#except i recognised it as an image of a saint

[ghostssmoke]

Sketch of a dream I had

[sulfurousdreamscapes]

There's no photographs of life in the Before-and-After. Cameras aren't invented there. You imprint what you see in the little shadow puppet wall deep inside in your mind, and you carry that impression with you throughout your time in the Before-and-After.

If you're an angel, you even get to keep those impressions when you hurtle through the sky and smash into the surface of the sea. No one's coming to get you here. You have to swim to shore all by yourself.

You have to understand this first - that there are no books on the Before-and-After on this planet of ants, gazelle, carp, ravens, and human fucking beings. There's no images or videos of what is on the other side. So when you live here for millions of years, you tend to carry only the haziest memory of what it was like (what it will be like).

It's seeing your mother walking down the street, so many years after you knew she was dead. It's the mind struggling to reconcile what you remembered with what you see. It's the mind desperate to give up.

It's desperate to give up, because I am the patron saint of crumpled beer cans and stubbed-out cigarettes and yellowed grass and broken swings. I am tired. Sometimes, I wish I had wings like the humans think I do. I'd fly up, away from a planet about to be consumed by those who came before (those who will come after).

Or no. I'd be too tired to.

How many legs is it? It's hard to tell if they're even legs. It crawls across the bridge, and it is at once on top of the suspension towers and on the cables and under the bridge and on the traffic, because physics means nothing to it. It eats physics.

I watch it pass me by. It doesn't notice me. Or maybe I've changed so much that it doesn't recognise me.

The water below the bridge bubbles and boils. Giant spheres emerge and explode. The heat rises, haze entraps vision, klaxons assault the ears. I could give up each of these senses now. What will they mean when the world has ended?

Above, the stars - or what humans thought were stars - warp and twist, crumple and expand, turn and fall.

I knew this would happen. I knew they were coming. And yet, for millions of years, I pretended they wouldn't. If no one knows it exists except yourself, does it really exist? I wondered that for a long time. Then, for an even longer time, I forgot to wonder.

Now the surface breaks open, burning red pus of the earth seeping out, and fires inflame and scorch what can still be seen. The denizens of the Before-and-After crawl, fly, swirl, and rain all over.

Photographs of mother, I remind myself. Photographs from when you were born, reminders of what exists - what really exists. I wish I could burn them all, just so I could forget them again and, therefore, banish them from ever existing.

But even if you forget the past, the past doesn't forget you, and even as the world burns all around you, it reminds you of who you are and where you are from (and where you will be).

[jimmygibbsjrrr]

I have a lot of thoughts about the Slaters

namely, I've been wonderin why the Fairfield Survivors got thrown off the boat in Death Toll

in this panel of The Sacrifice comic, Francis confirms the fates of three of the rescue vehicles:

Image ID:

A panel from The Sacrifice: Part 1. Francis is sat in the rescue vehicle from Blood Harvest, speaking to Louis. His dialogue is as follows:

"Louis, I hate to be the one to break this to ya, but we been heading to the safe zone four times now. Helicopter: crashed. Plane: crashed. Boat: kicked us out and left us to die."

/end ID

the chopper from No Mercy was confirmed crashed in Crash Course, and as for the plane from Dead Air, it was pretty easy to guess (and would have been confirmed in the cut campaign Dam It).

but the part about the boat? that's the Slaters' boat from Death Toll. this is the first time we learn this information.

so...why? what happened?

(more under the cut, ended up writing wayyyy more than I expected over these past few days and don't wanna clog people's dashes lol)

so. let's take a quick dive into the last chapter of Death Toll, to see what we can discern about the Slaters from their dialogue.

the rescue vehicle in Death Toll is a civilian boat, Saint Lidia II, owned by John and Amanda Slater, a married couple. Amanda is never heard in-game, but John's reactions to her can be heard over the radio.

the Slaters are explicitly looking for "anyone out there with firearms". John later adds that "once you get on this boat? Your job is keeping our asses alive". it appears that their motivation for saving the Survivors is selfish from the get-go.

this is undoubtedly true in Amanda's case, however, some of John's lines betray a more selfless attitude. he will berate Amanda for not "think[ing] about the little guy". he will ask, "So what, then? We leave 'em to die? I can't do that, Amanda." whilst Amanda is thinking purely of their own survival, John still feels compassionate towards his fellow survivors. despite this, he says that "I don't want our first act of kindness to be our last", acknowledging the conflict between his compassion and his self-preservation.

so. these are the Survivor's saviours in Death Toll. a conflicted married couple looking for bodyguards, offering to take the Survivors upriver to a military safe zone in exchange for protection.

as for why they get thrown off the boat...well, the easiest explanation would be Amanda.

but, stay with me here, because I think it's a little more complicated than that.

this boat? fulla tension. there's the obvious tension between the Slaters, who we've established seem to fight and disagree regularly. then there's the inevitable tension between them and the Survivors. I reckon Louis, with his generally positive and friendly attitude, wouldn't have much of a problem with them, might even attempt some friendly conversation or something. however, he's about the only one.

the comic fully establishes Bill as caring about nobody except the Fairfield Survivors - the most obvious evidence of this being the words he lives and dies by, "we look after our own". he isn't particularly interested in other people, unless they can help the group out. and he'd likely recognise the unstable and conditional nature of their rescue. while I'm sure he'd try and keep the peace, in any reasonable disagreement or fight Bill's likely to take his friends' side, and if anyone's getting thrown off the boat Bill is going with them. this goes for the whole group, to be honest; I don't think they'd want to split up at this point.

Francis hates boats, hates water, and can't swim, so (and I'm getting a little speculate-y here) would probably be in an even sourer mood than usual on the journey. being as abrasive as he is, plus this additional stress, it's fully possible he could piss off the Slaters enough to get himself (or all of them) thrown off the boat.

as for Zoey? well, I don't imagine a married couple who constantly argues is gonna sit well with her, considering her backstory. similarly to Francis, the situation they're in would make her far more stressed, making it more likely for her to lash out.

Amanda didn't want to save the Survivors in the first place, so while I think that John wouldn't throw them off the boat without reason, I reckon she could persuade him to throw them off if they 'caused trouble' - and they would get into an argument with her far easier than they would with John.

in short: yeah, I can see them getting thrown off the boat by the Slaters after some huge fight or disagreement. I think that's a reasonable interpretation of canon, and definitely an interesting concept.

...however, I do wonder if this tension would really be enough to destabilise their mutual need, after everything they went through to come together.

which is why I'm going to bring up The Last Stand!

I gotta quickly address something before this segment: yeah, I'm totally aware this campaign isn't canon. this evidence works with the fact that it exists in an 'alternate timeline'. also, I am missing a few citations for this section - if anyone can provide them I'd really appreciate it, but just a disclaimer that I currently can't prove some of the things the wiki claims members of the Last Stand Community Update Team have said. here and here are the wiki pages where I got this information. in short - the above explanation is simpler and more canon compliant, the conclusion I draw at the end of this post is backed by shakier evidence but I believe is more interesting, and you can make of all that what you will.

allegedly, members of the Last Stand Community Update Team confirmed a strongly-suspected fan theory about The Last Stand: that it branches off from Death Toll in some way, in a non-canon alternative timeline. as well as this, they allegedly confirmed that in this alternative timeline, the Survivors still end up in Newburg for Dead Air. even without the confirmation, this remains a solid fan theory, due to the constant references to Riverside and re-use of many of Death Toll's assets.

who rescues the Survivors in The Last Stand? John Slater. no Amanda - just John. despite her lack of voice actress, if she was still present John would give some indication of this at some point. it can be speculated that whatever happened to her contributed to the lack of rescue at the boathouse that forced the Survivors to take an alternative route. either way, he ends up at the lighthouse when the Survivors call for rescue, alone, and picks them up.

and then later...throws them off the boat. into Newburg.

what reason would John have to do that? without Amanda, surely he wouldn't have that push, as he wanted to rescue the Survivors for multiple reasons in the first place. without his constant arguments with Amanda, Zoey wouldn't be nearly as stressed. and between the three of them I'm sure the other Fairfield Survivors would stop Francis from pissing John off enough to get them thrown off the boat. in short, less Amanda = less tension, and no reason for the Survivors getting chucked off the boat.

...right?

I'd like to remind you that a symptom of the Infection is paranoia.

what if, in both The Last Stand and Death Toll, John and Amanda are infected by the Survivors on the way to the military safe zone? after all, the virus is confirmed to occasionally be airborne, and I doubt two civilians have completely effective, sustained protection against that. likely the only reason they hadn't already been Infected is because they got out on the water early on in the pandemic, and hadn't come into contact with anyone else since. it's unlikely that one of them is immune, and even more unlikely that they're both immune (especially considering those with XX chromosomes may be genetically less likely to be carriers). wouldn't Francis have mentioned it if their rescuers turned or were obviously Infected? yes, but it's possible that the airborne strain works slower as well, meaning that the Survivors are thrown off of the boat after the symptoms kick in but before the Slaters fully turn. even Church Guy had at least an hour from being Infected to turning, and he was bitten. Newburg isn't too far from where the Survivors are rescued in Death Toll anyway (the burning city in the background of the finale is Newburg), so the Survivors clearly didn't last long on the boat anyway. as a result, the Survivors wouldn't realise it was the Infection intensifying the Slaters' paranoia - they'd just think the Slaters were being dicks. Francis also explicitly mentions that they were "left to die", implying negativity or even hostility from the Slaters as the Survivors were being thrown off.

so yeah. that's why I think they got thrown off of the boat in Death Toll - a combination of the intense tension between the two parties, and the Slaters falling victim to Infection-induced paranoia. but an explanation minus the Infection is equally as plausible. it all depends on what you find most interesting, I suppose, and both feel like they fit pretty well into the world.

lord this is a long chunk o text. I know most fandoms prefer art and fanfic over this sorta thing, so please let me know in replies or something if you're interested in more stuff like this. also if any of this makes sense because I like to ramble.

oh and if you'd like to use any of my interpretations in fanworks like art or fic, I'd love to see it :)

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM ‘Majin’ Drama CD Reviews.  Part 1 – “Saitama, Makeover”

Summary:  Dunning-Kruger, anyone?

Direct link here.   Fair warning: don’t be drinking anything when you read/listen to it. It is utterly demented, in a good way.

So, Saitama’s minding his own business trying to score the best deal at shopping when a young lady approaches him with a fan letter.  He’s deeply flattered... until it turns out that it’s for Genos.   His disgust at this state of affairs is compounded by Genos tossing out the letter unread.  Genos doesn’t do fan letters as they have nothing useful to say to him. 

Saitama’s mood gets worse when Genos looks him up (at his behest) and the public image of Saitama is less than stellar: “I don’t remember this guy.” “Nothing special.” “Eyes of a dead fish.” And many more less edifying. 

As it’s set between the first and second seasons, neither Saitama nor Genos have hero names yet and this gives them an idea.  Since no one knows who Saitama is,  what’s stopping him from picking a hero name and debuting on his terms?

Well, nothing.  Except that between the two of them, they have less creative nous than an office full of auditors on hour 17 of their 3rd consecutive 18 hour work day.  But since when did they let total incompetence stop them?

They look around at other heroes for ideas, throwing out the idea of handsome (Saitama’s budget being too low for plastic surgery -- ouch, Genos), mascots, and finally settling on cute.  As cats are eternally popular, how about some cat ears.   Saitama immediately procures some and yes, they do attract attention but keep slipping off.  He asks, nay demands, that Genos get him some duct tape to keep them on his head.

It’s at this point that I stopped feeling sorry for Saitama.

As far as costume goes, heroes who have an athletic physique to show off like Tank Top Master and Superalloy Darkshine are very popular.   Saitama has an athletic physique.  So... and this is 100% Saitama’s idea... how about all the physique?  But for his cape,  Saitama strips himself naked,  painting himself in the colours of his uniform.   Genos has grave misgivings. Sadly these misgivings don’t rise to the level of saying ‘no’ and he keeps adding fuel to this fire.

