What day could be better to rejoice in after Gaudete Sunday than the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas? Thanks, Blessed Pope John Paul II.  She is the main patroness of this blog.  If you would like to read the story I wrote about her, go here.

I also wrote: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Feast in Advent which tells how her first appearance relates to Advent and features a gorgeous painting by Norma Salazar.

America has the power to lead the world morally (but she’s not); the foundation of morals is Life (God).  May Our Lady of Guadalupe obtain the grace necessary for our country to set the moral example for all nations to choose life for all their people and stop killing babies in the womb, stop euthanasia, stop organ harvesting from prisoners, and all the other offenses against God that insult the Author of life and destroy His creation.

May many more selfless people in imitation of the selflessness of the Mother of God, rise up to witness to God’s love for every person.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Immaculate Conception c.1626, Peter Pauwel Reubens, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Today is the 65th anniversary of my Baptism.  I’ve often thought how very blessed I am to have been received into the Church on this day when the Church celebrates Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

Now, on to the sensus fidelium part of this post. The Latin words mean “sense of the faithful”. It refers to doctrinal truth recognized (sensed) by the whole body of the faithful. This concept can be traced back to the early Fathers of the Church.

In the case of the Immaculate Conception we have the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin existing from the earliest days Church.  Throughout the centuries, this doctrine was commonly held by the faithful (sensus fidelium) without question.  It wasn’t until December 8, 1854, however, that the dogma was officially pronounced.  Blessed Pope Pius IX issued ex cathedra the Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus, in which he said:

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

As Catholics, we give full assent to this dogma with our will and intellect.  The issuance of the Apostolic Constitution closed the door on any theological debate over this dogma forever, and the Pope only did it after hearing from all the faithful through their bishops.

We can look back to 1854 and see how important the official declaration of this dogma was.  With all the bold, ugly attacks on the Virgin Mary and Jesus by various kinds of people in the 20th and 21st centuries, the Catholic Church holds Mary up as the model to emulate in the face of all this blasphemy.  Moreover she watches over us brothers and sisters of Christ and never fails to encourage us to live the way God created us to live.

We celebrate her feast and honor her because God singled her out to be the immaculate Mother of Jesus, our Savior.  In the midst of secularism, materialism, and all the other “isms” in this world, we can glorify God for His generous love through the gift of Mary and her Immaculate Conception.

Many artists have portrayed the Immaculate Conception with similar themes.  My favorite is the one by Reubens.  You can see the references to Mary in Genesis and Revelation here, along with the symbols of purity and victory held by the cherubs.  What I like best is the gold Reubens used for the rays and the gentle, humble expression on her beautiful face.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

Not a great deal is made of this feast in the Catholic calendar.  True, it is celebrated in the Divine Office and in the propers of the Mass, but it is not a Holy Day of Obligation.  Yet the birthday of Our Lady heralded the immanent coming of the Light that shone in the darkness so I don’t want to let this special day pass without honoring the Mother of God at my blog.

Rorate Caeli published a beautiful meditation on the Nativity of Mary that I recommend to all my readers for a deep appreciation of Our Lady’s role in salvation history.  It is far better than anything I could write:

Our Lady in the Month of Her Nativity

The Birth of Mary, 1486-90, Domenico Ghirlandaio ((b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze), Fresco, Cappella Tornabuoni, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a Saturday meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read of moments other bloggers had when “being” with God rather than “doing” touched their lives, and when they found Him in the ordinary.

This week Roger and I judged the 4H photography entries for the county.  Although there were less than 20 entries, we found some real talent in those young people.  The top blue ribbon went to a young man who captured a moment of God’s majesty in a lightening storm.  On the left was half a rainbow.  From the right, reaching across a gloomy sky to the rainbow were two bolts of lightening. The young man who captured this moment on film was only 15.

I love to see how God blesses His children with talents and I loved writing suggestions for improvement to each of the kids who worked hard to submit images.  We don’t know what plans God has for these young people, but we do know that they will help others find Him in beauty.

