Kith & Kin
Kin are visiting through the weekend. I shall be slumbering on a couch as my room is being given to Where's Teddy?; this is not a complaint, merely a statement of fact. These dual, closely-related factors will severely curtail my ability to tend to The Secret Base, so I am taking the liberty of preparing the R.B.D.S.O.T.Nth.D.O.C. ahead of time. Enjoy, & merry Christmas!

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the 4th Day of Christmas
Sarah McLachlan, "Silent Night" via iTunes, (free) Holiday Sampler (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: While not wishing to speak ill of my parish pastoral vicar, Father Anderson's homily's aren't usually to my taste, as he normally doe snot address that week's Scripture readings. A Midnight Mass on Christmas Day, though, he was unusually on-topic. His best point referred to Luke 2:1-7, & the contrast 'twixt Caesar Augustus, master of all he surveyed, whose order of a census drove Saint Joseph & the Blessed Virgin from their home in Nazareth back to Bethlehem, where the Christ Child was born, & the humble circumstances of the Nativity. Augustus, king-in-all-but-name of the greater part of the known world, lived in splendor & opulence; our Emmanuel, king of all time & space, was born in a stable, because there was no room in the inn. Our Lord did not simply preach the Beatitudes, He lived them; He was born into them.

"Jesus, Lord at Thy birth…"