Suffering With Joy

Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival

March 14, 2010

Welcome to Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival hosted by RAnn at This That and The Other Thing.  Catholic bloggers get together in RAnn’s virtual living room to read each other’s favorite posts and we invite anyone who wishes to join us.  If you have a blog, put a post up on this and link to This That and The Other Thing.  If you don’t have a blog, come, read, and enjoy yourself.  It’s a great way to meet others Catholics and discover their interests.

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1515-1516, Hieronymus Bosch (b. ca. 1450, 's-Hertogenbosch, d. 1516, 's-Hertogenbosch), Oil on panel, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent

This week I started posting my favorite Stations of the Cross with a beautiful English translation from the Bible and prayers from the Traditional Latin Mass.  These translations are no longer available since they were changed after the second Vatican Council.  I happen to have one of the original booklets from St. John’s in Collegeville and wanted to share the beauty with everyone.  Each station can serve as a meditation for the day if desired. Click on the link to find the opening prayers and then you can go through the blog for each one.  I especially like how perfectly paired the verses of the Stabat Mater are with each station.

Pope Benedict spoke on beauty – A Privileged and Fascinating Path and I excerpted some of it.  He makes the theology of Romanesque and Gothic art fascinating and I was able to drop in some images of exemplary churches.  You have no idea how I wanted to go to town on this and include many more images!

Here’s a short note on Antonin Dvorák’s Stabat Mater. It is one of the most beautiful composed and you will see why in my post.  There’s a link to my Custom Shop where you can order it if you like.

There’s a little of my story here and some fruit from my Lenten reading here if you are interested.

The Bosch painting in this post today is considered one of his greatest works.  In the lower left is Veronica leaving after she has wiped Jesus’s face.  You can just see His image on the cloth.  Bosch paints the serene face of Christ in stark contrast to the evil visages of the mob around Him and the colors are dark and foreboding.

Bosch is well known for his ability to portray the horrors of evil and its consequences.  As a child I didn’t like his work because it really scared me, but most likely that is exactly what he meant to do.  We should be afraid to do evil or to associate with it.  After all, hell is not a pretty place.

Tags: trust in God