This morning in the Divine Office of the Blessed Virgin on Saturday the lesson from Prime comes from Cant. 2:10-17.  For years I’ve pondered its meaning and today I finally understood at least a little of it.  This passage is the Church, the Bride of Christ speaking of the Savior who “feeds among the lilies” (the pure and chaste) until the day break (the 2^nd coming) and the shadows retire (no more death, suffering, demonic power against His bride).

My Beloved speaks to me: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come.  For winter is now past, the rains are over and gone.  The flowers have appeared in our land, the time of pruning is come: the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.  The fig tree has budded her green figs; the vines in flower yield their sweet scent.  Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come.  My dove in the clefts of the rocks, in the hollow place of the wall, show me thy face, let thy  voice sound in my ears; for thy voice is sweet and thy face comely.  My beloved to me and I to him who feeds among the lilies, till the day break and the shadows retire.

I know there is much more symbolism to ponder in this passage, but I’m thrilled to have finally gotten a start in probing the depths.  My takeaway from this sudden burst of understanding is that we must spend time every day looking for scriptural understanding, whether it be in reputable blogs, books, or meditation.  If I had not stumbled upon a convert’s post about the psalms being the prayer of the Church, I would not have thought to look at this passage as the Bride of Christ speaking of Her relationship with our Savior.

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  I believe the Blessed Mother gave me this sudden gift of understanding today, even though I don’t deserve it.  But isn’t that what a loving mother does – gives her kids signs of affection just because?

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Our Lady of the Sign - The Star of Evangelization

May is Mary’s month and today I bring you an exquisite icon all of us Catholic bloggers can adopt as an image reflecting what we do in spreading the love of Christ to all.

In recent years I’ve really begun to appreciate icons.  Growing up I wasn’t exposed to them except for Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  Every Tuesday evening people would gather at the side altar of our parish church where her picture hung to pray a novena.  We children were taught to have a devotion to her in all our needs.

No one explained what an icon was and I thought they were strange images – so different from the beautiful Renaissance images of Our Lady and the lovely statue of Our Lady of Grace my parents gave me for First Communion.

At first I didn’t like icons at all.  But over the years I felt I was missing something about them and had no idea of their deep and ancient  symbolism.  So I set out to learn more, and doors to understanding our Eastern liturgies and the blessings of icons flew open.

Marek Czarnecki, owner of Seraphic Restorations and writer of the icon in today’s post says this about iconography:

Iconography is a fundamental liturgical art originating in the earliest days of the Christian Church. Developed, practiced and preserved primarily by the Eastern Rite, iconography provides authentic, meaningful and dignified images which exemplify the larger consciousness of the Christian Church. Icons carry a patrimony of both theology and art, conveying essential dogmatic and biographical information, embodying the presence of the holy ones depicted.

One who creates icons is called an “icon writer” and he must follow a prescribed set of rules or Canon.  Czarnecki lists these as:

• Proper compositional structure
• Proper development of a “schema” or design illustrating the historical likeness of the person depicted as well as expressing the truths realized by his or her life in symbols, without altering the integrity of the Canon.
• Proper development of the “schema” using traditionally prescribed colors.
• Use of natural and durable materials
• Development of harmonious, artistic immediacy and beauty without compromising symbolic depth.

If you have ever seen a video of icon writers, you will notice that they always make the sign of the cross before beginning and often fast ahead of time.  This is sacred work.

Our Lady of the Sign – the Star of Evangelization is an adaptation of the ancient Byzantine prototype, written to illustrate Pope John Paul II’s praise of Our Lady as the “star of evangelization”. I think it is the most beautiful icon of Our Lady I’ve ever seen and very fitting for our age when the Popes are repeatedly calling the laity to evangelize.  It was commissioned by Holy Spirit Friary, Franciscan University of Stuebenville OH.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Here we are with another round of Sunday Snippets, hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing. Visit her to read other Catholic/Christian bloggers’ posts for the week.

My favorite source for Advent meditation is the beautiful Rorate Caeli Desuper (Advent Prose), both from a music and prayer standpoint.  I wish I had a superb recording of the Benedictines of Fontgombault to put behind a video I’d like to make of it, if only I knew how!

