island life- in a monastery

Carol Anne Cipriani

Several more saints in charge of animals are ST. BLAISE (our throats are blessed on his feast Feb. 3), one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. He was a 3rd century physician who became Bishop of Sebaste, Armenia. This was the time of persecution under Licinius, so St. Blaise hid out in a cave on Mt. Argeus. From the Golden Legend:

...the birds of heaven brought to him meat for to eat. And it seemed to him that they came to serve him and accompany him, and would not depart from him till he had lift up his hands and blessed them.
Now it happened that the prince of this region sent his knights to hunt, and they could take nothing. But by adventure they came unto the desert place where S. Blase was, where they found great multitude of beasts which were about him, of whom they could take none, whereof they were all abashed and showed this to their lord, the which anon sent many knights for him, and commanded to bring him and all the christian men with him.

Then of course we think of ST. ISIDORE the farmer who cared for livestock (sometimes having his angel do the plowing while he prayed!). He was known for his piety and care for the poor. The story of St. Isidore is a reminder of the dignity of work, and that ordinary life can lead to holiness. In 1947, at the request of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, he was officially named patron of farmers.

St. Isidore-Retable

ST. GERLAC of VALKENBURG was a 12th-century Dutch hermit. He was also a friend of St. Hildegard of Bingen. He is considered a patron of domestic animals, but I could not find a reason why.

As I have mentioned in past blogs, we traditionally bless all the animals on the feast of ST. ANTHONY the ABBOT(Jan. 17). He is called the Father of all monks. He anticipated the rule of St. Benedict who lived 200 years later; "pray and work", by engaging himself and his disciple or disciples in manual labor. He was known to raise pigs in the Egyptian desert.

Carlotta Lorenzo- Mexico

Mother Cat would have my hide if I did not mention ST. PHARAILDIS of GHENTas patroness of poultry. She was an 8th-century Belgian girl who was married against her will at a young age with a nobleman, even after having made a private vow of virginity. Her husband insisted that she was married to him, and her sexual fidelity was owed to him, not God.

She was therefore physically abused for her refusal to submit to him, and for her late night visits to churches. When widowed, she was still a virgin, and dedicated herself to charity. She became patroness of fowl after she resuscitated a cooked goose, working only from its skin and bones. Such are the wonders of heaven!

But what about our most treasured pets? We begin with my least favorite of those domestic beasts CATS. ST. GERTRUDE of NIVELLES,who was born in Belgium in 626 and died at Nivelles, 659. Both her parents, Pepin of Landen and Itta were held to be holy by those who knew them and her sister Begga is numbered among the Saints. On her husband's death in 640, Itta founded a Benedictine monastery at Nivelles, near Brussels, and appointed Gertrude its abbess when she reached twenty Gertrude tended to her responsibilities well, with her mother's assistance, and followed her in giving encouragement and help to monks, particularly Irish ones, to do missionary work in the locale.

St Gertrude's piety was evident even when she was as young as ten, when she turned down the offer of a noble marriage, declaring that she would not marry him or any other suitor: Christ alone would be her bridegroom. She was known for her hospitality to pilgrims and her aid to missionary monks from Ireland as we indicated above. She gave land to one monk so that he could build a monastery at Fosse. By her early thirties St. Gertrude had become so weakened by the austerity of abstaining from food and sleep that she had to resign her office, and spent the rest of her days studying Scripture and doing penance. It is said that on the day before her death she sent a messenger to Fosse, asking the superior if he knew when she would die.

His reply indicated that death would come the next day during holy Mass----the prophecy was fulfilled. Her feast day of March 17 is observed by gardeners, who regard fine weather on that day as a sign to begin spring planting.

There’s no single story that links St. Gertrude to her patronage of cats. However, writings confirm that she and her nuns kept cats to control the rodent population.

Carolee Clark

Other accounts say she prayed for the mice to go away and they did. Because of the great mouse exodus, people referred to her as the patroness of cat lovers. She is often depicted with a cat near her or with mice running up her staff. The mice in her icons are said to represent souls trapped in Purgatory, whom she diligently prayed for.

Another holy woman usually depicted with her cat is JULIAN of NORWICH, an English anchoress, who is regarded as one of the most important Christian mystics. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches, but has never been canonized, or officially beatified, by the Roman Catholic Church, probably because so little is known of her life aside from her writings. She is unofficially venerated in the Catholic Church, much as St. Hildegard of Bingen was before her de facto canonization by Pope Benedict XVI.

Juliet Venter-UK

Published in 1395, her work, Revelations of Divine Love, is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman.

Julian never left her cell. She had a servant who brought her meals and she kept a small garden with a high wall that insulated her from the ordinary life of the time. She listened through a curtained window to those who needed counsel. The only other living soul who entered her space was her cat. She was allowed a cat for purely practical reasons, to keep the rat population at bay. Unbeknownst to the outside world however, she had a close relationship with her beloved cat. They would sit for hours in Julian's garden in contemplation and prayer.

Marchela Dimitrova

We interrupt our series on animal patrons to bring an important message to all our friends! Not that this is a hint!

We learn something new everyday - even in the monastery! September 17, the feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen, Benedictine saint and Doctor of the Church, is alsoINTERNATIONAL BUY A NUN A BOOK DAY.

Joseph Brown- USA

The idea behind the day is simple. Nuns often don’t have the opportunity to choose a book for themselves or don't have the money. They have to rely on what is already in the monastery library, or on what they are given.

This is YOUR chance to show a nun that you value her by delighting her with a book. So, find a nun and ask her what book or ebook she would like and
present her with a copy on 17 September- then pray for her.

Some will ask you for titles they can use in their work. Others may ask for poetry or a novel that would normally be unavailable to them. The requests will be as many and various as the nuns themselves. If you are not sure what to get, give a Kindle gift card. I have never met a nun who does not like to read!

Information from iBenedictines- nuns of Holy Trinity Monastery, Howton Grove Priory, U.K

St. Roch-Ann Torrini

Because DOGSare the # one pet in our country they get a separate Blog! Several interesting saints have their welfare in mind. First is ST. HUBERT of LIEGE ( c. 656–727 ) who is the patron saint of dogs, hunters, mathematicians, opticians, and metalworkers. Known as the Apostle of the Ardennes, he was called upon, until the early 20th century, to cure rabies through the use of the traditional St Hubert's Key.

