The Day After Christmas

The Feast of St. Steven, widely called "The First Martyr".

We had an interesting sermon at Mass yesterday.  Yesterday was not only the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, but it was the commemoration of St. Anastasia III, another Martyr.  In fact, there are a whole lot of feasts coming up celebrating Martyrs throughout Christianity's existence.  And fittingly, you'll find quite a few saints who were martyred.

As the priest put it, "Martyrdom, martyrdom, martyrdom, Merry Christmas."

So we celebrate the joy of the birth of our Savior, but we also have to keep in mind that Jesus didn't come here to save us on this world.  He came here to save us for the next.

God never promised us Earth.  He promised us Heaven.

Oh, and since the day after Christmas is almost as bad as the day after Thanksgiving, there's not a chance in hell I'm going out today.  Hells to the no.  I've got some bottling to do.  And cider to make. I'm using a lager yeast, since my basement is cold enough that ale yeasts don't seem to be doing much.  It's an experiment.  And then, I've got one batch of gose to make, and from there we're off into experiment territory again.