I put several little inspirational things to meditate on quickly at Something to Chew on for Advent.

Advent with Mary and Joseph is an article in the December Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter.

At Hail, Mary I put my favorite painting of the Immaculate Conception, quotes from Mass and the Divine Office for the day, and tied it up with a comment on concupiscence. I like short quotes that run in the back of my mind all day on a feast.

Sabbath Moments are real blessings from God.

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 48 is my meditation from a Christmas perspective.

Our Lady of Guadalupe under the title: Morning Star, Norma Salazar Orozco, oil on canvas

Today just wouldn’t be right without a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a link to my article about her along with a quote from my December 11 post from last year.  I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for over a year now!

The painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe in this post is by Norma Salazar Orozco, a gifted Mexican artist from a family of gifted artists.  Visit her site and see how she has used Our Lady’s image from the tilma to illustrate Mary’s different titles.  Among their many subjects, the Orozco family is obviously devoted to honoring the Blessed Mother in art.  If you love art, you will love the work of this family and their story.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Immaculate Conception c.1626, Peter Pauwel Reubens, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

This is my all time favorite painting of the Immaculate Conception. Perhaps it is because of the gold Reubens used to paint the rays and the stars.  Surely the biblical symbolism is wonderfully executed.

From today’s liturgy:

Introit: Is. 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice He hath covered me, as a bride adorned with her jewels.

Collect:

O God, Who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, didst prepare for Thy Son a worthy habitation, we beseech Thee, that as Thou didst preserve her from every stain by the foreseen death of this Thy Son, so Thou wouldst grant that we also being cleansed from the guilt by her intercession, may come to Thee.  Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end.  Amen.

Gradual: Jud. 13:23; 15:10

Blessed art thou, O Virgin Mary, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the earth.  Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honor of our people.

Alleluia: Cant. 4:7

Alleluia, alleluia.  Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the original stain was never in thee.  Alleluia.

Offertory: Lk. 1:28

Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, alleluia.

Vespers of the Divine Office:

V.  Today is the Immaculate Conception of the holy Virgin Mary.

R.  Who with her virginal foot crushed the head of the serpent.

Today at Mass I found myself pondering: Imagine a life without concupiscence. Then I was reading Father Lovasik’s book on Kindness and found this quote from St. John Vianney: “We must ask for the love of crosses, and then they become sweet.”

A life without concupiscence is a life without sin.  To be without sin is to be modeled after Jesus and Mary.  To be without sin happens when we truly love the cross.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Our Lady of Czestochowa

Pope John Paul II and composer Henryk Gorecki had much in common.  Both were Poles, both lost their mothers at young ages, both resisted and thwarted the Communists oppressing their country,  both experienced deeply the anguish of World War II and the Holocaust, both became great because of strength of character and moral authority.

Cardinal Wojtyla’s motto, Totus Tuus, spoke of his great love for the Blessed Mother both personally and as a Pole.  She is intimately tied to the Polish people whose devotion to her is unexcelled by any other nation. They weave Mary into the tapestry of their daily, ordinary life, their spiritual life, their family life. Shrines to Our Lady dot the countryside along the many pilgrim paths.

Certainly as boys who had lost their mothers early in life, Mary as tender mother held a special place in the hearts of Gorecki and Wojtyla.  When he became Pope John Paul II, Wojtyla kept this motto and love of the Blessed Mother for the rest of his days, a counterpoint to those in the Church who strove to scrub her from notice.

Gorecki’s life and the Pope’s life intersected at several points, their relationship speaking of a high regard for one another.  The first notable event was the commissioning of Beatus vir by Cardinal Wojtyla for the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stanislas, bishop of Krakow, who was assassinated by King Boleslaw I over sins the King didn’t want to give up.  I will write more about this in my next post on Gorecki.

Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland several times.  For the 1987 pilgrimage to his native land, the Pope’s friend Gorecki composed the hauntingly beautiful Totus Tuus in the his honor.  Written for mixed choir, Gorecki immortalized in music the Pope’s life theme:

Totus tuus sum Maria,
Mater nostri Redemptoris.
Virgo Dei, virgo pia
Mater mundi Salvatoris.
Totus tuus sum, Maria!

