It is Christmas Eve on the traditional Church calendar — and I wish you all the blessings of the Feast of the Nativity!
The video above is of a concert given by the Orthodox Christians in the far north of California, the Scott Valley. The singers include students and teachers at the St Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary (SPOTS) as well as nuns from the St Elizabeth Convent and the St Gregory Palamas Monastery. Enjoy!
Nick Jeffery and I recorded the third Rowling Studies podcast this morning (to read about the theory we were discussing, click here). It was so much fun that it seemed to me that Christmas had arrived a day early.
Which is more the rule than the exception of my time spent here and at the HogwartsProfessor Substack page. After Vigil services tonight, I watched It’s a Wonderful Life for the first time in many years — inspired by Joe Posnanski — and I cried just like I have every other time I’ve seen it, tears of gratitude for the friends and family with whom I have been blessed.
You are no small part of that. Thank you for joining us here and on the Substack site, to include the new Rowling Studies podcast. Without your joining in the conversation, it would always be panning for fool’s gold rather than the solid light chrysalis of literary alchemy it often is.
Merry Christmas, Serious Readers! May Christ be born in our hearts today and remain there always.
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