CNA Staff, Oct 17, 2020 / 12:00 am (CNA).-
There is an ancient legend about Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and a spider.
After Jesus was born, the Holy Family fled into Egypt, while baby boys were being slaughtered by order of King Herod. The legend says that one night the family stopped to sleep in a cave. There was a spider in that cave, the story goes, who knew the infant Jesus was a special child.
According to the legend, the spider felt called to do something unexpected— something that would save Mary, Joseph, and Jesus from soldiers sent by King Herod on a terrible mission.
The legend of that spider — “The Spider Who Saved Christmas” — became well-known in some parts of the world. In fact, some people say that tinsel is placed on Christmas trees to remember the web of that spider. The legend is now told in a new children’s book, released this month by children’s author and television host Raymond Arroyo.
“The Spider Who Saved Christmas,” Arroyo told CNA “fills an important gap in the Christmas story, one we don’t often consider.”
“I discovered this Legend in a footnote of a Bible commentary,” Arroyo said, and “was intrigued.”
“My telling of the legend is really all about motherhood, sacrifice, family, and overcoming fear to recognize the hope that is often all around us. I expanded the spare tale, created some characters and got to spend some time with the Holy Family. It actually made me appreciate them and their struggle in a new way,” the author said.
Arroyo is well-known as a television host on the EWTN network and on Fox News. He told CNA that “in my heart, I have always been a story teller. I’ve told stories on television, through music, and with the written word. A well told story is often more true than assembled facts, and they often stay with audiences longer.”
“The Spider Who Saved Christmas” is not Arroyo’s first book for children. The author has also written three installments in a series of adventure stories, and is working on a fourth.
“I started writing for younger audiences because of my own children,” Arroyo said, adding that he intends to write more illustrated books based upon legends of times past.
“I think these old stories have survived largely because they contain a bit of wisdom that we need for living. I’ve always thought that every good story is a guide for life. The series will likely contain forgotten, or discarded stories that I think need a bit of attention. They won’t all be origin stories. But they will give a wide audience an opportunity to look at figures they thought they knew, or consider stories they thought they understood in a different light,” he said.
“I’ve always loved the first books I read. I don’t really consider them children’s literature, but great literature. ‘Treasure Island,’ ‘Peter Pan,’ ‘Charlotte’s Web,’ can be enjoyed by children, but the deeper themes and the truth contained in them are quite adult.”
“When I wrote my Will Wilder series, I decided to write for both young audiences as well as their parents and guardians. I love books that you can return to later in life and find a different story. I also love sharing these stories with young audiences. They hold a book closer than adults. So though I will likely write for adults again, I’ll never stop writing what the world condescendingly calls ‘children’s literature.’ It’s actually better termed ‘human formation literature.’”
Arroyo told CNA he appreciates the “challenge of writing for young audiences. They won’t tolerate the artifice, deceptions, humorlessness that adults will. Kids are actually quite clear-eyed. They expect truth, understanding, and fun. I try to bring all that to them, even when writing about a spider named Nephila.”
[…]
There is no such thing as transgender.
No one, not even the most powerful judge, the most gifted surgeon nor the most persuasive politician can physically remove the Y-chromosomes from a man and turn that man into a woman. Nor can any of the above inject Y-chromosomes into a woman to make her into a man.
Anything beyond that is mere pretense.
That being said, there is no constitutional verbiage anywhere that protects or can be presumed to protect the notion or concept of a publicly, all encompassing judicially enforced pretense.
Law is law, and make believe is make believe. Never presume to confuse the one with the other.
Otherwise, these mid-level judiciaries will be seen for what they are – a collective bunch of emperors parading around in their new clothes, to the amusement of all.
Judge Hurson is certainly an advocate for LGBT ideology and not an impartial advocate for justice. Nor does he pay regard to the overwhelming findings of studies here and abroad, Sweden and Finland among the early advocates of trans surgery who have now radically changed their position based on facts that are counter to his bias.
Following by analogy the Apostle in response to the circumcisers, Hurson, if convinced of the need for confused children to be sexually mutilated justified by the plight of adult homosexuals should castrate himself.
Dark humor aside, that perhaps judge Hurson make an extravagant gesture of support we’re within a moment of an entirely new paradigm, within which opposites have become conventional. Wherein Harry became Sally, Black White, Catholic Christianity the Church of martyrs an innocuous discussion club. What will save us Lord? Certainly the Eucharist.
That answer is increasingly manifest in new structures within the Church although not structured as adjuncts of the Church. These are among several such, the Catholic website. Not your average discussion club. Certainly not a mime of the Synod. Men of women mostly with faith some searching some skeptics worldwide when at best seeking understanding supportive drawing visions ideas solutions. A living Church within the Church that has lost its raison d’etre.