December 17, 2011
An article came across my desk the other day. I’d never heard this story before, so I thought that I would share it here.
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.
June 01, 2011
To those of you who frequent the ministry website, I would like to apologize for the time lapse in posting to this blog.
The day after Elias sent me his blog for May, the hard drive in my laptop crashed without any warning. At the same time, I was confronted with two expensive vehicle repairs and my elderly father, for whom I am a primary care provider, had just had eye surgery.
Needless to say, with all of this transpiring, it took a few days to be able to get out to a replacement hard drive from our closest computer superstore (which is an hour away), then restore the data from the most recent backup and then add the latest changes to bring the site current again.
So again, my apologies on the tardiness of this latest post.
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