
Photo by Bree Dail.
I have for some years had an affiliate link for Mystic Monk Coffee. You buy their coffee (and your TEA) through my link and you get good coffee and you help the Wyoming Carmelites build their spectacular monastery. And, too boot, it is near to where my mother grew up and where I spent some of my childhood summers. All good. That link is HERE.
Over there, maneuver over to their “Sampler” page. They have 2 oz samplers that make excellent stocking stuffers. Also, there are a few people who are in charge of buying coffee for their offices: they use my link for Mystic Monk Coffee and everyone benefits.
That said, Mystic Monk has a little competition in my mind and heart right now. A while back I received some Black Rifle Coffee from a reader off my wish list. It’s good. The company is vet owned and operated.
And these guys work really hard, as the following video demonstrates.
I’m waiting for the monks to post their own version.
So, Black Rifle … Mystic Monk.
This isn’t an either / or dichotomy, of course.
You know you need coffee….
Also, could I – please – remind you to use my affiliate link to enter Amazon when shopping online? Links for these USA and the UK are on the sidebar.
My list of things to do is checked off, so I am heading home.
On my first day I was able to link up with two friends over nice meals.
Yesterday, I walked over to the White House for a Christmas Party. The decorations were amazing, as usual. On the ground floor in the library, I saw this amusing ribbon on a tree which said that the right of citizens to VOTE shall not be abridged.


The Nativity Scene.

A nice little tree.


I am a huge fan of Sr. Diedra Byrne and the feeling is mutual. We had a great chat.

Among the nice folks were some popular and good commentators from Fox and EWTN. Nice to catch up with them. A couple of great priests from the area, whom I’ve know for quite a while. Really good men. We had a discussion about the liceity of receiving vaccinations.

It was not nearly as crowded this year, for obvious reasons. Great food, as always.
On the way out the young moon was super bright and Saturn and Jupiter are just a smidgeon apart now.

Afterwards, supper with another friend, a truly impressive guy. It was nice to have a leisurely evening with him. AG Barr was across the way. He was cordial.
A slow morning and lunch at the club before heading to the airport.

The streets of DC are relatively empty. It’s strange.

The airport is pretty much empty too. There were two people going through security and I was one of them.

More later.
UPDATE

LAST LEG!
The O Antiphons: 18 December – O Adonai
LATIN: O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
ENGLISH: O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.
Scripture References:
Exodus 3
Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:6
Relevant verse of Veni, Veni Emmanuel:
O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty, and awe.
“Adonai” is “LORD.” It was the Hebrew word that the Jews used when they found the four-lettered word for God’s name which they held to be too sacred to pronounce aloud. The four letter word for God’s Name, the Tetragrammaton, is still venerated by us to the point that Holy Church asks us not to use it in liturgical song.
Christ is Lord, Lord of Creation. We sang this yesterday in the antiphon “O Sapientia“. Christ is also Lord of the Covenant with the People He chose.
The Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham, and Moses. He guided them and all the People. He gave them Law. He protected and feed them. The Lord delivered them from bondage to Pharaoh and unending slavery. He went before them with arm outstretched.
This was all a pre-figuring of the great work of redemption that Christ would work on the Cross. He redeemed us His People from Satan and the eternal damnation of hell.
He once appeared clothed in the burning bush that was not consumed by fire.
He is about to appear again clothed in flesh in our liturgical celebration of Christmas.
He will appear again one day in the future to judge the living and the dead.
He appears to us each day in the person of our neighbor.
What amazing contrasts we find in our Lord! He came in thunder and lightening to give the Law on Mt. Sinai. He comes now in swaddling clothes. He will come again in glory. He comes humbly in the appearance of Bread and Wine.
He still goes before us with outstretched arm and our foes are put to flight at the sight of His banner!
Shall we hear the Benedictines of Le Barroux sing the O Antiphon and Magnificat?
#ASonnetADay – 121. “’Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed…” pic.twitter.com/XzUG7eSFyn
— Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (@fatherz) December 18, 2020
#ASonnetADay – 120. “That you were once unkind befriends me now…” pic.twitter.com/qYAcQSoDrd
— Fr. John Zuhlsdorf (@fatherz) December 17, 2020
While I have not abandoned hope at the gate of the hell that yawns before us, I am deeply alarmed.
A piece at Crisis today puts well some of my concerns.
Some bits and pieces to whet…my emphases…
[…]
Aside from fervor for power, our new vice-president and president-assumptive fall outside of the usual historical groupings. In some ways, they stand alone.
[…]
While neither Biden nor his running mate stand out for selflessness or heroism or wit, they do satisfy the American appetite for firsts. Biden will be the oldest president to take the oath of office and the only commander-in-chief visibly impeded by early-stage dementia. He will also be the first “Catholic” president to celebrate abortion, and the only one to have officiated at a same-sex wedding…. Another first: never in our history has the electorate chosen—or had foisted upon them—an executive team so scant of intellect, character, charisma, or political philosophy.
The future court anthologizer of the wit and wisdom of Joe Biden will want to draw exclusively from his prepared speeches. There he does have a few vivid phrases to his credit—all of them, alas, plagiarized. When Joe is being Joe, off the cuff, he tends to maunder and make goofy boasts. … Of late, his “gaffs” and slips have been of the Freudian stripe, as when he refers to the “Harris-Biden” team, or boasts of the “most extensive voter fraud organization in the world.” The wandering mind, like the wine-flooded brain, sometimes blurts the truth. In dementia veritas.
[…]
What was wanted, to fulfill the Obama legacy, was progressive vision—the vision of Kamala. Kindred spirits and all that. Or, as a poet friend of mine said, “spider sees eye to eye with spider.” … The concealment strategy—along with mail-in votes, “glitch” prone machines, magic suitcases, speedy interstate ballot-delivery, etc.– worked to install, if not elect, Biden.
[…]
Even among pre-selected reporters, a “rogue” will occasionally shout out a rude question: “Mr. President, are you the ‘Big Guy’?” “Did you lift the China tariffs because of Hunter’s deals?” “Which method of abortion, Mr. President, do you consider more humane, vacuuming or dismemberment?”
[…]
Clearly, such an off-putting V.P. choice—rejected even by her home state in the primary— would not give Biden the “bounce” that the much-maligned Palin brought to John McCain. So how did the 2020 Democratic ticket manage its historic win? Could Biden’s magnetism account for it?
Or was the election stolen, despite “no wide-spread evidence of fraud”? To think that dirty tricks undid the will of the people is indeed an appalling thought. But more ominous yet is the possibility that the election truly reflected the will of the people.
Philosophers, from the ancients to Oswald Spengler, have warned that it is in the nature of all democracies to self-destruct. If America really elected Biden/Harris, we may have reached that borne from which there is no turning back. Spengler warned that “democracy becomes its own destroyer after money has destroyed intellect.”
[…]
For a glimpse into how Harris’s domestic policy will impact Christians, google “Kamala Harris and David Daleiden.” Or consult Planned Parenthood’s “9 Reasons to Love Kamala Harris.” Once you translate into plain English the abortion giant’s smarmy euphemisms, you will have nine reasons to resist President Harris— and to pray, de profundis, that President Trump stops the steal.
Do I hear an “Amen!”?
St. Joseph, pray for us.