In my post Seeking God’s Will I introduced readers to my dear friend Father Philip Schuster, OSB (RIP). I am reading his book again as part of my ongoing journey of suffering with joy.  His simplicity of heart was very inspiring and it opened my eyes to having greater trust in God. We will never achieve the holiness God desires for us if we don’t learn this lesson because our intellectual pride will always block our surrender to Him. To the extent we refuse to surrender we limit our ability to love.

Three Children of Fatima

Saints are not made overnight.  Achieving great charity, and that is the meaning of being a saint,  is done minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day with much toe-stubbing, ankle-twisting and knee-skinning along the way.  The first step seems to me to empty ourselves of our intellectual pride - and sometimes that’s like bailing out a boat with a leaky bucket – so that we follow the exhortation of Jesus: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it. (Lk. 18: 17).  Faith is to be received Jesus tells us, simply, as a child believes his parents, with open-hearted trust in God and an emptying of self.  If we do not become child-like, we make no room in our hearts for faith.

Here is that beautiful, child-like simplicity from Father Philip:

Human reason or intellect enters into faith and has a very important place.  But in faith, reason isn’t there to question what God has said or to determine what is true.  For by faith we already know what is true.  God has told us.  Reason is there to study the meaning of it all, to see the beauty and goodness of it all, to make the truth my own, to respond to it and live it. But not to question it!  For we know it is true, once God has revealed it.

As soon as you question what God has said, you indicate little faith or no faith at all. Consider what happened to Zechariah (see Luke 1:20).  Faith demands that I keep an open mind to what God has to say, and that when I believe, I believe simply because God has spoken…

It just may be true that saying we believe is not necessarily proof of real faith.  Perhaps we often accept some truth or some moral law, not because we are convinced that God has taught it, but because it seems right to us and fits our desires at present. Proof of this, at least proof enough for us to take warning, comes from the fact that if something taught by the Church today doesn’t seem reasonable to us, we hesitate or even refuse to accept it.  Which more or less proves that we are guided all along by our own reasoning power and not by faith.  For again, faith is essentially a simple accepting because God has spoken.

Father Philip cuts to the heart of the matter.  When I think of the times I doubted in the past, it was because I allowed the devil to confuse me.  He only does this when our willfulness rules us and we press forward into sin because we want to indulge.  I can truthfully say that any time I asked God for a deeper understanding of a truth of the Faith, He always answered me. Sometimes He made me wait awhile.  Sometimes He showed me right away.  But He never denied me the grace to see the beauty, goodness, and harmony of it all, nor the grace as Father Philip writes, “to respond to it and live it.”

I’ll be back with more from Father Philip soon.

Since I began participating in the meme “Praying the Psalms” and stumbled on the work of Moshe Tzvi Halevi Berger, I have been thinking about this man and his work. What contribution might his paintings make to my spiritual life and my understanding of our heavenly Father? What of his life will contribute to my understanding of Orthodox Judaism? What might it tell of the minds and hearts of devout Jews at the time of Jesus?  Of devout Jews of today?

These subjects may not be important to many, but I am always thinking of how we Catholics can possibly bridge the gap between our understanding of Christ and that of others. Who knows what role the answers to my questions will play in gathering others to Him?  Perhaps none, but learning more will make me a better, more thankful Christian and deepen my awe of how God works in others.  Of that I am sure.

To understand Berger’s paintings, it is important to understand the man.  Born in 1925 in Transylvania, Berger is no ordinary person although he looks like the quintessential Jewish grandfather.  He is someone I wish I could sit down and speak with for many days because of his fascinating life and work.

Berger is descended from a long line of Hassidic Rabbis. As a young man he was interned in a Nazi prison camp for several years and after being liberated completed medical school to became an oral surgeon.  By 1957 he quit medical practice to study in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.  He also studied in Italy at Rome’s Instituto de Belle Arte and became a successful commercial artist.  God was working in Berger in the midst of his secular success, however.  His artistic focus changed dramatically when he began studying the Torah and Kabbalah. In 1982 as he began living as an observant Jew, he was experiencing that deep longing only God can satisfy.

A short departure here: the Torah is the five books of Moses.  The Kabbalah is, according to Wikipedia

a discipline and school of thought concerned with the mystical aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an eternal and mysterious Creator and the mortal and finite universe (His creation).