I am completely yours, Mary,
Mother of our Redeemer.
Virgin Mother of God, loving virgin,
Mother of the Saviour of the world.
I am completely yours, Mary!

Here is the Choir of New College, Oxford delivering the  work in its entirety.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Nativity, Lorenzo di Bicci (b 1373, Firenze, d. 1452, Firenze), Poplar, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

Today is a significant feast day surrounding the doctrine of the Incarnation. In 1931, in commemoration of the 15th centenary of the Council of Ephesus, Pope Pius XI decreed that from that time forward a feast in the honor of the Motherhood of Mary would be celebrated on October eleventh throughout the entire Church.

Ephesus was Our Lady’s last known home, and her holy house is visited by throngs of Christians and Muslims every year. It was fitting that in 431 the bishops of the entire Church met in the Church of Mary, the Mother of God, to assert the truth that in His Person, Jesus Christ is true God and true man.

Why did the bishops need to hold this council?

Because the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, appointed by Emperor Theodosius II, was preaching that the title, Theotokos, which had been applied to Mary since the very early Church, should not be used. His false teaching, called the Nestorian heresy, asserted that Christ was a mere man, but united to God.  According to him, Jesus of Nazareth and the Word of God were two distinct persons.

The logical corollary to this was that Mary was only the mother of the human person, Christ.

This attack on the Personhood of Christ was also, then, an attack on the person and dignity God gave the Blessed Mother. Moreover, we can see that this dual person idea would have lead to all sorts of other problems, not the least of which would be the question, when Jesus is quoted in the Bible, is it Jesus, the man, or Jesus, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity? Many questions would be raised, then, about the weight and truth of His words.

During these times the Church was battling the heresies of Arianism, Apollinarianism, Pelagianism, Monophysitism, and Ebionitism among others. Pope Celestine ordered St. Cyril of Alexandria, a doctor of the Church, to draw up a form for Nestorius’s recantation of his errors. With the help of an Egyptian council he formulated a set of twelve anathematisms which simply epitomize the errors he had pointed out in his five books “Against Nestorius”. Unfortunately, Nestorius wouldn’t retract his mistakes and answered St. Cyril’s twelve anathemas with twelve contra-anathemas.

For the sake of the Faith this situation could not be allowed to continue, so the Pope called the council of Ephesus where the bishops declared the true teaching of the Church as we find it in the Athanasian Creed:

This is true faith, to believe and confess that Our Lord Jesus Christ is God and man.  Although at the same time God and man, yet He is one and the same Person.

It follows logically from this, that Mary, in becoming the human mother of the Person of Christ is the Mother of God.

Unfortunately because of his bullheadedness, Nestorius was the cause of the Nestorian Schism, one of the splits that occurred in the Church at this time, the effects we still find today in the Assyrian Church of the East.

Pius XI in his 1931 decree commended to the whole Church Mary and the Holy Family of Nazareth as models of the dignity and holiness of chaste wedlock, and as patterns of the holy education of youth.

At the right is a detail from the above image.  On Our Lady’s shoulder is a star, the ancient symbol of her as Theotokos, “God-bearer”, the Mother of God. We find it in many icons from ancient times up to the present, and frequently in paintings up to the 1500s.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Welcome to Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing where Catholic bloggers gather to share their favorite posts for the week.  If you have a blog, make a Sunday Snippets post, link to RAnn and leave a link at her site to your post.  If you don’t have a blog, join us anyway.

This has been a tough week.  Our 15 1/2 year old dog had a cancerous tumor removed from her leg and we had big vet bills and vet visits.  Then there were other unusual things that kept me from working on my blog until Thursday, but I do have a few things to offer.  No chance to do any digital art, though.

A friend gave me Our Lady of Kibeho and I read it cover-to-cover, hardly being able to put it down.  Now I want to read Imaculée Ilibagiza’s other two books on surviving the genocide in Rwanda. If you have not heard of Our Lady of Kibeho, I hope you enjoy my post about it.