St. Hubert

Like many nobles of the time, Hubert was addicted to the chase. His wife died giving birth to their son, and Hubert retreated from the court, withdrawing into the forested Ardennes, giving himself up entirely to hunting. But a spiritual revelation was to change his life. On Good Friday morning, when the faithful were crowding the churches, Hubert sallied forth to the chase. As he was pursuing a magnificent stag or hart, the animal turned and, as the pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix standing between its antlers, while he heard a voice saying: "Hubert, unless you turn to the Lord, and lead a holy life, you shall quickly go down into hell". Hubert dismounted, prostrated himself and said, "Lord, what would You have me do?" He received the answer, "Go and seek Lambert, and he will instruct you."

During Hubert's religious vision, the Hirsch is said to have lectured Hubert into holding animals in higher regard and having compassion for them as God's creatures with a value in their own right. For example, the hunter ought to only shoot when a humane, clean and quick kill is assured. He ought shoot only old stags past their prime breeding years and to relinquish a much anticipated shot on a trophy to instead euthanize a sick or injured animal that might appear on the scene. Further, one ought never shoot a female with young in tow to assure the young deer have a mother to guide them to food during the winter. Such is the legacy of Hubert who still today is taught and held in high regard in the extensive and rigorous German and Austrian hunter education courses. He is almost always pictured with his hunting dog (s) and often holding them back from the kill.

St. Roch- Lynn Garlick

Our next patron, ST ROCH(1295-1327) , was a most gentle soul. On the death of his noble parents in his twentieth year he distributed all his worldly goods among the poor like Francis of Assisi and set out as a mendicant pilgrim for Rome. Coming into Italy during an epidemic of the Black plague, he was very diligent in tending the sick. Ministering at Piacenza he himself finally fell ill.

St. Roch- Medieval

He was expelled from the town; and withdrew into the forest, where he made himself a hut of boughs and leaves, which was miraculously supplied with water by a spring that arose in the place.He would have perished had not a dog belonging to a nobleman named Gothard Palastrelli supplied him with bread and licked his wounds, healing them. Count Gothard, following his hunting dog that carried the bread, discovered St Roch and became his acolyte. In art, he is always with his dog.

ST. VITUS was a Christian saint from Sicily. He died as a martyr during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in 303. Vitus is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the Roman Catholic Church.

St. Vitus

He is also patron of, dogs, against animal attacks, against dog bites, snake bites, against lightening and storms, Czech Republic, actors and dancers, epileptics, and nervous disorders and oversleeping.

I could not find anywhere why St. V is patron of dogs, unless it has to do with the dog bites, rabies and the relation to nervous disorders- his speciality!

ST. MARTIN DE PORRES, last but not least, is our best known patron of domestic animals. He was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579. His father was a Spanish gentleman and his mother a coloured freed-woman from Panama. At fifteen, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary at Lima and spent his whole life there-as a barber, farm laborer, almoner, and infirmarian- among other things.

St. Martin had a great desire to go off to some foreign mission and thus earn the palm of martyrdom. However, since this was not possible, he made a martyr out of his body, devoting himself to ceaseless and severe penances. In turn, God endowed him with many graces and wondrous gifts, such as, aerial flights and bi-location.

St. Martin's love was all-embracing, shown equally to humans and to animals, including vermin, and he maintained a cat and dog hospital at his sister's house. He also possessed spiritual wisdom, demonstrated in resolving theological problems for the learned of his Order and for bishops. A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, he died in 1639 and was canonized on May 6, 1962. His feast day is November 3.

Bella- Monastery's PWD

We all suffer when our beloved pets are ailing but there are several saints, not well-known, who can help us in matters of healing these friends!

Jaime Domínguez Montes

Born in 1245 in Sant'Angelo, ST. NICHOLAS of TOLENTINOtook his name from St. Nicholas of Myra, at whose shrine his parents prayed to have a child. Nicholas became a monk at 18, and seven years later, he was ordained a priest. He gained a reputation as a preacher and a confessor. Around 1274, he was sent to Tolentino, near his birthplace. The town suffered from civil strife between the Guelphs, who supported the pope, and Ghibellines, who supported the Holy Roman Emperor, in their struggle for control of Italy. St. Nicholas was primarily a pastor to his flock. He ministered to the poor and the criminal. He is said to have cured the sick with bread over which he had prayed to Mary, the Mother of God. He gained a reputation as a wonder-worker. He died in 1305 after a long illness. People began immediately to petition for his canonization. Pope Eugene IV canonized him in 1446, and his relics were rediscovered in 1926 at Tolentino.

Jànos Hajnal

On account of his kind and gentle manner his superiors entrusted him with the daily feeding of the poor at the monastery gates, but at times he was so free with the friary's provisions that the procurator begged the superior to check his generosity. Once, when weak after a long fast, he received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Augustine who told him to eat some bread marked with cross and dipped in water. Upon doing so he was immediately stronger. He started distributing these rolls to the ailing, while praying to Mary, often curing the sufferers; this is the origin of the Augustinian custom of blessing and distributing bread. This bread, known as "St. Nicholas' Bread," was claimed to have caused numerous miracles including the extinguishing of fires and the healing of of sick animals.

Another story tells how St.Nicholas, a vegetarian, was served a roasted fowl over which he made the sign of the cross, and the wretched bird flew out a window.

Our second saint is more modern, and while born in Germany, is considered an American saint.

BL. FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS(1819-1867) was a Redemptorist missionary.
Many Veterinarians consider him to be their patron, but I have not yet discovered why.

Francis Xavier Seelos was born in Fussen, Germany, in 1819. Expressing his desire for the priesthood since an early age, he entered the diocesan seminary of Augsburg after completing his studies in philosophy. Upon learning of the charism and missionary activity of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, he decided to join and go to North America. He arrived in the United States on April 20, 1843, entered the Redemptorist novitiate and completed his theological studies, being ordained a priest on December 22, 1844. He began his pastoral ministry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he remained nine years, working closely as assistant pastor of his confrere St. John Neumann, while at the same time serving as Master of Novices and dedicating himself to mission preaching. In 1854, he returned to Baltimore, later being transferred to Cumberland and then Annapolis, where he served in parochial ministry and in the formation of the Redemptorist seminarians.

He was considered an expert confessor, a watchful and prudent spiritual director and a pastor always joyfully available and attentive to the needs of the poor and the abandoned. In 1860, he was a candidate for the office of Bishop of Pittsburgh. Having been excused from this responsibility by Pope Pius IX, from 1863 until 1866 he became a full-time itinerant missionary preacher. He preached in English and German in the states of Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. He was named pastor of the Church of St. Mary of the Assumption in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he died of the yellow fever epidemic caring for the sick and the poor of New Orleans on October 4, 1867, at the age of 48. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

Basilica of the National Shrine of the

Immaculate Conception in Washington.

Prayer for healing of a pet:

Divine Physician, You infused Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos with the gift of Your healing. By the help of his prayers, sustain in me the grace to know Your will and the strength to overcome my [pet's] afflictions. For love of You, make [him/her] whole. May I learn from the example of Father Seelos and gain comfort from his patient endurance. Amen.

