For The Fourth Sunday In Advent

First, read about the Choir of King's College (emphases mine):

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, is one of the world’s best-known choral groups. Founded in the 15th century, it ranks among the oldest of its kind, and, while originally created for singing the daily services in the college chapel, now enjoys an international tour schedule that has seen it perform all over Europe and beyond. Every Christmas Eve, millions of people tune in to watch the choir’s A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s – a service which has been continuously broadcast since 1928.

Recorded in 1994, this reissue joins the group’s already extensive discography of Christmas music – recordings that have enhanced its worldwide fame and reputation. The compilation mixes some of the best-loved traditionals, including Once in royal David’s city and O Come all ye faithful, with more recent repertoire – such as Rutter’s rousing What Sweeter Music and Judith Weir’s striking Illuminare, Jerusalem (specially commissioned by the choir for its 1985 annual service). Also featured are traditional German, French, Dutch and Polish carols (including two settings of Dulce Jubilo) – works which, together with Pärt’s enchanting Bogoróditse Dyévo [meaning Mother of God and Virgin], contribute to a wonderfully eclectic disc that provides over an hour of festive cheer.

This music is an important part of our heritage of Western Culture, of Christianity. Volume up!  The index to the selections is below the video.

 

Track list: 

 00:00:00 Once in royal David’s city 

00:04:41 Rejoice and be merry 

00:06:11 Ding dong, merrily on high  

00:08:19 What Sweeter Music 

00:12:37 O little town of Bethlehem  

00:16:17 A Spotless Rose  

00:19:25 Heer Jezus heeft een hofken (organ variations) 

 00:26:44 King Jesus hath a garden  

00:30:10 The Lamb  

00:33:39 Bogoróditse Dyévo 

00:34:55 Infant holy, infant lowly 

00:36:43 Illuminare, Jerusalem  

00:39:12 While shepherds watched  

00:41:54 Quittez, pasteurs 

00:45:05 In dulci jubilo (organ prelude)

00:48:06 In dulci jubilo  

00:50:46 The First Nowell 

00:56:09 Coventry Carol  

00:59:17 Personent hodie  

01:01:49 O come all ye faithful 

Artist: The Choir of King's College, Cambridge 

Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

For The Third Sunday In Advent

An instrumental feast for the ears! Minimize and listen for a while:

For The Second Sunday Of Advent, 2021

"The First Noël," performed by Frederick Rousseau (b. 1958):

[the above artist's YouTube channel]

For The First Sunday Of Advent 2021

(For politics, please scroll down)

"In the Bleak Midwinter," performed by Chanticleer: 

[about the above carol]

Alexa, Why Don't You Go Fuck Yourself?

Alexa is at it again! Thanks @_JessOrtiz_ for asking the tough questions. pic.twitter.com/2ZyOyVcovx

— Lone Conservative (@LoConservative) December 10, 2017

Merry Christmas!

Jon McNaughton's The Nativity

The music of "Silent Night" was written in 1818 by the church organist Franz Xaver Gruber of St Nicholas Church in the village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg for the poem "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht," written in 1816 by Father Joseph Mohr.  The piece was first performed for the Christmas Eve mass in 1818. The song was sung simultaneously in English and German by troops

During the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 — an unofficial truce rebuffed by the officers but effected by the soldiers themselves — this beloved Christmas carol was sung simultaneously in English and German as it was the one carol that soldiers on both sides of the battle lines knew.

The version below was filmed on location at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City:


From the YouTube blurb:

Meaning / Story behind the song:

Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright!

Sometimes it seems there is little in this world today that is silent, holy, calm, or bright. However noisy, unholy, frenetic, or dark it may appear to be, music such as the immortal hymn, “Silent Night,” carries with it a feeling that can remind us there is still an abundance of virtue all around us. There is hope and beauty. And there is light.

To properly paint this feeling we collaborated with none other than the tenor legend, Plácido Domingo, whose sublime vocal gift is rivaled by his kindness and sincerity. It was a joy to work with him. He is an artist whose illustrious, exalted career has not snuffed out his sweet disposition or his genuine love for the art of music. Joining us are the children from the Cathedral School Choristers, whose pure faith proclaim the profound message of this hymn. We filmed this during an East coast tour in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, a colossal monument to the greatest gift ever given, the Son of God.

May your Christmas this year be filled with serenity, spirituality, peace, and felicity.

Merry Christmas from The Piano Guys!

Another version...the Vienna Choir Boys performing "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht":


Artist's explanation for the painting at the top of this blog post:

The true meaning of Christmas

By Cal Thomas, Fox News Channel

Not for a long time has the world seemed so removed from the angelic proclamation of 2,000 years ago: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).
Millions have died in countless wars over the last 100 years. People continue to die today as the result of worldwide terrorism and daily shootings in too many American cities.