As in New Age systems that corrupt Christian teaching and mash eastern mysticism with Christian spirituality, some unscrupulous people promote the Kabbalah as holding the “secrets” of all wisdom.  It’s all gnosticism and what the attraction to this perversion of truth holds for many is beyond me.   I can say that based on what Berger writes about his paintings, he is giving expression to the mystery of God’s love for man in his art, making verses of the Psalms become visual.  Superstition and gnosticism appear to play no part in his thinking or work.

After moving to the United States in the early 1980s, Berger gained renown for very large Kabbalistic murals he painted in Florida and Brooklyn, New York.  The latter was six stories high.  In 1988 he began his series of Psalm paintings which would take him fifteen years to complete. The year 1992 saw him move to Jerusalem where in 1995 he founded the Museum of Psalms in a building located in the courtyard of the synagogue built by former Israel Chief Rabbi, Avraham Yitzhak Kook.   Berger lives in a single room next to the museum and visitors often are privileged to have him as a guide when viewing his works.

As if illustrating all 150 Psalms was not enough, Berger embarked on the task of painting 42 images on healing, light, and meditation called the Sun series. Based on the Zohar, these are no less deep than the Psalm paintings.  Completed in 2007, they are part of the collection at the Museum of Psalms.

Another short departure: the Zohar is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah (the five books of Moses).  Wikipedia says,

The Zohar contains a discussion of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of Ego to Darkness and “true self” to “The Light of God,” and the relationship between the “universal energy” and man. Its scriptural exegesis can be considered an esoteric form of the Rabbinic literature known as Midrash, which elaborates on the Torah.

The goal of Moshe Tzvi HaLevi Berger in painting the Psalms was to “bring inspiration to the souls of many who seek spiritual enlightenment and do not live by bread alone.”

These are the very words Jesus spoke in Matt. 4:4:

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God

and Luke 4:4:

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God

derived from Deuteronomy 8:3:

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Berger has had more than 100 one-man shows on three continents.  Had it not been for the internet, I would never have discovered this great and unique spiritual art which rightly belongs to the Judeo-Christian heritage.  In my next post I will write a little about the elements of symbolism in his works but for now, let me say that he has inspired me on my journey of suffering with joy.

Join Colleen over at Thoughts on Grace to share moments during the week when you, for however fleeting a moment, rest in the Lord.

1.  One of my Sabbath Moments for the week thanking God for the developing relationship with a home schooling mom who lives across the street.  We share garden veggies we are growing, and cooking tips. Her husband came over and sawed a dead limb off our mimosa tree which will have to be torn down this fall because of ice storm damage.  I enjoy her children, too.  Whenever I think about them all, I rejoice in the Lord that we are blessed with such good neighbors.

2.  The shasta daisies I put in around the lamp post in front are so beautiful with their yellow centers and white petals.  They stand straight with their blossoms looking at the heavens as if they are joyfully smiling at God – a great reminder of what I should be doing more often – looking and smiling at God.

Visit Colleen to join other Catholic bloggers sharing their Sabbath Moments, and thanks for stopping by here.

Asti

Suffering with joy means that sometimes you just lie quietly and say the name of Jesus. Sometimes it means taking medicines and supplements that you’d rather not take but you do it anyway to care for your body – and do it cheerfully. Sometimes it means finding something to enjoy at whatever level of functioning you have whether that is puttering in the garden or picking up a skill you’ve always wanted.

For me art and wellness go hand in hand.  Part of my journey to better spirits in spite of chronic pain and fatigue is learning to do digital art – to create beauty however I can. Now beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there are some universal tenets that apply to good art such as the rule of thirds, Divine Proportion, color relationships, and for me, a noble end-purpose which is to show the beauty and order of God’s creation. I’m very much a beginning artist, learning to use tools and opening my mind to all sorts of possibilities.

Last week I was studying a lesson on airbrushing and chose a photograph to paint of my friend Lynn’s black quarter horse, Asti, who has one blue eye. It took a long time – about 3 days – and the deleting of many images before I got this one. I not only wanted to capture her blue eye, I wanted to give a sense of her muscled power and force of personality.