I recently came across an interesting story- not well known in our country - of a very courageous
young Japanese woman. Her story deserves to be told and maybe one day we will see her numbered among the saints- tho knowing her story we can say she has already achieved that status.

SATOKO KITAHARAgrew up with ancient Japanese religious and cultural traditions. She could trace her ancestry back one thousand years to Bushido Warrior and Shinto Priesthood.

Like most Japanese at outbreak of WWII, Satoko believed that her Nation’s military forces were honorable and acted with integrity, and understandably she wanted to fight for her country.
However, in the immediate aftermath of the War, the Japanese people learned the extent of their nation's War crimes. The ideals of their cultured society had been betrayed and many thought life was pointless.

Satoko was looking for a greater meaning in life. During the War she was employed in the Nakajima plane factory. In that unhealthy atmosphere where many had contracted tuberculosis, Satoko also became ill, but after recovery went to the university to study as a Pharmacist.

After a mysterious experience at a church in Yokohama City, Satoko contemplated more deeply the meaning of life. She had encountered an irresistible force drawing her to something she could not understand. In her search for answers, she visited some Spanish nuns and there came to understand the soul. Not long after this she converted to Christianity.

She then met the poorly educated Franciscan Missionary Brother Zeno, who took her to a community of ragpickers living on the banks of the Sumida River. Conditions in the township were deplorable. Having lost everything during the war, the residents were not even considered part of the Japanese community and had even fallen beneath society. Tokyo officials were determined to destroy the township and remove it from Sumida Park.

“Ant Town,” located in the damp, dirty harbor front area of Tokyo, where the poorest of Japan’s poor, mainly women and children, struggled to eke out an existence. The more comfortable of Japanese society dubbed it “Ant Town” because they said its inhabitants were even less significant than insects.

Shaken to the core by this challenge Satoko wrote in her Diary, “I had thought I was a great Christian because I condescended to dole out some free time, helping Ant children with their homework! … “To save us, God sent His only Son to be one of us... He really became one of us! It hit me now. There was only one way to help those ragpicker children: become a ragpicker like them!" So Satoko gave up her life of wealth and privilege to really live the Gospel of Jesus with the wretchedly poor. Instead of visiting the township, she went to live in Ants' Town.

By now her health was in serious decline. She forced herself to work for the benefit of others, assisting in administration and generating income. Because her influence on town leaders was great, a Center with a classroom, bathroom and meeting hall was built. There, on special occasions, she would also attend Mass with the children and teach them the value of prayer.

Since visiting the ragpickers, Satoko wrote, "I lay down in bed but could not get to sleep. Br. Zeno, a man without formal education, unable to read Japanese, had bridged a chasm separating two nations and two cultures. He had discovered a part of Japan I did not know existed, where thousands lived in unbelievable destitution. Many of them lived less than a kilometre from my home! I had lived in the pampered, educated ignorance of an over-sophisticated world while this unlettered foreigner worked without thought of self in the world of painful reality... I lived surrounded by carpets and gas stoves while he went without even an umbrella into the terrible twilight world of destitution."

During the many challenges, difficulties and hardships the community faced, Satoko never lost faith in the power of the Rosary. She inspired town leaders to pray it with her; she encouraged despairing parents to have faith in it and demonstrated her sincere devotion to it along with her love for the people.

Finally, her spirituality became so widely known throughout Japan that she received countless letters appealing for her prayers. With her Rosary in hand, she was able to claim victory over all official attempts to evict the townsfolk before securing a dignified outcome.

On 22 January 1958 that final equitable outcome was realized when her friend Tooru Matsui announced, “We’ve done it, Satoko, we’ve done it, and it’s thanks to your prayers! Now all you have to do is ask God to get you well so we can plan the new Ants Town and move into it. We’ll get someone to drive you to see the new place as soon as you’re a little better”. With her Rosary in hand, Satoko replied: “No, that will not be necessary. God has granted us everything we’ve asked of Him. That is enough”.

The next day Satoko slipped into eternal life. She had fulfilled her stated vocation, “I want to move to Ant Town and live as the people do. I want to share the life of the Ant people, to work and suffer with them, to rejoice with them as one of them… and to die for them.”

PRAYER for HEALING
Almighty God, we come before you with our heart-felt
request for the well-being of another person.
Through the intercession of Satoko Kitahara who led a life
of loving sacrifice for others, we pray for (intention)
We simply ask his out of love and having confidence in the
support of Satoko, we await your reply, through Jesus Christ
Our Lord, Amen.

Egino Weinert- Germany

We all know that Oct. 1 is the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux , the Little Flower, and our Prioress' feast day. Oct. 15 is the feast of the great St. Teresa of Avila, and on Oct. 4 we will have another Teresa being beatified- another American to boot. And who would believe she comes out of that Mafia ("The Godfather" and "The Soporanos") ridden state of New Jersey.

The beatification ofSISTER MIRIAM TERESA DEMJANOVICH, a Bayonne-born nun who died in 1927 at the age of 26, puts her one step away from formal canonization. We did a Blog about her Oct. 12 of 2012, but will give a synopsis of her life.

A dozen saints are classified as Americans, though most of them were European-born missionaries from the colonial era. In addition, St. Kateri Tekakwitha was a Native American born in the 17th century in what became New York state, and St. Elizabeth Anne Seton was born two years before the Declaration of Independence.

Only St. Katherine Drexel, heiress to a Philadelphia fortune who became a nun, was born in the modern U.S. She died in 1955 and was canonized in 2000.

The beatification Mass will take place in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark and will be led by Cardinal Angelo Amato, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which oversees all canonizations. About ten years ago I was there for the Ordination of a young man I had known since he was 5. Father Peter's family lived near our Abbey in Ct. and became my family since mine lived so far away in California.

The daughter of Slovakian immigrants, Bl. Miriam Teresa was born in 1901 and earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the College of St. Elizabeth in New Jersey in 1923, an unusual accomplishment for American women in that era.

She was raised in the Byzantine Catholic rite, an Eastern rite church in communion with the Latin-rite Roman Catholic Church. In 1925 she entered the contemplative religious order of the Sisters of Charity, founded by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Bl. Miriam Teresa died just two years later of complications following an appendectomy, even before she took final vows. But during those two years she anonymously penned a series of 26 letters on prayer and the spiritual life that were later published as a book that became popular in the 1930s.

In 1963, a third-grade boy at a New Jersey school run by the order went blind due to macular degeneration but regained his sight without treatment, after the sisters led the school in prayers for Sister Miriam’s intercession.

