Seeker

Today Google invites me to "skydive with Santa and boogie with elves in Santa's Village".  No thank you.   Doesn't Google know it's St Nicholas' Day today? Not even the legends about St Nicholas have any reference to sky-diving or boogieing with elves. Yes I know I'm starting to sound like Scrooge saying 'bah humbug' to the whole Christmas merriment. I will be celebrating Christmas - but not yet - apart from the odd mince pie which I couldn't possibly refuse when offered. Today is the day to celebrate the original Santa Claus, Sinterklaas, Saint Nicholas, St Nikolas - take your pick of names according to your language preference. It's the Feast of St Nicholas today. (Except in some places where it was yesterday). It's traditional to celebrate Christian saints on the date (or supposed date) of their death. For St Nicholas that was 6 December AD 343. He died in Myra (in modern Turkey) where he was a Bishop. In iconography S...

One of the best known Christian prayers today is known as the 'Prayer of St Francis'. Francis of Assisi was a 12th - 13th century Friar and founder of the Friars Minor.  St Francis didn't actually write this prayer. It is much more recent. According to Daniel Horan it was composed by an anonymous French writer about 100 years ago. The prayer does reflect both the way St Francis lived his life and the Franciscan spiritual tradition .  Today is his day, so here is a version of the 'Prayer of St Francis' with music and photographic images of the natural world. You may like these previous posts about St Francis: Francis of Assisi and scrap metal Francis of Assisi Discomfort, anger, tears and foolishness - what a blessing! Image Credit: Gary Willmore on Flickr: CC License

Image Credit I planned to write something clever and wise for St Andrew's Day. I haven't. I'm still making a priority of resting after a recent operation. So instead of what I intended, here is a rambling miscellany of thoughts and links to other posts. Firstly, why the image of aeroplane vapour trails? What has that got to do with St Andrew's Day, apart from the idea that Andrew was martryed on a diagonal cross? A diagonal white cross allegedly appeared in a blue sky on the morning of the battle in  832 A.D. between Angus (Oengus), King of the Picts (helped by the Scots) and Athelstane, the Saxon King of Northumbria. According to a story written by Walter Bower (1385 - 1449) King Angus prayed to St Andrew on the eve of the battle. The next day King Athelstane fled from the field and Athelstane was killed near what is now the village of Athelstaneford. Because of this story, the village now prides itself as being the birthplace of the Saltire , Scotland's nati...

Who was the real Mary Magdalene?  Today is her feast day, so here is a photo of a statue showing the risen Christ encountering Mary Magdalene in a garden near the tomb where he was buried. The statue is in the Angelicum Chapel in Rome, the church of San Sisto and San Domenica.  Mary Magdalene has been the subject of so much speculation, denigration, imagination and admiration over the last 2000 years, it's hard to sort truth from fiction. Here is who Mary Magdalene was not: not one of the other Marys in the New Testament e.g. Mary mother of Jesus or Mary sister of Martha and Lazarus of Bethany not a prostitute almost certainly not the anonymous sinful woman who annointed Jesus' feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee not Jesus' wife or mother of his child not the woman in the musical 'Jesus Christ Superstar' or in the novel 'The Da Vinci Code' Here is who Mary Magdalene was: someone Jesus healed of 'seven demons' and who proba...