"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ (Gethsemane), Tower of London, 1535
"These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die..."
William Shakespeare
"I know nothing that I may say can influence you. You have no souls to be influenced. You are spineless, flaccid things. You pompously call yourselves Republicans and Democrats. You are lick-spittlers and panderers, the creatures of the Plutocracy."
Jack London, The Iron Heel
“Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil, but as a necessity, or even a duty. Sin is not a distance, but is a turning of our gaze, in the wrong direction."
Simone Weil
Today was one of the lightest trading days of the year by volume.
And it was also a Comex metals option expiration, albeit one of slight significance.
As I said last week, the tape was scoured clean by wild swings and volatility.
And now the paint can be applied, into the year end.
What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, but to lose their souls.
Let all my nothingness be drowned in the ocean of your mercy.
Narrator: Then the Grinch heard a sound Rising over the snow.
It started in low, Then it started to grow.
But the sound wasn't sad. Why, this sounded merry.
But it was merry. Very.
Every Who down in Whoville, The tall and the small, were singing without any presents at all.
He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming. It came.
Grinch: Somehow or other, it came Just the same!
Narrator: And the Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice cold in the snow, Stood puzzling, and puzzling.
Grinch: How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!
Narrator: And he puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
Grinch: Maybe Christmas he thought doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. Max! Help me! I'm feeling!
Narrator: And what happened then, well, in Whoville they say, that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day.
Dr. Suess, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
"Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist— and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.
Love does not make you weak, because it is the source of all strength— but it makes you see the nothingness of the illusory strength on which you depended before you knew it.”
Léon Bloy
“Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing. Help me, Lord, that my eyes may see all with mercy, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look deeper for what is good and beautiful in others' souls, and then come to their aid.
Let all my nothingness be drowned in the ocean of your mercy.”
"Only the humble believe in Him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that He does wonders where people despair, that He takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous.
And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs His wonders where one would least expect them.
God is near to lowliness; He loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak, and the broken.
In the Incarnation the whole human race recovers the dignity of the image of God. Thereafter, any attack, even on the least of men, is an attack on Christ, who took on the form of man, and in his own Person restored the image of God in all.
Through our relationship with the Incarnation, we recover our true humanity, and at the same time are delivered from that perverse individualism which is the consequence of sin, and recover our solidarity with all mankind."
"Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; and I wait for you all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and loving kindness, as they have ever been of old."
Psalm 25:4-6
"Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say, rejoice; show patience and consideration to all, for the Lord is always near. Let nothing make you anxious; but with prayer, and by supplication, and with thanksgiving, let your needs be made known unto God; and the peace of the Lord, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds, in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:4-7
"And the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.' So they left in haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a manger.
After they had seen the Child, they spread the message that they had received about Him. and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
And Mary treasured up all these things, and pondered them in her heart."
Luke 2:10-19
Stocks were off today with tech and the story stocks leading the way lower on profit taking it appears, with just a touch of the risk wobbles.
The Dollar edged lower once again.
And conversely, gold and silver were up a bit.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the trading will mostly likely be light, barring any exogenous shocks.
They will try to take it where they want it, and then the markets will close mid-day.
“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”
John Henry Newman
In the end, the only real tragedy is to serve yourself or the world, and not to keep struggling on, like those shepherds, to at long last be among His saints.
Come, let us adore and serve Him, with the little things done with love.
“You are fettered,” said Scrooge, trembling. “Tell me why?”
“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by
link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my
own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”
Scrooge trembled more and more.
“Or would you know,” pursued the Ghost, “the weight and length of the
strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this,
seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a
ponderous chain!..."
“But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
"Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
The US Dollar rallied today, purportedly on statements that Fed Chair to be Yellen would like to see a stronger dollar.
LOL
Actions speak louder than words.
This is a holiday shortened week, and shenanigans will be abounding until the end of the year.
Gold and silver retreated a bit.
Silver always shows more energy than gold when they are moving.
"Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side.
God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world.
When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else — something it never entered your head to conceive — comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.
It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it."
C. S. Lewis, 1944
"Let us profit by what every day and hour teaches us, as it flies. What is dark while it is meeting us, reflects the Sun of Righteousness when it is past. Let us profit by this in future, so far as this, to have faith in what we cannot see. The world seems to go on as usual. There is nothing of heaven in the face of society; in the news of the day there is nothing of heaven; in the faces of the many, or of the great, or of the rich, or of the busy, there is nothing of heaven; in the words of the eloquent, or the deeds of the powerful, or the counsels of the wise, or the resolves of the lordly, or the pomps of the wealthy, there is nothing of heaven.
And yet the Ever-blessed Spirit of God is here; the Presence of the Eternal Son, ten times more glorious, more powerful than when He trod the earth in our flesh, is with us. Let us ever bear in mind this divine truth,—the more secret God's hand is, the more powerful—the more silent, the more awful.
Wonderful providence indeed which is so silent, yet so efficacious, so constant, so unerring. This is what baffles the power of Satan. He cannot discern the Hand of God in what goes on; and though he would fain meet it and encounter it, in his mad and blasphemous rebellion against heaven, he cannot find it."
John Henry Newman
Pride blinds Satan from seeing the works of the Lord.
It is the first and greatest sin.
Those who harden their hearts with pride, and aloof disdain, have invited the parasite of evil to latch onto their souls, and drain themselves of the vitality of true life, which is love.
The range in the equity futures markets was a bit surprising really.
The same with the precious metals.
Unless you have actively speculated in the futures markets, ranges of this magnitude are not so impressive perhaps.
I suspect that there were more 'technical' shenanigans involved in this, despite the attribution of the talking heads to the sudden realization that there is a new strain of the virus in the UK.
The rally in the miners while the metals were slumping was also of interest.
I like to think of this sort of thing as cleaning and sanding the tape, before the year end paint is applied.
It did tend to clear out the small specs I would imagine.
Please remember our friend and fellow blogger Tony Sanders in your prayers. He is still in hospital, struggling with pneumonia and the coronavirus.
And of course, we pray for all those who are affected by illness and hardships, often made worse by the pride and willful ignorance of others.
Let us pray for those whose hearts are hardened against His grace and loving kindness by greed, fear, and pride, and the seductive illusion and crushing isolation of evil.
We pray that we all may experience the three great gifts of our Lord's suffering and triumph: repentance, forgiveness, and thankfulness. And in so doing, may we obtain abundant life, and with it the peace that surpasses all understanding.
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