Loving the Dead

Four years ago around now I made a visa run out of Ukraine and got to spend the weekend in southern Poland exploring Krakow and Częstochowa. I got to see some really neat stuff, but one of the most endearing and enduring memories I have is of leaving the little chapel in Krakow where I'd gone for an early All Saints/Sunday Mass and seeing how many people were already in the adjacent cemetery on that sunny, cold fall morning to visit the graves of their loved ones, many of them not only bringing flowers, but even picnic baskets so that they could share some time together as a family, both living and dead. It was such a profoundly moving and beautiful thing, and now whenever these three days of Halloween (All Hallows Eve), All Saints, and All Souls roll around I can't help thinking of that cold morning in Krakow and the warmth of those people's love. I hope we all are blessed to have such enduring love in our lives, love that overcomes the flimsy barriers we erect between the so-called living and the dead...

Cooking Blog

I've finally decided to split off reports on my culinary [mis]adventures to a new blog, Oxen and Elephants. Enjoy!

"Conditor Alme Siderum"

Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people's everlasting light,
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
and hear Thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
should doom to death a universe,
hast found the medicine, full of grace,
to save and heal a ruined race.

Thou camest, the Bridegroom of the Bride,
as drew the world to evening tide,
proceeding from a virgin shrine,
the spotless Victim all divine.

At whose dread Name, majestic now,
all knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
and things celestial Thee shall own,
and things terrestrial Lord alone.

O Thou whose coming is with dread,
to judge and doom the quick and dead,
preserve us, while we dwell below,
from every insult of the foe.

To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
laud, honor, might, and glory be
from age to age eternally. Amen.

An Advent hymn sung at Vespers in the Roman Rite.