Brothers and sisters...

Happy Siblings Day to my brother and sister (and brother-in-law, too!) 

You guys are so absolutely positively wonderful and I'm so very blessed to have you in my life!

I thought the following to be rather true of us and they made my think of you :)

 

 

 

 

(No, names mentioned...you know who you are)

 

 

 

 

xoxo

 ~Emma

On the sixth day of Christmas...

Greetings!  Happy sixth day of Christmas to you all!

 

(Here, I brought you "six geese a'laying", aren't they cute?)

I very much like that song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas", but I especially like the hidden messages it carries in its lyrics about our Catholic Faith.   Do you know the message I'm referring to?

 

 For the benefit of this post, I'll just assume that you don't ;)  

I first learned the story of this old carol many years ago in one of my English workbooks, maybe in 5th Grade?  The story goes like this: 

During the time of the Protestant Revolt in England under Queen Elizabeth I when Catholics were forced to practice there religion in secret, the hunted Jesuit priests who bravely remained would teach the little children to sing this seemingly nonsense song as a way of instructing them in their Catechism.  You see, each phrase of the song acted as a mnemonic for a particular Truth of the Faith, one for each of the twelve days of the Christmas Season, lasting from December 26th to the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th.

 

 (Faithful Irish Catholics attending a "house Mass" despite persecution at the cost of their lives.)

The "secret messages" contained in the song look something like this:

"My True Love sent to me" = God the Father, Who sent His Son Jesus into the world to die for our sins.

"A partridge in a pear tree" = Jesus Christ is the "partridge" and the "tree" is the Cross on which He was crucified.

"Two turtle doves" = The Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

"Three French hens" = The virtues of faith, hope and charity or the gifts of the Three Wisemen to the Christ Child.

"Four calling birds" = Represents the four gospels, "calling" all people to Christ.

"Five golden rings" = The Pentateuch, or first five books of the Bible.

"Six geese a-laying" = God created the world in six days.

"Seven swans a-swimming" = The seven sacraments or seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost.

"Eight maids a-milking" = The eight beatitudes revealed to us by Jesus.

"Nine ladies dancing" = Referring to the nine choirs of angels: Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Powers, Principalities, Dominions, Virtues, Seraphim, and Cherubim.

"Ten lords a-leaping" = God's Ten Commandments given to us through Moses.

"Eleven pipers piping" = The number of apostles who remained faithful to Our Lord.

And my favorite!

"Twelve drummers drumming" = There are twelve points of doctrine contained in the Apostles' Creed, which is what this final line refers to.  

Isn't this cool!?!  So next time you hear this song playing, you can think about all of the meaning behind some of those words we sing.  It is far more than a nonsense song for children!

Can you believe that it's already the end of 2017?  I certainly can't believe it.  Isn't it strange how time passes us by the way it does, sometimes feeling fast and breathless, sometimes slow and lingering on endlessly?  It's fascinating and weird and perhaps a bit unsettling at times, but that's what I think makes it so valuable!

This has been an amazing year!  I think after four years of blogging here I have finally felt comfortable, like I can just have fun and write from my heart without holding back or being self-conscious. 

 And you know what?  I have all of you to thank for that.  No, I'm serious!  Knowing that there's even one person reading my insignificant little scribblings I create here is a great feeling, but I know that there's more than just one person tuning in here to every post, and that's kind of amazing to me!  Know that I appreciate your reading and commenting, your encouragement always makes me smile, dear. So thank you, and I hope you are given every blessing in the coming year ahead!

Here's to 2018!

Always,

~Emma

Happy, thankful, blessed, and smiling

I'm sitting here at my computer blogging this.

Yes, I probably should be writing, but this is almost the same thing, right?

It's words.  That counts for something, maybe...

 

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving all you US  readers! 

I will admit, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to make this post about.  I was just browsing through pinterest looking for pretty quotes and pictures, the typical blogging fare, but I still wasn't quite sure of what I wanted to say.  I didn't want to sound cliche but at the same time I knew I wanted to write along the lines of Thanksgiving.

In my browsing I stumbled across a writing prompt I had saved a while back, a challenge to write down 50 things that made you smile.  Hmmm... that got me thinking.  So in the spirit of that prompt here are just a few things that make me feel happy, thankful, blessed, and put a smile on my face.

 

1. The smell of wood smoke burning on a cold day.

2. Memories, and the fact that I have so many treasured ones.

 

Isn't this just so simply beautiful?  It makes me wish I could've written it.

3. My Catholic Faith, through which my many blessings are realized.

  

4. People in my life who love me and care about me and even make me laugh!

 5. Rainy days.

6. And sunny ones, too.

7. Changed plans and new beginnings.

 

♥

8. And for all the tiny, countless things in this great big beautiful life that we don't always notice and don't begin to deserve yet are blessed with anyway.

 

And so, I bid you all a very happy thanksgiving day, and just a very happy day in general!   You guys are all wonderful, the best, and I'm really glad we get to cross one another's paths the way we do.  Thank you!!!

Always,

~Emma