One of the great by-products of participating in memes is stumbling on interesting people, places and things as part of contributing to the meme.  Not long after I started joining Jenny in Praying the Psalms I discovered a Jewish artist who has a museum in Jerusalem where his illustrations of all 150  psalms are on display.  I was so taken with his work and his story I had to write about it.  In Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger – Painter of the Psalms I tell a little of his story and in Interpreting Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger’s Paintings I explain a little about his art using his illustration of Psalm 9.

Feldheim publishing has a beautiful book of his paintings and his commentaries on them that I would love to have some day.  And I would like to go to visit him in Jerusalem.  Well, I guess those are a couple of things I will have to offer up in exchange for some extra grace since neither is likely to happen.

For a short commentary on Psalm 29 read my post Praying the Psalms where you will see another of Berger’s paintings.

For a couple of my quiet times with the Lord, visit Sabbath Moments.

God bless all my readers and thanks for joining me.

Our Lady of Kibeho

This week a friend sent me the book, Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa.  As a little girl I was entranced by the apparitions of Fatima and Lourdes and the reminders the Blessed Virgin gave to all men to repent and do penance so that many souls would be saved.  In recent years I learned that Jesus sent His mother to Akita, Japan with similar messages in the 1970s, but only in the last few years did I hear of Our Lady of Kibeho.

What makes Kibeho so appealing is that Our Lady came to one of the poorest countries in the heart of Africa to open hearts to Jesus. As in Fatima and Lourdes, she chose young people to convey urgent messages to the people, to government officials, and to the bishops – messages urging Rwandans to end the ethnic hatred in their country, to repent of their sins, and to make Jesus the center of their lives.  These messages were meant not only for Rwanda but for the whole world.  Jesus and Mary told the visionaries that they came to Rwanda to let all the people know that even the poorest of the poor in the world were in their hearts.

Eight of the visionaries have been declared by the Church to be authentic, but during the years between 1982 and 1994 many people in remote villages throughout the country claimed to have seen both Jesus and Our Lady.  It is likely that these appearances were authentic in many cases.  The bishops just did not have the manpower to examine all of them and so stopped with the eight visionaries.  Not all the people who saw them were Catholic or even Christian.  One illiterate young man (one of the eight authenticated) was pagan and so were his parents.  Yet Jesus came to him personally and taught him the complete Bible and infused deep theological knowledge in his heart, sending him throughout all Rwanda to spread the Gospel.

One striking fact reported by the visionaries was that Our Lady’s skin glowed with such a light they could not tell if it was white or black.  Some of them were taken to see both heaven and hell.  And, as at Fatima and Lourdes, Our Lady asked for daily praying of the rosary, the prayers that bring the Gospel alive in our minds every time we meditate on the mysteries.  She also taught one of the visionaries the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, an old devotion in the Church but unknown in Africa and asked that she spread this devotion to everyone.  The Blessed Virgin also asked that a basilica in her honor be built in Kibeho, and the people also built a small chapel of the Seven Sorrows there.

Even as Our Lady warned the people that Rwanda would become a “river of blood” if the hatred of the people was not quickly stopped, miracle after miracle occurred in Kibeho amongst the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who flocked to this remote village.  Sadly, neither the government officials nor the people repented of the hatred, and the prophetic warnings came true during 100 horrifying days of mass murder and genocide.  Rwanda in 1994 was awash in blood amongst unspeakable suffering.

Nineteen-eighty-two was not that long ago, nor was 1994.  Is there less hatred in the world today or more?  How can man be so stubborn that even in the face of major miracles and stark evidence of God’s love in this day and time, that he will not excise evil from his heart?  What horrors will be visited upon this world as we continue to lie, cheat, steal and murder one another?  It was not a lack of grace from heaven to change hearts that brought about the slaughter in Rwanda.  It was man’s hardening against the grace and stubborn refusal to accept the grace available to everyone.  Let Kibeho speak to us today and let us heed the messages by daily conversion of heart.