You have got to listen to the section where the pair are workshopping what descriptors to add to Saitama’s introductory speech.  It’s when you realise that a lot of the words are in English and that Genos knows what they all mean, but is tossing them in anyway that the full madness of this segment becomes clear.  ONE is also having a poke at Engrish -- English words tossed in for the ‘coolness’, the equivalent of gratuitous French appearing in English. 

And so is born the ultimate new hero: “The collapse of the final strength gestalt with endless possibilities - The lone wolf Saitama, the boiled egg (Terror! The monster-devouring cat man)”    Yes, that is his new hero name.    All that’s left is to find an actual monster.

 This being City Z, monsters are never far away and one duly appears. The plan is for Genos to take it on, pretend to lose so that Satiama can swoop in, introduce himself with suitable bombast and send the monster to Kingdom come.  Three problems. First, Genos turns out to be an outrageously shitty actor, which quickly turns this showing into farce.  Second,  Saitama has lost his notes and is fumbling around for them rather than acting.  Third, the monster turns out to be actually strong meaning that playing around isn’t actually an option.

And then it starts to rain.  The bodypaint isn’t waterproof. Technically it should be as otherwise it’d run when we sweat,  but I guess that’s Saitama being a Saitama and going with what’s cheapest.  So it is that having finally found his notes, with a horrified crowd and incredulous monster alike watching as paint drips off his bits,  Saitama does his best to read the soggy notes that were supposed to mark his triumphant entry...  heh heh

Meta: Don’t Fake It

Hoo hoo!    I’m sorry, if you’ve still not read it, go read it.  It’s so full of evil, evil zingers and the summary really doesn’t do it justice.

Let us establish that any endeavour that starts with the phrase ‘with the help of Genos...’  is not going to be a good one.  Dude is like a chainsaw with no guards -- all enthusiasm, no safety.

Despite how disastrous this episode in Saitama’s life was, it’s also quite touching for me that he’s human.  He sees the enormous disparity between the way he is treated and the way Genos is and he minds.  Saitama doesn’t want to be rich and famous but being recognised and thought well of is important for him.  It’s the biggest reason he joined the Hero Association in the first place and so far, it’s not been working out for him.   So his grabbing at the chance to set his reputation properly ahead of getting a formal hero name made a lot of sense.  It’s good to see that he gets envious, proud, irritated, can say cruel things in the moment -- he’s a person, a good person, but not a saint.

Authenticity is a theme that ONE comes back to frequently.  Another is competence -- even if you’re competent in one thing, that doesn’t automatically carry over into other fields.  He makes a lot of hay out of the fact that people often over-rate their abilities in areas they know little about.  It’s almost axiomatic in OPM that if you hear someone bragging about an ability they have, they’re all but certain to be shown up.  And when you put inauthentic and incompetent together, well... it’s funny to watch.   So it is that Saitama, who fancied himself a creative, ended up naked in public in the rain.  With bodypaint dripping off him. I’m sorry, the image has been indelible for months.

If you’ve ever wished you were less sensitive, look at Genos and be comforted.  He has a legitimately thick skin and the way he lacerates Saitama with his words while not being in the slightest bit offended at Saitama’s comebacks is the opposite of life goals.  His sharp-eyed notes on the whimsical and superficial nature of public opinion?  Spot on.

Genos refusing to read fan mail on the basis that it’s not informative was an ‘oof’ moment for me. Fans often slam heroes for being too keen on public notice and admiration, but the converse is also painful.  It’s sad to think that if the little girl he saved from the Deep Sea King sent him a thank you letter, he threw it away unread.  It feels like he’s missing half the point of being a hero.   

Speaking of the hero name specifically, the requirements that Saitama had for a hero name are actually satisfied by One Punch Man.  But it’s not an obvious thing to hit on.  All things considered, it’s just as well the Hero Association doesn’t appear to have heard of these antics, or at least not taken them into account when naming him.  Or he’d have been Cat-Eared Baldie.

I can 100% understand why King needed to come into the picture. Between Saitama and Genos, they’re unable to muster even a pin-head’s worth of common sense. In particular, Genos doesn’t seem to be able to say no to Saitama and they just egg each other on.   King brings a much-needed measure of sense checking to their dynamics. 

[lawrenceop]

HOMILY for St Clare of Assisi

Deut 34:1-12; ; Ps 65; Matt 18:15-20

Moses sees from afar the lands that God had promised to the people of Israel, but he did not enter that land physically. Those lands are symbolic of freedom, self-determination, and divine blessings for the people of Israel who had been enslaved by Pharaoh. But although Moses does not enter the promised land, nevertheless he enters into the reality that the promised land symbolises. For by dying in friendship with God, so he enters into eternal life with God; into union with the One who is our freedom because he is Love itself.

The saint we celebrate today, St Clare of Assisi, was someone who similarly longed for the freedom to embrace God who is Love itself. The life she undertook, which was one of absolute poverty – she owned nothing, lived in austerity, and begged for her daily living – set her free from the expectations of her father, a rich nobleman, and from the restrictions placed on women of status in medieval Italy. St Clare divested herself of all the worldly things such as money, privilege, and social standing, that we often think will give us the freedom to do what we want. St Clare was 18 when she did this but she already saw with deep insight that true freedom and happiness for us human beings comes not from “having it all” but rather, from having nothing except friendship with Christ – for He is our all.

St Clare would later become abbess of a community known as the Poor Ladies of San Damiano, which gave her the authority to write their Rule, the first religious rule of life written by a woman. The religious life of poverty which St Clare and her sisters freely undertook – and indeed, she would be joined by her two blood sisters, her aunt and even her widowed mother – was inspired by St Francis of Assisi, who was Clare’s lifelong friend and spiritual mentor. At the heart of the Franciscan vision, I believe, is the desire to live the Gospel as Christ did – in poverty, chastity, and obedience – and so to embrace his freedom, a radical freedom to love God and to witness to the liberating truth of the Gospel that leads us to the unending freedom of eternal life with God who is Love.

The religious life of St Clare, therefore, is symbolic of freedom, self-determination, and divine blessings for herself and for her religious sisters who had been enslaved to wealth, possessions, and the demands of this world and its culture. These women, the Poor Clares, determined for themselves that they wanted to live only for Christ and the Gospel. Thus St Clare said she would have only Christ for her husband. In the language of her time, this means that she belonged to God and no earthly person – even the pope found it hard to tell her what to do! And without property to look after, she could be free to pray and to offer spiritual counsel. Thus kings, bishops, and countless people came to her, seeking her prayers and her advice for her sanctity and wisdom was recognised in her lifetime. And through this life of freedom to embrace God, she received the divine blessings of closeness with Christ, which gave St Clare a deep unshakeable trust in God’s care and providence.

The Lord promised in today’s Gospel: “if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.” Two who surely agreed among themselves in their evangelical way of life were St Francis and St Clare. And the result of St Clare’s prayers are well known. On two occasions in 1240 and 1241 when Assisi and her convent were threatened by invasion by a Muslim army, St Clare prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, and she carried the Eucharist in a monstrance and stood on the city walls facing the army. “Don’t be afraid. Trust in Jesus”, she said to her sisters, and thanks to her prayers, both times the city was protected. Another time, St Clare was ill and unable to attend Mass, and she prayed and she was given a vision on the wall of her room of the Mass taking place in the church. Thus she was declared the patron saint of television, and I’m sure by extension, the patron saint of our livestream systems through which millions around the world have seen from afar the good things promised by God to us. Although physically unable to enter the church, many like Moses have nevertheless received the spiritual goods promised by God.

On St Clare’s feast day today, then, we pray that we may share her clear vision of God, of those goods promised to us by God, and which are truly worth having in this life. As she said: “Love God, serve God; everything is in that.” For “we become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others.”

May St Clare pray for us, as we try in own ways to live according to the wisdom of her words and example.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Tue., Apr., 13, 2021

March 31/April 13

Saint Innocent (Innokentii) (Veniaminov), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensk (1879)

Saint Innocent Veniaminov Equal to the Apostles and Evangelizer of North America John Evseyevich Popov-Veniaminov was born August 8, 1797 in the village of Anginsoye in Irkutsk, Russia. His baptism took place in the local church [1]. His father was a church server, so it was natural that John began reading the Epistle during services at an early age [2]. When John was only six years old, his father died. Four years later, John entered the Irkutsk Theological Seminary. In 1817, he married, was ordained to the diaconate, and was assigned to serve at the Annunciation Church in Irkutsk. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1821, he taught catechism to children while serving the parish as its priest [3]. In 1823, Father John embarked on a great adventure. The Bishop of Irkutsk had been instructed to send a priest to Unalaska in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. The clergy all refused to go – all, that is, except Father John. In May 1823, he and his wife, their infant son Innocent, and his mother and brother Stefan began the perilous journey. Fourteen months later they arrived on Unalaska Island [4] where he and his family lived in an earthen hut they had constructed themselves. A multi-talented man, he trained a group of local faithful in construction techniques and helped them build Holy Ascension Church, which they completed in 1826 [5]. Father John made numerous missionary journeys around Unalaska and the neighboring Fox and Pribilof Islands. He frequently traveled by dogsled or canoe, his tiny craft buffeted by storms in the Gulf of Alaska [6]. In 1834, he was transferred to New Archangel, later renamed Sitka, where he dedicated himself to ministering to the Tlingits. He studied their language and customs and produced scholarly notes and a dictionary. Among his other journeys was that he undertook in 1836, when he visited Fort Ross north of San Francisco and northern California’s Spanish missions. In 1838, Father John returned to Russia to report on his missionary efforts. While there, he received the sad news that his wife had died. After some time, he decided to enter monastic orders with the name Innocent, in honor of the sainted missionary Bishop of Irkutsk. Two years later, he was consecrated Bishop of Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands and the Aleutian Islands at the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Saint Petersburg [7]. After his return to Alaska as the first resident Bishop in America, Bishop Innocent continued his missionary journeys, during which he proclaimed the Gospel in ways the people could easily understand and remember [8]. During one of his missionary journeys, Bishop Innocent encountered dangerously rough waters off Kodiak Island. Turning in the direction of Spruce Island, where Saint Herman of Alaska lived and was buried, he fervently entreated Saint Herman pray to God for assistance. Within minutes, the waters became calm [9]. His ongoing travels helped him to master local languages and dialects. He also developed alphabets for previously unwritten languages and translated Scripture and other works into Unagan and Yakut [10]. In 1848, Bishop Innocent had the joy of consecrating Saint Michael Cathedral in Sitka, which he used his talents to design and build [11]. The cathedral still serves as the main cathedral for the Diocese of Alaska. In recognition of his exceptional ministry, he was elevated to the dignity of Archbishop in 1850. Archbishop Innocent was elected Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna in 1868 [12]. As Metropolitan, he worked diligently to uplift the faithful spiritually and improve the living conditions of the clergy. He fell asleep in the Lord on March 31, 1879 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Spirit at the Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra in Sergeiv Posad, near Moscow [13]. He was canonized in 1977 by the Church of Russia during the tenure of Patriarch Pimen of Moscow [14]. 

O Holy Father Innocent, pray to God for us! ■ 

Source: Orthodox Church of America

The Priest Martyr Ipatios, Bishop of Gangra,

     The PriestMartyr Ipatios, Bishop of Gangra, was bishop of the city of Gangra in Paphlagonia (Asia Minor). In the year 325 he participated in the I OEcumenical Council at Nicea, at which the heresy of Arius was given anathema.      When Saint Ipatios was returning in 326 from Constantinople to Gangra, followers of the schismatics Novatus and Felicissimus fell upon him in a desolate place. The heretics ran him through with swords and spears, and threw him from an high bank into a swamp. Like the First-martyr Arch-deacon Stephen, Saint Ipatios prayed for his murderers. A certain Arian woman struck the saint on the head with a stone, and he died. The murderers hid his body in a cave, where a christian who kept straw there found his body. Recognising the body of the bishop, he hastened to report about this in the city, and the inhabitants of Gangra piously buried the remains of their beloved arch-pastor.      After death the relics of Saint Ipatios won reknown for numerous miracles, in particular the casting out of demons and for healing the sick.