The prophecy delivered by the Christmas Child that there would be “wars and rumors of wars” until He comes again, seems more like current events than a far-off future.

One hears a lot of silliness from theological illiterates and institutions whose sole interest in Christmas appears to be profit. Consider the conspicuous consumption associated with “Black Friday,” a day that began for some businesses days earlier.

People speak of “the spirit of Christmas,” or when observing some special act with which they approve or seek to inspire, refer to “the true meaning of Christmas.” They are never asked what they mean by either.

The true meaning of Christmas is this: God took on the form of a human to die in our place, paying for our sins, so that humans who receive Him might be forgiven and be with Him forever.
You are free to reject that message and the One who delivered it, but what you are not free to do is to redefine or change the message into something that fits your own beliefs and choices.

In “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” (part of his classic “The Chronicles of Narnia” series), C.S. Lewis writes of a frozen land ruled by a “White Witch,” devoid of hope. In that world, it is “always winter, but never Christmas.”

It is a metaphor for a world that has rejected God and His redemptive power. It is a world where humans choose to live as they please, rather than be transformed, even renewed. It is this world in which we now live, full of mendacity, envy, greed, lust, anger, terrorism, war, political divisions and confusion. We have forgotten who we are, because we have forgotten Whose we are.

It is these and so many other human deficiencies the Christ child came to reset. Like a gift under a tree, however, the transaction is not complete until the one for whom the gift is intended receives it. If anyone refuses a gift, the transaction is incomplete, its purpose thwarted. Does it matter that so many reject Him? Look around and consider the result.

While some point to the occasional violence mistakenly done in His name to “prove” God does not exist, there are far more examples of good, such as charities, hospitals and inner-city missions that help the poor and homeless. If the bad disproves God, what does the good prove?

These good acts rooted in faith are motivated not by selfishness, but selflessness, the kind of selflessness demonstrated by the One who left perfection and emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant, to come to a fallen world and save us from the consequences of unbelief.
Isn’t that message worth celebrating? Isn’t that child worth worshipping? Isn’t that Man worth receiving?

Oh Good Grief !!

School district censors Charlie Brown Christmas

 

Good grief, America. What’s next — banning The Great Pumpkin from Halloween?

There are some days when this anti-Christmas nonsense is enough to make you deck somebody’s halls. 

The latest yuletide lunacy comes from Johnson County, Kentucky where the school district has censored an elementary school presentation of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

The district also ordered other schools to remove all religious references from their upcoming Christmas productions. 

At one school, “Silent Night” was replaced with a Christmas version of the “Whip/Nae Nae” song. 
Yes, good readers — apparently that is a real thing. 

“How do you go from ‘Silent Night’ to the ‘Whip/Nae Nae,’” one distraught grandmother asked me. “We’re not at all happy about it.”

read more...

Merry Christmas!

Christian Pastor Calls For Genocide of Gay People, Says We Can Get It Done "By Christmas"

From Addicting Info:

It sounds like a sermon that would be delivered in Uganda, but it’s actually from the mouth of an American pastor in Arizona. Conservative “Christian” Pastor Steven Anderson openly called for executing every gay person in America during a Sunday sermon at his church in Tempe, Arizona. 

He claimed from the pulpit that gays need to be put to death in the name of God by Christams Day in an effort to wipe out AIDS, even though AIDS is not a virus exclusive to the LGBT community. 

Anderson opined: Turn to Leviticus 20:13, because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant. 

In addition, Anderson went on a hateful tirade about how gay people will never to allowed to step foot inside his church. “No homos will ever be allowed in this church as long as I am pastor here,” Anderson declared. “Never! Say ‘You’re crazy.’ No, you’re crazy if you think that there’s something wrong with my ‘no homo’ policy.”

The Pastor is Steven Anderson from Faithful World Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona:

Pastor Steven Anderson was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. At age 18, he travelled throughout Germany and Eastern Europe for 3 months serving in local independent Baptist churches, studying foreign languages, and getting experience in the ministry. 

Pastor Anderson started Faithful Word Baptist Church on December 25, 2005. He holds no college degree but has well over 140 chapters of the Bible memorized word-for-word, including approximately half of the New Testament. 

Today, most Baptist churches are started by Bible colleges. However, the Bible makes it clear that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth, not a school. Faithful Word Baptist Church is a totally independent Baptist church, and Pastor Anderson was sent out by a totally independent Baptist church to start it the old-fashioned way by knocking doors and winning souls to Christ.

 I'm not sure what "totally independent Baptist Church" means.