The photograph was taken at high noon in bright sunlight with a 300mm zoom lens on our trusty 35mm film camera with the main focus on the eye.  This made everything in front of and behind the eye out of focus.  I eliminated all the background except what was necessary to give definition to the face where needed and carefully applied layers of paint to make the eye stand out.  The wind was blowing that day and you can see that from the mane, which gives a sense of movement to the picture as does the pose itself with the head and neck angles. Through the use of dark and light I wanted to draw the viewer’s eye in a circle around the painting always landing at Asti’s eye. The bright sun brought out the browns in her coat and face which would otherwise have looked much darker.

A horse’s eye is only a small part of the face, which made this project really challenging.  How could I show what I wanted without distracting elements?  Gaining some mastery of digital airbrush technique helped me a lot. The pose gives the impression that Asti is swinging her head out of the frame directly towards you and I wanted to emphasize that, too.  In the 5×7 or 8×10 size, her blue eye really stands out whereas on this page I couldn’t make an image that large so the eye color is not as impressive.  I guarantee you, though, that if you were standing next to her you wouldn’t miss that cornflower blue.  Go ahead, reach out and pet her on the nose.

Welcome to Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival hosted by RAnn over at This That and The Other Thing. We Catholic bloggers like to share our favorite posts with each other and our readers once a week, so visit RAnn and join us all.

This week I harvested our first batch of asparagus beans and mentioned a recipe I used to cook them at The Asparagus Bean Surprise II.  You gotta see the picture I took of them.  They sort of remind me of dreadlocks they are so long.  Imagine somebody walking around with asparagus beans for hair!

In Laser Technology Reveals Tomb Paintings I wrote about the great discovery of early devotion to the apostles at the catacombs dedicated to St. Thecla in Rome and how the discovery was made.

For more insight into the Pope, visit The Pope as Liturgist.

I wrote a short commentary at Praying the Psalms – Psalm 24.  It strikes me as yet another psalm glorifying Christ the King.

This week I’ve spent many hours viewing videos and working tutorials in my super-duper Corel Painter 11 program.  It’s like getting a college education in many aspects of art.  Just learning the different brushes and how they work is a big challenge.  This coming week I’ll be posting an airbrush rendition of my friend Lynn’s horse, Asti.  Some day I hope producing this digital art will get a lot easier, but learning to do something I’ve dreamed my whole life of doing – producing good art – is really joyful.

Sabbath Moments are times when we rest in the Lord, taking a break from activity.  Colleen at Thoughts on Grace hosts this meme, so you can go there and join other bloggers to see how they spent some God-time.

This week I looked over the veggies to see how they are doing and discovered that the Asparagus Beans are already forming.  The are about 8 inches long and quite skinny, not ready for harvest.  God is always with me in my garden because He alone is the author of life and I know that all that is good comes from Him. I thank Him for the healthy tomato plants and the generous harvest of zucchini He is giving us.  This looks to be the best year for veggies we’ve had since we started our garden.  What a joy!

Yesterday I posted about a great Doctor of the Church, St. Ephrem, Harp of the Holy Ghost.  While searching YouTube for some of his hymns set to music, I got lost in God as I usually do when hearing sacred choral music and chant.  If you would like to hear a beautiful work that to me sounds heavenly, click on the link in this paragraph and visit God through John Tavener’s liturgical composition set to St. Ephrem’s Nativity hymn.

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.

Holy Trinity, 1430, Master of the Votive Picture of Sankt Lambrecht, Museum mittelalterlicher österreichischer Kunst, Vienna

“O Lord,” I prayed, “Help me to grow more patient and trust You more.”

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“Yes, Lord.”

“Okay, I’ll give you fibromyalgia and everything that goes with it,” He said.

“Whoa!  What is that, Lord?” I asked.

“You’ll find out, and I’ll be with you every step of the way,” He replied.

Six years or so ago when I was diagnosed my body was burning from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head.  I couldn’t stand to wear my glasses and couldn’t see without them.  Every morning I got up, dressed, had breakfast and promptly collapsed into bed again.  After awhile I gave up on dressing and stayed in my nightgown.  My mind was in a stupor such that I could hardly pray and I lay there simply clutching my rosary.  When I had a conversation with my husband I forgot what I wanted to say after three words were out of my mouth.  I gave up driving and stopped going anywhere except to church, which finished me off for the rest of the day.

