Again Moses showed his courage and prowess as a warrior because he took on the shepherds (perhaps with the girls' help) and routed them.
For 250 years the code, found on the Shepherds' Monument at Shugborough Hall, has mystified visitors, including Charles Darwin.
I was in trouble a lot and few of the children around me were stupid or brave enough to be friends with someone on the shepherds' radar.
Van der Goes's masterpiece, and his only securely documented work, is the large triptych usually known as the Portinari Altarpiece (c. 1474 76) with a scene called The Adoration of the Shepherds on the centre panel.
For Ottawa's most serious alcoholics, the door to the managed alcohol system is in the city's downtown area, on the ground floor of the Shepherds' building, which used to be known as Hope Recovery.
When then the angels sang of 'Peace on Earth' to the shepherds, the disciples on Palm Sunday now take up the response by singing of 'Peace in heaven'.
A bit of background: In 1700 a group of English nobles, intending to promote native-born opera, offered a prize to the best setting of a William Congreve libretto based on the mythic tale of the shepherd Paris, called on to judge the worthiest among the goddesses Athena, Juno and Venus.
A lovely, all-encompassing sentiment for Christmas, this is what an angel said to the shepherds on a hill near Bethlehem, according to the King James version.
The spirit of Christmas - and of Christianity - is summed up in the declaration of the Angels to the shepherds on the hills overlooking Bethlehem: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men".
Each morning, well before dawn in the Perthshire hills, the first sound of the day is that of the shepherd on his quad bike, setting out to inspect his sheep.
During the play, Frances, who has the role of the angel who appears to the shepherds, chokes on her lines; but at the critical moment, when musician and monkey enter the church, she recovers, and the angelic announcement is made.