Our Lady of Kibeho was written by Immaculée Ilibagiza who survived the Rwandan genocide and lived in hiding for several years afterwards.  She is well acquainted with the apparitions and several of the visionaries. I have put this book in my Custom Shop, or you can click on the links in this post to purchase it from Amazon.

The Visitation, Vicente Masip (b. ca. 1475, Andilla, d. 1550, Valencia), panel, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Today is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Mother to her cousin Elizabeth.  Mary, newly carrying Jesus in her womb, brought the sanctifying grace of Baptism to St. John the Baptist as he rested in the waters of the womb of Elizabeth. He lept and his mother felt it.  Beyond the obvious pro-life message of this incident recounted by St. Luke (1: 37-47), many other lessons, especially those of trusting in the Lord abound in this ten verse passage.

And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.

Mary trusted.  Elizabeth trusted.  Both pointed to Jesus as did St. John the Baptist from the womb to his death.  What God asked of them they did without question and the whole human race was saved.

God has His plans for us, too, and those plans are not only for our own good but for the good of others.  We all have a part in helping others to heaven, no matter how small.  The difficult thing is to do God’s will without second guessing Him.  Mary did not second guess God and neither did Elizabeth.

On Wednesday of this week as I was chopping beans for blanching before freezing and pulling leaves off mint stems, my back was really hurting but the job had to be done.  Standing at the kitchen sink I had a bit of an epiphany.  Learning to trust in God is my big spiritual job right now.   As I thanked God for the goods of the garden I also saw that I had to thank Him for everything else He sends me, including pain and fatigue and anything else disagreeable in my life, as well as the good things. I saw that the spirit of thankfulness reflects belief and trust that He knows what is best for me.

We can’t give what we don’t have.  If we are to be like Mary carrying Christ to Elizabeth, we have to do whatever necessary to imitate her faith and trust, letting Christ grow in us.  If we are to be like Elizabeth who received Christ and His mother, we have to do whatever is necessary to recognize Him in the many hidden ways He comes to us and the many gifts He gives us. These are the little day-by-day acts that constitute doing our part in God’s plan for the salvation of souls.  We don’t need to know the specifics.  We just need to follow faithfully where He leads us growing in His grace.  Someday all will be clear to us and we will be eternally praising Him with joy.

Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this every Saturday.  Sabbath Moments are the times when we rest in God.

By now my readers know that beauty, especially natural beauty, moves me to God. This week I took some photos of veggies in our garden to include in one of my posts.  As I turned to go back to the house I saw the Stella d’oro daylilies blooming in an attractive pattern.

I confess that all flowers remind me of Our Lady, and these joyful blooms are no exception. The golden color for the Queen of heaven, for the “House of Gold” in the Litany of the BVM; and the elegant drape of the green leaves as of a full skirt on an ante bellum gown, green the color of hope and renewal, said to me, “I am here.” Everywhere I turn God shows Himself and so often He brings His most perfect creation, the Blessed Virgin, with Him.

Often my Sabbath Moments are just that – moments – a quick second when I think of God and His goodness and generosity to us.  Seeing the daylilies was one. In the midst of all the evil afflicting the world, God continues to say that He is here and wants us to acknowledge Him as our Creator and Redeemer, as the One Who loves totally in a way we can never completely comprehend.

Let us praise Him for His wondrous deeds, great and small, and let us show Him to others joyfully, as the daylilies do, in all we do and say.

It is Mary’s month all of May.  That is my excuse to bring my readers some beautiful paintings I stumbled upon when I was searching for information on the Madonna with Child Clothed with Sunlight that I blogged about last week in the post Decoding Sacred Art.

"Carol" - Click on the image for information on the meaning and the poem which inspired it

From the University of Dayton which hosted this exhibit:

“Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry” is a collection of fifty-four paintings by Wislawa Kwiatkowska from the Diocesan Museum in Plock, Poland.

