Daily Signet

According to the Bible, after the annunciation to Mary by the archangel Gabriel that she will be pregnant with Jesus, Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. In the narrative, after Mary greets Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s unborn child (the future John the Baptist) moves in her womb, and when this was noticed, she sang the “Magnificat” in response. Scholars, ancient manuscripts and English translations of the Bible, differ on whether it was Mary who sang it, or whether it was Elizabeth—both were certainly entitled….Sometimes classical composers entitle their pieces using a name that is widely used by other composers, for example: “Credo”, “Sanctus”, or “Gloria”. The title of the piece is the same; the lyrics however, can be quite different for each. Not knowing that the “Magnificat” was taken from a biblical verse, I had no idea for years that I was listening to the same lyrics because the length and style of each rendition is so different. Mozart’s piece is 4 minutes and 48 seconds long: CPE’s piece is nearly ten minutes longer at 14 minutes and 17 seconds. The same message for each; one comes across as a profound Gloria, the other as a reflection of a simpler joy.

And so it is with the voices we hear telling us what to do, or in a lesson. The words may be the same; the manner in which they are delivered is quite different. The music and voices change the very meaning of the words and, thus, change the meaning of the prayer—if one’s ears are ready.

Thank you, God, for your insistence and above all, for opening my eyes and ears.

Earl Behnke

On This Day…

Posadas Navidenas begins: reenactment by many Catholic churches of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem

Jane Austen born 12-16-1775 in Steventon, England: novelist known for her tales of family life and the perils of achieving matrimony such as Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma which have all been made into movies. Died 7-8-1817
Quotes: “A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

Noel Coward born 12-16-1899 in London: playwright of many cheeky and chic plays such as Private Lives, Blithe Spirit and Design for Living and songs; Mad about The Boy, Mad Dogs and Englishmen and Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans. Died 3-26-1973
Quotes: “It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”
“Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it around like marmalade.”

George Santayana born 12-1i6-1863 in Madrid, Spain: philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist remembered for The Life of Reason, The Last Puritan and The Sense of Beauty. Died 9-26-1952
Quotes: “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.” “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”

Daily Signet

I follow the star in me...

From the five sides of man
is born the five points of a star
and from the center of that star,
the five sides of man.
And from the five sides of that man
the five points of a star.
From the center of that star
is born the Babe of Bethlehem.

From The Mystery of Birth and Rebirth High Service

On This Day…

Betty Smith born 12-15-1896 in Brooklyn, New York: novelist best remembered for A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, and Joy In The Morning. Died 1-17-1972
Quotes: “The world was hers for the reading.” “Oh magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.”

Daily Signet

O Beloved Spirit,
Etch the star upon our hearts, 
sign the star in a blessing of invocation. 
Call out in us our dust from stars
to fill out each human instance, 
so we may intersect the miracle of birth and rebirth, 
of animal made human
and human intersecting divine.  

O Beloved Spirit,
Etch the star upon our hearts, 
sign the star in a blessing of invocation.
Awaken us to a Holy Night
where spirit combines with conception
and grows in the womb
to be called out into life
where a name is given and gifts abound.

O Beloved Spirit,
Etch the star upon our hearts, 
sign the star in a blessing of invocation.
May that star rise out of  our manger – 
our trough of straw – our work, our words – 
to signal a place for the Christ to be born anew
in Your image. Amen.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

James Wright born 12-13-1927 in Martins Ferry, Ohio: prolific poet with many collections in print. Died 3-25-80
Quotes: “Suddenly I realized that if I stepped out of my body, I would break into blossom.”

Daily Signet

I am so lucky.  I walk in a great ocean of magnificent people, joyfully telling me “listen, behold, attend.”  What more could I ask for?

There I was, getting my hair cut – what could be more prosaic in chronos time – while, in between snips, the hairdresser, a personal friend, was talking about some woman our age, still a guru groupie, telling her, very excitedly, that there’s a big event coming to Denver – Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, all the New Age big shots.

Her friend is so excited because she has a connection in the entourage and for only $300 she scored a ticket in the preferred seating section.

Dryly, the bearded, beatnik, admin/receptionist, said, “I think it’s strange that there are preferred seats to enlightenment.”

Isn’t it wonderful?  I’m sitting there in a preferred seat getting my hair and bang, crackle – a burning bush – kairos time breaks over us in a giant wave of laughter.

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.  Hosanna in excelsis.

Christmas – the star out there and me so far away, so long from home, so afraid to die the death I need to die in order to reach the star.

Then bang, crackle – and I’m in kairos time in my preferred seating feeling the gift of grace carried to us by the Christos within.  All believed and all beloved.

Ben Leichtling

On This Day…

Our Lady of Guadalupe: remembrance of the three occasions in 1531 when Our Lady revealed herself to Juan Diego, a young Aztec Catholic convert in central Mexico

Daily Signet

We know that the gifts of the magi were given in recognition of the significance of the birth and in response to the prophetic signs of the star and the astrological configurations of the sky. The wisemen, believed to be members of the Zoroastrian priestly caste, brought gifts not only of great market value—gold, myrrh and frankincense were expensive and comparable in their perceived “preciousness”—but also of great priestly significance—all three are traditional elements in religious ritual.

Frankincense is said to represent life and is often mixed with oils to anoint newborn infants; at its essence it is about birth and rebirth. Myrrh was used as a embalming ointment and up until about the 15th century as penitential incense in funerals and cremations; at its essence it is about death. Gold has been used as a symbol for purity, value, royalty, and all the characteristics of the sun; at its essence it is about light, energy, and radiance. At the birth of Christ—two incenses, two extractions—one for birth and one for death—and the highly valued gold, symbolic of the sustaining light of sun—man’s closest, most important star.

In this season of gifts, where we echo the wisemen of old and offer gifts to each other—tokens of our esteem, our love, our honor—there is no better time to sit down before the proverbial evergreen tree of life and sort through the gifts beneath its boughs—to take the time to recognize, call out, name some of the many amazing gifts and speak of those gifts that carry the qualities exemplified in the gifts of the wisemen –essences that echo the significance, the sacraments of birth and death, and the sustaining gold of light and enlightenment— gifts that are eternal and timeless.

Benjamin Martin

On This Day…

Grace Paley born 12-11-22 in the Bronx, New York: short story writer, poet, teacher and political activist and writer of; Enormous Changes At the Last Minute, Later the Same Day and Just As I Thought. Died 8-22-07
Quotes: “Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.” “You become a writer because you need to become a writer – nothing else.”