Harboring Light

The days grow shorter, the nights grow longer.

Last night, here in Hampton Roads, we even had a faint dusting of snow which had all the local weather stations agog with excitement (snow is quite the rare occurrence here).

When we woke up this morning, there was some frost remaining on the roofs of cars and on fences, but by mid-day all was melted away. A fierce wind was blowing when we came back from church, and though the sun was out it was decidedly chilly (for these parts).

In the US, we set our clocks back an hour about a month ago in anticipation of the coming winter months. The winter solstice/equinox isn't until the 21st or 22nd of December, but already we feel that imperceptible turning of axles in the universe: the turning of the season, and of the year...

A long time ago our ancestors lit bonfires and made supplications to the gods who covered the earth with ice and cast a sleeping spell on their crops.

And in mythology, that girl who spent the winter months abducted by the Lord of the Underworld, knew instinctively that even in the smallest seeds of the blood-dark pomegranate, a gleam of seductive light resides.


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The Doctrina Christiana was the first book printed in the Philippines, in 1593. From the 1620 translation of the Doctrina Christiana into Ilocano by Father Francisco Lopez, comes this prayer:

O, Apomi Dios
isalakannakam kadagiti kabusolmi
iti tandaan ti Santa Kurus
iti nagan ti Ama ken Anak
ken Ispiritu Santo, Amen...

[O Lord deliver us from our enemies under the sign of the Holy Cross in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen...]