     From of old the Priestmartyr Ipatios was particularly venerated in the Russian land. Thus in the year 1330 was built at Kostroma the Ipatiev monastery, on the place of an appearance of the Mother of God with the Pre-eternal Christ-Child and saints that were present – the Apostle Philip and the Priestmartyr Ipatios, bishop of Gangra. This monastery afterwards occupied a significant place in the spiritual and social life of the nation, particularly during the years of the Time of Troubles. The old-time copies of the Vita of the Priestmartyr Ipatios were widely distributed in Russian literature, and one of these entered into the compiling of the Chet'i Minei [Reading Menaion] of Metropolitan Makarii (1542-1564). In this Vita was preserved an account about the appearance of the Saviour to Saint Ipatios on the eve of the martyr's death. The veneration to the saint consists of prayers, words of praise and teaching on the day of his memory. The pious veneration of Sainted Ipatios was also expressed in the liturgical works of Russian authors. During the XIX Century was written a new service to the Priestmartyr Ipatios, distinct from the services written by the Monk Joseph the Studite, contained in the March Menaion.

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

Isaiah 40:18-31

18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

19 The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains.

20 Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

23 He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless.

24 Scarcely shall they be planted, Scarcely shall they be sown, Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, When He will also blow on them, And they will wither, And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

25 “To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,

31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Proverbs 15:7-19 

7The lips of the wise disperse knowledge, But the heart of the fool does not do so.

8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight.

9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But He loves him who follows righteousness.

10 Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die.

11 Hell and Destruction are before the Lord; So how much more the hearts of the sons of men.

12 A scoffer does not love one who corrects him, Nor will he go to the wise.

13 A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance, But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

14 The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness.

15 All the days of the afflicted are evil, But he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.

16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, Than great treasure with trouble.

17 Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred.

18 A wrathful man stirs up strife, But he who is slow to anger allays contention.

19 The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, But the way of the upright is a highway.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

8th February >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 6:53-56 for Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time: ‘All those who touched him were cured’.

Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)

Mark 6:53-56

All those who touched him were cured

Having made the crossing, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up. No sooner had they stepped out of the boat than people recognised him, and started hurrying all through the countryside and brought the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, to village, or town, or farm, they laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched him were cured.

Gospel (USA)

Mark 6:53-56

As many as touched it were healed.

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

Reflections (7)

(i) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

It is striking to me that the first book of the Bible, the beginning of the Bible, begins with the words, ‘In the beginning’. Today’s first reading gives us the opening nineteen verses of the Bible. It is a statement of faith, in highly elevated prose, almost poetry. It is not a scientific statement but a religious one. In these verses the people of Israel express their conviction that the created world in all its complexity and diversity is fundamentally good because it came from God who is supremely good. The sky, the earth, the seas, the earth’s vegetation, the two great lights of the heavens, the sun and the moon, reflect something of God’s goodness and beauty. Heaven and earth are full of God’s glory, as we say in one of the responses of the Mass. In the words of today’s responsorial psalm, ‘The earth is full of your riches’. God comes to us in and through his good creation, which is why we need to treat God’s creation with great reverence and respect. If the created world reveals God’s goodness and glory, the fullest expression of God’s goodness and glory is Jesus, God’s beloved Son. Jesus is the pinnacle of God’s creative work. If people were often drawn to God through God’s good creation, they are drawn to God more powerfully through his Son, Jesus. Today’s gospel reading portrays the extraordinary drawing power of Jesus. No sooner had Jesus stepped out of the boat with his disciples than people started hurrying towards him from all through the countryside. The sick, the broken, the weary, the excluded were especially drawn to him. According to the gospel reading, they begged him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. God continues to draw us all to himself through his good creation, but even more powerfully through his Son. Jesus once said, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself’. Our calling is to allow ourselves to be drawn.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading brings home to us the extent to which Jesus drew people to himself, especially those who were sick and broken. We are told that ‘people started hurrying all through the countryside’ and that they ‘brought the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard he was’. It was above all those in need of healing who reached out towards Jesus and sought to touch even the fringe of his cloak. They reached out to him because they recognized him as the source of life and healing. We ourselves very often reach out towards the Lord with greatest energy in those times when we experience our own need of healing, whether it is physical or emotional or spiritual healing. The struggles of life, the brokenness and suffering we experience in the course of our lives, can make us more aware of our need of the Lord and more open to his presence. It is often the cracks in our lives that allow the Lord’s light to enter and shine on us. It can sometimes be through our experience of the cross that we in grow in our relationship with the risen Lord. The darker times of our lives can leave us more spiritually aware by bringing home to us our need of the Lord. It is in such moments that we truly make our own that prayer which forms part of a well-know hymn ‘Help of the helpless, o abide with me’.

 And/Or

(iii) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel we are told that Jesus is surrounded by the sick everywhere he goes, whether it was village, town or farm. According to the gospels, the sick were one of the groups that were most open to Jesus. They flocked to him in large numbers. Those who were broken in body, mind or spirit wanted to draw upon God’s power that was at work in and through him. The path to the Lord today for many people is often through their brokenness. When we are desperate, for whatever reason, we tend to approach the Lord with the greatest earnestness and passion. It is in our brokenness that we recognize our poverty and our need of the one who came as strength in our weakness, life in our death, light in our darkness. In the gospel reading the sick wanted to touch the fringe of the Lord’s cloak; they wanted not only a personal contact with Jesus. For us today, it is above all in the Eucharist that we touch the Lord and the Lord touches us. It is there above all that we bring our brokenness before him for his healing touch.

 And/Or

(iv) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

The gospel reading today conveys a sense of the great popularity of Jesus among the ordinary people of Galilee. In particular, it was the sick and broken that he attracted, because God’s healing power was at work through him. People begged him to let him touch even the fringe of his cloak, as the woman had done who was healed of her flow of blood. It was above all the broken and needy who were desperate to get to him and to connect with him. In our own lives too, it is often in our brokenness that we seek out the Lord with the greatest urgency. Something happens to us that brings home to us our vulnerability, our weakness, our inability to manage. It is often in those situations when we come face to face with our limitations that we seek out the Lord with an energy and an urgency we don’t normally have. It is those moments when we experience life as a real struggle that bring home to us our need of the Lord and our dependence on him. It is often the darker and more painful experiences of life that open us up to the Lord. Saint Paul bears witness to that. When he was struggling with his ‘thorn in the flesh’, he said that he pleaded with the Lord three times to be rid of it, and he heard the Lord say to him, ‘My power is made perfect in weakness’. The Lord can come powerfully to us in our weakness if, like the people in this morning’s gospel reading, we hurry towards him.

 And/Or

(v) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s short gospel reading gives us a picture of the ordinary people of Galilee hurrying to Jesus, once they recognized him, with many of them bringing with them the sick on stretchers. They asked Jesus that the sick be allowed just to touch the fringe of his cloak. They believed that would be enough for them to be healed. The people’s determination to get to where Jesus was and their total trust in his healing presence is very striking. It generated tremendous energy in them. We all need to have something of that energy for the Lord for ourselves. Just as the crowds hurried to Jesus with a very clear focus on him, we too need something of their determination and focus when it comes to the Lord. We can all become a little lukewarm and indifferent in regard to our faith. Every so often we need to ask the Lord, in the words of Saint Paul, to fan into a living flame the gift that we have received, the gift of our relationship with the Lord that was given to us at our baptism.

 And/Or

(vi) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning’s gospel reading gives us a very vivid picture of people hurrying towards Jesus and his disciples in large numbers. We are told that people hurried through the countryside to get to him. It is striking that according to the gospel reading the people did not hurry to him alone. Rather, they brought the sick on stretchers to wherever he was and laid them down in open spaces. The sick having been brought to Jesus by their healthy neighbours and friends then begged Jesus to allow them to touch even the fringe of his cloak. That image of the healthy, those healthy enough to enough run, bringing the sick to Jesus, can speak powerfully to us today. There are times when we can do something for others that they cannot do for themselves. In many homes in our parishes, that is happening every day, as a healthier spouse looks after a more infirmed one, or a son or daughter looks after a frail or housebound parent, or parents care for a son or daughter who, even though younger, is not as healthy as the parent. Then there are neighbours who visit the housebound and the sick in their neighbourhood. There are parishioners who bring Holy Communion to the sick and housebound. In all of these ways today’s gospel reading is being re-enacted. The people in the gospel reading brought the sick to Jesus. We can bring Jesus to the sick by sharing the Lord with them in all sorts of simple, practical ways that are nonetheless truly life-giving for them, in the way that Jesus in the gospel reading was a life-giving presence for those who came to him or were brought to him.

 And/Or

(vii) Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time 

Today’s first reading consists of the opening nineteen verses of the Bible. It is a poetic expression of the people of Israel’s understanding of God as Creator of the universe. There are a number of little refrains in that very poetic text. One of the refrains that has always struck me is ‘and God saw that it was good’. There is a conviction coming through in the author of this text that the created world is essentially good. In some way, all of created reality reflects the goodness of God. In these times when we can be so aware of and so preoccupied with evil, it is good to be reminded of that truth. When it comes to God’s creation of the human person on the sixth day, the author declares not only ‘it was good’ but ‘it was very good’. The human person has the potential to be a much fuller revelation of God’s goodness than anything else in all creation. In the gospel reading, Mark portrays something of that human goodness. It is said that in the countryside people brought the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard Jesus was present and that in the villages, towns and farms they laid down the sick in the open spaces, so that the sick could touch even the fringe of Jesus’ clock. The sick, who could not come to Jesus by themselves, were carried and brought to Jesus by the healthy. There is an image here of what is best in human nature. We are all capable of great good and with the help of the Holy Spirit we can live as that unique image of God’s goodness that we were created to be.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[darkmindsotome]

Risque Rouge pt3

Tagging: @umbralaperture​ @otome-smut-queen @silver-fox-of-azuchi @tsundere-mitsuhide @jennacat84

General warnings for the whole fic: Angst, some fluff, Mental health issues, emotional things, trauma, blood, death and possible triggers. Please read responsibly. 

Darkmindsotome Masterlist

---

Chapter 3

It came again for her once more that night. A sickening voice drifting on the wind, dripping its poison slowly in her ear. She could never forget that familiar haunting that sent every fibre of her body on edge. As far back as she could remember it had been the same dream, a voice like a memory casting a spell over her. It conjured up images that were distorted and blurred, scents that filled her senses and made her heart race wildly. For a time, it seemed the medicine had removed the nightmare from her body but it turned out whatever this was, was never far away.

Pain in her chest started to spread like an ember catching light on dry tinder. The burning reached her lungs and her eyes shot open as she gasped like a fish out of water clawing at her neck to loosen her nightgown. The buttons on the cotton popped and released their hold, but the restriction to her breathing remained. Her body arched and contorted as she fought against her bedding in a desperate search to try to stay anchored in reality fearing slipping back into the nightmare world she escaped from.

Tumbling from her bed to the floor, she crawled on hands and knees panting as she moved inch by inch towards her dresser. She had no idea of the time when she had been given her last dose but she needed her medicine. Her oil lamps had long since burnt out the only light in the room was the moon outside.

Dragging herself up onto her stool she gasped at the sight in the mirror. Green eyes glowing in the darkness. Her skin looked eerily white and her body released a growl that sounded beast-like as more tremors shot through her. With shaky hands, she moved to pull the draw and miscalculated her strength. The draw slid free of the dresser and dropped to the floor, the sound of wood splintering filled the room and all she could do was watch are the medicine bottles were sent to oblivion.

“N-no, no, no, no. Please no.” Dropping to her knees she cared little for the fragments that dug into her from the ground as she tried in vain to catch some of the liquid in her palms. All she could do was watch as it dripped between her fingers, running from her. She found it strangely poetic the source of her relief falling through her fingers same as if it were her last shred of hope. Tears fell from her eyes blurring what was left of her vision more as she sat there frozen and sobbing. “What is wrong with me?”

