Favorite Poetry: Catholic Hymn

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Catholic Hymn

by Edgar Allan Poe

Sancta Maria!  Turn thine eyes

Upon the sinner's sacrifice

Of fervent prayer and humble love,

From thy holy throne above.

At morn, at noon, at twilight dim

Maria!  thou hast heard my hymn.
In joy and wo, in good and ill

Mother of God! be with us still.

When my hours flew gently by,

And no storms were in the sky,

My soul, lest it should truant be - 

Thy love did guide to thine and thee.

Now when clouds of Fate o'ercast

All my Present, and my Past,

Let my Future radiant shine 

With sweet hopes of thee and thine.

NOTES: "wo" is not a typo.  That's the way Poe wrote it, and apparently it's just a shortened form of "woe", though why he couldn't put the e on the end is beyond me.

Poe was not a Catholic.  This poem is recited by one of his characters in a story.  It's very interesting to study Poe's Catholic sympathies, though.  I've been looking it up on the internet.

Hope you liked this poem!

Picture Crazy

I've taken a lot of photos in the past couple days.  For a while I ignored my camera, thinking that I had taken just about every picture to be had (arrogant me), but of course there are still plenty of pictures to be had, even in worn-out New Jersey February.  Plus, it snowed.  You can always take pretty pictures in the snow.

These ice-coated weeds are gorgeous, aren't they?  If you're wondering what the random glove is for, I couldn't get the camera to focus without a dark background.  Sorry. :p

As ready as I am for spring, I find all the Easter/spring nonsense in stores to be quite annoying.  It's still winter, so I see no reason to pretend otherwise.  I'm posting wintery photos in retaliation.

Ha!  Take that, JoAnn Fabrics!

I've also found my little sister's Rapunzel doll (or, to be more specific, her hair and clothes) to be quite inspiring.

Aren't you just blown away by the inspiring-ness?  (For the naive and innocent among my readers, THAT WAS SARCASM.)

I liked the sparklies and the pretty pattern.

By far the best of the Rapunzel lot.  I quite like this one, though I did mix fairy tales by putting a Sleeping Beauty quote with a photo of Rapunzel's hair.

Now I shall proceed to torture you with pictures of food.   Actually, I should have waited until Lent to post these.  'Twould have been a lovely aid to your Lenten penances....

MWAHAHAHA...

:D

These lovely doughnut pictures were from a "tea party" we had to celebrate my smaller siblings' conquering of the complex arts of making a bed and brushing one's teeth.  Amazing accomplishments, no?

I suppose I oughn't to complain, seeing that I got doughnuts and tea out of it.

I discovered that mint tea + chocolate doughnuts = earthly heaven.  See, I'm good at SOME math!

It's blurry because of the steam.  I thought it was cool-looking.

Now I believe I will go make myself a cup of tea.  I hope I haven't bored you too much.

Ooh, wait.  I found another dessert picture, though this one's from a while ago.

*grins*

There.  Now that's all for today.  I've made myself hungry.

Song Saturday

Today's Song Saturday selection (see my alliteration there?) is Dream by Priscilla Ahn - rather a change of pace from my usual choices.  But 'tis a pretty song, and though I haven't quite "gotten" the whole message yet, I think it's a good one.  Listen and tell me what you think!

Comment Love and A Bit of Squeeing

Imogen posted some lovely thoughts about commenting a while ago that I'd like to share with you all:

Deep down inside most bloggers, buried next to the wish to have a billion blog followers, the most page views ever and to be able to write instant hit one line posts, is the wish to receive comments. Any comment. Just something to show that there’s someone out there reading your work and liking it enough to tell you so.

I am one of this crowd, often desperate to hear from other bloggers. Was there something wrong with my last post? Is that why no one commented? Have I bored all my readers so much they’ve decided to leave?

Every comment I get is a gift. Precious because someone took the time to stop and say something, someone who only knows me through my blog. I love all my commenters, from the ones who only have time to say, ‘I loved your post,’ to the ones who write huge long comments full of personal stories and life.

I love my commenters so much that I’m dedicated to answering every single comment I receive. I always answer, and always try to say something personal to every comment. Because I appreciate my comments.

 Visit Imogen's blog to read more.


Now for the squeeing part.  Today my dad got his orders!  That means we can get ready to move back to my beloved Virginia.  SQUEEEE!  I'm so grateful, though it will be sad to leave my wonderful friend Victoria behind here.  Still, I'm SO EXCITED.  So bear with me if I talk a lot about moving in the next month or so.

Well, that's all for today, I believe.  Tell me: do comments matter to you?  What in a post sparks you to comment?

Candlemas (Feast of the Purification)

I was planning on writing this nice long complicated post about Candlemas (complete with poetry, theology, and pictures), but then I got overwhelmed by all the information, bored, lazy, and impatient.  Oh wait....that's my normal state of existence, isn't it.... never mind, then.

So it's the feast of Our Lady's purification, the feast of Our Lady of Good Success, and the feast of Candlemas.  Basically that means three things:

1.  You should read the prophecy of Simeon in the Bible, and try to meditate on it a bit.
2.  Um....it's the feast day of Our Lady of Good Success.  Say a prayer to her or something.
3.  Christmas is officially over.  Begin looking forward to the penitential-ness of Lent.

I really feel guilty about the low quality of this post, but I just don't feel like writing up a nice one.
  Here are a few links to supplement the non-existent information in this post:
http://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterepiphany3.html
http://www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j059sdPurificationOLGS2-2.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03245b.htm
 And the simplest, most comprehensive one: http://www.churchyear.net/candlemas.html
 

Our Lady of Good Success, pray for us! (via)