Although Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was personally unassuming, the spiritual impact she had on other Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth was so unmistakable that they began the effort to have her canonized soon after her May 8, 1927, death in Paterson. Only after her death did confidantes reveal she had described having a vision Mary in her sophomore year and of walking with St. Therese, which she occurred during her novitiate.

St. John Paul II is sometimes remembered as a “saint maker” who canonized 482 men and women during his 27-year pontificate. Pope Francis, however, is an even more prodigious “saint maker” who has canonized more saints than have all the popes of the past three centuries combined.

During the eighteenth century, 29 saints were canonized; between 1800 and 1903, 80 saints were canonized; and between 1903 and 1978, when Bl. John Paul II assumed the papacy, another 168 saints were canonized. Pope Benedict XVI canonized 45 saints during his eight-year pontificate. Thus 804 saints were canonized between 1700, when Clement IX assumed the papacy, and the election of Pope Francis in March 2013.

If Bl. John Paul was a “saint maker,” it was largely because of his canonizations of large groups of martyrs: 402 of the 482 saints he canonized were martyrs. And so it is with Pope Francis, who has canonized 817 saints, 813 of them martyrs.

One new saint close to home is BL. MARIE ROSE DUROCHER ( Eulalie) who was born October 6, 1811 in the village of Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Canada. The family was pious and five of the eight children dedicated their lives to service in the Church, three as priests and two as religious. At her brother’s parish, she worked for twelve years organizing the Legion of Mary, teaching the catechism to children, even ironing altar linens! All of which would be great preparation for her own life’s work.

Bishop Ignace Bourget invited Eulalie to found a new religious community, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, based on an order of the same name in Marseilles, France. She faced much opposition but eventually founded the first house at Longueuil along with her new sisters, Melodie Dufresne and Henriette Cere. It wasn’t long before new recruits were begging to join the community. In 1844, after a year of preparation, the three foundresses received their “holy habit” and made their vows. They also received their religious names, and Eulalie Durocher became Mother Marie Rose.

New houses quickly followed while the number of sisters grew. A biography describes Mother Marie Rose as “a methodical, orderly woman… a capable administrator, dynamic and creative.” “She was the artisan of a light-hearted feeling in the house.” A sister described her as “a cultured lady.” She was a gifted teacher and (not surprisingly) had a genius for communicating the mysteries of faith to young people. She explained things “in a clear, precise way, that was lively and practical, and with such fervor that the smallest girls one day asked their teacher: ‘Are the angels holier than the Mother Foundress?’”

Thirty-two at the time of her call to religious life, Mother Marie Rose died on her thirty-eighth birthday, after only five years as a nun. “God will take care of you,” she told the community gathered around her deathbed. And she was right. Today there are more than 1,500 religious working in Canada and the US and many parts of the world. Mother Marie Rose was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Her feast is celebrated Oct. 6.

Our Cathedral of St. James in Seattle has a lovely icon of this new Blessed which hangs in the Mother Mary Rose Conference Room at the new Pastoral Outreach Center. The icon was commissioned as part of the Centennial Campaign as a tribute to the Sisters of the Holy Names who have ministered in the Cathedral parish for nearly 100 years.

The icon, created by Cathedral iconographer Joan Brand-Landkamer, tells the story of the life of this young French Canadian nun through scenes of her life and places she lived.

At the end of last year the father of our land program woman came for a visit. He left us a movie, a documentary about a singer who never made it in the USA. It sat on my desk for months- I did not like the cover- thinking: egads! One day I thought why not? It turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen. I showed it to the Community and then Oblates and our Land Program young people. I also sent a copy to Father Scott, who is also from Detroit. All agreed - very special!

"SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN"tells the incredible true story of RODRIGUEZ, the greatest '70s rock icon who never was. Discovered in a Detroit bar (The Sewer) in the late '60s by two celebrated producers struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics, they recorded an album which they believed would secure his reputation as the greatest recording artist of his generation. But the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. Amazingly enough a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, he became a phenomenon. The film follows the story of two South African fans who set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation leads them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez.

"Searching for Sugar Man" is a 2012 Swedish–British documentary film, which details the efforts of two Cape Town fans in the late 1990s, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out whether the rumored death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true, and, if not, to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez's music, which never took off in the United States, had become wildly popular in South Africa, but little was known about him there.

On 10 February 2013, the film won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary at the 66th British Academy Film Awards in London, and two weeks later it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood. It won 14 other International awards.

Rodriguez declined to attend the award ceremony as he didn't want to overshadow the filmmakers' achievement if he came up on stage with them. Upon accepting his award, Chinn remarked on such generosity, "That just about says everything about that man and his story that you want to know."

His career initially proved short lived, with two little-sold albums in the early 1970s and two Australian concert tours. Unknown to him, however, his work became extremely successful and influential in South Africa, and continued to retain a loyal following in Australia. According to the film-makers of the documentary about him, Searching for Sugar Man, at one time he was arguably more famous than Elvis Presley in South Africa, though he was mistakenly rumored there to have committed suicide. Many thought he was greater than Bob Dylan.

In the 1990s, determined South African fans managed to find and contact him, which led to an unexpected revival of his musical career. This is told in the 2012 Academy Award–winning documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, which helped give Rodriguez a measure of fame in his home country.

Despite his success abroad, his fame in South Africa had remained completely unknown to Rodriguez until 1997, when his eldest daughter came across a website dedicated to him. After contacting the website and learning of his fame in the country, Rodriguez went on his first South African tour, playing six concerts before thousands of fans.

Rodriguez was born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan. He was the sixth child of working-class parents. He was named Sixto (pronounced "Seez-too") because he was their sixth child. His father had immigrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1920s; his mother was also from Mexico joining many who came to the Midwest to work in Detroit's industries. Mexican immigrants at that time faced both intense alienation and marginalization. In most of his songs, Rodriguez takes a political stance on the difficulties that faced the inner city poor.

Despite his poor background, Rodriguez earned a Bachelor of Philosophy from Wayne State University's Monteith College in 1981 and May 9, 2013, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his Alma Mater.

Since the cinematic release of "Searching for Sugar Man" in 2012, Rodríguez has experienced a flush of media exposure and fan interest in the United States, as well as Europe.

While he has certainly made a lot of money in the past 15 years, he has given most of it away to family and friends and after 40 years still lives in Detroit's historic Woodbridge neighborhood, which he is seen walking through in "Searching for Sugar Man".

It is a movie to see, inspiring all, especially the young, to not loose hope, and do do one's best in life. In spite of his "poverty" and hard labor it is quite obvious the way Rodriguez and his three daughters speak in the film, that they had a rich life.

