Christmas Day 2011

THE
MANGER'S
FEAT

"O come, O come"
The waiting said
Where pink turns green
And purple red.

Where fasting turns
To festive feasts
And midnight whispers
Come from beasts.

Where slate-gray skies,
Tint-brown clouds glow
Full and fraught
To burst with snow

And burdened mules
Who trod the roads
Can finally rest
Take off their loads.

Where families cut
Down Balsam fir
To scent their homes
Like incensed myrrh.

And men once dark
Living in danger…
Shed tears and kneel
At the feat of the manger!

Christmas 2011

CHRISTMAS
GOLD

If I had a big house
As a rule-of-thumb
At Christmas I'd have loved-ones
And others if they'd come.

If I had a big house
A cupboard warm and round
Would feed my Christmas guests
The staff of life here found.

If I had a big house
All men I would let in
At Christmas shed their burdens
Learn losses can be wins.

If I had a big house
All Christmas linens laced
And men who came to visit
Would yield a certain grace.

But I don't need a big house
I'm in the biggest home
Where hindered senses are enhanced
By way of Christmas-Rome.

For Christmas-Rome's eternal
Shall not be bought or sold
And yule-logs in perpetuum
Glow red fore Christmas-gold!!

Midnight Mass

THE

CRIMSON

CHRIST 

Red cassocks

For the Altar boys

At Mass on

Christmas Eve. 

Red cassocks

For the Altar boys

For those who

Don't believe 

Yet creep into

The church's womb

At Midnight Mass

Each year, 

They crave the sight

A drop of bright

Bold red

To stop their fear. 

And down the nave

The torches click

And clack the

Opaque glass 

And that is so

Their senses know

To hear, smell, see

The Mass 

And then the

Elevation

Transubstantiated

Bread... 

Confessed-converts

Scabbed souls with hurts

Bleed white

By Crimson's red.

Christmas Eve Breakfast

THE
MORNING
OF
CHRISTMAS EVE

It is the morn
Of Christmas Eve,
Scrambled eggs I cook.

Advent's Sunday,
Fourth and last
Most fasting now forsook.

The birds outside
Are singing carols
Pitched soprano-high.

Above the frost
Below the blue,
Their midnight moment nigh.

Then beasts will speak
In whispers low,
When Emmanuel did come,

How they could talk
And pray an hour...
While man was struck quite dumb.

Oh Christmas Tree!!!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE!

December 23rd has come
And all my Christmas
Shopping's done.

All gifts are hidden
Tucked away
Until the morn of Christmas day.

When children wake
Like souls confessed
All light and bright, it's Christmas Fest!

Oh Gloria!
We'll sing and pray
And open gifts on that Feast Day.

Around the creche
We'll praise adore
And go to Mass and praise some more.

Then back to home
For Christmas brunch
With our 10 kids it's quite a bunch.

And if we make it
All that far...
The tree still standing with its star...

We'll sigh a breath
Relief and more...
For the tree hasn’t fallen on the living-room floor!

December 22nd

EVER GREEN

December twenty-second
Three days before
The Fest.

I sit in coal-black
Morning,
Waiting for my guest.

Examining
My conscience,
I spy the dinge and dirt

The howling wind
And icy sleet
Intensify the hurt.

So out into
The dark,
I trod in sleety snow,

Searching for
The evergreen
Of hope the Christmas glow.

The scent of incense
Candles
Stained glass of midnight blue,

Is where the whipping wintry
Wind
Has blown me in to view

The altar
Tabernacle
Poinsettias, Christmas trees

Red, green
Decorations,
I fall upon my knees.

For in a
Shadowed corner
Quite private there’s a door

Above a light.
Glows ever green…
Of hope, “Go sin no more!”

Bethlehem's straw

SILVER

STRAW

Where Africa, Asia

And Europe do meet,

In the middle of the earth

David's line complete...

After Abraham and Sarah

In the middle of time,

Up until now

The Savior sublime...

Born in a stable

In the middle of the night,

In the middle of His creatures

Under middle-star bright...

Blessed Mother, foster-father

'Tween them both did sleep,

In the middle of a manger

In the middle of the sheep...

So in Church's stable sacrament

Holy Mother's confessioned-creche,

Your sins are swept with silver straw

So to shine from the middle of your flesh.

