Blessed Virgin
Sabbath Moments
December 11, 2010
Sabbath Moments are special times during the week when we experience a closeness to God. We are conscious of His presence in what we are doing or not doing, as the case may be. Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, so visit her to read other bloggers’ Sabbath Moments.
This week I finally overcame the feeling that getting some mending done was just too much trouble. Our house is very small so my sewing machine is in the garage. We had a day warm enough I could go out and mend a sheet, pillowcase, and a dress, and by golly, it feels great to have that finished after months of procrastination. Of course, as soon as I got everything washed and put away, I found another pillowcase that needs mending! lol 
We went to Mass on Wednesday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, at Immaculate Conception parish. Before Mass was over I suddenly realized that if we prayed for the pope before we left, we had fulfilled everything necessary for a plenary indulgence. Another
I’m squeezing time out to read Father Lovasik’s wonderful book, The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time
The most important thing happening to me is not suffering depression in these days of waning light. My Natural Health doctor has been a huge gift to hubby and me this year. This fall marks the first year since I can remember that I am not going through a major battle with depression. Now that makes for a lot of Sabbath Moments.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Hail, Mary
December 8, 2010
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.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Advent with Mary and Joseph
December 7, 2010
Nativity, 1597, Federico Fiori Barocci (b. 1526, Urbino, d. 1612, Urbino), oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid
This month’s Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter December 2010 is ready for downloading. To know how Mary and Joseph spent the first Advent – what life was really like for them in the practical realm – you’ll want to read the second article.
Of course, enjoy the whole newsletter, including how to enroll deceased family and friends in the Rorate Caeli Purgatorial Society.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sabbath Moments
December 4, 2010
Sabbath Moments are the times when we rest in the Lord. Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme every Saturday, so visit her to read other bloggers’ special moments with God.
This week I made myself be peaceful in the dentist’s chair as I went through the next phase of the crown work. It’s a good thing I had this 4 hour opportunity to offer it up!
In addition to writing a couple of posts for this blog, I worked hard on getting my new business blog ready for live traffic. Design work is such a creative process that I feel close to God when I’m doing it – as if we are partners. Of course, I couldn’t do any art or design work without Him. He is the Author of all that is beautiful and harmonious.
The other big job I did this week was to write an article for the monthly newsletter I publish for Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks. It’s about how Mary and Joseph likely spent the four weeks before Jesus was born. Their advent was far different from ours. This has been quite a meditation for me, as I am filled with admiration for the challenges they faced and their complete trust in God – a lesson I need to learn often. When the newsletter is published I’ll put a link to it at this blog.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Henryk Gorecki and Pope John Paul II
November 15, 2010
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.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
The Maternity of Mary
October 11, 2010
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.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)
Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival
August 22, 2010
Welcome to Sunday Snippets where we Catholic bloggers meet over at RAnn’s This That and the Other Thing to share posts from the past week. Please join us even if you’re not a blogger, and leave a comment on our posts if you are so moved.
This week I met a special young lady at the therapy pool. I wrote about it at A Real God-incidence.
In Advancing the Reign of Christ Here and Now I put forth the rationale for a change I’m making on my posts.
At Sabbath Moments I note my times of union with God this past week, and at Praying the Psalms – Psalm 32 I wrote insights I gained from meditating on the psalm.
God bless all you readers and thanks for coming to my blog.
R. Now and forever. Amen.
(Click on the above link for why I am ending my posts this way if you haven’t already read why.)
P.S. Today is the 13th Sunday after Pentecost and the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the 1962 Roman Calendar. Salve Regina.
Sunday Snippets – a Catholic Carnival
August 1, 2010
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
July 29, 2010
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
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.
Thoughts on the Visitation
July 2, 2010
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.
Polish Madonnas in Art and Poetry
May 20, 2010
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.
Decoding Sacred Art
May 10, 2010
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 15th 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.
The Meaning of the Rosary
May 7, 2010
Last Sunday RAnn at This, That, and The Other Thing gave her fellow Catholic bloggers a challenge to write a post about the rosary. Since May is the month of Mary, and the prayer Catholics use to see the mysteries of faith through Mary’s eyes is the rosary, it’s a good time to learn a little more about this special prayer. I wrote an article some months ago about the history of the rosary that I’d like to share here.
*****
Still-Life with Symbols of the Virgin Mary, 1672, Dirke de Bray (active 1651-1678 in Haarlem), oil on panel, Amstelkring Museum, Amsterdam
The Rosary, from the Latin “rosarium” meaning “rose garden” or “garland of roses” is one of the most popular non-liturgical devotions in the Catholic Church today. For at least a millennium before St. Dominic, who is credited with starting the Rosary devotion, Muslims, Buddhists and other non-Christian as well as Christians followed a tradition of counting repetitive prayers on beads or knots, or placing stones in a bowl or pocket to track the number.
