The Greatest of these is Love!
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Movie Review: The Nativity Story
This is (obviously) a Christmas film. We have watched it the past two Christmases and it paints an accurate picture of the environment that Mary and Joseph lived in. It covers all the familiar aspects of the christmas story as we know it, including Zachariah's experience in the temple and the birth of John.
Drama, humor, and wonderful acting are involved. It is very well-done with amazing quality, complete with cruel roma soldiers.
After watching the movie, you will be awestruck at the love of God showed by coming to our dirty, sinful earth in human flesh.
~Dawn Paperclip~
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Recipe: Concord Grape Jam Tart
Here is a link to a website that has a recipe for a Concord Grape Jam Tart: www.marthastewart.com/355342/concord-grape-jam-tart
Due to my allergies I was able to substitute shortening instead of the butter in the crust. I wasn't able to find concord grapess, so I just used the regular red grapes. And make sure you boil down the jam until it starts to get think. Later, once it has cooled in the bowl if you find it isn't think enough you can reheat it ad boil it down some more.
Be careful not to burn it!
~Charity Clothespin~
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Verse of the Month
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
Proverbs 22:1
~Leslie Rose Yale~
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Composer of the Month: Henri Desmarets
Henry (pronounced ahn-REE) Desmarets was brn to Hughes and Madeleine Desmarts in February 1661. His father died when he was only eight years old, and shortly thereafter is mother remarried. In 1674 he entered the court of King Louis XIV as a page, and sang in the Chapelle Royale. He took music lessons from several famous Frech court musicians, and in 1680 he became a full-fledged court musician. It was at this time that he began composing, and participated at age 22 in a contest that the king proclaimed. He passed the first round, but in the second, it was determined that he was too young. In interest of learning to compose better music, Henri submitted a request to the king. He desired to be allowed to study in Italy. his former teacher encouraged him to reconsider, desiring that French music remain free of Italian flavor.
Desmarets wa hired by the winner of the contest, Nicolas Goupillet, to write pieces under that name. When the deception was discovered, Goupillet was dismissed while Desmarets grew in favor. his beautiful wife died, and shortly thereater he fell in love with a young lady whose father refused desmarets' petition to marry her. He shunned his daughter, and banished her to a convent, and when he discovered she was with child, sued Desmarets.
The girl escaped and the two were finally able to marry. They lived happily together, but only two of their children survived. Desmarets wrote many stage operas, but also sacred works, suggesting a change of heart somewhere in his life. His daughter (from his first marriage) dutifully and lovingly cared for him in his old age until he died on September 7, 1741: leaving behind some beautiful musi, including a paraphrase of Psalm 147.
Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.
Psalm 147:1
~Polly Benjamin~
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Quote
The measure of love is to love without measure.
-St. Francis de Sales
~Maria Wytherspoon~
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Poem: Motherhood
I hold within my arms to-day
A priceless bit of mortal clay,
Divinely fashionedm and so fair,
The angels well may kinship share.
My soul with gratitude is filled,
My heart with mother love is thrilled,
My eyes brim o'er with new-born joy,
While gazing on my cherub boy.
O precious one! Through tears I see
A mighty task awaiting me.
My happy sky grows overcast,
Life's duties loom so grand, so vast.
To sheild from wrong, to right incline,
This little lie now linked to mine
Divine the gift. Oh, may the mould
A heart of truth and honor hold!
Help me, kind Heaven, to know the way
From out the tangle of each day,
To guide him safe to manhood's prime,
And all the glory shall be Thine.
-M.E. Piatt
~Eliza Bennet~
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Author Biography: Mary Ann Evans
Born on November 22, 1819, Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist, and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. Shhe is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda (respectively published in 1859, 1860, 1861, 1871-72, and 1876).
Most of the novels are set in provincial England and are well known for their realism and psychological insight. By her account, she used a male pen name to ensure that her writing would be taken seriously. Though female authors were being published under their own names during Eliot's lifetime, she wanted to escape the dreaded stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances.
When the popular Adam Bede was published in 1859, under the name of George Eliot, there was great speculation as to who this previously unpublished author was. After Joseph Liggins attempted to claim authorship, Mary Ann Evans stepped forward as the true author, George Eliot. Due to wrong choices on her part, and the manner in which she chose to live her life, her work was not accepted in polite society until Queen Victoria's dauhter, Princess Louise, was introduced to Eliot's works. In 1877, they were finally received into the highter classes. After suffering for several years form kidney desease and throat infection, she died on December 22, 1880, at the age of 61. She is not buried in Westminister Abbey because of her denial of the Christian faith. Instead, she was interred at Highgate Cemetary, Highgate, London in the area reserved for religious dissenters and agnostics (Karl Marx is buried nearby). In 1980, on the centenary of her death, a monument was dedicate to her in the Poet's Corner.
~Georgianna Hawley~
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Author Key:
Polly Benjamins - Aelsa Butler
Georgiana Hawley - Sophia Fredrickson
Dawn Paperclip - Nicole Mellas
Eliza Bennet - Allie Hawbaker
Maria Wytherspoon - Sarah McDaniels
Leslie Rose Yale - Michelle Martin
Charity Clothespin - Adair Ladin
Jaqueline Carmen - Julie Mellas
