy," we need to remember why it is that Jesus was born, and what it took to accomplish and complete his work.
Coventry Carol
1. Lullay, Thou little tiny Child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, Thou little tiny Child.
By, by, lully, lullay.
2. O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day;
This poor Youngling for whom we sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
3. Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day;
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young, to slay.
4. Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,
And ever mourn and say;
For Thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
Feast Day
December 28th
Giotto di Bondone
No. 21 Scenes from the Life of Christ
Massacre of the Innocents
1304-06 -- Fresco
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua
Gospel - Matthew 2:13-18
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you: for Herod is about to search for the Child, to destroy Him." And he rose and took the Child and His mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son."
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
"A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation:
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled because they were no more."
Note: Scripture readings are from the Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition
Catholic Ping - Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
SALVETE, flores martyrum,
quos lucis ipso in limine
Christi insecutor sustulit
ceu turbo nascentes rosas.
Vos prima Christi victima,
grex immolatorum tener,
aram sub ipsam simplices
palma et coronis luditis.
Iesu, tibi sit gloria,
qui natus es de Virgine,
cum Patre et almo Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.
ALL hail! ye infant Martyr flowers
Cut off in life's first dawning hours:
As rosebuds snapt in tempest strife,
when Herod sought your Savior's life.
You, tender flock of lambs, we sing,
first victims slain for Christ your King:
beside the very altar, gay
with palms and crowns, ye seem to play.
All honor, laud, and glory be,
o Jesu, Virgin-born to Thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete.
"Many of them seemed tinged with sadness. While this is a season of "joy," we need to remember why it is that Jesus was born, and what it took to accomplish and complete his work."
Well said, thank you.
We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
Refrain
O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.
Refrain
Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.
Refrain
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Refrain
Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.
Refrain
Thank you.
Catholic ping!
The mystery is that God does things so unexpectedly. Nobody expected the Messiah to be born this way, nor to die the way He did. I always think of 1 Kings 9 -- God is revealed as a still, small voice.
Christmas day weather for Jerusalem:
High 46 F
Low 38 F
Bumpity bump.
1. What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
2. Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
3. So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.
Holman Hunt, "The Triumph of the Innocents"
The Innocents appear to the Holy Family on the Flight into Egypt.
When my brothers and I were growing up, our Christmas book had the following stories in it:
The Fir Tree by Anderson where the fir tree dies, dries out and is burned.
Christmas Through a Knothole where the favorite uncle is in jail for poaching and he passes little carved toys through the knothold and they pass him sausages.
A Miserable Merry Christmas where the little boy says if he can't have a pony, he doesn't want anything at all and gets nothing ..... until the afternoon of Christmas when finally the man from the stables shows up with the pony.
And finally, The Christmas Story according to St. Luke but it doesn't stop with the birth but goes on to the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. AND THERE ARE PICTURES!@!!!.
No wonder my brothers and I are sort of weird.
Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now reclining,
Sing lullaby!
Hush! do not wake the infant King!
Angels are watching, stars are shining,
Over the place where he's lying;
Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now asleeping,
Sing lullaby!
Hush! do not wake the infant King!
Soon will come the sorrow with the morning,
Soon will come the bitter grief and weeping;
Sing lullaby!
Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-dozing,
Sing lullaby!
Hush! do not wake the infant King!
Soon comes the Cross, the nails, the piercing,
Then in the grave at last reposing,
Sing lullaby!
Sing lullaby!
Lullaby, is the baby awaking?
Sing lullaby!
Hush! do not wake the infant King!
Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning,
Conquering death, its bondage breaking;
Sing lullaby!
(Sabine Baring-Gould,1834-1924)
Here's another "dark side" carol:
Bethlehem Down
"When He is King we will give Him the Kings' gifts,
Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,
Beautiful robes," said the young girl to Joseph,
Fair with her firstborn on Bethlehem Down.
Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight,
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
When He is King, they will clothe Him in gravesheets,
Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,
He that lies now in the white arms of Mary
Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.
Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming,
Close huddled oxen to keep Him from cold,
Mary for love, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.
(Bruce Blunt)
Music here - splendid work by Peter Warlock/ Philip Heseltine.
(we are sort of weird too. < g > )
My baby's baptism in Ohio was, according to earthly judgment, a disaster. The weather was miserable, icy, and cold. No one's cameras would work. The bishop decided we might as well immerse the baby fully, which was okay with us, but turned out to be not okay with the baby, who commenced screaming his lungs out at the unexpected bath, and not okay either with the bishop's elderly mother, who was quite horrified. And circling around us the whole time was our three-year-old, who seemed to have absorbed the demons driven out of his brother during the exorcism part of the rite, and who would not, in the face of many and varied threats, be still. He raced like — yes — a demon, in and around the church, constantly, through the whole affair. I've helped out at many baptisms in my work in parish ministry but this one was, I think, the worst.
But perhaps it was more fitting than it first appears. Trivial problems, yes, but still an apt metaphor for the Christian life begun there, and yet to come for Baby Michael: not the warmth of a tidy, neat manger scene, with everyone gathered in comfort, calm, and peace, but something startling and new, a shock to the system, entered upon in a world of frustration and discord, circled by forces intent to disrupt.
Glad tidings of comfort and joy, and Merry Christmas indeed. But without awareness of the risk of discipleship, and the reality that the baby in the manger ends up hanging on a cross, those words have about as little power to change the world as "Happy Holidays."
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