Within Judeo-Christian tradition, the practice of reciting the 150 psalms daily transferred from the Old Testament devout Jews to the monks and monasteries of the Catholic Church. The average person in Europe, however, did not know how to read or write until Guttenberg’s printing press made learning much more widely possible. As a result, the clergy, who were the best educated for centuries, encouraged the practice of reciting 150 “Our Fathers”, using a string of beads to count them in fifties. These beads became known as the “PaterNoster” beads. As time went on, a parallel psalter of 150 “Hail Marys” became known as the Marian Psalter. Today most people are educated well enough to pray the official liturgies of the Church, but the Rosary remains a core devotion beyond the liturgy among the faithful.
Unfortunately due to the many religious wars and plagues of the middle ages and early renaissance, a great deal of documentation regarding the rosary and St. Dominic which would have been preserved by monasteries and convents was lost to us through their destruction. We do know the following:
1. The Hail Mary at the time of St. Dominic consisted only of the first part we recite today from the Gospel of St. Luke 1:28, 42. The word “Jesus” was not added until the 14th century, and the remainder of the prayer came later.
2. The “Our Father” and the “Glory be” as part of the rosary also came later.
3. The Mysteries of the Rosary were fixed about 250 years after St. Dominic, and were added to by Pope John Paul II in the 2002-2003 Year of the Rosary. [1]
4. A 15th century Dominican named Alan de Rupe, O.P. revived the Rosary devotion 250 years after the time of St. Dominic. He preached the Marian Psalter of 150 Hail Marys and 150 mysteries and divided them into three groups of fifties according to the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries. It was not until the reign of Pope Pius V in 1569 that the fifteen mysteries were officially established.
5. The crucifix and extra beads before starting the mysteries did not come until long after St. Dominic.
St. Dominic of Guzman, 1685, Claudio Coello (b. 1642, Madrid, d. 1693, Madrid), oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid
6. St. Dominic founded “The Militia of Jesus Christ” which, according to Dominican records, recited the Marian Psalter daily, as did “The Confraternity of Prayer” founded by Dominicans at Piacenza in1259, thirty-eight years after the death of St. Dominic. [2]
7. The Abligensian heresy, a dualism belief similar to Manicheism, became the occasion for St. Dominic to preach using the Marian Psalter interspersed with meditations on the life of Christ. The prayers on the beads were the body of the rosary and the meditations the soul.
8. From 1521 on, various popes credited St. Dominic with instituting the Rosary and gradually they gave it the form we know today.
The Holy Rosary, as it is sometimes called, means so much to Catholics because it provides an easy way to link the faithful to Jesus and Mary in daily life. It promotes meditation on the life of Christ and especially fosters a love of his Mother which pleases Jesus as it would please any son. When prayed as a family, it promotes unity. It was Father Patrick Peyton, CSC (1909-1992), who, seeing the disintegration of Christian values in society striking at the heart of the family, took to the radio in1945 and campaigned for the praying of the Rosary under the slogan, “The Family That Prays Together, Stays Together.” His religious order, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, still carries on the “Rosary Crusade” he founded.
Three Children of Fatima
As Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino said in a Zenit interview in 2004, “If it is well understood,” it is a prayer that says much.” He described it as deeply “contemplative. The repetition, which often from a distance might seem to be mechanical, in fact serves as a breath of the soul which, gazing on Jesus Christ, assumes a contemplative attitude through Mary’s eyes and heart.”
Contemplating Sacred Scripture accompanied by the Blessed Mother through the Rosary inevitably draws the faithful closer to Christ. She knew him best and she was given to us by him to be our Mother, too, at the foot of the Cross (John 19: 26-27). Because of its connection with Sacred Scripture, the Rosary means comfort, hope, light, love, and peace as it leads to the contemplation of heaven in the midst of this vale of tears.
[1] Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II, October, 2002
[2] The Rosary and its Meaning by Father Francis William, p.26
*****
We often see St. Dominic painted with the rosary and to this day every Dominican wears a rosary as part of the habit (see painting above). St. Bernadette Soubirous and other saints are portrayed praying the rosary, too. Among the messages Our Lady of Fatima brought to the three children was to pray the rosary every day, and there is a famous picture of the three children with their rosaries (see above).
I pray the rosary as I am going to sleep at night and in the morning before I get up. It’s a good way to calm down at the end of the day and to have a little “God time” before starting a new day. Part of the prayers I say when on a road trip is the rosary for the intention of arriving safely at the destination. Because of the difficult times we are facing in our country, one of my rosaries each day is dedicated to the Sorrowful mysteries as I pray for deliverance of our nation. I see Christ suffering in our people. Praying the rosary faithfully helps me understand the Bible better and is a way I can glorify God and honor Jesus through honoring Mary.