A couple of years went by and I found myself completely discouraged and wanting to go to bed never to wake again.  It seemed that everything the doctor told me to do and prescribed for me only helped marginally.  Yet as sick as I was, I never lost the feeling that this condition was God’s will for me, although I did think for awhile that maybe He might have picked a less unpleasant way to get His point across.

One day I said, “Well, Lord, I don’t get it.  Here You have smacked me over the head with a 2×4 and I still don’t get it.  What is it you want of me?”

“I want all of your pain and suffering.  Give it to Me with joy for the restoration of the Traditional Catholic Mass.  Give it to Me for the priest I have chosen to be your next bishop.  Give it to Me for the redemption of others and to expiate your sins.  Give it to me for My priests who are troubled,” He said.

“OK, Lord.  Whatever you say.  I want to do Your will.  But Lord, why did You have to teach me patience and trust this way?” I asked.

“Because  you were too full of yourself and your talents and ambitions were misplaced. I could not work through you the way you were.  I want you with me for all eternity.  I want you to know and understand Me better, to trust Me more through your helplessness and pain and to share what you are learning on this journey with My other children who are suffering even worse than you,” He said.  “I want you up here on the cross with Me.  I want you to witness to My message of hope and love, and the joy that comes from doing My will.  I want you to understand the fullness of My love for you.”

Morning sun over the ocean, Shizuoka Prefecture, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

And so I didn’t give up, and after accepting two new hips from Him through a good surgeon, and after slowly regaining some physical and mental equilibrium from remedies He showed me through knowledgeable holistic practitioners, I started this blog and put it in His hands.  I blessed Him for giving me this miserable disease and for putting me through the added great pain of hip degeneration; for making me aware that I have to depend on Him for every breath, every blink, and every beat of my heart.  I blessed him for giving me a high maintenance body because I know He wants me to learn how to care for it properly and share what I learn with others. I blessed Him for showing Himself to me both through pain and through the many forms of beauty that reflect His being.  Most of all, I bless Him for loving me enough to have created me and for having put all the wonderful people in my life whom I would never have met had I not become disabled.

Dr. Takashi Nagai

Last Sunday I found a book at the church library.  It wasn’t on my top ten for Lent, but it was about Japan and a Japanese holy man who transformed others’ lives by his gentleness and forgiveness. Since I am interested in Japanese history, especially in what transpired to cause the terrible aggression that drew so many into World War II, I checked it out.  What I ended up with is a moving conversion story that brings Christ’s teachings to life in a unique way and that has enriched my Lenten prayer.

A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai-Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb tells of Dr. Paul Takashi Nagai, an extraordinary man raised in the rural area of Mitoya according to the teachings of Confucius and the Shinto religion which imbued him with filial reverence for ancestors and heroic stoicism.  His mother and father taught him a love of learning by their example, and generous giving by their care for the medical needs of the peasants and townspeople often without payment.

Nagai entered into a spiritual quest while he attended medical school in Nagasaki – a quest that led him from Shintoism to atheism to Catholicism and ultimately to marriage with the daughter of the family which had been at the heart of the underground Church for the centuries of government persecution of Christians.  The biography reveals how Nagai’s medical studies, service as a medic in the Japanese army during the occupation of Manchuria, and his return to become a pioneer of radiology research at Nagasaki University formed his spiritual growth.

Before the bomb exploded over the city that fateful August day, Nagai already had developed leukemia from his radiation exposure, yet he had refused to quit working.  The cancer did not stop him from caring for victims of the inferno although he was wounded himself, and to his surprise and that of his fellow medical practitioners, his disease went into remission for a couple of years because of his exposure to the bomb’s radiation.

Nyoko-do

Nagai lost his beloved wife in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9^th, 1945, but his children who were farther from ground zero survived.  Not long after, he moved into the rubble of the ruined city to study the effects of radiation on all life forms, constructing a tiny dwelling on the ground where his house once stood.  He called his little abode “Nyoko-do“, meaning “as yourself hall” taken from Jesus’s words: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  It was one 6×6 room with a porch built by friends.  He lived there with his children until he died.