...The verses of the modern Polish poets who inspired the paintings of Wislawa Kwiatkowska likewise emphasize the presence and influence of Mary in Polish daily life. Mary is found in settings familiar to Poles —  a garden of dill, a forest strewn with mushrooms, lush flower gardens, holy shrines, and sites that recall Poland’s tragic history; wherever Poles live and breathe, Mary is there with them, and her presence is commemorated in Polish poetry and painting. In fact, Mary is understood to be so intimately present in daily life that the poems — and the paintings — often reveal a folksy, humorous quality.

The Art of Wislawa Kwiatkowska

In the work of Mrs. Kwiatkowska, the influence of nineteenth century art can be detected, but it does not overpower her own unique style, which she developed through the years. She studied at the Academy of Art in Warsaw and in its Department of Art Preservation and Restoration.The world of her works is filled with imagination, decorum, fantasy, and fable, but her paintings are not without realism. Flowers, plants, and birds provide depth. She employs colors that are bold, bright, and crisp. A characteristic of her work is to join the picture, painted on canvas cloth, with the frame, which eliminates the distance between the work and the viewer. The pictures are painted in oil and measure 90  cm x 75 cm each.

Wislawa Kwiatkowska has also produced many pedagogical works for children, filled with drawings of butterflies, flowers, and animals. In addition, she illustrated the stories of Hans Christian Andersen and The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery.

"Soldier's Fate" - Click on the image for information on the meaning and the poem which inspired it

This painting, Soldier’s Fate, reminds me of our valiant men and women who suffer and die in combat every day.  One could just as well paint Mary weeping over the dead on today’s battlefields all over the world.  The message, while explicitly Polish, is universal for all times and places.  She is, after all, the Mother of us all.

Kwiatkowska’s work is appealing for many reasons, but especially for the intense feeling of love for the Blessed Mother. The Bogarodzica, the Polish “Mother of God”, brought the Poles through many wars, the communist regime of post-World War II, and now into the 21st century where this Eastern European country may provide an enduring witness to Christ and leadership in justice that the world so sorely needs. If it can hold to it’s Christian roots, it may well be the last Christian state in Europe from which the seed of restoration may spring.

Be sure to visit the Polish Madonna exhibit site to see all of Kwiatkowska’s works that were  displayed and use them to pray for the conversion of sinners and world peace. For myself, I never get tired of looking at these lovingly painted images of Our Lady.

Madonna with Child Clothed in Sunlight, detail, c. 1450-60, tempera on panel, parish church in Przydonica, Poland

Since it’s May, Mary’s month, in her honor I wanted to spread devotion to her through a special painting.  A few years ago I stumbled upon this beautiful work of art and earlier this year traced its origins.  Ever since I first saw it, I was captivated by it and hope others will be,too.

Sacred art has always been a way of teaching the truths of the Faith and this piece, Madonna with Child Clothed in Sunlight, is no exception.  Although I knew much of what the painting said, I lacked an understanding of its total meaning.  Fortunately a kind priest who writes icons and teaches art enlightened me so I can now bring a good and much more complete interpretation of it to you.

Considering the history of Poland and the age of this work, we are very fortunate that it still exists.  My feeling is that it should be made widely known and loved not just as an example of great art, but because of its spiritual significance. That it resides in a small parish church in the diocese of Tarnow, Poland in the town of Przydonica means this treasure is not very accessible to most people.

Great art is timeless.  Its message is ever old and ever new in immutable truth. Painted between 1450-1460 by an unknown artist, this unusual image is obviously the Woman of the Apocalypse clothed in the sun with the moon beneath her feet, but there is a great deal more than that to it.

A painting of tempura on panel, this work is a blend of eastern and western art in the style of icons and of the Italian school of the time which alone makes it noteworthy. Renaissance painting styles came from Italy to France, then to Prague and then to Northern Europe. The use of gold is a technique imported from Italy while the position of Mother and Baby are similar to many icons.

Our Lady stands atop a downward curved crescent moon with a face beneath.  Educated people of the 15^th century knew astronomy and the cycles of the moon.  In the west the “man in the moon” was a common portrayal in art, poetry, and literature because westerners see a man in the moon. (Asians see a rabbit in the moon.)

