Prayers Are Good Tidings

28Dec/110

Prayers Are Good Tidings

Each Christmas I am faced with the conflict. On the one hand, with children in the house we feel obliged to do silly things like purchase gifts and prop up Santa Claus. But another part of me realizes that this is silly and a horrible distraction. Nevertheless...

In terms of end of year tidings, one is relieved to have Christmas in the rear-view mirror. One looks forward, mostly, to a new chapter. It is a very pagan way to go. Out with the old and in with the new. XTC has a great song to this effect.

Fire they cried
So evil must die
And yields are good
So men pull back hoods and smile
The scapegoat blood spilled
Spittled and grilled
it crackled and spat
And children grew fat
on the meat
Change must be earnt
Sacrificial bonfire
must burn
Burn up the old Ring in the new
Assembled on high
Silhouette against the sky
The smoke prayed and pranced
And sparks did their dance
in the wind
Shadows wore thin
with less and less skin
And the clothes that were draped
Was all that told man from ape
Change must be earnt
Sacrificial bonfire must reign
Reign over good
Banish the bad

It is interesting to note that Christmas itself, to the Christian, marks the very point in history when Mankind's bondage was in jeopardy of being remanded. If you will, it is the point in history where the Scapegoat is introduce to the storyline.

We wait for Good Friday to spill the Blood of the Lamb, of course, but the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies is nigh. Predestined history unfurls from this point at a relatively rapid pace. All Systems of Men are put to shame in the ensuing times.

This Singular Cosmic Shift - the Birth of the Christchild - the Advent of Emmanuel - God Among Us... culminates in the Greatest Event the world has ever witnessed; whereby God reconciles His Creation to Himself through the Paschal Sacrifice of Himself on our behalf to Himself for expiation of all Sin past, present, and future.

This is a really, really big deal.

What the Great Pagan Philosophers discerned without the Light of the Holy Spirit - and what was known to the Jews through revelation and guarded so jealously - was confirmed. From there, Pagans and Jews alike were presented with another amazing Gift - the first being Redemption - for the taking.

That second gift is the Gift of Hope.

It seems to me that the idea that we exist and then do not exist is so much crap. That we exist and then seize to exist is goofy. How were the Pagan Scholars of Note able to divine an afterlife without the Holy Light of Grace? They did so using Reason as their guide. It is no different today. But that we had only Reason as our guide - without the Advent of the Lamb of God - and possessed the same towering intellect as the Greats - would we not come to the same conclusion? Yet, we have the extra benefit of an Singular Occurrence that they did not. So, perhaps our rather smallish abilities are brought on par with those who fumbled in the dark and arrived at the conclusion that Man is so distinct, so Unique, so Superior in species, that the natural ends of squirrels and birds is not equivalent to what awaits the Human Being.

Right now, many of our cyber-family, our modern-day neighbors, are suffering terribly. On the threshold of Death itself.

There is no need to name them, as most of you know in your hearts who these Souls are.

In the New Year, we are likely to lose some of them from this physical world.

We have Hope. Let us pray that all of these - those who will find physical health again and those that will be liberated from this physical reality - are buoyed in the knowledge that there is so much more behind the veil that awaits them.

Paradise awaits those who desire it with a contrite heart - and burn with Hope in anticipation of the Eternal Vision of God's Face for Eternity.

The body will fail. But we are free. Free to pray for the Souls at Death's Doorstep. Free to pray that our neighbors suffer with purpose and realize the benefits to be had as they pick up their cross and follow the Christ to Calvary - and ultimately Golgotha. Free to pray that they demonstrate Fortitude in their sufferings and grow ever closer to the Christ by mimicking his trials.

Let us pray for these, our brothers and sisters. Let us pray for those Dearly Departed in Purgatory and those Militant who are set to join them this year.

May God bless them and keep them and have Mercy on them today, tomorrow, and for all Eternity.

May they in turn pray for each of us from On High in our hour of need.

Happy New Year. God Speed, Faithful Pilgrims.