My favorite book on the rosary is by St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary.
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart
March 25, 2010
Bishop James Vann Johnston
Update: 4/5/10
St. Mary’s Cathedral was packed with people from all over the diocese. Considering that folks that live at the western end traveled 5-7 hours to reach the Cape, this was a priority for many. Look for growth in faithfulness to the Christian vocation and leadership in Christian living from southern Missouri. Some of the graces will remain hidden as always in God’s work, but I am confident that Our Lady will obtain much for us that will help us visibly witness to the love of God and bring others to Jesus.
Our bishop gave us a theologically sound prayer of consecration that speaks of his fatherly concern for all people living in the diocese. For those who are familiar with this diocese, this consecration is a major, really big thing, and a sign of much good to come.
*****
Today Bishop James Vann Johnston is consecrating the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Many of us had written to him requesting this, so we are overjoyed that he chose the solemn feast of the Annunciation, the beginning of the Incarnation to formally put the diocese under Our Lady’s protection.
Today all parishes of the diocese prayed the consecration prayer and the bishop’s ceremony takes place this evening after the 5:15 Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the Cape.
This is the consecration prayer:
O Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in Heaven,
You chose Mary as the fairest of Your daughters;
God the Son, You chose Mary as Your Mother;
Holy Spirit, You chose Mary as Your spouse;
in union with Mary, we adore Your majesty
and acknowledge Your supreme, eternal dominion
and authority. Most Holy Trinity.
we place the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau
into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that
she may present this diocese to You.
Immaculate Queen of Heaven and Earth, refuge of sinners
and our most loving Mother Mary, we humbly cast
ourselves at your feet, consecrating to your Immaculate
Heart all peoples and parishes of the Diocese of
Springfield-Cape Girardeau. Protect the bishop of
this diocese and all his priests and deacons.
Protect the consecrated religious of this diocese.
Protect the families of this diocese. Draw forth the
precious gift of many vocations to the priesthood and
religious life. Look after sinners, the sick, the poor, the
tempted and upon all who are in need of your intercession.
O Mary, Immaculate Virgin, we ask that you draw
all of us closer to your Son’s Eucharistic Heart.
Let all of us be fit instruments in your immaculate and
merciful hands for introducing and increasing God’s glory
to the maximum in all the many strayed and
indifferent souls. Help us as far as possible to serve the
advancement of the blessed kingdom of the
most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter
you obtain grace of conversion and growth in holiness,
since it is through your hands that all graces come to us
from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us
who have recourse to you!
Sabbath Moments – Madonna with Child
March 20, 2010
Sabbath moments are the moments we rest in God, when we take time to just Be with God rather than Do. Sabbath moments are those times when we live in the moment and find the holy in the ordinary. I invite you to share your Sabbath moment(s) at Colleen’s blog Thoughts on Grace on Saturdays. If you don’t have a blog, share about it in a comment! Hope you will join us!
I found this striking image of the Madonna with Child Clothed with Sunlight several years ago at 1st-art-gallery.com. You can order paintings of Old Masters from them. Last evening I was so upset over the trampling of our Constitution and the frenzy to pass what is to me a “Death bill” that I knew I had to find peace. Because sacred art is so calming to me, I decided to find out more about this image. Above all others, it has continued to come to my mind over the years and I always hoped I could discover it’s origin. Well, I hit pay dirt.
Madonna with Child Clothed in Sunlight, detail, c. 1450-60, tempera on panel, parish church in Przydonica, Poland
An artist, unknown to us today, painted it in Poland. This image is not the complete painting but it is the only part I could find online. The church where it hangs is located in the Tarnow diocese in the small town of Przydonica, Poland. Unfortunately I can’t read, write, or speak Polish so I am at a loss to learn more about it although I have done a lot of searching today.
I did find this much: Tarnow, an area of southern Poland with ancient and unusual architecture, is a tourist destination and deservedly so because of the beauty of the countryside and the many shrines there. Our Lady is much loved by the Polish people and you can find many images of her all over Poland.
My father, who passed away last September, grew up in a small Polish-German town in the Minnesota lake country. They had two Catholic churches in town: St. Stanislaus for the Poles and St. Henry for the Germans. Although of Bavarian descent, he loved everything Polish – literature, art, music, history and especially Pope John Paul II. I know he would have loved to have seen this painting.
My Sabbath Moment is to gaze on this work of the love of Mary and her Child and appreciate that God has given so many artists over the years the grace to create such beautiful images.
Please send all your Polish friends and acquaintances a link to this post and ask them to send it on to other Polish people so they can perhaps give me more information about the painting, an interpretation of it, the church it is in, and any other relevant facts. I would like to make this image of the Madonna much better known.
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