Whenever Mary is shown with the moon it means she, like the moon, reflects the light of the sun who is the Son of God. Standing above the face depicts her exalted status above all others in the human race.  She is crowned as queen and her damask robe is studded with diadems along the edge, as is the Baby Jesus’s robe, also a sign of royalty.

This painting is unique for many reasons, particularly because it is very rare to find artists showing Our Lady clothed in damask. Damask is a type of woven cloth originating in Damascus, Syria, a crossroads between east and west on the most important route of the old Silk Road.  From the time of the Crusades on, many Catholics made pilgrimages to the Holy Land from all over Europe, including Poland.  Damascus was a safe stop on the journey and from there the fabric was brought back by returning pilgrims to Europe. It was the very costly linen of royalty. Thus, her damask clothing along with her jeweled crown is another sign of the Queenship of Mary.

Mary’s inner robe, which is blue with a golden damask pattern, is an icon symbol of Divinity. Mary is clothed in and by the Divine Trinity. The white outer robe symbolizes creation , purity, Gods divine light, and righteous people who are good, honest, and live by the Truth.

Because of its weave, damask has a quality of iridescence which the painter skillfully reproduced, further creating the analogy of Mary’s luminous splendor of grace.

Jesus wears a red violet robe, a color of royalty and authority and His left hand extends in the direction of Mary and the lily flower, which is a symbol of purity. He appears to be presenting His mother to us by the position of His hands, seeming to say, “See and love My Mother as I love her.  Look to her as I, the child, looked to her.”  Mary’s eyes are humbly lowered in the direction of her Baby, her all-precious Son and her God.

Jesus and Mary are set before a grove of trees with flowers on the ground.  This is a Polish custom in the depiction of Our Lady and also typical of Renaisance paintings with their emphasis on detail of the natural world. It says Mary and Jesus are among and with all creation, walking with us in our daily lives as we go to and fro about our business. The perfection of the Mother and Son does not keep them from being with us far less perfect creatures. Heaven has met earth and the divine is enmeshed in our lives.   The Polish devotion to Our Lady is a key part of their culture and spirituality and Poles have historically portrayed Mary in all aspects of their lives.

From a technical standpoint (art history) the painting shows the style of depth that was practiced in the Renaissance with an attempt to create the illusion of space and perspective while maintaining the italo-byzantine tradition with the gold leaf behind the forest and stylized leaves on the trees and on the plants on the ground.  This manner of painting allows the subjects to stand out in simplicity and splendor with no distraction from the truths they declare.

Green is the color of spring and of hope, of new life and creation, as are the flowers.  Wherever Mary goes with Baby Jesus, she brings hope in the life to come.

The position of Mary holding Jesus is like an icon, but the eyes are not icon eyes which generally are very large.  The heads of Jesus and Mary plus the white lily form a triangle within a circle delineated partially by the lines of the cloak below her hand holding Jesus.  With this we not only observe the rules of great art (the Divine Proportions), we also have the Trinity and the Alpha and Omega.

Prominently placed, the lily declares the perfect chastity of Mary, Virgin and Mother, and because of the inclusion of Jesus, His perfect chastity too. It tells how highly prized and placed chastity is in the order of virtues.

Often artists in the time this was painted did not sign their work and apparently no record exists of who did this one. We can surmise a few things, though.  He very possibly may have been a priest or monk, he knew sacred scripture, theology, and astronomy well, he was a man of prayer or he could not have painted such a richly spiritual work, he had a great love of the Blessed Mother, he had knowledge of damask and its patterns probably from association with royalty and Polish pilgrims to the Holy Land, and most likely he studied art in Italy for a time or was taught by someone who did.  That he was highly skilled is borne out by the simplicity, delicacy and precision with which he executed the work.

Sacred art is a window on the divine.  It should inspire prayer and sentiments of the love of God and heavenly things. For me, this painting is a beautiful subject for meditation, and one I never get tired of.  I hope this will be true for others as well.

If you know someone who loves Our Lady and would enjoy hearing about this painting, please send them a link to this post.  It will help me spread the knowledge of this painting and love of Mary and her Baby to the world.