Throughout the book Glynn interweaves Japanese history and customs into Nagai’s story, giving the reader a good understanding of the depth of this man.  He describes well how Nagai brought not only physical healing but spiritual healing to the suffering and war-weary people.  Determined not to be bitter or vengeful, he wrote articles and powerful books as a legacy for his children that became best-sellers throughout Japan.  During the last four years of his life, he accomplished this lying on his back because of weakness and abdominal swelling caused by the cancer.

This book above all, is a story of love and forgiveness, of sanctity brought forth from horror. Many people from around the world, including Helen Keller journeyed to meet this unassuming man, who gave most of his earnings for the education and care of war orphans. His example continues to inspire and he is considered a saint by many Japanese people of all faiths.

If you are attracted to conversion stories, this book will not disappoint you.  It is filled with the wonders of God’s grace and inspiration to overcome all bitterness, resentment, and desire for vengeance that plague the human heart.  Nagai truly suffered with joy.

Sometimes it is just too much to pray using books or even rosaries when people are ill.  But sacred art demands no effort from us in gazing upon it’s beauty. This window to the divine draws our spirit and sweeps us to prayer almost before we know it.  It teaches us the truths of our faith wordlessly – a catechism in brush strokes, mosaics or sculpture.

Picturing Mary is a DVD I’ve had for some time and watch occasionally when I need calm and peace.  With today’s technology we can travel the world and see great images of her that date from very early Christendom.  Whenever I look at it something new strikes me and I am always left wishing for more.

The same can be said of the DVD,  The Face: Jesus in Art.  We are privileged to see images of Jesus from the catacombs through the 20th century and note how he is pictured in many different cultures.  As many sections as this video has, it, too, leaves me wishing for more.

Both of these were made for WNET 13, a New York public television channel.  Whenever I watch them I think what a great teaching aid they would be for home schooling families.  You can stop the video to demonstrate art principles and you can use it for art projects and appreciation.  But most of all, these videos inspire great love for Jesus and Mary through the artwork filmed.  I highly recommend them and have placed them in my store.

Rule of St. Bruno approved by Jesus, the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter, fresco, Museo della Certoso, Milan

A priest friend of mine suggested I add this gorgeous Carthusian blog to my blogroll.  The pictures are lovely and the short meditations wonderful.  I especially like their subtitle:

Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and shipwrecks of the stormy world. Rejoice because you have reached the quiet and safe anchorage of a secret harbor. -  Saint Bruno’s letter to his sons the Carthusians

We are fortunate that men of deep prayer like the Carthusians exist and that we have a site like Sacred Harbor to bring their spirituality to us.  Following Pope John Paul II’s recommendations that the Church make better use of the media enriches us all.  Since it is difficult for most Catholics to have a spiritual director, we have to fend for ourselves.  Thank God for the opportunities He gives us with these kinds of blogs.

If you love sacred art, you will love seeing the photographs of the frescos of St. Bruno at Milan.  Sacred art and all true beauty aids us in suffering with joy for God.  Contemplating it is prayer.

*****

Another topic: I received an email from a friend which encouraged all people of America to  say a prayer for our country each night at 8:00 Central time.  This initiative is like the one Winston Churchill went on radio to promote in Britain during World War II when their country was bombed nightly by Germany.

Please invite all your friends to participate in this daily effort.  America must return to the principles on which she was founded or she will perish. Darkness already envelopes much of the world.  Let us plead before God that Christ reign in all hearts and that our individual lights lit by Him truly shine among men.  The best ammunition we have against the powers of darkness is prayer.

*****

I invite you to visit my Custom Shop to see books, CDs, and DVDs about the Blessed Mother, saints, and the faith.  If you have suggestions for additional items I might stock, please let me know.

St. Jane of Valois

Today we honor St. Jane of Valois, surely an example of humility, persistence in prayer and also great charity. She was born in 1464 and died in 1505. A daughter of King Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy, she was hated by her father from birth because he wanted a boy. Not only did he not get a boy, Jane was sickly and had some physical handicap. The king banished her to a country place where she was raised in a condition of grave neglect. But God had plans for His spurned and despised creature.  She developed a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother, especially in the mystery of the Incarnation.  The Angelus was her favorite prayer.  One day Our Lady revealed to her that she would found a religious community dedicated to her.