Is this church part of a larger Baptist church structure? Or did Steven Anderson start this church all by himself, with no appointment whatsoever?

He certainly has the right to do so. But one of the reasons that churches band into affiliations is to maintain the integrity and authority of the Word of God and reasonable doctrine.

I'm sure I will learn more about what is going on here.

How many parishioners does this guy have?

NICO COMMENTS:

What a barbaric idiot. It is extremely important to know what the word of God actually says. And its important to know the context as well. Reading and understanding the Law in its context helps one understand what was applicable to the Israelites and why. 

Reading rabbinical writings spanning over millennia is also helpful and, in my opinion, necessary for one in a position to teach others what is "needed" and "required" and what is not. 

Idiots like this barbaric Muslim-style moron always take the Bible in isolation and screw things up in terms of interpretation. There is evidence that even in the time of Ezra monetary payments instead of the death penalty was used even for crimes in the Law that asked for death penalty. 

And the reason for it was that a life was deemed so important that killing a human being was not taken lightly at all and the decision to take a human life was left to God instead of humans. 

With that said, I am in no way against the death penalty where its necessary but even the thought of justifying the murder of a human being just because they're homosexual should be sickening to any decent human being but even more so to any Christian who considers him or herself to be a representative of Christ. 

To conclude, fuck this pastor. He belongs with the muzzies.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen

We infidels have good cause to be dismayed. But not at Christmastide, a time to be merry for the Best Reason.



About King's College Choir:

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great British choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI [6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471], who founded King's College, Cambridge, in 1441, to provide daily singing in his Chapel, which remains the main task of the choir to this day....

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FELLOW INFIDELS!

Merry Christmas, Infidels!

(With thanks to Stogie, who created the above graphic)

Christmas Choral Music

Many years ago, I had the privilege of working under the baton of Richard Wayne Dirksen at the Washington National Cathedral. Below is one of his choral pieces, a glorious celebration of the birth of Christ the Lord. Ever since I obtained a recording of "Welcome All Wonders," I never let a Christmas go by without listening to this glorious musical celebration of the birth of Christ the Lord:

Welcome all wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span.
Summer in winter, day in night, heaven in earth, and God in man,
That He, the old Eternal Word, should be a Child and weep.
Each of us his lamb will bring, each his pair of silver doves,
Till burnt at last in fire of thy fair eyes, ourselves become our own best sacrifice.
Welcome all wonders in one sight!

Longfellow's Christmas

On Christmas Eve In America?

I'm not sure what the date is for the following from Bloviating Zeppelin, who works in law enforcement:

By Dr. LaMaurice Gardner
Oakland County (Mich.) Sheriff’s Office

What would you do if in the middle of Catholic Mass, on one of the holiest days of the year, someone yelled out “Allahu Akbar?”

It was late Christmas Eve and my 17-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son were preparing to leave for midnight Mass at Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church in Royal Oak, Mich.

[...]

This midnight Mass was typical of previous years: song, ceremony, apostolic readings, a reading of the gospel. After the gospel, with everyone seated both in the audience and at the altar, there was a brief lull, then suddenly, from nowhere, came a shout: “Allahu Akbar!”

My world froze....

Read the rest HERE. There is much more!

If A Muslim Wishes You "The Best" At Christmas

Know what he really means (hat tip to Jihad Watch for the first video below:


So, when a Muslim says to me, "Happy holidays," what is he really saying?

There's also this:

The Obamabots' Sacrilege Of Christmas

(With a hat tip to Matt of Conservative Hideout 2.0)

Note this accompanying blurb at YouTube:

This coming holiday start a conversation with your friends and family members about why you support President Obama. Whether you're heading out of town or crashing at your parents' house, this holiday season is the perfect chance to talk to your friends and family about why you're working to re-elect President Obama.

Puke!

Now the video:


As one YouTube commenter said:

That's funny, they want you to "Spread the good news of President Obama", doesn't there have to actually BE some good news, before you can spread it?

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

A lovely version of the old carol (hat tip to Bunkerville):

The 12 Days of Obama

An all-too-true parody:

Sweden's Christmas Ice Pigs Attacked

From Vlad Tepes, citing a comment from the Tundra Tabloids:

I live in the same town as the pig and a man of middle eastern decent was seen kicking the pig. You will not read this in any newspaper or comments on there online articles due to censorship against any critical comments about muslim immigrants.

The local newspaper even go as far as suggesting that it was a drunk angry man without anything at all to support that theory. They will do everything in there power to lead away the attantion from the immigrants.

Vlad Tepes has more, including and update and this commentary:

There is nothing that the non-Muslim does or doesn’t do, that won’t piss off the Mussulman. It’s because we live and breath is the reason for their hatred.