Kookaburra King

Regal Perch

At this time of year, my mind traces some recent past travels as I pine for a warmer clime. Seven years ago one of our Oblates gave me a trip to Australia (a top number on my "bucket list") It was a wonderful six weeks, where I met old friends and made new ones. My first stay was with renowned artist TRICIA REUSTwhom I have known for 30+ years, when she and her husband and young family (then 3 girls) lived in the USA.

While Tricia was born in Sydney, she has spent the past 25 years living north of Brisbane. She attended the Newcastle Art School for over two years, holds a Basic Art Certificate from the Art Instruction School in Minnesota, and is a graduate with Distinction from the Open College of the Arts, Queensland.

Royal Stance

Tricia at work

Tricia exhibits regularly in regional shows and competitions and is very active in the art community, especially since having coordinated the Redcliffe Regional Youth Art Awards with artist and friend John Robinson. Tricia teaches and presents workshops at various art societies throughout Australia. She works in oil and watercolor as well as collage.

She has won many awards for her art and two years ago took Best in Show at the Mortimore National Art Show.

Gaggle Line

When I visited Tricia and her husband, I was fortunate to stay in her art studio, which sits high off the ground, surrounded by windows.I would wake each morning to brightly colored birds singing in the trees which surround the studio rooms. It was like being in a tree house.

Trish, like many Australians, knows her birds and took me to many wonderful places, but vivid in my memory is the first morning, bright and early, to an area near her home along the water. There in front of us was a royal kingfisher in all his glory.

Trish is also a Catholic, very active in her Church Community. My first Sunday there gave me one of my favorite Australian birds, the galah. The lawn in front of the Church was covered with this bright pink and gray bird, a member of the cockatoo family.

Jabiru

Trish has an amazing sense of color, certainly inspired by her native land. In many cases I am reminded of our Southwest, but then there are the many jungles and woods and of course the seas of many colors.

Creek Flight

While Trish paints and draws many varied subjects, my favorites are her birds. She is an amazing woman- mother, wife, bird watcher, and artist!

Lotus Place- Mixed media

Becoming- Pastel

Halted Morning Walk

Maroochy- Tricia Reust

When I stayed with Tricia Reust (last Blog) she spoke many times of an Aboriginal woman, namedMAROOCHY BARAMBAH, who was very active in bettering life for her people. Unfortunately, when I was there she was traveling elsewhere. I later found that she is a mezzo-soprano singer who is of the Turrbal-Gubbi Gubbi people and is a member of the Stolen Generations. She considers herself a beneficiary of her removal. As a tribute to her Aboriginality she took the names Maroochy (meaning "black swan") and Barambah (meaning "source of the western wind". She was born Yvette Isaacs in the 1950s in Cherbourg, Queensland.

At the age of 12 she was taken from her family and fostered out to a family in Melbourne. This movement was an effort by the government to separate children from their heritage. She later attended theMelba Conservatorium of Music in Melbourne andVictorian College of the Arts where she graduated in Dramatic Arts in 1979.

Maroochy rose to fame for herpart in the 1989 Sydney Metropolitan Opera production of “Black River”, by Julianne and Andrew Schultz, an opera about black deaths in custody. She also appeared in the indigenous musical “Bran Nue Dae”, the 1981 television series “Women of the Sun”, and in the opera “Beach Dreaming”, written for and about her by Mark Isaacs.

Maroochy has also had extensive community involvement over many years working with the younger generation of Indigenous Australians in the arts industry. She has delivered several lectures on Aboriginal culture in various institutions and was a keynote speaker at the Australian Reconciliation Conventionin Melbourne in May 1997.

When Maroochy made her operatic debut in “Black River” , she became the first Aborigine to perform on the Australian operatic stage. She was the first Australian to perform at the United Nations in New York in honor of the International Year for the World’s Indigenous Peoples in 1993. In November 1995, Maroochy starred in the American opera "Porgy & Bess"and became the first Indigenous Australian to perform in an opera at the Sydney Opera House. She hopes to continue to work in this area of the performing arts, while at the same time engender better understanding of Aboriginal culture.

(Tricia Reust)

She has received many awards, both in Australia and overseas. In April 2000, Maroochy was awarded an Honorary Senior Fellowship of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Qld. for her outstanding and sustained contributions to the community. Her career spans the genres of jazz, rock, musical theater, as well as classical opera

Tricia has painted her several times. She certainly captures “the soul” of this remarkable woman who has a strong sense of who she is, her heritage and her role.

She comes from a songline, so she never doubted that she would end up singing. But Aboriginal music was not always as accepted as it is today. “If you come from your roots, you don’t have to impress people. We as a nation are coming to a point where we feel more comfortable with ourselves and with our culture."

Station III- Jesus Falls

In 2010 St. James Cathedral (Seattle) was given a new set of Stations of the Cross, which hang in the Cathedral each year during the season of Lent. The stations are the work of JOAN BRAND-LANDKRAMER who began work on these stations many years ago, completing them in the fall of 2009. She used “found objects” from the beach near her home in Ocean Shores (WA) which includes wood, rope and wire, to create a contemporary interpretation of the centuries-old devotion of the Stations of the Cross.

Her stations were inspired by the work of Georges Rouault, the 20th-century French artist, and in particular his series of engravings entitled "Miserere". In Joan’s words, “I stood on the shoulders of Rouault, the master.”

Jesus Falls 2nd Time

Rouault originally created the drawings that make up "Miserere" during World War I, but for various reasons their publication was delayed until 1947. The series speaks powerfully of human suffering and betrayal, and includes a number of images of the suffering Christ, juxtaposed with images of suffering humanity: corrupt judges and politicians, fools, prostitutes and prisoners.

Rouault

“Form, color, harmony… oasis or mirage for the eyes, the heart, or the spirit,” wrote Rouault in his preface to the volume; “Jesus on the cross will tell you better than I....My only ambition is to be able someday to paint a Christ so moving that those who see him will be converted.”

While the Stations of Joan Brand-Landkramer may not be to everyone's liking, they certainly convey the suffering Christ in a way that we can relate to in our own human suffering.

Station XI- Jesus Nailed to the Cross

Station XII- Jesus Dies

One of our nuns from the Abbey, Mother Augusta, sent this along to us. "We get these messages from Tomie dePaola every now and then and the one today was a word fromSt. Hildegard which I thought you might appreciate." Tomie lives near the Abbey and has been a friend of the Abbey's for many, many years. Check out some of his wonderful books- for all ages!

Why do we commemorate ALL SAINTS DAYandALL SOULS DAY?
To remind us that we are all called to be saints and to be encouraged by their lives.

All Souls' Day is a day of prayer for the dead. In Western Christianity the annual celebration is now held on 2 November and is associated with All Saints' Day (1 November) and its vigil, Halloween (31 October).

