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Nota in Brevis
In the Bleak Midwinter, Gaudete Christus Natus Est
It's lovely how the simplest tunes often - perhaps most often, maybe even always - make the most beautiful of melodies. So it is with Gustav Holst's (1874-1934) carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter' (1906)...
Featured Highlights
The Hope of the Holy Innocents
The feast of the Holy Innocents, which we celebrate appropriately enough within the octave of Christmas, might seem a troubling commemoration at first glance. Â Remembering the wholesale slaughter of all the male children two...
Editor's Corner
Saint John, the Apostle of the Logos
On this third day of Christmas, we not only get three french hens, but, far better, we get to celebrate the beloved Apostle, Saint John the Evangelist, whose Gospel signifies most clearly the eternal...
Editor's Corner
On the Feast of Stephen…not Boxing Day!
As the mid-19th century hymn has it, Good King Wenceslaus first went out, on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay 'round about, deep and crisp and even...a hymn, published in 1853, which...
Articles
Saints Adam and Eve
Christmas Eve is the traditional commemoration of Adam and Eve, our first parents – I don’t think there’s any etymological connection between Eve and Eve, the first derived from ye Olde English ǣfnung, which...
Editor's Corner
Silent Night, of Joy and Peace Amidst the Tumult
The beloved hymn Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve, 1818, fittingly at Saint Nicholas parish in Oberndorf in what was then the Austrian empire. The music was composed by the organist and...
Editor's Corner
John of Kanty’s Holy Hidden Life
On this Eve of Christmas Eve, we celebrate in a subdued manner the commemoration of John of Cantius (1390 - 1473), or 'Kanty' in the original Polish transliteration - a scholar, teacher, gentleman, priest...
Nota in Brevis
Canisius the Indefatigable Catechist
Saint Peter Canisius (1521-1597) was a Dutch Jesuit back in the earliest days of the Order, amongst the first to join Ignatius' company, after meeting one of the founders, Peter Faber. His life spans...