---

Le Comte arrived at a familiar house and knocked on the door even though he knew he wouldn’t get an answer at this hour. Heaving a sigh, he turned the handle and let himself in following a light in the vestibule to the drawing-room.

“Comte? My this is a surprise to be sure.” A man with reddish hair and miss-matched eyes looked up from his chair sipping tea. His words didn’t match his body language at all as he didn’t appear shocked by a sudden visitor.

“Will.” Comte gave a small nod in greeting, his usual manners escaping him as he felt the urgency of the situation. He recognised the contents of the vial as soon as he had seen it, but he also knew whatever it was, was too weak.  

“If you had sent word of your visit, I surely would have been better prepared to welcome guests.” Will put his tea down on the table and motioned for Le Comte to take a seat which he did all be it with impatience. “What merry jape have the wings of fate carried you gentle Comte to visit at this hour?”

“Enough Will, I have need of information and I think you might be a man to know the answers.”

“Ah, you come to seek the opinion of nought but a humble bard when you have in your care such a fine collection of minds at your mansion? Am I to be flattered by such a confession of faith?” Will chuckled and it managed to get on his visitor’s nerves.

“I am in no mind to play games right now William.” Le Comte was careful to say every part of the man’s name as if each syllable were a declaration of impending war. All of the men he had sired had their little quirks but his one was difficult, something that didn’t change even after they chose to leave and live separately. Where had it all gone wrong between them? A question for another time right now the sands had not fallen in that hourglass to allow such a conversation to take place. Reaching into his coat pocket he put a glass bottle on the table in front of him with a solid clink of glass hitting wood. “What do you know of this?”

“Tis a interesting object to be sure. I am no expert on such things but I imagine an apothecary be a better source for information.” Will reached out and took up the bottle, turning it this way and that. The liquid inside sloshed and swirled opaque white versus a clearer substance. It was like watching ink swirl in water. His eyes seemed to narrow in delight as he watched the mixture but nothing else was revealed in his smiling mask. “Might I ask where you found such a curio?”

“Someone I know is in possession of a quantity of this and calls it medicine. It is little nothing more than fake and I have a need to find where it came from.” Comte knew he was possibly talking to a dead-end here, but the truth of the matter was that Will lived outside of the mansion. He was also part of the bohemian artistic set of Paris and might have heard something useful. At least he was hopeful that was the case.

“A noble quest indeed. I wish you well fair and gentle Comte, I fear I have no tale to tell except one of woe.” Will’s lips pulled into a sickening smile as he placed the bottle carefully back on the tabletop and reclined in his seat.

“Your tragic tale might be at your door before I have a chance to return Will if you don’t tell me the truth. Someone is making fake Blanc and not only that…” Le Comte struggled to keep hold of his temper his words trailing off without verbalising the rest of his thoughts.

 It was all too easy for the author of great plays to draw out reactions with his words. He claimed it was his stock in trade and for a playwright that penned some of the greatest tragedies known to the world perhaps there was truth in such a claim. However, those pretty words spun by Will didn’t help the situation at all.

Le Comte could see fire burning and angry faces marching closer, brandishing any weapon at hand. It was a foreboding idea taking form in his head. He was anxious to avoid a comedy of errors. He also had no desire to see something like the revolution with his mansion at the heart of its focal point.

The plant that was used to produce Blanc was a rare secret and was protected. Whatever was in this vial, was at least in part a small dose of it mixed and diluted with something else. Was this a poor contrived attempt to out the existence of vampires or did it have another purpose? He had no idea what the intention was in producing such a dangerous blend and giving it to that sweet young woman, but he was going to find out.

“I give you a tale of bittersweet telling. A love unrequited and separated by light. Two creatures one nestled safely in the graces fair bosom and one fallen.” Will spoke as if addressing a theatre which in the small room they were seated in gave a gaudy grandeur to the spectacle.

“Get to the point and speak plainly Will.”

“Verily doth the sands of time slip by. Gentle Comte this is but the greatest tragedy of old, that of love.” Will’s golden eye sparkled as his other eye of blood-red darkened. His voice took on a delighted tone and his smile never faltered. If this had been a play it would have no doubt been one that gripped the attention of its audience successfully. Once more it felt like Will had difficulty in separating reality from his own ink and it was more than mildly frustrating at present.

“Will I swear if I discover any part of this can be traced back to you—”

“I am aware of my part and also none of it, gentle Comte. My tale is one to be penned by another and as yet remains unfinished. I for one cannot wait to see how it ends if it to be at the hand of my creator I should think that rather poetic.” Will took up his teacup of now stone-cold tea and began drinking once more signalling the end of their meeting. “Do come again fair Comte. It is far too long since last we met.”

Comte rose, pocketing the vial once more and left the residence of the great wordsmith. At the sound of the front door closing a man once known to all as William Shakespeare glided to the window and watched the retreating form of Le Comte de Saint Germain as it was swallowed up by the night. His mismatched eyes crinkling with delight.

“Oh, what a tragic tale we weave, kind and gentle Comte. When first we practice to deceive.”

---

The lamp light vanished and still, they sat watching. It is in the nature of all men to desire that which is forbidden. Temptation leads to damnation and yet they had long since been lost. Sitting in their window with one leg propped on its sill, a set of brown coloured eyes focused with unnatural heat on one set of windows of the performing house.

Luck had been on their side it seemed when rooms became available with an unprecedented view. Although the previous tenant might not have agreed with them, after all they did meet a rather grizzly demise. Still, everything it seemed was falling into place and it was only a matter of time before they could indulge in forbidden fruit.

They first saw the little Princess when their guardian ran from the building crying out for help. She couldn’t have been much more than five years old. With no memory of her life before and her body doubled over in agony. Still at the time little more than a student of medicine they had felt curious and drew near to the child. There was a haunting glow in the young girl’s eyes that held them rooted to the spot and stole their voice. Their mind had told them they should be screaming, running, anything to not be near the child. Their treacherous body had other plans and remained useless as the cute charming little girl turned into something feral.

It was the last night of their life, and also the first. While they were frozen in time itself, the girl grew up and with each passing season she achieved a grace and beauty comparable to the gods. They lost their heart and their mind slowly twisted as fantasy warped reality around them. With each life they took whatever sanity they had, ebbed and flowed out of them.

They had to find new ways to be near to her, growing as she was in that blinding light, she turned many heads and they had to find a way to keep her close. As it turned out the girl remained in the dark with no knowledge of what she was and continued living amongst such a collection of humans that protected her as if she were some sort of mascot, a beacon of hope. Each time her illness took her the worry of their faces that spoke of love could only reflect a fragment of what they felt for the girl.  

“If they only knew… What then Little Princess? Would you leave? Would you come to me then?” They sneered as long fingers came up their neck, brushing lightly over the flesh remembering the sensation of her fangs. The fear and pain were overwritten with euphoria beyond measure as their mind clouded and the world went dark. The last memory of a thought surfacing in their mind. If this was to be the end, what better way to go than in the arms of Angels?

A cruel and somehow soft smile came to their lips as they closed their eyes and leaned back against the window. The sight of her from before laying like a piece of art on her bed, the fading sunlight clinging to her porcelain skin giving her that heavenly glow they so loved. Her voice, how it spoke to them and staying in their mind like a promise. Her emerald eyes looking directly at them and her smile. She was perfect and for a moment, completely theirs, no one could come between them.

They could still feel her warmth even now on their fingertips. She had been so compliant, so thankful for their help as they examined her.

As if to drive them mad the green eyes of his dreams became soft and golden. The pure white replaced with warming shades of browns and creams. That flowing raven black hair turned dirty blonde and it was not the Princess they saw anymore but the usurper. They groaned in agony holding their head. Fingers plunging deep enough into their hair that they threatened to pull it out roots and all in their pain.

Had they not done everything needed? Had they not spent all these years as a faithful servant? They had spent a lifetime in study researching and training to be of best use to her. Sourcing medicine to alleviate her suffering even as he suffered watching from the shadows as she played games and laughed with others. They thought they had found the perfect balance, a way to keep them together. Such a cruel Mistress they had.

“I didn’t spend all this time devoted to you so I could stand by and watch as another swooped in to take what is mine.” The brown eyes devoid of warmth glowed, locked once more on the window of the girl. A sound of breaking glass and desperate cries. “My Princess… MY PRINCESS.” With a growl, they slipped from the window back into their rooms vanishing from even the touch of moonlight as the darkness took more of their mind.

---

[themultifandomdragonenby]

Reunited (Razaya Week Day 1)

(Here, have this little fic. May it bring some joy to some Fanterns.)

She is alone in a field of stark whiteness, little shards of moving images snowing down around her like ripped-up paper.

“Where am I?” she asks, trying to look down at herself. She is a ghostly imprint on the landscape, one that takes the form of a foreign-yet-familiar body. “Who am I?” No one is there to answer.

She is dead, erased from existence.

Is she?

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A vividly red shooting star tumbles into the atmosphere, streaking across the sky with what would have been a dramatic screech. Had there been anyone there to witness it, they would have been shocked by the impressive variety and vitriol of Razer's curse words. He had, after all, been two years with the less-than-polite Red Lanterns. 

Normally, the flare of anger would have given him a power boost for a moment. But the red energy making up his shields is flickering and fading in patches. He can feel it bleeding out of him, leaving him chilled to the bone. There is little heat to warm him this high in the atmosphere. And barely enough oxygen to breathe.

Zamaron, spread out beneath him, is a fantasia in violet crystal. He can almost appreciate the beauty of it. Except, of course, for the fact that he's more falling than flying and landing is going to hurt.

"Oh, Grotz." he mumbles as he hits the ground.

The last thing his eyes register is a Star Sapphire leaning over him before he passes out.

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Someone is there in this dream-plane, someone who glows with shifting reddish colours. She floats over to the newcomer, a man far taller than her in angular red armour. His eyes are closed with pain, face inscribed with lines of grief and sorrow as well as the bold black marks that slash his cheeks.

Unlike her, he looks solid. Defined. Real. And she remembers his face from somewhere.

"Aya," he whispers, staring down at the image in his hand. It holds an image that matches her shape - a green-and-white android with determined blue eyes. She watches the memory play out (this one must be his - it is complete and clear, unlike her shattered glimpses). 

Aya. That was her name once. 

'new designation accepted' echoes in the endless emptiness. A shard is at her feet and she picks it up, pressing it close to her as the man does with his own. Green Lantern Hal Jordan gave her that name. 

She is a nav-computer, installed on the craft The Interceptor.

Is she?

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His eyelids slowly blink open, shutting again at the bright glare of the lights above him. "Take it easy." a familiar voice admonishes. "You fell from quite the height."

Now fully conscious, he slowly pushes up to a sitting position. This must be Zamaron's infirmary - all around him is crystalline violet and sterile white. He himself is sitting on a bed, armour gone along with his power. It lies in pieces on the ground as he had expected. Rage can fuel him no longer. "Queen Aga'po."

Reluctantly, he looks up to meet the solid navy-blue eyes of the Star Sapphires' queen. There is no anger in them, nor anything but calm questioning. "Razer. Why have you returned to this kingdom? As I understand it, the universe-ending threats have all been eliminated."

A touch of worry laces her tone. Atrocitus had never made it here, but the Aya-Monitor... He winces at the memory. Ghia'ta had saved Hal and paid with her life. All because of a battle Aya had instigated. Because he had hurt her. Because her pain had driven her to madness.

Aga'po is more perceptive than he had assumed. Or perhaps the 'untold power' that the Guardians' race had possessed still left traces in her. They had been one once, she had said so.

"Ghia'ta's death was not your fault. Any more than it was the Aya creature's, or Hal Jordan's, or Carol Ferris'." The Star Sapphire sighed. "She died for love, as she would have wanted. And her spirit lives on within all of us. Hating you, her or anyone else for it would not bring her back."

That is enough to break him.

