#St Elizabeth's Church

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

ℜ𝔲𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔒𝔯𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔡𝔬𝔵 ℭ𝔥𝔲𝔯𝔠𝔥 𝔬𝔣 𝔖𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱 𝔈𝔩𝔦𝔷𝔞𝔟𝔢𝔱𝔥 𝔦𝔫 𝔚𝔦𝔢𝔰𝔟𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔫

 📷  𝔙𝔦𝔱𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔐𝔲𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔬𝔳

[momentsbeforemass]

Cardboard signs

People with cardboard signs, asking for help.

It feels like there are more of them every day.

We’ve all heard stories about scammers. People pretending to be desperate.

But some of those people with cardboard signs really are desperate. Which is why I struggle with this one.

Do I give to the person with the cardboard sign, and risk being scammed?

Or do I not give to them, and risk ignoring someone in need?

I know I’m not alone in struggling with this. And it’s not a new problem. St. Elizabeth of Portugal (today’s saint) faced the same problem when she was working to feed the poor in the 1300’s.

I’m nowhere as holy a person as Elizabeth. But she and I do have one thing in common – in wrestling with this, both of kept coming back to something that Jesus said (which happens to be today’s Gospel).

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

Jesus speaks volumes, both by what He says and by His silence.

Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. Jesus doesn’t say anything about the merits, or the actual need, or the worthiness of the person being helped. Instead, Jesus says this,

“Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Translation - the person I help is none other than Jesus.

But what if I watch someone pick them up in a new car?

Maybe they are scammers, off for a nice dinner after a profitable day of begging.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone is giving them a ride to an appointment, so they can get the help they need.

Either way, Jesus’ answer to me is the same.

“Whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Because, in the end, it never was about them. It’s about me and Jesus.

And how I respond to them is a window into my soul.

Today’s Readings

[owls-and-cakes]

Elisabethkapelle, St. Francis of Assisi Church - Vienna, Austria

[natequarter]

it's a bit hard to identify name trends as such in the past, but the first half of the 1500s definitely had a thomas surge, right? there were so many fucking thomases

[une-sanz-pluis]

every now and again I think about Eleanor Cobham is buried somewhere in Beaumaris and get really sad about how no one knows where (and that no one but me and maybe 3 other people care).

[wolfie-wolfgang]

A week in Helsinki

In September 2022, after a wonderful time at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti, I stayed on in Finland for another week and moved to Helsinki, a place that everyone I know who has been there to told me that I would love it. I did. I love the way it manages to be a capital city with all the things that I expect from such places – good facilities, interesting buildings, art galleries, a concert hall…

[helloparkerrose]

[angeltreasure]

[stonelord1]

Elizabeth Wayte (Lucy) & Stoke Charity

Between rainstorms, we were out in the countryside doing some church-crawling, a grand way to do some ‘medievalling’ when long journeys to castles and houses, most still closed for the winter, are out of the question. We happened on Stoke Charity by pure accident. I was attracted by the unusual name, which also began ringing a few bells…. The church of St Mary and St Michael is tiny, with a…

[tenth-sentence]

The woman portrayed as very small, Elizabeth Etchingham, died first, in 1452, nearly 30 years before her friend Agnes Oxenbridge, who died in 1480.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[whats-in-a-sentence]

A rare medieval example of the recognition and celebration of a loving partnership between two women can be seen in the Church of St Nicholas and St Mary at Etchingham in East Sussex.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[seekingtheosis]

Christian Perseverance through Faith - Advent Meditation on St. Luke 1:1-25

The post reflects on the annunciation to Zechariah, providing insights into the faith and struggle of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. Despite their childlessness and societal ridicule, they stayed true to their faith. The post underscores the transforma

A reflection on the Annunciation to Zechariah In the name of God the Father, Christ Jesus His only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, One True God. Amen Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus The Christians around the world are gearing up for one their most important festivals which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ in the manger in Bethlehem. The weeks prior to the Feast of the Nativity…

[momentsbeforemass]

Thee and thou

I seem to know the words to a lot of hymns. Especially the ones that come from Protestant churches (I’m a convert, so that’s no surprise).

Actually, I just know a lot of first verses. After that, I need to grab a hymnal.

But the words that I do know? They seem to be the “old” versions. The “thee” and “thou” versions.

When the words have been updated, I find myself scrambling for a hymnal when I hit the first “you.”

I used to think that “thee” and “thou” was formal language. A way of showing respect for God, emphasizing the difference between Creature and creator. But also putting God at arm’s length.

Which makes sense. I learned all the “thee” and “thou” versions in the context of the Protestant tradition I grew up in. Where God was kind of distant.

For the kind and loving (and distant) people of the church that I grew up in, the radical intimacy of the great saints with God made no sense at all.

To them, a prayer like Catherine of Siena’s personal version of the Glory be – which she started with “Glory be to the Father, and to Thee, and to the Holy Ghost” – would have been familiar to the point of being rude.

But for Catherine, who was speaking directly with Jesus (something that my church claimed to prefer but rarely did in practice), referring to someone sitting next to her in the third person would have been rude.

Because to Catherine, Jesus wasn’t off in the distance. Jesus was sitting next to her. And her prayers were conversations between the closest and dearest of friends.  

This becomes clear in Catherine’s writings (which are in Latin), where she uses the intimate forms of second-person pronouns when talking about Jesus. Like Latin, many languages have two versions of their second-person pronouns, a formal one and an informal one.

Until about a hundred and fifty years ago, English did as well. Back in the day, if you were writing a letter to someone important or speaking to someone you barely knew, it was “you.”

For close friends and family, for your beloved, it was “thee” and “thou.”

Which – contrary to what I thought – is the real meaning of “thee” and “thou.”

It’s why (in 1846), Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” And not “How do I love you?”

It’s not a poetic flourish or a pointless formality. It’s a precision strike.

Because she’s writing to her beloved. And she wants to make sure her beloved knows exactly how she feels. Even before she starts describing her love.

And it’s exactly how God wants us to think about Him.

Because Catherine’s intimacy with God – talking with someone who was sitting next to her, with prayers that were really conversations between the closest and dearest of friends – isn’t something rare. It isn’t something that’s reserved just for the great saints.

It’s something that God is longing to have with you.  

And it’s why, in spite of changing tastes in language and style, in the Our Father, in the Hail Mary, in the prayers that so often lead us into our most intimate, most personal prayers, the Church has kept the language of “thee” and “thou.”

So the next time you catch yourself saying “thee” and “thou,” let those words remind you that your closest and dearest of Friends is waiting for you with open arms.

Today’s Gospel

[dwuerch-blog]

God Save the Queen

God Save the Queen

Did you know that song “God Save the Queen (or King)” is the British National Anthem as well as that of all Commonwealth realms?  Apparently, it’s one of the world’s best known anthems. God save our gracious Queen,Long live our noble Queen,God save the Queen!Send her victorious,Happy and glorious,Long to reign over us,God save the Queen! If a National Anthem has anything to do with longevity, I…

[witekspicswroclaw]

St. Elizabeth church - Grabiszyńska St. - Wroclaw, Poland.

[witekspicsart]

Metal gate in St. Elizabeth basilica, Wroclaw, Poland.