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reetings from Australia.
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High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd To that bad eminence. John Milton, English poet, born on December 9, 1608; Paradise Lost
To be blind
is not miserable; not to be able to bear blindness, that is miserable. Better to
reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Give me
the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to
conscience, above all liberties. They also
serve who only stand and wait. A man may
be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his
pastor says so, or the assembly so determines, without knowing other
reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes
his heresy. There dwelt in Egypt two youths of noble
birth, one of whom applied himself to study knowledge, and the other to
accumulate wealth. In process of time that became the wisest man of his
age, and this King of Egypt. Then was the rich man casting an eye of scorn
upon his philosophic brother, and saying, "I have reached a
sovereignty, and you remain thus in a state of poverty." He replied:
"O brother! I am all the more grateful for the bounty of a Most High
God, whose name was glorified, that I have found the heritage of the
prophets---namely, wisdom; and you have got the estate of Pharaoh and
Haman---that is, the kingdom of Egypt. I am a hermit, that mankind shall
tread under foot; not a hornet, that they shall complain of my sting. How
can I sufficiently express my grateful sense of this blessing, that I
possess not the means of injuring my fellow creatures?" |
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He can see no good who will associate
with the wicked. Were an angel from heaven to associate with a demon, he
would learn his brutality, perfidy, and hypocrisy. Virtue thou never canst
learn of the vicious; it is not the wolf's occupation to mend skins, but
to tear them.
Sa'di
Whoever acquires knowledge and does not
practice it resembles him who plows his land and leaves it unsown.
Sa'di
The sinner who spends and gives away is
better than the devotee who begs and saves his money.
Sa'di
A scholar without diligence is a lover
without money; a traveler without knowledge is a bird without wings; a
theorist without practice is a tree without fruit; and a devotee without
learning is a house without an entrance.
Sa'di
Of what use will be a dish of roses to
you
Take one page from this rose garden of mine
A rose only lives for five or six days
The joy from my rose garden always stays.
Sa'di
But I pray mayster John Skelton, late created poete
laureate in the unyversite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correct this sayd
booke ... for him I know for suffycyent to expowne and englysshe every
dyffyculte that is therm. For he bath late translated the epystlys of
Tulle, and the boke of dyodorus siculus,
and diverse other works ... in polysshed and ornate termes craftely ...
suppose he hath drunken of Elycons well.
William Caxton,
in the preface to The Boke of Eneydos compyled by Vyrgyle (1490), writing of John
Skelton, English poet
Her
lothely lere
Is nothynge clere,
But ugly of chere,
Droupy and drowsy,
Scurvy and lowsy;
Her face all bowsy,
Comely crynkled,
Woundersly wrynkled,
Lyke a rost pygges eare,
Brystled wyth here.
'The Tunnyng of Elynour
Rummyng', by John Skelton – Godfather of Rap
The trouble
with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr is that he likes everything he sees – and he
sees everything.
Clemence Dane, on Douglas
Fairbanks Jr, American actor, born on December 9, 1909
I was only
saying to the Queen the other day how I hate name dropping ...
Douglas Fairbanks Jr
I never
tried to emulate my father. Anyone trying to do that would be a
second-rate carbon copy.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr
I suppose
many people don't even know if I'm still alive – well, perhaps I'm not.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr
December 9 is the 343rd day
of the year in the Gregorian calendar (344th
in leap years), with 22
days remaining.
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locate the original.
Feast Day of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
From Mexico comes a quaint story involving a goddess and the Roman Catholic Church's holiest woman, Mary, mother of Jesus.
On
December
9, 1531,
a 57-year-old Mexican Indian farmer by the name of Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an Aztec who
had converted to Christianity, was minding his own business as he walked
to early morning Mass, passing by the hill known as Tepeyac, between his
village and Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City).
Juan Diego was born in 1474 in the calpulli or ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan, which was established in 1168 by Nahua tribesmen and conquered by the Aztec lord Axayacatl in 1467, and was located 20 kilometres (14 miles) north of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City).
Tepeyac had for centuries been of significance to the people of what is now called Mexico – the Aztecs and their descendants – because it was the site of a shrine to the goddess Tonantzin.
Tonantzin (pictured above left), associated with the snake goddess Coatlique (perhaps cognate with the Judaeo-Christian Eve), was worshipped in the Winter Solstice celebrations at around this time of year. Tonantzin wore a white robe covered in feathers and seashells, which adorned her as the goddess promenaded among the worshippers and was ceremonially killed in a scene reminiscent of the apparent death of the sun of winter. The goddess was also known by the name of Ilamatecuhtli ('a noble old woman') and Cozcamiauh ('a necklace of maize flowers').
As Juan Diego walked to Mass (some sources say he was
walking to the shrine of the goddess), he heard celestial music and the
sound of beating wings. Presently, a maiden appeared to him, dressed in
the attire of an Aztec princess, a lovely apparition who, speaking to him
in his native Nahuatl language,
introduced herself to the startled peasant as Maria, the Mother of God.
Maria instructed the dazzled Juan to tell the Bishop of
Mexico City, Juan de Zumarraga, to build her a chapel on the site.
Juan did as he was bade, and quite naturally his message impressed the Bishop not at all. His Grace just as naturally demanded evidence of Juan's fantastic story, and sent the Aztec on his way.
Shortly after, the farmer returned to the sight of the visitation of the Virgin, who reappeared and told Juan to climb the hill and gather an armful of Castilian roses (although December is not the season of their blooming) and to take them in his tilma, or cape, to the doubting de Zumarraga.
When Juan opened his cloak before the Bishop and out tumbled the 'miraculous' roses, His Grace fell astonished to his knees. Not only did the out-of-season flowers amaze the Bishop, but there on Juan's cloak was an image of the Blessed Virgin just as the farmer had said she had appeared to him, with cinnamon-coloured skin, dressed in traditional Mexican clothes, and surrounded by an oval frame of stars.
A church was built in 1533, on the location of the shrine of Tonantzin, and dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been used by advocates of indigenous rights throughout Mexico's history, most recently by the Zapatista movement ...
Was Juan Diego a real person?
Sceptics, however, including some Catholics, have doubted the very existence of Juan Diego. The earliest written reference to him dates from 1648, in a publication by a Mexico City priest about Our Lady of Guadalupe. A 1649 publication in Nahuatl followed, referring to earlier Nahuatl sources that have not been found. Regardless of this, he is now Saint Juan Diego as he was canonised in the Catholic Church on July 31, 2002 ...
... This
story is an excerpt from the Virgin
of Guadalupe page at the Scriptorium
The celebrations
Feast
day of Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin is December 9
Beatified Apri1 9, 1990 by Pope John Paul II
at Vatican City; confirmed and ceremony held on May 6, 1990 at
Mexico City, Mexico.
More
Feast day of Our Lady of
Guadalupe is December
12
Ten million
visitors a year come to see Juan Diego's mantle with the Virgin's image.
Other
apparitions of Mary More
See also:
Monagahan, Patricia, The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, Llewellyn 1990; Waverly Fitzgerald's article at School of the Seasons
Get your Virgin of Guadalupe lamp
'Mysterious
images' inside the eye of the Virgin of Guadalupe
Fiesta of the Mother
of Health, Pátzcuaro,
Mexico
Fishermen's fiesta, with much dancing, clowning and fireworks.
Sources:
The Daily Bleed;
The Phoenix and
Arabeth 1992 Calendar
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