St. Jane could not escape being a pawn in the hands of her father.  Although he despised her, in a political scheme he betrothed her to his second cousin, Louis, Duke of Orleans, at the age of two months. They were married when Jane was nine.  She remained his loyal and devoted wife for twenty-two years.  Unfortunately, the Duke did not return her devotion.  He had not wanted the marriage and hated her even though she was instrumental in obtaining his release from prison for treason. Upon taking the throne as Louis XII, he publicly humiliated her by treating her ill in front of the court, repudiating her and seeking an annulment of his marriage from Rome. He got the annulment on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated and that he had not consented to it. St. Jane saw this as a great blessing and used her situation to found the Order of the Annunciation.

The charism of her order is to practice the ten virtues of Our Lady as found in the Gospels.  They are:

• Most Pure (Mt 1:18, 20, 23; Lk 1:27,34)
• Most Prudent (Lk 2:19, 51)
• Most Humble (Lk 1:48)
• Most Faithful (Lk 1:45; Jn 2:5)
• Most Devout (Lk 1:46-7; Acts 1:14)
• Most Obedient (Lk 1:38; 2:21-2, 27)
• Most Poor (Lk 2:7)
• Most Patient (Jn 19:25)
• Most Merciful (Lk 1:39, 56)
• Most Sorrowful (Lk 2:35)

St. Jane also charged her community to pray for her husband, her father, and her brother as her legacy.  Such forgiveness after the cruel treatment she received is awe-inspiring.  St. Jane would be a great patron to ask for help in mastering the virtue of forgiveness. When she died, she was buried with the royal purple and a crown under her habit.

The Angelus, 1857, oil on canvas, Jean-Francois Millet

During St. Jane’s lifetime the Angelus prayer spread throughout France, helped by Pope Sixtus IV who was the first to attach an indulgence to it in 1475.  Devotion to this prayer continues today, and is enshrined in the great Impressionist painting of  Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875) of the Barbizon school of landscape painting. 

It is interesting that almost  two-hundred years after Pope Sixtus encouraged the praying of the Angelus a painter named Jean-Francois created a work expressing the devotion to Our Lady that St. Jane (Jeanne) of Valois, whose spiritual directors were Franciscans, practiced.

We cannot escape suffering in this world so we might as well profit from it spiritually as did St. Jane, who though queen, was humiliated repeatedly by the very people who should have loved and cherished her.  She is a great example of suffering with joy.

If you would like to know how to pray the chaplet of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Mother, go here.

Hoar frost on viburnam

This morning when I woke up, what did my wondering eyes behold but spectacular hoar frost on everything.  This phenomena occurs every now and then in the Ozarks and thanks to my very nice husband, I have some photos to share with you.

On clear, frosty nights, God works His wonders, readying winter beauty to greet the dawn.  If vegetation or objects have been chilled below freezing by radiation cooling, ice crystals form and the fragile pointy thorns create a fantasy world we glimpse only until the sun melts them with its warmth.  Radiation cooling is the process by which a body loses its heat by radiation and that’s enough science for today.

Gods gift this morning reminded me of the canticle of Daniel in the Divine Office hour of Sunday Lauds (praise).  The third chapter, verse 69 calls out:

Frost and cold, bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all forever.

Through Daniel we find ourselves realizing that our poor efforts at praise need the help of all creation. Beginning with verse 57 through verse 90 we call upon the heavens, the earth, the angels, spirits of the just and men to praise and bless the Lord, ending with joyful thanks for deliverance from the powers of hell and death through the salvation Jesus brings.

The fence post is cropped from a larger photo and colored sepia.  the hoary tentacles reminded me of the head of Medusa, hence the title of the picture.

Hoar frost on fence with honeysuckle behind.

This image makes a brilliant graphic statement.  Roger has a real eye for this kind of thing.

Greenbridge

Frosty trees  set off a country bridge near home.  Locals call it “Greenbridge”.  You can see the river underneath on the right.

Forming a perfect background for the hoary branches, still water mirrors the trees on the river bank at the city park.  Cropped from a larger image.

Branch over the river

Lastly, a view from the bridge upriver.  The trees appear to be embracing all the sky.  Cropped image from a larger composition.

On the river bank

These images are copyrighted, but if you want to use them  you may as long as you credit Barb Schoeneberger and Roger Prai and if you would, please donate a little to this site.

