The Origin of Playing Cards
The exact origins of playing cards remain unknown, but it seems certain they were invented before 1000CE by the Chinese. Playing cards were likely brought to Europe from the Mameluke empire of Egypt. In this era, the card decks had a variety of words, shapes, and concepts on them including goblets, gold coins, polo sticks, and swords. Today’s paper playing cards seem likely to have also evolved from the original patterned rectangles Mahjong tiles.
Playing cards began to appear in Europe in the 1370’s.  The first European playing cards were hand-painted and viewed as a luxury good. They were probably imported by merchants, gypsies, or crusaders. At that time, polo was unknown in Europe, so the polo sticks were transformed into batons which, together with swords, cups and coins, are still the traditional suits of Italian and Spanish cards.
A Latin manuscript written in 1377 by a German

Hope against all hope….La Croix
"I believe that this profound human thirst for infinite happiness, which we all feel at times, is the most real thing there is. To hope for it is to live in the real world," insists Timothy Radcliffe, the former Master of the Dominican Order (1992-2001) who is now a best-selling spiritual writer and preacher.

Pope Francis selected 78-year-old Dominican Timothy Radcliffe to lead a retreat last October for the 363 members of the Synod assembly just before they began their deliberation on synodality and the future of the Catholic Church. The theme he chose for that retreat was "Hope against all hope". In an exclusive interview with La Croix's Christopher Henning, Friar Timothy explains why - even in our perilous times - there is reason for hope as we begin 2024.

La Croix: Q How would you define hope?
TR: During the general chapters of the Dominican Order to which I belong, we have always noticed a fascinating difference between "Latin" and "Anglo-Saxon" cultures. Latin cultures generally begin a discussion by defining terms. We Anglo-Saxons find it more fruitful to let the full meaning of words emerge gradually. So, I am delighted that you are faithful to your French cultural heritage!

Feast this Sunday: The baptism of Jesus
It can seem a bit soon to be celebrating Jesus’ baptism this Sunday, however in the Eastern church, the birth of Jesus, the Epiphany and the Baptism of Jesus are celebrated as the one feast. This is to show the continuity between Jesus entering the world in Bethlehem, being recognized by all peoples through the Magi as the Messiah (Christ) and the initiation of Jesus into his work by being baptised in the Jordan river. Jesus’ baptism highlighted that he was a true member of the human family. He shared their longings for liberation.

Perhaps one aspect of this feast we might reflect on today, is that no one becomes a commissioned follower of Jesus without having to grow and develop in his or her understanding of what this vocation means. Growth in faith was real for Jesus too.

All peace begins when two parties are in dialogue with each other. The following poem, Taking Sides, by Rabbi Irwin Keller, captures the important role of anyone who provides a safe-space for opposing parties to converse, without condemnation. Listening with care and honest enquiry is where a spark for peace may commence in victims and antagonists alike.
Today I am taking sides. I am taking the side of Peace.
Peace, which I will not abandon,
even when its voice is drowned out by hurt and hatred,
bitterness of loss, cries of right and wrong.

I am taking the side of Peace
whose name has barely been spoken
in this winnerless war.
I will hold Peace in my arms,
and share my body’s breath,
lest Peace be added to the body count.

I will call for de-escalation even when I want nothing more than to get even.
I will do it in the service of Peace.
I will make a clearing
in the overgrown
thicket of cause and effect
so Peace can breathe
for a minute and reach for the sky.
I will do what I must to save the life of Peace.
I will breathe through tears.

Advent 4 – Love
During the Sundays of Advent we have focused on a theme for each week…Hope Peace and Joy and lit a candle at Mass. This Sunday we focus on Love

Some years ago I played the song “Love Changes Everything” during a parish mission session. Afterwards a woman angrily complained to me, “That song should not be used in church. It does not mention God even once”. I replied, “St John’s gospel tell us that Jesus said, “God is Love”. After looking a bit stunned she walked away.

In the church we have so often complicated gospel love by putting the emphasis on rules, on do’s and don’ts, wheras in fact it is rather simple. Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you”!

Nowhere is love better described that in St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Paul begins in Chapter 13 by saying, “I may speak in tongues or use the language of an gels, but if I don’t have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” That lady who spoke to me after the missions session was a noisy gong. She missed the whole point – that Love changes everything!

Christmas has been cancelled in Bethelehem this year
This will also be the case in Gaza, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Amman, This is an act of solidarity for all the children who have been killed in the current war. The crib in the Lutheran church (see below) is made from rubble. The baby Jesus is amid the rubble and all the other characters including the baby’s parents are in the perimeter, looking for him amid the rubble.

This year began with one war in the headlines and ends with two. The war in Ukraine, so shocking when it began in February 2022, is now a dismally familiar feature of the news, grinding on as destructively as ever with no end in sight. The war in Gaza, which began less than two months ago, has already changed the Middle East forever.
The governments of many countries, including the US, had been hoping that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—as old as Israel itself—would simply disappear over time as younger generations of Palestinians resigned themselves to statelessness. Now we know better. Despair may sometimes lead to resignation, but more often it leads to rage. Meanwhile, beyond the headlines, other conflicts carry on largely unnoticed in this country: civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar, savage gang violence in Haiti. Behold, the world brings us bad tidings, again and again. Peace on earth? Not now or anytime soon.

Advent
Advent means ‘the arrival’ and liturgically we understand this to refer to the arrival of Jesus at the first Christmas. Advent marks the beginning of the new liturgical church year. This is Year B which features Mark’s gospel.

Originally, Advent was a time of preparation for January 6th (the feast of Epiphany) related to the visit of the wise men from the East. These wise men only appear in Matthew, so we won’t hear about them in Year B. Often they are called kings and usually people refer to them as the ‘three’ wise men, but Matthew doesn’t tell us how many ‘wise men’ (or astrologers) from the East followed a star and came to Bethlehem.

 Epiphany is an important feast because it celebrates Jesus as the universal Lord. The men from the East signified that people from ‘east and west’ had come to pay homage to Jesus, the ultimate revealer of God’s love and fellowship. The period of advent used to start on December 17th and it was a festival period of prayers and activities celebrating that Jesus had arrived, rather than it being a preparation period during which we wait for Jesus to arrive. 


Homily for a priest
Some years ago in the United States, a group of seminarians were on retreat. They were due to be ordained deacons later in the year. As part of the retreat, the seminary rector arranged for the seminarians to undertake a three kilometre walk following a direct route, to a church in the city where they were to spend 30 minutes in prayer, before returning home the same way. They were asked to walk alone and not talk with one another until they had returned.

After they arrived home, the rector invited into the room where they were gathered, ten people, and he asked the seminarians if they recognised any of them. None of them did.

He then explained that he had asked these people to take up positions along the route the students took to the church and back. Some had been dressed as beggars. One had lay down on the pavement. Some asked for help. Not one of the students even stopped to acknowledge them!

Humour
A heart surgeon was waiting for the service manager to come take a look at his bike when a mechanic shouted across the garage, 
“Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?”

The surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to where the mechanic was working on the motorcycle.

The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag, and asked, “So, Doc, look at this engine I open its heart, take valves out, fix 'em, put 'em back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?”