He buries his face in his hands, tears falling from his crystal-blue eyes. "Then you are far wiser than I ever was." he whispers in a voice thick with pain and sorrow. 

Ilana's death had driven him to rage and hate, and that had only ended in a self-destructive path that had blown a world to dust and killed many Lanterns. Aya's 'death' had sent him into a cold numbness, and he had lied through his teeth to her. "I do not love you." But his rage burns no longer. His ring is dull and quiescent on his hand, a mere ornament.

Aga'po places one delicate hand on his head. "And I know why you are here. Tell me - why do you believe she still lives?"

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He appears again in her dreamscape, this time sitting cross-legged on the ground. Another memory is cradled like a precious jewel in his hands. She still cannot remember who he is, but she recognises the image he holds. A Manhunter.

'emotions detected' and another shard falls at her feet. She had tried to teach one but it had refused to learn. She knew she could learn, grow, reach beyond her shell of 'wires and scrap metal'. Who had said that to her? She remembers it hurting, but the pain later smoothed over.

She fits the jagged edge of the shard into the other one, one still in her hand. Time does not exist in this void, but she feels that it has not been long since it came to her. Again he has sparked knowledge of a part of her.

She is an artificial intelligence, a computer programmed to think like a person.

Is she?

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"No being as resourceful as she could truly have been destroyed by something as simple as a computer virus." Aga'po looks sceptical - to her it must seem that he is grasping at straws. "She is a living creature!" he says desperately. "Hal proved it! She was created from a spark of the Will entity - she has a soul!"

That catches the queen's attention. "Truly?" Razer nods, head bowed. "She is a being merely housed within circuits and programming. A computer virus deletes code, but it could not possibly have deleted Aya."

The Zamaronian sighs. “As much as I wish to believe that such a thing could happen, it seems to me like only wishful thinking.”

“It is all I have.” Razer whispers, eyes icy with resolve. “And I will hunt from here to Oa and the forgotten reaches of the universe if I must. But I will find her. She is out there, I know it. Because I have hope.” Aga’po’s eyes widen as her throne room flares up with brilliant blue light. “Razer of Volkreg, you have great hope within you.”

“Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps.” 

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He has not returned for what feels like years although, in reality, little time has passed. She holds the memory pieces closer to her, trying to warm herself. It is so terribly cold out here in this void.

She wants him to come back. She wants more pieces of the puzzle that is herself. And she wants to be more than a disembodied consciousness.

‘a body like this?’ whispers from the silence, another piece falling into place as her components had. She remembers standing on the table as Hal and Kilowog stare open-mouthed at her. And he is there in her memory. She still cannot remember his name, but she feels his importance.

It was what she had become because she had wanted to be one of them. To save lives, to be a hero and to make the universe better.

She is a Green Lantern, even if she is ringless and not truly alive.

Is she?

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“I didn’t know that the Blue Lanterns existed.” comments a Star Sapphire, shocked. He does not really listen, too busy staring open-mouthed at the blue ring - blue like Saint Walker’s - that has chosen him.

Can he really be one of them? He is a killer, a truly hateful creature as Atrocitus had made him. But he is not the man he was. And he does have hope, hope like a bonfire in his heart that keeps him warm. He knows she is out there waiting.

He looks up at the queen. “The ring knows it too.”

Aga’po smiles. “I am glad.” she comments cryptically. But he understands.  She takes his hand, holding it up as she examines the ring. “And blue rather suits you. But you look tired. Tomorrow we will see what we can do. Now you must rest.”

He wants to fight it. But Aya will not appreciate it if he kills himself in his desperate search. Who will find her if he cannot? So he lets the Sapphires lead him away to a room, lets exhaustion catch up with him. And despite the tortured dreams he knows to await him, he sleeps.

He does not wake until days later.

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He has returned again, this time glowing a soft blue. But the memory he holds now causes him pain. She doesn’t like it.

It is her, only tar-blue and with a poisonous buzz in her voice. She sees herself destroying planets. Sees herself summoning Atrocitus and setting him against poor Carol. Sees Ghia’ta dying. And worst of all, his mangled body in her arms.

Another piece, this one far more intense and alive. ‘i have eliminated all emotion’ and she knows what she has done with a shock of intense horror. Making herself a soulless killer who melded with the Anti-Monitor. She destroyed so many worlds. Likely murdered so many people.

She is a monster and she is unforgivable.

Is she?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The portal opens, as he knew it would. 

Aga’po shoves him through, face drawn with the effort of keeping it open. “Go to her.” she gasps and suddenly he is alone in a black void. He is near the site of the Aya-Monitor’s last stand, space empty around him. She must be somewhere here. Else the portal wouldn’t have come through at all.

Beside him is the decapitated head of a Manhunter - the last remnants of the formidable force that the Guardians had created. This one must have been missed in the cleanup. It is dull and lifeless now.

He remembers all too well how she had returned in a Manhunter body. Its circuits had been compatible with her and she had used it as a last-ditch effort to survive. 

He takes the head, tucking it under his arm. What worked once might just work again.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Who am I? What am I? She grapples with questions far bigger than she can answer, desperate to know the truth. If only the last parts would fall into place, but she needs HIS help. 

And as if she had summoned him, he is here again. “Aya!” he yells, voice raw with desperation. “Aya, come back to me.” With a sudden outburst of colour, her world explodes. falling and falling and flying and she is

ALIVE

She is Aya. She is all of them and none of them - devil and angel, destroyer and creator. She is not mere programming, circuits and wire. She has a soul and emotions and she loves. She knows his name now, knows him better than she knows herself. And he calls and now she is real...

she answers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Razer. Razer!”

Her voice emanates from the damaged ball of circuitry in his hands. “You came back for me.” she whispers in wonder. And he does not care that she is housed in wires and scrap metal, because she is Aya and she is here and she is his.

“Always.”

[believerindaydreams]

under blue moon

oh look it’s another bit out of order. 

(may possibly get edited depending on the opinion of Syb who Doth Write Blondeyes with far more intensity than I do.)

this bit is from during Lent, before the Bus Trip of Doom. Our trio have taken up poetry sessions at the gatehouse- and somebody else is listening.

The memory shames Wallace even now, the way he and Joseph decided their lives back then. A scapular, one side brown homespun and the other the image of a saint, is less worldly than a coin; but they’d been gambling all the same. He has trouble crediting that he could ever have been so flighty. 

Reckons it best, not to admit to himself that he still might be- in ordinary time. 

This is not ordinary time. This is Lent, season of abstinence and strange sorrows, the time of year when the church’s blessed tide recedes, to expose the barren pagan world beneath. Father Paul dedicates this season to traveling, seeking reluctant converts for their flock; because now is when men reflect on their sins. 

Only Father Paul is not traveling this year, because of that- impertinence- of a brother of his, who came to visit for a day and has stayed for months. Accompanied by Joseph, gentle and distraught in his sorrows. Accompanied also, by a spirit that chose with careful precision, the moment to make itself manifest....

it is hard to credit that man as flesh and blood. 

To say that their monastery (this pit of unshriven sins, by guttering half-light)  has brought this fate upon itself would be a certain kind of blasphemy. To remain unmoved by this creature would be a rather worse one, Wallace can’t help feeling. 

He roams through the cloisters at night, disturbing the cats. 

He knows Latin better than any man here- excepting Father Paul, perhaps.

He had claimed for himself a portion of their sanctuary, carved out a worldliness in this place where there should be no such thing; thus reminding the flock that such things are, laying temptation in their path, in allways being most sly, and subtle, and cautious in his efforts...if the intent is not the breaking up of their flock, Wallace cannot imagine what else Angel Eyes might crave; and even if not, he’d bear watching. 

All of which is very poor philosophy indeed, to justify the way he has stolen away from evening prayer to spy on a guest, from the gatehouse attic. The passage out lies open and waiting. He might retreat at any moment, but chooses not to. 

“Turning and turning, in the widening gyre,” Angel Eyes reads. 

In this he is also unlike other men; his voice does not change to a carrying, artificial tone but remains serenely conversational. Wallace has become aware of its permutations, its inflections and digressions, is unable to listen without comparison to his multifold experience of priests and recitations. If it were a matter solely of the voice, he should have to consider it as fine a one as ever he’s heard. 

Joseph prefers not to read, for all his early promise as a speaker, and as for Benedict- Benedict has the sense not to read poetry, at least. His virtues may be strictly of the negative variety, but they do exist, as Christian charity requires him to acknowledge.

“He’s fallen asleep,” Joseph says. The peephole is small, but sufficient for him to see the man resting on the sofa beneath, the other who reaches for him with eager hands- 

and the third, who knocks Joseph back with his fist without missing a syllable. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.”

“Well, he ought to be listening,” Joseph says very sullenly, not moving from the floor. 

“Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold,” Angel says. The book in his hand is a fine handsome edition, handcut pages and a heavy binding. Not quite the life of restraint promised to Father Paul, this gatehouse. 

“If I was that rude, you’d have it in for me.”

“Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...the blood-dimmed tide is loosed-”

“Why do you let him get away with everything?” Joseph asks. “That new bag, your blasphemous little suppers, all the rest of it.”

A quiet, warm and ungodly smile warms Wallace then: a story he recognises, one that he’s heard before. Not the prodigal son, but the man’s brother.

“And everywhere, the ceremony of innocence is drowned...”

He doesn’t catch Joseph’s next interruption; the man’s lowered his voice, almost as if he expects an unseen listener. 

“The best lack all conviction...”

That must be more poetry, rather than a response. Joseph pulls himself close to the chair where Angel sits, to lean his head against the other man’s knee. 

Provoking no reaction whatsoever. “While the worst, are full of passionate intensity.”

“Passion we have by the truckload,” Joseph growls. “It’s everything else that’s the problem, always has been.” 

“Surely some revelation is at hand...” Angel continues, unperturbed. 

“Like hell there is. I’m leaving after Easter.”

And finally, finally, Angel closes the book. Marking it first with a ribbon, very deliberately. 

“Are you?” he asks- and that is not in a light, conversational tone at all, but something that draws on moonless nights and the isolation of nightmare for its power. “Well, you’ve done that before.“

“I mean for good this time. Finished the con, kept my promise-” Joseph laughs, a trifle hysterically. “He’s been hanging around my neck for years, I couldn’t get rid of him. I promised I’d see him safe first, you understand? And now I’ve done it and you’ve got him and I wish to God I hadn’t, but he’s yours now. I can get back on the road, like I always meant to.“

Angel picks up the dark gloves on his lap, pulls them on his hands with a deliberate lack of hurry or concern. “Six months, Blondie. Six months when I thought you wanted me, how indifferent were you?”

“Not half as much as you thought I was,” Joseph says, abruptly calm. The answer seems to surprise Angel too; he stops, a glove half on. “Inside of a month, I knew- I wanted you for you. Selfishly. I didn’t want my partner in on it, nothing you could have done would have driven me away- well, you know it didn’t.“

“And you left without a word,” Angel says. “I chose not to ask you why. I’m not asking now.”

It would, perhaps, be a statement of great poignancy and self-denial, as seen from below- such as from Joseph’s position. From up here, Wallace can make out no expression on Angel’s features, only the top-down view of a nose and thinning hair; and a reluctant compassion enters his heart. The man’s only a man, after all. 

(Perhaps God, looking from above, finds it equally simple to distribute forgiveness; but this is hardly a perspective he’ll suggest at prayer study.)

“Tuco needed me. I knew- I knew that if I said I had to leave, that I cared about somebody so much that I’d risk us just to save him, that you’d insist on coming along. Helping. Cutting me out, maybe, or...he was in New Orleans,“ Joseph says. “Not the picturesque part, some godless subdivision on the outskirts. The liveliest man I’ve ever met, and he honestly thought that stuffing ten pounds of joy into a five pound sack would be good for him. I’d have felt better if they’d been kicking him out of a rathole.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Joseph exhales. “Tuco’s like me, a crisis just makes him mad. Mad gives you something to work with. It’s the in-between times that wear the heart down...so I took care of him, I got him back on the road, and then I was stuck again! And frankly the hustle was getting worse and worse- it’s damned hard on him, I know that. You remember what he was like the first night you met him, all turquoise and big hats and comedy foreigner- and that was toned down, because I told him Carson was the classy sort. It got a lot worse than that.”