Fushimi, Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Wisdom 13:3 tells us God is “the author of beauty.”  In the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2500 we find this idea developed:

Even before revealing Himself to man in words of truth, God reveals Himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of His Word, of His wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos – which both the child and the scientist discover – “from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator,” “for the Author of beauty created them”. (Wisdom 13:3, 5)

The Catechism goes further in #2501:

Created “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26), man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.  Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human being’s inner riches.  Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing.  To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God’s activity in what He has created.  Like any other human activity, art is not an  absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. (cf. Pius XII, Musicae sacrae disciplina; Discourses of September 3 and December 25, 1950)

In his “Confessions”, St. Augustine reveals what happens when the pursuit of beauty is not ordered to God:

Roar of Flames, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new! Too late have I loved Thee. And lo, Thou wert inside me and I outside, and I sought for Thee there, and in all my unsightliness I flung myself on those beautiful things which Thou hast made. Thou wert with me and I was not with Thee. Those beauties kept me away from Thee, though if they had not been in Thee, they would not have been at all. Thou didst call and cry to me and break down my deafness. Thou didst flash and shine on me and put my blindness to flight. Thou didst blow fragrance upon me and I drew breath, and now I pant after Thee. I tasted of Thee and now I hunger and thirst for Thee. Thou didst touch me and I am aflame for Thy peace….

We can see in all of the above, a relationship exists between wisdom, truth, and beauty. One way the infinite All-Beautiful, All-Wise, All-Truth Creator reveals Himself to us is through beauty.  The pursuit of beauty rightly ordered is the pursuit of God.  And what makes something beautiful?  An inherent harmony, peace and order intrinsic to it.

Everyone needs to surround himself with some kind of beauty, especially the chronically ill.  Our bodies are discordant with disease; we are out of balance and disturbed to such an extent that all to much of our energy is spent coping and struggling to achieve some sense of equilibrium.  If we are open to it, looking at or listening to something beautiful restores inner peace and some sense of wellness.  It can spur us on to prayer and praise of God, and imperfect as earthly beauty is, it hints at the eternal harmony, order and joy we aspire to.  For many years now I have been practicing this and know that it works.  Earlier I wrote about the effect images of our beautiful Blessed Mother have on pain.  Sharing beauty will always be a part of this site.

Niju Bridge, Main Gate of Imperial Palace, Tokyo, (c)Tomo.Yun (www.yunphoto.net/en/)

Ever searching for beauty, yesterday I was looking for free stock photos to use at this site. Many pages into the Google list I stumbled upon an extraordinarily talented photographer who is willing to share his work for free as long as the user follows the terms of the license agreement at his site.  Yun is very generous.  You might enjoy reading about why here.  I find much of his work a real joy and thank God I have eyes to see.  If you visit his site, be prepared to stay awhile and be captivated by the beauty.   Perhaps other bloggers who come here may wish to use his work, or readers may like to download images for personal use.  Speaking as a professional photographer, copyright and credit is important to protect an artist and honor his work.

Snow-capped honeysuckle

The snow began yesterday before dawn and fell softly and consistently until some time late in the night or early morning.  We collected about 8 inches and have discovered that it is too deep for our aging bodies to remove much from the garage driveway and gates. We swept our back porch and Roger dug a path to the garage, though.  With the sun coming out this afternoon we may be able to get to church tomorrow!

Typical of a small town, a kindly neighbor from the top of the next hill came by this morning scraping the street with his lawn tractor since the city had only plowed once yesterday and probably won’t do it again.  He volunteered to clear a path to the mailbox for us which took a load off our minds.  Today we hear the sound of snow shovels as folk start digging out.    Eight inches isn’t much compared to what we got in Nebraska, but this is heavy and wet.  I bet we’re all going to have sore backs tomorrow!

Compare the picture above with yesterday’s to see how much more snow there is.

Cause of Our Joy

I was contacted by a blogger who suggested I consider mentioning her site here.  I looked at it and liked it. Cause of Our Joy (http://cause-of-our-joy.blogspot.com/) is a pro-life Catholic blog geared towards families with disabled children, especially with Down syndrome.  Letitia does a great job bringing practical information and spiritual commentaries to readers. If you have a Down syndrome child in your family or know someone who does, I encourage you to visit her site and recommend it to others.

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