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BOOKS on my bedside table |
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The Beauty of Holines and the
Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity, and the Truth of Catholicism |
| TUNES on itunes |
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Songs of Greg Brown |
| Blogs of note |
| Art
Blog by Bob Catholic Dads Get Religion Looking Closer Journal Church of the Masses The Roving Medievalist |
| WHAT'S UP |
| Who am I |
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James (Jim) Janknegt 52 year old, husband of Lissa, father of Emma (almost 11), visual artist, christian (former episcopalian becoming Catholic), building manager at UT Harry Ransom Center, native Austinite, current elginite, and chainsawweilder. everything on this web site copyrighted by
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Archives |
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January
2003
Web Pages
referring to this page
Link to this page and get a link back!
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Merry Christmas!
The more I read of Pope Benedict the more I admire and love him.
To many people, and in some way to all of us, this seems too beautiful to be true. In effect, here it is reaffirmed for us: Yes, there is meaning, and this meaning is not an impotent protest against the absurd. The Meaning is powerful: It is God. A good God, who is not to be confused with some lofty and distant power, to which it is impossible to ever arrive, but rather a God who has made himself close to us and to our neighbor, who has time for each one of us and who has come to stay with us.
Thus the question spontaneously arises: How is such a thing possible? Is it worthy of God to become a child? To try to open one’s heart to this truth that enlightens all of human existence, it is necessary to yield the mind and recognize the limits of our intelligence. In the cave at Bethlehem, God shows himself to us as a humble “infant” to overcome our pride. Perhaps we would have submitted more easily before power, before pride; but he does not want our submission. He appeals, rather, to our heart and to our free decision to accept his love. He has made himself little to free us from this human pretension of greatness that arises from pride; he has incarnated himself freely to make us truly free, free to love him.
Dear brothers and sisters, Christmas is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence. Approaching this solemnity helps us to reflect, on one hand, about the drama of history in which men, wounded by sin, are permanently seeking happiness and a satisfactory meaning to life and death; on the other hand, it exhorts us to meditate on the merciful goodness of God, who has gone out to meet man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and make him participate in his friendship and his life.
Let us prepare for Christmas, therefore, with humility and simplicity, readying ourselves to receive the gift of light, joy and peace that irradiates from this mystery. Let us welcome the nativity of Christ as an event capable of today renewing our existence. May the encounter with the Child Jesus make us people who do not think only of ourselves, but rather open to the expectations and necessities of our brothers. In this way we too become testimonies of the light that Christmas radiates over the humanity of the third millennium. Let us ask most holy Mary, the tabernacle of the incarnate Word, and St. Joseph, silent witness of the events of salvation, to communicate to us the sentiments they had while they awaited the birth of Jesus, so that we can prepare ourselves to celebrate in a holy way the coming Christmas, in the joy of faith and enlivened by the determination of a sincere conversion.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!
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St. Nicholas Celebration
St Nicholas
Wour wonderful cook
enjoying the Posole!
After we eat, the venerable old St. Nick makes an appearance during our liturgy. He invites each family to come up and he gives them a blessing and the kids get a bag of goodies, including the traditional chocolate gold coins.
St Nick and his attending angels
The kids pay careful attention!
The Janknegt's with St. Nick
When the liturgy is over and St. Nick has gone we continue to visit and roast marshmallows at a bonfire outside. It is always so much fun and the kids expecially have a great time.
Feast of St. John Damascene
If you have never read Apologia Against Those Who Decry Holy Images
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Christmas Card
I have continued my tradition of painting a painting to be used on our family Christmas Card. This year it somehow seemed appropriate to paint a picture of the fight into Egypt. The story is found in the book of Matthew 2:13-18
14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, 15 and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”[b]
Massacre of the Innocents
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
18 “ A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
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