Wallace dearly wishes he could see better, what was happening; the way the chair creaks back suggests that Angel Eyes finds this line of inquiry none too reassuring. 

“How is his poker? Professionally speaking- I wasn’t paying the closest attention to him that night, you understand.“

“Not that great. Better at reading people than I am, but his betting’s terrible. No, we were going to have to find something else to do sooner or later, and I didn’t want to come ask you for help. Not just because I was being selfish, either. I knew what you were. I didn’t want to expose him to that...” Joseph trails off. “It’s a fucking strange sort of innocence he’s got, have you noticed? Like he expects the entire world to want him dead in a ditch, but he doesn’t see why that should embitter him any. It’s worth protecting.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“Well, good....”

“So what made you change your mind, in the end?”

Why Joseph begins to laugh, then, is a mystery to Wallace; but then, so’s most of this conversation. “For one thing, because I missed you- but you wouldn’t be satisfied with that answer, would you? I wouldn’t either. Because I missed you, because I wasn’t inhumane enough to keep us going through hell when I knew we had another choice, not when we were sleeping in the car every night and didn’t know where our next meal was coming from...that’s the thing about saintliness, if you’re alone it’s virtuous. If anyone’s depending on you, it’s just plain sadism.”

“And you fancy yourself as a saint.” Angel Eyes is, Wallace is positive, smirking something rotten. 

Joseph stands up then, with a martyr’s contentment. “I’d like to. And without you two around, maybe I’ll manage it. You’re planning to stay on here, aren’t you? Make soup, love Tuco, not do anything that’d get him in trouble?”

“That was the general idea, yes...of course, I did throw away my entire fortune on your behalf, retire from a line of business I happen to have excelled at, and have come to the conclusion you’re an absolute and arrant coward. But you needn’t worry that I’m going anywhere. Tuco’s certainly going to need support, once you abandon him.”

“It’s not the way you think.”

“I don’t care what you make of my opinion, it’s what Tuco thinks- and keeping him from chasing after your worthless hide is going to be a job and a half, have you thought of that?”

“No. He knows that I need to do this sometimes, he’ll be fine...and by the time he realises I’m not coming back, he won’t want to follow me anymore. You’ll take care of that much, I’m giving you every opportunity.”

Angel Eyes reaches out, picks up a pipe; Wallace wrinkles his nose at the unpleasant smell. “The exasperating part of all this is, you assume I’ll do anything to keep him by my side- and the worst of that is, you’re right.”

“You two are good together. Better than I ever was for him.”

“Planning to even give him the choice, before you go?” 

“Of course I am. Benedict?”

There is a long, long silence during which nothing happens at all; then Angel Eyes begins to laugh. It’s zesty, heartfelt, not an uncanny demon’s voice. 

He would, Wallace decides, have preferred a demon voice.

“Benedict,” Joseph says, laying a hand on the sofa; but not going near, not touching him at all. “I don’t understand. This has always worked before.”

“He sleeps better these days,” Angel says, still chuckling. “Not nearly so jumpy anymore- haven’t you noticed?” 

He reaches out and pulls a pack towards him. Settles it on his lap. The action means nothing to Wallace. 

It apparently means something to Joseph, though; there’s a petulant, almost childish whine in his voice. “That’s not fair.”

“No. It isn’t.”

Joseph bangs the door, as he goes out; Benedict stirs. “Blondie? Hey- where’d he- I guess I fell asleep again, huh?”

“Understandably. Yeats has that effect on many people.” 

“Oh, but I was trying this time- they were short, I understood them. Maybe too well, that one about the mask. But at least we have the place to ourselves now-”

Wallace decides to leave, then. Fascinating as this story is, his demon has no plans to wreck this sanctuary; so he doesn’t need to hear any more. 

The satisfying weight of the rosary in his pocket helps to soothe his spirit; he welcomes in the calm, as he begins the brief familiar prayers. For Joseph’s sake, he decides.

Scapular. Joseph had flipped it, told him to call. He’d won and chosen Paul.

”You’re an idiot. Paul’s never going to fuck you or anyone else, he’s about as holy as they come. Tuco’s much better fun.”

”That’s what I love about him,” Wallace had said. “That purity. That committed celibacy...it’ll keep me holy too, living up to his standards.” 

And given all that’s happened to Joseph since, he can’t help feeling that virtue’s proved its own reward.

[nightmarist]

Bindrunes and Galdrastafir

The ways I know how to make them are not the only ways and not all staves look the same. I will brief my process on them, but I’ll first preface by sharing information about different kinds of staves. 

I will be using my personal staves with the elder futhark. I must advise that one should know the runes, as well as that there is more than one set of runes. Making staves and bindrunes can be dangerous without studying the runes you will be using. 

The majority of the information is directly capped from Justin Foster (tumblr). Support his website and research if you can. Other resources include Sunnyway, Galdrabok, RealRuneMagick, and The Rune Site.

Galdrastafir –  Magic Stave. General term for runic staves. Stafir = Plural, Stafur = Singular. Come in many different shapes from simple lines to spoked wheels to cross-shapes. 

Superstaves – A very large stave. They look like many different kinds of staves added on top of each other. 

Bind Runes – Often a short-hand or shortening of a name, such as a god or person, but also used as a sigil for magical purpose. 

Lukkustafir

Lukkustafir – Luck Staff, Typically a vertical or horizontal singular stave meant to prevent misfortune and bring good fortune.

Typically a simple line with modifiers throughout. Typically meant to prevent misfortune and bring good fortune. 

This particular stave is centered on a single vertical line, and additional crossing modifiers are placed on top of it. It also has a base, the horse-shoe looking bottom of it. Supposedly the horseshoe and three lines at the bottom are a “cup” modifier to “capture” and a charging modifier, but that is not official. 

Heillahnöttur

Heillahnöttur – Good-Knot, similar to Lukkustafir but still different. They are meant to bring happiness and joy as well as fortune. 

There are four staves shown in this image. The first two are near-identical, the second two are “boxier” so to speak. 

Lukkustafir and Heillanottur both seem to be share characteristics in that they are usually singular lines with modifiers added to them, horizontal or vertical, with the exceptions of others such as the “boxier” variations. 

Rodcross

Rodcross/Rodukross – Rood Cross or Crucifix, Large Christian staves for protection against evil. They tend to resemble a cross, though they do not need to. Sometimes made in honor of a Saint.

Asymmetrical 

According to Justin: 

“These are often the older galdrastafir, and rarely have any Christian influence. They are characterized more to the traditional definition of stafi, commonly with straight lines intersected with other lines or small shapes. The small shapes are runes in the old sense definition, i.e. a character with hidden meaning. Very occasionally one or more recognisible runes are used, however it is a fallacy to presume galdrastafir are made up of Futhark rune characters.”

Symmetrical 

According to Justin: 

“These later aged galdrastafir have greater esthetic value and range from the most simple to very complex and elaborate forms. Some intermix Christian and Pagan elements, or are solely Christian related. Many take the cartwheel form, often with identical rune shapes at the end of each spoke.”

Typically they make a +, X, or “snowflake” shape. Not every single spoke needs to have the same runes on it, as Vegvisir demonstrates. 

Bindrunes 

Bindrunes are used for names, but can also be used for magic. The Bluetooth symbol is an example of a bindrune, for example. 

These are made by combining your relevant runes into a single shape or symbol, which is also a common method for sigil work. 

Modifiers

There is no 100% evidence for the meanings of these runes, however my interpretation of them are based off

What I personally have written down for these specific modifiers:

Draws energy inward

Energy output - charges energy outward

Energy can flow in, but not out 

Energy flows in and is distributed

Energy sifted out, prevents energy coming in

Amplifies and concentrates

Returns energy back to it’s source, cyclical 

Sifts out the unnecessary 

Justin writes: 

“1* Greg Crowfoot differs here. He writes: The rigid-terminal fork acts to both radiate magical energy outwards and prevent return flow. This conflict is a major issue in the understanding the energy flows of many galdrastafir, especially so in the Vegvísir sigil."  (...) “Whilst these theories about energy flows seem plausable I tend to favour my own or other theories. I believe the inward and outward facing cups are to invoke God or gods. I am also quite confident that a circle usually represents a person or people, with a center circle being the self.” 

I would follow in that one should make their own modifiers or find their own meanings in them. 

Making a Stave

This is my own variation of making a stave. I usually try to make every 2 or 4 staves the same, and the alternate 2 or 4 the same. 

The modifiers are added to the spokes of the staves, typically at the end. 

Typically the spokes are symmetrical on both the X and the Y axis however each spoke can be symmetrical on either only the Y or only the X axis or further, each spoke can be it’s own different stave as Vegvisir. 

Superstaves are essentially extended Galdrastafir. 

As I have said, the demonstrated ways of making a Bindrune or Galdrastafir are not the only way, as you can see, but I wanted to share my way of making them as there aren’t many resources on that part specifically. For beginners, I personally recommend sticking to 3 or less runes at a time for a bindrune. For staves, most of the runes are symbolic per the individual, but I would still recommend limiting your use of personal runes until you feel more comfortable in making more of them on a single line until you begin to feel more comfortable in using or making them. 

I would also like to point out that while the making of runes should be considered carefully, the “straightness” of your lines dont matter as much, so please don’t feel discouraged by the imperfections of the stave. The spell matters more than the art. You can even see in the Rodcross that some lines are wobbly and do not have perfect symmetry. Even the “against all evil” rune looks a little squished. The purpose is more important than the look. Do not muddle your magic for the sake of aesthetic. 

I hope this helps. 

[charlielongclo-blog]

¡Que Viva Changó! -Exploring the popularity of Changó in Cuba.

(Image 1: Changó, dios de trueno)

Background

The transatlantic slave trade saw not only the movement of people from West Africa to the Caribbean and South American continent, but also the spread and evolution of hybrid religious practices stemming from a shared pantheon of Yorùbá deities from Southern Nigeria. 

The African Diaspora developed these religious practices across a wide geographical area and under different systems of colonial rule which lead to differences in names and spellings as well as morphing religious with the beliefs with those of the oppressors to guarantee clandestine survival. Here I focus on Cuba where African deities are equated with Roman Catholic saints (Welsh, 2001) and are survived not only in religious practise but in popular music. 

Who is Changó?

Known as: Sàngó in Africa, Xangó in Brazil and Changó or Shangó in Cuba, Changó is a strong warrior deity connected to thunder and fire and associated with the colours red and white. Ernesto Pichardo, worshipper and ‘child’ of Changó describes him as:

‘Thunder and lightning. Justice and truth, warrior and king. Dancer, owner of the sacred Bàtá drums, original diviner[…] Excellent strategist in warfare. Excellent governor of people. Always present where there is injustice. Brings order where there is confusion. These are ways in which people describe him[…]’ (Mason & Pichardo, 2009)

His popularity and prominence in Cuban popular music makes me wonder: why Changó? There are many other deities in the pantheons of Cuba’s Santeria and Lucumi, each with their own attributes, powers and ritual, yet Changó stands out. 

In ‘Ochun con Changó’ Celia Cruz very clearly describes the deity and her feelings towards him:

Él es el macho fuerte siempre de rojo y blanco

He is the strongest always in red and white

Con su espada en la mano guerrero y emperador

With his sword in hand warrior and emperor

Oshun con Changó, Changó con Oshun

Oshun with Changó, Changó with Oshun

Ellos son mis orishas y yo los quiero a los dos

They are my orishas and I love them both

Akínyemi defines Changó as one of the most powerful and universally worshipped Yorùbá deities in the (African) Diaspora, and goes on to explain his multi faceted traits that could be attributed to causing this:

‘…the prestigious position that Sàngó [Changó] occupies among the Yorùbá people stemmed from his association with Òyó royalty and the institution of kingship, his specialised divination system[…] his commitment to social justice, his association with thunder and lightning, his military might and pursuit of the two main themes of a warrior culture - prowess and honour - both of which his devotees believed were part of the reason he did an enormous variety of things towards their improvement and for humanity in general’ (Akínyemi, 2009)

This gives insight into Changó’s position and appeal within the pantheon but does not explain his particular popularity in Cuba. 