Prayer for the dead is a documented practice in Judaism and in early Christianity. The setting aside of a particular day for praying not for certain named individuals but for whole classes of the departed or for the dead in was well established by the end of the first millennium.

Prayers for the deceased members of Benedictine monasteries were offered in the week after Pentecost and the practice of praying for the dead at a date near Pentecost was also followed in Spain in the 7th century. Other dates chosen were Epiphany and the anniversary of the death of some well-known saint, as shown by evidence from the beginning of the 9th century.

All Souls Day- Aladar K. Korosfoi, 1910 Hungary

By about 980, 1 October was an established date in Germany. The 11th century saw the introduction of a liturgical commemoration in diocesan calendars. In Milan the date was 16 October until changed in the second half of the 16th century to 2 November. This date, the day after All Saints' Day, was that which Saint Odilo of Cluny chose in the 11th century for all the monasteries dependent on the Abbey of Cluny. From these the 2 November custom spread to other Benedictine monasteries and then to the Western Church in general.

The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22), when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one for the faithful departed; one for the priest's intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. Only on a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.

All Souls Day- Joza Uprka -Czech 1897

There are two plenary indulgences attached to All Souls Day, one for visiting a church and another for visiting a cemetery.

I was so captivated by the Cathedral stations of Seattle artist JOAN BRAND- LANDKRAMER that I decided to root through the air and see if I could find more of her art.Low and behold, before the very modern stations, she did some lovely, very traditional icons, for the Cathedral.

Despite her prolific output, Joan calls herself a late bloomer. Icons are steeped in mysticism, she says, and she is “just getting the hang of it.”

The icons, based on traditional Russian iconography, represent the central mysteries of faith and the feasts of the Church year.

Annunciation

People and things she loves and is moved by make their way into her creative process. Other parishioners and family members appear. Joan hopes these images may one day serve history as records of St. James Cathedral and its community at the turn of the twenty-first century.

The first icon Joan “wrote” for the Cathedral was the Icon of the Annunciation of the Lord. Mary turns from her work (she holds a spindle) to receive the message of the angel. Local details are incorporated into the classic style of the icon: an image of St. James, the Cathedral’s patron, and of the Cathedral towers, in the upper right-hand corner.

Pentecost

Joan' s Pentecost icon shows some familiar faces among the assembled apostles. Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Father Ryan (Cathedral pastor) who sits among the apostles, and Dr. James Savage (music director) are all pictured.

Other icons incorporate portraits of parishioners at St. James and leaders of the Church in Seattle and beyond. In this icon of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, you can find Bl. (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta, St. Frances Cabrini, and St.John Paul II, as well as some of our past bishops: Archbishop Brunett, Bishop George Thomas, Archbishop Murphy. Father Ryan is Constantine, with his real-life mother next to him.

Holy Cross

Each Sunday, one of the icons is carried in procession at the Cathedral, and placed on a stand for viewing by the faithful.

The past few Blogs have presented some art in our Seattle Cathedral, but there is much more to see and people come from all over to gaze and pray.

Perhaps the most "controversial" is also the oldest. No one knows how it came to be in Seattle. Art historians, church administrators and amateur sleuths have all taken their shots at solving the puzzle, but none has succeeded. It is clear the masterpiece is not listed on any stolen-art registry

After the work was discovered in a crate in the cathedral basement in 1950, it hung for decades in the chapel. In 1991, it came to the attention of University of Washington student, Elizabeth Darrow, who recognized its worth. For decades, the 55-by-64-inch painting got little fanfare or care.

It suffered from poor handling and crude retouching efforts over the past 500 years. It was painted on four poplar planks, the top one of which was, at one point, out of alignment. Gluing it back during some past amateurish effort at restoration warped the panel. Finally, it was sent to a local hospital for x rays which found that most of the original colors were still in place beneath layers of yellow-brown varnish and past retouching. The saints' faces had been poorly repainted.

In 2005, after careful restoration, it was finally hung in a place worthy of its grandeur. The Virgin and Child with Six Saints is a 15th-century altar painting by Florentine artist Neri di Bicci. It is the most important Renaissance artwork in the Northwest.


Detail

It depicts the Madonna and Child, flanked by Saints Luke, Bartholomew and Lawrence on the left; John the Baptist, Martin, and Sebastian on the right. This subject, a very familiar one in Renaissance art, is known as a sacra conversazione, (a “holy conversation,”) as saints of many different times and places are imagined in “conversation” with Mary and Jesus.

A much more modern depiction of Madonna and Child is THE SEATTLEMADONNA by the German artist, Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen, who also created the three East Apse windows in the Cathedral. This colorful piece depicts Mary holding Jesus, surrounded by rich foliage and flowers, recalling the words of the prophet Isaiah: A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom (Is.11:1)

Inscribed in German around the figures are words from a poem by St. Hildegard of Bingen: “O leafing branch, abiding in your noble state, just as the dawn light grows, now rejoice and be glad, and see fit to deliver us from our weakened way of life. Stretch forth your hand to strengthen us.”

From 1907 to 1916, the Cathedral had no stained glass – all the windows were clear glass. But when these windows were destroyed in the collapse of the dome, the Cathedral’s pastor at the time, Father William Noonan, commissioned the Boston firm of Charles Connick to create stained glass for the Cathedral. The windows were blessed in 1918.

St. James

Before one even enters the Cathedral, you encounter the ceremonial BRONZE DOORS, the work of sculptor Ulrich Henn, which depicts the journey of humanity towards the heavenly city. The story begins with Adam and Eve's first faltering steps as they leave the garden. The angel sends them forth, but one hand is raised in blessing: already we know how this "divine comedy" will end - in a new paradise.

The beauty and intensity of these doors reminds me of the ones by Manzu at St. Peters in Rome. Photos do not do them justice.

Palm Procession

The Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the best-loved places in the Cathedral. The Chapel, which dates from 1994, was designed by architect Susan Jones. The dark floor, the rich, warm tones of the wall, and the light of dozens of beeswax candles create an intimate place where the faithful kneel at the feet of Mary, who is Christ’s mother and ours.

The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus is inspired by a 15th-century image from the monastery church of Blaubeuren in Germany. Jesus holds an apple, a reminder of the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus, the new Adam, offers grace and life.

This month starts a year long celebration of CONSECRATED LIFE within the Church.

The Holy Father said the year-long celebration “will be an important moment for 'evangelizing' our vocation and for bearing witness to the beauty of the following of Christ in the many ways in which our lives are expressed.”

According to Vatican statistics, there are nearly one million people living religious, consecrated life within the church.