RIP Mary Alice McMichael Smith 2/12/24-12/11/11

MY
MOTHER’S
FEET

Withered, wearied,
Ripped and torn,
My mother’s feet
Were rough and worn.

For they had carried
Future’s weight,
Engraved by God
Her pregnant plate.

No money for
The perfect fit –
So when in pain
She’d pray and sit

Until her purpled
Blood would race
Body, soul
Varicosed in grace.

And though so wearied,
Withered, torn,
Emeralds fade…
‘Fore feet so worn.

Where Do Mothers Go To Cry?

WHERE
DO
MOTHERS
GO TO CRY?

Where do mothers go to cry
When there's no money for food to buy...
Or when worn out so big with child
Her clothes thread-bare her hair so wild?

Where do mothers go to cry
When other laugh at her sad sigh
Because it's all become too much
And mock, "Her Faith is such a crutch."

Where do mothers go to cry
All sanitized they pass her by
And talk about her sloppy house
"And does she ever change that blouse?"

Where do mothers go to cry
With many babes upon her thigh
And older ones to clothe and feed
Who somtimes fight - her heart does bleed.

Oh, where do mothers go to cry
When tired at night she asks God, "Why?"
Then strong her husband pulls her nigh...
And kisses her...now she can cry.

De Sales

SISTERS
DE SALES

“So, how do you like
Our town and all?”
Their favorite place? The shopping mall.

“Why, it’s the first…
Place I go
To make a visit
Lift my woe.

Love the glitter
Glam galore. Malls I praise
I do adore.

Talk about your
Answered prayer Everything
You can find there.

Perfumes, jewels,
Salons for nails… Can’t find these?
Ask sisters of sales.

And religiously
Down each aisle
Sisters of sales Will lead with a smile.

Enticing trinkets,
Goods displayed,
Where one can ponder Things man-made.”

The final offerings
Purses pour,
At every counter In every store.

And little drawers Open wide
Where dollar-deity
Doth reside.

They give their thanks
For money rolls Then drive past Church…

…the Angelus tolls.

troubling rise of 'Msgr. CB'

H/T to Catholic Culture

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?id=871

Wait, what?!?
Msgr. absolved in court

In order to avoid saying anything ourselves, we pass the word to Catholic Culture's Phil Lawler: 

The troubling rise of 'Msgr. CB'

By Phil Lawler | November 30, 2011 3:02 PM

(apologies to Johnny Cash click You/Tube below to listen)
http://youtu.be/IStlBOX9F4o

SOONER

OR

LATER

You can run on

For a long time

Run on for a

Long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down 

These rotten wicked

Heinous men

Found foul and guilty

Again and again

All are depraved

Each one of us

Approve their boils

Then suck their pus 

You can run on

For a long time

Run on for a

Long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down 

Sent a Prelate

Dressed in white

To warn that the dark

Will be brought to the light

His cassocked clergy

Teaching Faith truthfully

But scourged like the

Man from Galilee 

You can run on

For a long time

Run on for a

Long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

‘em down 

Defilement diseased

Septicity

Carbuncled-consented

Catholicity

The man in the dome

Dialogues to delay

Optimistic his fruits of decay

We’ll obey 

You can run on

For a long time

Run on for a

Long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

You down

Sooner or later

God’ll cut

You down

Archbishop of Westminster

http://marymagdalen.blogspot.com/2011/11/archbishop-backs-equality.html
H/T Rorate Coeli & Fr. Blake's blog

The Archbisop of Westminster said at a recent press following the Bishop bi-annual meeting:

We would want to emphasise that civil partnerships actually provide a structure in which people of the same sex who want a lifelong relationship [and] a lifelong partnership can find their place and protection and legal provision,
............

The Archbishop of Westminster, leading cleric in England and WALES... 

Sir Thomas More: "Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for WALES?" 

CHRIST

WAILS 

Look to the timeless

Look to the true -

Look to the Christs

Giving their lives for you. 

Look to His Mother

Look to Her spouse -

Flee from the dens

Where the thieves rob His House. 

The thieves have seduced

The thieves have well groomed

Their sheepheaded souls

They have crushed and consumed. 

The new hired Herods

Lure with a kiss -

Only pure-pious wise men

Know something's amiss. 

Follow these wise men

It's clear who they are -

Crystal Light shines upon them

Under Bethlehem's star!