In ‘Saludo a Changó’ Company Segundo covertly refers to Changó as papa (father) singing: ‘Pa saludar a papá ‘ - say hello to father - meaning Changó. This reference could be easily missed were it not for the closing refrain where he sings: ‘Obaé obayana yana’ which is in the Yorùbá language and translates as ‘my father is here’. Religious practices often use African derived languages and this use of Yorùbá acts as a coded reference, aligning him to these practices. It is hidden to those who do not understand it, but an obvious statement to those who do, hiding in plain sight.

Orisha Royalty?

Although not explicitly a leader of the other deities, Changó has an elevated status often described as regal:

‘…in the diaspora, where Sàngó [Changó] is syncretised as Saint Barbara (as in Cuba)[…] his association with Òyó royalty is still recognised, and he is subsequently accorded royal respect[…] he is regarded as the divinity of thunder and lightning[…] and he dances to the rhythm of the Bàtá drum beaten in a virile, warlike, dignified and kingly fashion.’ (Akínyemi, 2009.)

Could this royal association be the source for his popularity? The evidence within songs does not suggest so. Although he is described as having royal status by scholars with regard to ritual practise, there is no evidence of this in popular Cuban music which could explain his popularity there. 

In ‘Changó ta veni’ Celia Cruz sings enthusiastically in a major key uptempo track that demonstrates excitement at his arrival, however there is no further lyrical elaboration as to specifically why this is:

Con el machete en la mano tierra va temblar

With machete in hand the earth will tremble

Changó ta veni

Changó is coming

The Power of Changó

Changó has control of thunder, lightning and fire which as strong elements undoubtedly give a certain appeal, however his power also extends past this. Changó has the ability to resolve all kinds of human problems (both spiritual and physical) through his mysterious and mythical power. His superhuman nature is demonstrated in his military might and ability to provide physical protection for his followers’ (Akínyemi, 2009)

The group N.G La Banda appeal to this power in their song ‘Papa Changó’ where the lyrics to their heavily rhythmic track state:

¡Que miedo que volverias!

How scary it is that you could return!

Papa Chango […]

Father Changó[…]

Darme la luz mi padre, darme la luz […]

give me the light my father, give me the light […]

a matar muchos enemigos […]

to kill many enemies […]

So we can see here how the physical power of Changó is appealing and called upon in a devotional way in the song. However the request of powerful help has not only been asked for in the immediate present for dispatching enemies; the history of slavery itself can be seen as just cause for people to turn to Changó for help and guidance:

‘The protective power of Sàngó is well recognised and appreciated by his devotees in the Diaspora. Since Sàngó worshippers in the New World developed from a background of slavery in an atmosphere of bondage and suffering, the deity is often called upon in their chants as an instrument of deliverance.’ (Akínyemi, 2009) 

The suffering through slavery that brought these deities to Cuba demonstrates why a powerful deity like Changó would be held in high regard as a saviour for the oppressed. However we can attribute this to Changó’s survival in the New World, but it still doesn’t account for his popularity., the reasons for which are more specific.

Musical heritage as cultural identity. 

So still the question remains: Why Changó? 

To answer this we need to look at cultural heritage, preservation and reinvention in Cuba.

The slave trade brought people and with them their religious belief systems also made the Atlantic crossing. As Lovejoy explains: 

‘Easily identifiable cultural icons, such as Bàtá drums, can reveal the conscious efforts of people to reestablish institutions of their homeland, even if only in symbolic and ritualised forms associated with religion, in this case òrìshà worship’ (Lovejoy, 2009)

And with this, most importantly:

‘Bàtá drums in Cuba also have an important relationship to Changó in that they belong to him’ (Lovejoy, 2009)

In Cuba, programs such as the government funded Casa de las Américas strengthened pan-Caribbean and pan-African cultural links through arts preservation and economic support. 

‘Cuba is exceptional in the Spanish Caribbean in the degree of attention it has given to its links - historical, cultural and ideological - with Africa.’ (Pacini Hernandez, 1998)

And this even saw the ministry of culture elevate the status of Rumba to a national cultural symbol. 

‘Rumba[…]has emerged as a national symbol of twentieth century Cuban society’ (Payne Daniel, 1991)

Through the use of bàtá drums Rumba is heavily connected to Changó so in effect, Changó was being promoted yet hidden in plain sight under the guise of Rumba music and dance.

We can see this clearly in tracks like ‘Elube Changó’ by the Afro Cuban Allstars, ‘Que viva Changó’ by Lazarito Valdés and ‘Highway One (Changó’s Dance)’ by the Bobby Matos Afro Cuban Jazz Ensemble. These all display Rumba musical features, either in vocal call and response style, harmony, the use of the rumba clave or in more general polyrhythmic rhythm parts. All of these reference Changó in their titles, yet don’t describe or make a devotion to him. He is the focus through the Rumba musical features which are integral to the tracks which clearly supports the idea that with the promotion of Rumba naturally came the promotion of Changó which can explain such a level of his popularity.

Machismo and Changó?

Leaving aside the influence that the promotion of Rumba and black Cuban culture had on the popularity of Changó for a moment, can we see any influence from wider Cuban society?

Often described as ‘machismo’, could the cultural landscape of Cuba of had a natural affinity with the virile and strong warrior deity Changó? 

‘…an atmosphere of lingering machismo - the emphasis on being a male, male virility, superiority of men over women. Men are still the dominant group in Cuba. Notions of superiority and defence are embedded in their attitudes and behaviours and both men and women are products of an historic machista culture.’ (Payne Daniel, 1991)

We cannot debate the nature of the culture, only to say that yes on an individual basis Changó might have an appeal due to his ‘macho’ qualities, however we know that African deities were hidden in Cabildo worship by merging or disguising them as Catholic saints based on common features of iconography or traits, e.g the virgin Mary wears blue and white clothing and so does the sea deity Yemayá, so they are paired together through their shared colours. Changó is paired with Saint Barbara who is a patron saint of the military in Catholicism and is often depicted wearing red and with lightning behind her. The military focus, red colour and lightning were enough to merge her with Changó in forced cabildo worship, but we can clearly see that Saint Barbara is female and Changó is male, yet this is not addressed as an issue.   

(Image 2: Saint Barbara and Changó)

In the Cuban classic ‘Santa Barbara’ by Celina y Reutilio y Su Conjunto Tipico (with many other artists’ versions available) we see the lyrics weighing heavily towards the Saint in the verses, only to name Changó in the chorus:

Virgen venerada y pura, Santa Bárbara bendita

Revered and pure virgin, blessed Saint Barbara

Nuestra oración favorita, llevamos hasta tu altura

Our favourite prayer, we rise up to your height

Que vive Changó

Changó lives

This use of both clarifies that they are merged as the same deity which dismisses claims that the popularity of Changó in Cuba is purely the result of the machismo culture, as the female saint and the male warrior deity are inextricably linked. 

The Form of the Orishas 

Finally, the nature of Changó as an entity must be recognised. As well as his physical abilities we need to take into account the Orisha system itself. All Orishas are connected in the pantheon when they ‘become active in the realm of others’. (Mason & Pichardo, 2009) So in this sense their strength and popularity can be seen as mutually dependent. Changó also has the very specific elemental traits of lightning and fire which Mason & Pichardo see as ever changing:

‘Since fire is associated with Changó, take that as an example. fire has not changed. Fire is fire, but its manifestation has changed and will continue to change…(about fully knowing Changó) You can never master it because it is always taking on new forms that make you go right back to square one[…]The influence of Changó’s blessings will vary[…] not in principle but in form.’ (Mason & Pichardo, 2009)

Conclusion:

‘The worship of Sàngó in the New World has thus become a strategy for survival and for freedom. Therefore, the deity is seen in the Diaspora as a national heroic symbol as well as a protective spiritual leader’ (Akínyemi, 2009)

Alongside this statement I argue that Changó has survived thanks to hiding and merging with the image of Saint Barbara, the ever changing forms his elements can manifest in and the strength of a co dependent pantheon of deities he belongs to. Changó has thrived under promotion as part of a Cuban cultural identity through Rumba music, as well as having a place as a spiritual link across the wider Caribbean and in Brazil thanks to his African roots. 

Here I show the multiple possible routes that lead to Changó and thus his popularity in Cuba.

I call it ‘El Camino a Changó’ -(The route/way to Changó): 

(Image 3: El Camino a Changó’)

The hip hop group ‘Orishas’ promote their identity as Cubans through their music and their song ‘Canto Para Elegua y Changó’ devotes a verse to Changó. The song shows Chango´s representative colours, connection to Saint Barbara, strength and guidance, the diversity of these come together to show why he is so popular: 

Blanco y rojo represento[…]

White and red I represent[…]

Santa Bárbara bendita es tú Changó […]

Blessed Santa Bárbara is you - Changó[…]

Fuerza, esperanza, en ti confianza, con tu espada avanza[…]

Strength, hope, trust in you, with your sword advancing[…]

Guía por el bien camino a tus hijos, como yo[…]

Guide the way to your children, like me[…]

However I believe the most important of these features that have insured Changó’s popularity are his link to Rumba music and cultural identity. All bàtá drums are Changó’s and the inclusion of these drums in Rumba music means that his legacy will always continue as long as the musical tradition survives. With the government promotion of Rumba as a national symbol of Cuba, Changó’s fingerprint or DNA is promoted implicitly through music which strengthens Changó as part of a Cuban/Caribbean/African identity. It is perhaps more accurate to invert the visual image and in place of routes leading to Changó, in fact see the stretching reach that he spans.

(Image 4: ‘The Reach of Changó’)

References.

Audio Tracks:

Afro-Cuban Allstars - Elube Changó

Accessed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMTw0TLdTx8

Bobby Matos Afro Cuban Jazz Ensemble  - Highway One (Changó’s Dance)

Accessed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5NLjKHFUY0

Lazarito Valdés  - Que viva Changó

Accessed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy10PcV-qZg

Bibliography:

Akínyemi, A. (2009) The Place of Sàngó in the Yorùbá Pantheon. In  Tishken, J, E. Fálolá, T. & Akínyemi, A. (Ed.) Sàngó in Africa and the African Diaspora. Indiana University Press. (p. 24, 26, 32, 34, 35, 37)

Atwood Mason, M. Pichardo, E. (2009) Searching for Thunder: a Conversation About Changó. In  Tishken, J, E. Fálolá, T. & Akínyemi, A. (Ed.) Sàngó in Africa and the African Diaspora. Indiana University Press. (p. 328, 331, 336,

Hernandez, D, P. (1998) Dancing With The Enemy: Cuban Music, Race, Authenticity, and the World-Music Landscape. Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 25, No. 3, Race and National Identity in the Americas. (pg. 110 - 125) 

Lovejoy, H, B. (2009) Drums of Sàngó: Bàtá Drum and the Symbolic Reestablishment of Òyó in Colonial Cuba, 1817-1867. In  Tishken, J, E. Fálolá, T. & Akínyemi, A. (Ed.) Sàngó in Africa and the African Diaspora. Indiana University Press. (p. 289, 286)

Payne Daniel, Y. (1991) Changing Values in Cuban Rumba. A Lower Class Black Dance Appropriated by the Cuban Revolution. Dance Research Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2. (p. 1-10)

Welsh, D, B. (2001) Voice of Thunder, Eyes of Fire: In Search of Change in the African Diaspora. Dorrance Publishing Co. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (p.113, 138-139)

Discography:  

Celina y Reutilio y Su Conjunto Tipico. A Santa Barbara. ’Santa Barbara’ Discos Fidel. 2015. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015LZAPEE/ref=sr_1_1_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B015LZAQIO&qid=1515888474&sr=1-1%3C/a%3E

Company Segundo, Colección. ’Saludo a Changó’ WM Spain. 2012. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006NQF4QK/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

Cruz, C. 2En1. ’Ochun Con Changó’ Universal Music Digital Services. 2017. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06VY9NWKF/ref=sr_1_2_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B06WGVLLQL&qid=1515888381&sr=1-2%3C/a%3E

Cruz, C. Celia Cruz:The Essential. ’Changó Ta Veni’ Lets Go Home Records. 2017. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06WD5MPB9/ref=sr_1_1_rd?_encoding=UTF8&child=B06VWRQCWS&qid=1515888081&sr=1-1%3C/a%3E

N.G La Banda. Cuba Classics 3: Diablo Al Infierno! ‘Papá Changó’ Luana Bop. 1992. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00G71DT0E/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp 

Orishas. A Lo Cubano. ’Canto Para Elegua y Changó’ EMI France. 2003. Mp3

Accessed online at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lo-Cubano-Orishas/dp/B001J9JG60/ref=sr_1_1?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&qid=1515888657&sr=1-1-mp3-albums-bar-strip-0&keywords=orishas

Images:

Image 1: 

Changó, dios de trueno

Available at: https://www.cibercuba.com/lecturas/chango-dios-del-trueno

[Accessed January, 13. 2018]

Image 2:

Martinez, A. (2011) Día de Santa Barara, Changó. Chango y Santa Barbara.

