The Book of Feasts & Seasons by John C. Wright

A collection of stories in varying styles revolving around the Catholic calendar. From the short story: Advent: A grieving widower travels back in time to ask God, “Why?” The widower is talking at a man he has just rescued after a mugging by Roman soldiers: 

 

“You think he is coming to throw out the Romans? Is that all?”

                “Isn’t that enough? No human power can defeat them. Should we hope for something even greater? Not just to restore our kingdom, but also to conquer theirs? Ah! Strange and wondrous indeed if all the Roman world bent the knee and served the God of Abraham! But that will never happen. Never.”

                “Don’t be so sure . . .” I muttered.

                “Be that as it may,” said ben Sahir, “My father says the Greeks were worse than the Romans. The Greeks did not enforce their own laws. And they use their slave-boys as girls.”

                “Uh? Greeks here?”

                “You must be from very far north. It was only fifty or sixty years ago. Hyrcanus and Aristobulus fought for the throne when the Queen died, and Pompey the Great aided Hyrcanus, and the rule passed to the Herodians, and Romans, who came as guests, did not leave, but stayed as masters. And it is not as if all the Greeks living here suddenly vanished, or went home.

                “Before that, it was Alexander the Great,” he said. He half-smiled, but his voice was infinitely weary. “Before that, Cyrus the Great. And before that, Nebuchadnezzar the Great. All the great men of history march through our land to tread upon us.

                “There is rebellion in the air,” he continued. “The Romans can smell it. They have conquered everyone, so they know the smell of mutiny growing ripe. Why do you think they declared tax-gathering time. Never before have we been orders to march the roads to the houses of our fathers and pay the tax there. It is not Roman law. Come, you are a learned man. I can tell from your outlandish accent! You make the mistakes learned men make, you learn the language from books. Why do you think they are taxing us this way, now, at this time?”

                I shook my head. I was already sorry I had volunteered to carry his load. The sun was declining to the west, and it was cooler now, but my legs were aching and blisters were developing.

Book title: Book of Feasts and Seasons

Author: John C. Wright

Author's web page: http:// http://www.scifiwright.com/

Author’s faith: Catholic

Genre: Speculative

Subgenre: Science Fiction

Story Tags: time travel, Israel, Holidays, Christian history, short stories

Publication Date: Nov. 29^th, 2014

Buy the book at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Feasts-Seasons-John-Wright-ebook/dp/B00QEDGIQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426181737&sr=8-1&keywords=john+c+wright+book+of