“The consecrated take up the witness that has been left them by their respective founders and foundresses. They want to 'awaken the world' with their prophetic witness, particularly with their presence at the existential margins of poverty and thought.”

The purpose of this celebration is threefold:

renewal for men and women in consecrated life

thanksgiving among the faithful for the service of sisters, brothers, priests, and nuns

invitation to young Catholics to consider a religious vocation

The Year's official inauguration is planned with a solemn celebration in St. Peter's Basilica, which will take place on 29 November, the World Day 'Pro orantibus'. This will be followed by an assembly of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the theme of which would be “The 'Novum' in Consecrated Life beginning from Vatican II”.

Jan. 22-24, 2015 will see meetings of Catholic consecrated men and women as well as consecrated religious from other Christian traditions, to be held during the week of Christian unity.

Every four months throughout the year, a newsletter will be published on themes related to consecrated life, the first of which will come out on 2 February of next year, entitled “Be Glad”.

Second week of April, 2015 there will be a Conference on religious formation around the world. Sept. 23-26, 2015 will be events for young men and women in discernment and in the process of joining religious orders.

For the conclusion of the Year for Consecrated Life another con-celebration presided by Pope Francis is planned, probably for 21 November 2015, 50 years after the decree “Perfecta caritatis”.

Finally, during the Year of Consecrated Life, it is hoped that the Holy Father will promulgate a new apostolic constitution on contemplative life in place of “Sponsa Christi”, which was promulgated by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

“I want to say one word to you and this word is “joy”. Wherever there are consecrated people, seminarians, men and women religious, young people, there is joy, there is always joy! It is the joy of freshness, the joy of following Jesus; the joy that the Holy Spirit gives us, not the joy of the world… Joy is not a useless ornament. It is a necessity, the foundation of human life. In their daily struggles, every man and woman tries to attain joy and abide in it with the totality of their being...

In the world there is often a lack of joy. We are not called to accomplish epic feats or to proclaim high-sounding words, but to give witness to the joy that arises from the certainty of knowing we are loved, from the confidence that we are saved." Pope Francis, 2014

Christ the Pantocrator- Hagia Sophia

Tomorrow as we celebrate the SOLEMNITY of CHRIST the KING, we also look forward to Thursday, and the celebration of THANKSGIVING DAY. Sunday is also a special day for new saints in the Church.

The Feast of Christ the King is a relatively recent addition to the Church's liturgical calendar, having been instituted in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Quas Primas, in response to growing nationalism and secularism.

In 1969 Pope Paul VI gave the celebration a new title: "Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe". He also gave it a new date: the last Sunday in the liturgical year, before a new year begins with the First Sunday in Advent.

"He must reign in our minds...He must reign in our wills... He must reign in our hearts, so that we love God above all things, and cleave to Him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God." (Pope Pius XI)

For us Christians, we do not see Christ as a tyrant, ruling over us, but rather as our Savior, our teacher, our God who became our King by reigning in our daily lives. In Christ we find our path to holiness. .

But we ask how are these two great feast days connected? Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Feast of Christ the King and the last week of the year pass through the “secular” Feast of Thanksgiving. The word “Eucharist” means Thanksgiving and should be a reminder to us of the greatest gift we have been given as we are able to daily partake of the Body of Christ.

Also giving thanks tomorrow will be at least 4,000 Indians at the Vatican today to see Pope Francis officially declare Blessed Chavara Elias Kuriakose (1805-1871) andBlessed Euphraisa of Sacred Heart of Jesus(1877-1952) saints. The canonizations come six years after the canonization of India's first woman saint, Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception. Both new saints are credited with spearheading a better spiritual and social awareness that have become the foundations of present-day Catholic life in Kerala, where our Father Mathew Thelly is from.

Rumen Spasov- Bulgaria

As we go through this last week of the year, with much hustle and bustle, as we prepare an earthly banquet, joining with those whom we love around the table in Thanksgiving, may we take the time to ponder how we will approach the new Liturgical season, Advent, preparing ourselves and the world for the coming of the King. On this last week of the Church Year, let us remember that in Christ the King, Thanksgiving and Advent become a way of life for us all.

BLESSED FEASTS

ADVENT is a preparatory season. It is a season of looking forward and waiting for something wonderful- for the annual celebration of Christ's birth, and for the time when Christ will come again.

At Christmas we read the very long genealogy of Jesus and since I was very young, I always anticipate the naming of the five women mentioned. Ordinarily, women were not included in the genealogies of the first century, so Matthew is unique in his identification of these women as significant in Jesus' lineage.

Like all of us, Jesus had some real characters, who on the surface, maybe should not have been linked with the Savior. Perhaps by adding them to His lineage ( rather than the holy Rebecca or Esther) the Lord is telling us we can all be redeemed.

The first woman named is TAMAR (Genesis 38) who bore Perez and Zerah by Judah. Due to the shenanigans of her dead husband's family, she resorted to some wiles of her own. Tamar was the widowed daughter-in-law of Judah who disguised herself as a prostitute in order to trick Judah into impregnating her and giving her a son who would tie her to her dead husband's family. Under Jewish law, Judah and his sons had sinned against Tamar, so she was seeking what was hers by right.

Tamar & Onan- Tiarini

Tamar is first described as marrying Judah's eldest son, Er. Because of his wickedness, Er was killed by God. Thus according to the law, Judah asked his second son, Onan, to provide offspring for Tamar so that the family line might continue. Because Onan practiced a form of contraception, Tamar did not become pregnant. For a Jewish woman this meant disgrace, because people thought that being childless was a punishment from God.

Onan's actions were deemed wicked by God and so, like his older brother, he died prematurely. (Would you want to stay in this family??) At this point, Judah is portrayed as viewing Tamar to be cursed, and is therefore reluctant to give his remaining and youngest son Shelah, to her. He told Tamar to wait for Shelah, but even after he grew up, Judah did not give him to Tamar in marriage.

At the time Shelah grew up, Judah became a widower. After Judah mourned the death of his wife, he planned on going to Timnah to shear his sheep. Upon hearing this news, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and immediately went to Enaim which was en route to Judah's destination. Upon arriving at Enaim, Judah saw the woman but did not recognize her as Tamar because of the veil she wore over her face.

Tamar & Judah- Jacopo Tintoretto

Thinking she was a prostitute, he requested her services. Tamar's plan was to become pregnant by this ruse in order to bear a child in Judah's line, because Judah had not given her to his son Shelah. So she played the part of a prostitute and struck a deal with Judah for a goat with a security deposit of his staff, seal, and cord. The seal, cord and staff were symbols of a man's identity, items of great personal worth, and it is astonishing that Judah gave them up.
What was the man thinking of ??

