31 December 2007

Commemoration of St. Sylvester I, Pope and Confessor

Under the pontificate of this holy Pope - St. Sylvester (314-335) - the Church, after three hundred years of persecution, begins to enjoy liberty, and spreads in the Roman Empire; and the Council of Nicaea (325) establishes against the heretic Arius the doctrine of the Divinity of the Savior.

The last day of 2007 has been a pleasant one for us, as I hope for all of you as well. Maria allowed us to sleep in until almost 8:30! Lisa managed to do a little grocery shopping. We were able to do some reading - Lisa is reading a thick volume of short stories by G. K. Chesterton, and I Etienne Gilson's History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages. About an hour from now (8:00 PM) we will be at the Kartause taking in Dickens's Christmas Carol performed by some of the young folk of the ITI community. We'll follow that up with some merry making, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep Maria up until midnight (I'm even less sure that we'll want to). Rumor has it there are even going to be some fireworks in the downtown Gaming area, so maybe we'll be able to watch those out of our living room window.

Just a quick note for those interested in the intellectual side of our life as well as the pictures of Maria. We added a link to a blog called Rorate Coeli on the sidebar under "Our Favorite Sites." It's one we've come to enjoy reading, and right now they are spotlighting Pope Pius XI's encyclical on ecumensim, Mortalium animos (Epiphany, 1928) as we approach the 80th anniversary of its promulgation. This, together with Pope Leo XIII's 1896 encyclical Satis cognitum, is essential reading for the Catholic Church's teaching on ecumensim.

Lisa is getting quite talented at pouring beer. Our favorite here is called Berg König (Mountain King). Pictured below are fine examples of a "Blooming Head" and "Belgian Lace."

Blooming Head

Belgian Lace

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Careful with the Belgian Lace! Some is getting away!

Merry Christmas to my family in Austria and Happy New Year!