| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Trudie" |
| Date: |
23 Dec 2007 10:54:34 AM |
| Object: |
Partridge in a Pear tree |
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were
not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone
during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning
plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.
-The Partridge in a Pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the
Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy
Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and
Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace,
Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the
Apostles' Creed.
So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I
found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song
became a Christmas Carol...
Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone
<<>><<>><<>>
December 23rd - St. Margaret d'Youville
Foundress of the Sisters of Charity, called Grey Nuns
(1701-1771)
The oldest of six children, at seven years of age Mary Margaret Dufrost, born at
Varennes near Montreal, had already lost her courageous soldier-father. After
receiving only two years of excellent education in Quebec City with the Ursuline
nuns, she was obliged to return to Varennes before her twelfth birthday, to
assist her mother to bring up her five younger brothers and sisters. The Sisters
had foreseen the heavy responsibilities which would come upon her, and under
their tutelage, as they later testified, she had "redoubled her activity and
application to all her duties." By means of a subsidy granted by the king of
France to the families of his deceased military officers, the little family was
able to remain together.
One day, some sixty years later, Mother Margaret d'Youville, Foundress of a
Congregation of Sisters of Charity, would be known to the people of Quebec as
"the Providence of Montreal." It became proverbial among the Church's
authorities, even before she died, when there was a charitable work to do, to
"ask the Grey Nuns; they never refuse a mission." This was indeed an honorable
reputation; but in 1730 the twenty-six year-old widow of Francis d'Youville,
seigneur of La Découverte, alone with two sons to bring up, could not have
imagined such honor, nor what Providence was holding in store for her already
strong and experienced charity.
Saint Margaret was living in Montreal with her two sons at the death of Mr.
d'Youville. It was soon evident that the pious widow would seek no distraction
amid the world's frivolities. She took in sewing and opened a little business,
thus becoming known in the city; half of her earnings were always dedicated to
her children's Christian instruction. Both of her sons would later become
priests. These occupations were not enough, however, to occupy her time; she
visited prisoners, cared for the dying, brought peace to many troubled
households, and even aided the poor financially. Her work with the unfortunate
soon brought to her three apostolic young hearts, to offer their assistance. The
four young women put their savings in common, and kneeling before a little
statue of the Blessed Virgin, vowed their lives to the care of the poor. They
rented a house, and soon received five suffering members of the Mystical Body of
Christ as their charges.
The young missionaries did not escape the harsh opinions which always test the
perseverance of those who desire to serve God in the person of the unfortunate.
Undisciplined tongues accused them of bootlegging alcohol and even of making
abundant use of it themselves. Mother d'Youville prayed to the Eternal Father,
to whom she would always have an outstanding devotion, that she might not,
during her trials, lose her good spiritual director who was ill; she already had
lost her closest companion by death. The director was cured, but the little
hospital burnt down in January of 1745. The misery of the little group won
sympathy for them, and soon lodging, clothes and food were offered them.
Their destitution drew the attention of city authorities, who at that time were
wondering what to do about the city hospital, overburdened with large debts and
without sufficient personnel to staff it. When Mother d'Youville offered to take
on both the debts and the labors, they were very happy indeed to accept her
offer. With five companions, nine indigents and two lady-boarders, she entered
the hospital in 1747. There a new difficulty for the foundress would soon make
its appearance; the work still had enemies, and in 1750 plans were made, without
consulting her, to merge it with another of similar nature, staffed by the
nursing nuns of Quebec City. Finally an appeal made by the Foundress to the king
of France, Louis XV, elicited his command that the decision of the local
authorities be canceled, and she was authorized in 1752 to keep the hospital and
to found a Community.
It was not only the sick who were the object of Saint Margaret d'Youville's
loving care. Foundling children, prisoners, orphans, the handicapped, the aged,
were soon the cherished beneficiaries of the Grey Nuns' indefatigable
solicitude. Their foundress passed to her reward in 1771; and that night a large
luminous cross appeared in the Montreal skies, attesting the death of a Saint.
But her community continued and has been richly blessed, not only by the poor it
has strengthened for the combats of life, but by the Father of the Poor Himself,
who in 150 years gave it extension to fifteen dioceses of North America. The
Grey Nuns have labored in the most difficult missions of the extreme north of
Canada, as well as in a dozen cities of the more southerly provinces and the
United States. Their self-effacement, their missionary spirit, their hardy
courage in the face of the rudest living conditions, have earned the admiration
of all who know them.
Source: La Vénérable Mère d'Youville, by Abbé Émile Dubois (L'Oeuvre des Tracts:
Montreal, 1921).
Saint Quote:
Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift
from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself to
acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things
come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession.
--Saint Joseph of Cupertino, from the reading for his feast in the Franciscan
breviary
Bible Quote:
Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another. I St. John
4:11
<><><><>
To the Holy Archangel Who Strengthened Our Lord in His Agony
I salute thee, holy Angel who didst comfort my Jesus in His
agony, and with thee I praise the most holy Trinity for having
chosen thee from among all the holy Angels to comfort and
strengthen Him who is the comfort and strength of all that
are in affliction. By the honor thou didst enjoy and by the
obedience, humility and love wherewith thou didst assist the
sacred Humanity of Jesus, my Savior, when He was fainting
for very sorrow at seeing the sins of the world and
especially my sins, I beseech thee to obtain for me perfect
sorrow for my sins; deign to strengthen me In the afflictions
that now overwhelm me, and in all the other trials, to which I
shall be exposed henceforth and, in particular, when I find
myself in my final agony. Amen.
.
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| User: "Jayne Cobb" |
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| Title: Re: Partridge in a Pear tree |
23 Dec 2007 11:28:50 AM |
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On Dec 23, 8:54=A0am, "Trudie" <trudie.Mil...@cox.net> wrote:
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were
not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone
during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning
plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each
element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember. [...]
Thanks for the history lesson. Of all the carols that one is the most
fun. Merry Christmas.
JC
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