Thursday, May 17, 2007

Christ Has Ascended!

Truly He has ascended !

O Christ God, You have ascended in Glory, granting joy to Your disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were assured that You are the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world!

When You had fulfilled the dispensation for our sake, and united earth to heaven: You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love You, but remaining with them and crying: "I am with you and no one will be against you!"

The Susum Cordam

Priest: Let us lift up our hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Post-Offertory Prayer

Priest: For the precious Gifts offered and consecrated, let us pray to the Lord.
People: Lord have mercy.
Priest: That our loving God who has received them at His holy, heavenly, and spiritual altar as an offering of spiritual fragrance, may in return send upon us divine grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit, let us pray.
People: Lord have mercy.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Happy Birthday, dear friend! May You live long, and have a joyous and fulfilled life, complete with accomplishments and happiness! God bless You, and grant You many serene years; may His mighty Hand guide You, and His eyes shine to watch over You on the path You're traveling! Cheers!

Saturday, May 12, 2007

In The Very Merry Month Of May ...

... on the 20th day, in the 28th year of Augustus, the Savior was believed -by Alexandrian astrologers- to have been born to the Virgin Mary, so Clement of Alexandria, in his around 200 AD written Stromata, informs us. This was due to their believing that the terminal month of the Virgin’s pregnancy coincided with the ninth of their own calendar, calculating the date thusly to have fallen on the 25th day of Pachon. I thought I'll mention this, since my last name's meaning is Christmas, this also being my first-born blog-entry, posted in the afore-said month. But let this miscellaneous announce not confound You, dear reader, for -so I've been warned-
[It] has [been] shown that there is no month in the year to which respectable authorities have not assigned Christ's birth.
Its pagan origins, I hope, are clear to just about anyone and everyone ... 'clear', I say, for they most clearly are a myth :-) Which only leads us to our main subject; and namely, the topic just under discussion: mystification -- what is it? how, when & where, and by whom did it originate? and how does it make itself manifest (in our lives and everywhere in the world around us) ?