When Judah was able to have a goat sent to Enaim, in order to collect his staff and seal, the woman was nowhere to be found and no one knew of any prostitute in Enaim.

Three months later, Tamar was accused of prostitution on account of her pregnancy. Upon hearing this news, Judah ordered that she be burned to death. Tamar sent the staff, seal, and cord to Judah with a message declaring that the owner of these items was the man who had made her pregnant. Upon recognizing his security deposit, Judah released Tamar from her sentence. Tamar's place in the family and Judah's posterity secured, she gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. The midwife marks Zerah's hand with a scarlet cord when it emerges from the womb first but it slips back into the womb and Perez is born first. Perez is the ancestor of King David.

Tamar- A. Bouguereau

While Tamar’s actions were certainly unorthodox, in a way she ‘redeemed’ Judah. She saved him from wrong-doing, thus becoming a pre-figure of Jesus, who was one of her descendents.

What we discover from the genealogy of Jesus is not just that He was indeed human, as well as divine, but that He descended from a line of people which included very strong, resilient, loyal, and faithful women. Women we would be proud of in our own lineage.

Rahab- Michael Dudosh

We continue our journey through Advent with the five women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy. We can ponder why some of the more "famous" gallant women, such as Esther, Deborah and Judith are not mentioned in that direct lineage to Christ, but God has His ways, as we shall see. "The genealogy with its light and dark figures, its successes and failures, shows us that God can write straight even on the crooked lines of our history." (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI)

The next woman mentioned is RAHAB, (better known by her occupation: Rahab the Harlot) the wife of Salmon, who was a Gentile living in Jericho. Her story is found in Joshua 2 and 6. She assisted the Israelites in capturing the city. She became a figure of fascination to the writers of the New Testament, where she is reckoned among the ancestors of Jesus, and is lauded as an example of living by faith, while being justified by her works.

She gave hospitality to the Jewish spies who came to Jericho and hid them from the king of Jericho when he wanted to kill them. Her confession of faith is one of the great ones in the Old Testament: "the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below."

According to the book of Joshua , when the Hebrews were encamped at Shittim, in the Jordan valley opposite Jericho, ready to cross the river, Joshua, as a final preparation, sent out two spies to investigate the military strength of Jericho. The spies stayed in Rahab's house, which was built into the city wall. The soldiers sent to capture the spies asked Rahab to bring out the spies. Instead, she hid them under bundles of flax on the roof. It was the time of the barley harvest, and flax and barley are ripe at the same time in the Jordan valley, so that the bundles of flax stalks might have been expected to be drying just then.

Rahab & the Spies- F.R. Pickersgill

After escaping, the spies promised to spare Rahab and her family after taking the city, even if there should be a massacre, if she would mark her house by hanging a red cord out the window.
When the city of Jericho fell , Rahab and her whole family were spared according to the promise of the spies, and were incorporated among the Jewish people

Rahab turns her life around, joins Israel and has a son by an Israelite man. That son grows up and becomes very important to the family of Jesus.

What a transformation must have taken place in her life for her to be listed in this lineage. Since Salmon was considered noble among the children of Israel and was of the tribe of Judah and the son of the prince, he saw the faithful Rahab thus converted to goodness and beloved by God and led from Jericho at God's command and counted among the daughters of Israel. Her story certainly affirmed the power of God to transform a life from both ignorance of God and a sinful lifestyle to a woman who was beloved by God and praised for her goodness.

Rahab- Catherine Mcintyre

Rahab is seen as a model of hospitality, mercy, faith, patience, and repentance in her interaction with Joshua's spies. Thus the harlot of Jericho became a paragon of virtue.

Immaculate Conception- Peru- 1700s

This week we have in the middle of Advent, two great feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and birthdays for two of us in the monastery. This first is December 8, the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION of Virgin Mary and Mother Mary Grace's birthday. While there are many famous paintings of the Immaculate Conception, most notably Murillo's, I have chosen two lesser known works for this day.

Few doctrines of the Catholic Church are as misunderstood as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Many people, including many Catholics, think that it refers to the conception of Christ through the action of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That event, though, is celebrated at the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25, nine months before Christmas).

The Immaculate Conception refers to the condition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne.

Imm. Conception- Cuzco (Peru) School- 1700s

In teaching that Mary was conceived immaculate, the Catholic Church teaches that from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin. This simply means that from the beginning, she was in a state of grace, sharing in God's own life, and that she was free from the sinful inclinations which have beset human nature after the fall.
She is patoness of The United States.

The second great day, December 12, is my birthday and the feast of OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE, patroness of the Americas. Here I offer two modern depictions of her, one by my dear santero friend, Br. Arturo Olivas, SFO.

He says of her:
Mary, the Mother of Christ bears many titles, which witness to her enormous appeal as a heavenly advocate for all people. As the Mother of the Redeemer she is especially effective in drawing her Divine Son to those who are in particular need of His love and compassion. Such was the case when she appeared to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert, on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City in December of 1531.

Arturo Olivas

Stephen Whatley- England

The native people of Mexico were devastated by the Spanish conquest. Hundreds of thousands died in warfare, disease, and slavery. Their culture was shattered and their spirits were leveled by the onslaught of an alien worldview. Mary appeared as an Indian woman on a site formerly dedicated to Tonantzin, the Aztec mother goddess, and spoke to Juan Diego in his native Nahua. She assured her motherly love and concern to the Indian people of the New World and to all people who suffer and are oppressed. As proof of her appearance she left her image on Juan Diego’s tilma or cloak which hangs today in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City.

Mexican settlers brought devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe to New Mexico as early as 1598. New Mexican artists called santeros painted her image on pine panels with natural pigments and sealed with pinon sap varnish. She is always shown with her hands clasped in prayer and wearing a rose-colored robe and a blue or green mantle while standing on a crescent moon supported by a cherub and surrounded by a golden mandorla.

FOUR LEGGED FRIENDS (WELL, SOME HAVE TWO)

NUNS AND BOOKS

OUR # 1 FRIENDS

SAINTS AND VETS

RAGPICKER SAINT

A MONTH OF TERESAS

CANADIAN ROSE

"SUGARMAN"

DOWNUNDER ARTIST

ABORIGINAL WOMAN

CHRIST IN FORM AND HARMONY- CATHEDRAL ART

SHIPWRECKED WORLD

BECOMING SAINTS

CATHEDRAL ARTIST PART II

MORE CATHEDRAL ART

WAKE UP, WORLD!

THANKSGIVING FOR OUR KING- TRIPLE CELEBRATION

WOMEN IN JESUS' GENEALOGY- TAMAR

JESUS' HOSPITABLE GRANDMOTHER

FEASTS AND BIRTHDAYS