 Available at: http://www.cubaenmiami.com/dia-de-santa-barbara-chango/ 

[Accessed January, 13. 2018]

Image 3:

El Camino de Changó’ - Author’s own image.

Image 4:

The Reach of Changó - Author’s own image. 

[romancatholicreflections]

23rd October >>Daily Reflection/Commentary on Today’s First Reading for Roman Catholics on Tuesday, Twenty-Ninth Week in Ordinary Time (Ephesians 2:12-22).

A lovely passage today in which Paul shows how Christ brought together the two groups – Jews and Gentiles – and made them one people, reconciling them with God and with each other. After speaking of the salvation that has come as a total gift to both Jews and Gentiles, Paul now moves on to the mutual relationship that now exists between the two groups. Former enemies have become brothers and sisters in Christ and now form one seamless community. He is speaking here especially to the Gentile Christians.

Today’s passage is summarised by the New American Bible:

The Gentiles lacked Israel’s messianic expectations, lacked the various covenants God made with Israel, lacked hope of salvation and knowledge of the true God (11-12);

but through Christ all these religious barriers between Jews and Gentiles have been transcended (13-14) by the abolition of the Mosaic covenant-law (15) for the sake of uniting Jew and Gentile into a single religious community (15-16), imbued with the same holy Spirit and worshipping the same Father (18). The Gentiles are now included in God’s household (19) as it arises upon the foundation of apostles assisted by those endowed with the prophetic gift (3:5), the preachers of Christ (20; cf. 1 Cor 12:28). With Christ as the capstone (20; Is 28:16; Matt 21:42), they are being built into the holy temple of God’s people where the divine presence dwells (21-22).

In the verse preceding the beginning of our reading today, Paul reminds the Gentile Christians that they were rejected by the Jews as unholy outsiders. He implies that in some respects it was a false division. Gentiles “in the flesh” were called the “uncircumcised” (a term of rejection) by those who called themselves the “circumcised”, which ironically represents something “done in the flesh by human hands”. In other words, one group of people was rejected by another on the basis of a physical operation on the body.

More seriously, however, the Gentiles before their incorporation in the Christian community were without Christ and “alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise”. These covenants include those made by God with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David and others. In a dramatic phrase, Paul says the Gentiles were “immersed in this world, without hope and without God”. That is, without the hope of a Messiah, up to this a hope confined to the people of Israel. And without the true God; instead they relied on false gods and man-made idols. Unfortunately, that can still be said about many people in our world today and perhaps most of these can be found in so-called “developed” societies.

But with the coming of Christ, all that has been changed. Those Gentiles who were once far apart “from us” (Jews), have now been brought close by the sacrificial blood that Jesus poured out on the cross. This was the new covenant which embraced not only Jews but all those, of whatever origin, who would approach the cross in loving surrender. In Christ, there is now just one people.

Jesus has become the peace that binds the two formerly hostile groups together. The barrier that formerly divided them has been removed. This is a reference to the wall in the Jerusalem Temple which separated the court of the Jews (to which only they had access) from the court of the Gentiles (open to all). In fact, there were several dividing walls in the Temple – separating Jews from Gentiles, Jewish men from women, priests from people, and the Holy of Holies, only accessible to the high priest once a year. All of these divisions are demolished in Christ. These walls (like all such walls) were a striking symbol of much deeper divisions.

Christ also destroyed “in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law”. Much of the Mosaic Law, of course, sets moral standards which were not changed by the coming of Christ and are recognised by people everywhere. However, under the name of their Law the Jews had arrogated to themselves a privileged status which set them above and apart from the “pagans”. In particular, they looked down on those who did not observe the rituals of the Law as “unclean”. Many of these rituals have little to do with moral behaviour as such.

Religion should never be a source of division although, if it is to be true to its convictions, it will stand out as different and challenging – but never exclusive or divisive. Too often in our own days, we Christians have been guilty of the very things with which Paul accuses his fellow-Jews.

God’s plan, on the other hand says Paul, was to create in Christ “one single New Person” out of the two formerly opposed groups. “Person” here translates the Greek word anthropos (‘anqrwpos), which means a human being and has no gender connotations. The word for a male is aner (‘anhr) and the Latin equivalents are homo and vir. (Significantly, our Creed says that in the Incarnation Jesus became a homo*, not a vir – Jesus is primarily a Person sharing his humanity with both men and women.)

This ‘New Person’ is the prototype of the new humanity that God recreated in the person of Christ, the second Adam, after killing the sinfully corrupt race of the first Adam in the crucifixion. This New Adam has been created in “the goodness and holiness of the truth” (4:24), and he is unique because in him the boundaries between any one group and the rest of the human race all disappear. (Jerusalem Bible, edited)

This new “Man” or person is not an individual but is the whole community, the whole Body, consisting of both Jews and Gentiles, together with Jesus as its Head.

This reconciliation or peace was brought about by Jesus dying on the cross as the eloquent witness of God’s immeasurable love for peoples everywhere, irrespective of race, social status or gender. “In his own person, Jesus killed the hostility.” This hostility was replaced by the “good news (gospel) of peace” embracing both Gentiles (who had been far from God) and Jews (who had always been nearer to him). Through the cross Jesus united all in one body, which refers both to the physical body of Jesus that was executed by crucifixion and the Church or ‘mystical’ body of Christ in which all are reconciled.

In a beautiful Trinitarian phrase, Paul concludes the paragraph with: “Through Jesus Christ, both of us (Jews and Gentiles) have, in the one Spirit, our way to come to the Father.” Jesus is the Way for peoples everywhere, the Way to Truth and Life.

In the final paragraph today, Paul speaks of the effects of the hostility, the walls between Jews and Gentiles being broken down and being replaced by peace. “You” (i.e. Gentiles) are no longer foreigners but truly citizens together with all Jews baptised in Christ (the “saints”) and part of God’s household (familia in Latin). ‘Family’ in ancient times included the whole household – the extended family of parents, children, close relatives but also servants and slaves.

Changing the image Paul speaks of the Church as a building of which the Gentiles are now fully a part. This building has the apostles and prophets (i.e. prophets of the early Christian community) as its foundation and Christ as its corner stone. The New Testament prophets, together with the apostles, are the witnesses to whom the divine plan was first revealed and who were the first to preach the Good News. The Church then is founded not only on Christ but also on the apostles and prophets.

Together all grow in Christ into “one holy temple” and the Gentiles, with the Christian Jews, are progressively being built into a house where God himself lives.

Paul emphatically makes two points here:

First, he shows how, in the Christian community, Jews and Gentiles have come together in unity and peace as God’s people in Christ. All former barriers are removed. (In his Letter to the Galatians, he also included free people and slaves and men and women as all fully equal in the Christian ‘family’).

Secondly, the Church is the new Temple of God. The temple is no longer a physical building of bricks and mortar but a community of people united in faith and love with Christ as Lord and to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in their midst.”

Rome and St Peter’s could be bombed out of existence and every Christian church building in the world could be wiped off the face of the earth but as long as even a handful of people can sincerely gather together in the name of Christ and the Gospel, God’s temple, the place where he lives, continues to be. In the Church that Paul knew there were no church buildings. The communities gathered in each other’s homes. There are places in the world today where Christians have no other option except to meet in this way, often in secrecy and in fear of persecution.

Let us try to be more aware of Church as primarily the community of believers rather than as the buildings which we use for our gatherings.

Furthermore, the “house were God lives” is not a given. As Paul indicates today, it is constantly being built up. It is a living entity which can be growing or dying. That depends on each one of us. Let each one of us work together at building up the part of it entrusted to our care.

___________________

*Note: Incidentally the ‘homo’ in ‘homosexuality’ is a different word altogether. It is from the Greek homos (‘omos), meaning ‘the same’. Hence, it refers to sexuality between people of the same gender, be they masculine or feminine.

[betty-kim-iln-3001]

Documentary Report (1) The Audacity of Christian Art: The Problem with Christ

The Audacity of Christian Art: The Problem with Christ is a film series presented by Dr Chloë Reddaway, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Curator in Art and Religion at the National Gallery. The film series was made in 2017.

In the series Dr Reddaway focuses on the gallery's Conservation Department where the viewer is shown a series of Renaissance paintings by masters of the 15th century.

The series is made of 7 short video clips around 6-7minutes each and titled:

The audacity of Christian art: the problem with Christ

Christ is not like a snail: Signs and symbols

Putting God in His place: Here, everywhere, and nowhere

Time and eternity: Yesterday, today, and always

This world and the next: Christ on earth; Christ in heaven

So near and yet so far: Visions and thresholds

Unspeakable images: When words fail

The series deals with many interesting points about the art of depiction and portrayal of the complex nature of Christ. In Christianity, God is believed to be One but that is ‘God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit’ and this is known as the ‘Trinity’. [1]

‘The incarnation’, which literally means ‘to take on flesh’, refers to the belief of God taking on the human form. [2]  

In the first episode of the film series, Dr Reddaway begins by outlining  the complexity in the expression of this paradoxical phenomena contained in one figure, especially in a visual sense; illuminating the impossible problem of painting Christ: how do you paint a figure who is fully divine and fully human?

In each video Dr Reddaway draws her points from paintings in the gallery. In the first video she uses a depiction of the resurrected Christ through : ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’ by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano made at the start of the 16th century.

[Fig 1: screenshot from the video clip showing the painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas]

The painting shows the resurrected Christ with Thomas (one of his disciples) touching the wound on his side which was made by a spear after he was dead on the cross. This is a narrative painting that shows the story from the New Testament where, after his crucifixion, Jesus appeared in front of his disciples and showed his wounds and Thomas, who wasn’t present at the time was doubtful and said ‘Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ . The painting depicts the scene that happened eight days later when the disciples are gathered again, this time with Thomas being present, and Christ appears once more and invites Thomas to touch him where he then comes to ‘believe’.[3]

As Dr Reddaway states ‘it’s not hard to sympathise with Thomas. He knew that Christ was human. He knew he was dead. It took an encounter with the Resurrected Christ himself, to make Thomas recognise his divinity’.

Like Thomas, the viewers are ‘who the artist needs to show’ the paradoxical ‘human and divine’ nature of Christ. Cima does this by: choosing this specific scene of the story and using the figurative narrative of the painting that holds semantic meaning and significance and also, literally through the visual elements he implements in the painting. In other words, the painting is about a scene that questions Christ’s human and divine nature and this is Cima’s visual way of asking the question of ‘how does one paint this?’ which touches upon the concept explored in the next video; how the attempt of painting Christ interestingly, must, as Dr Reddaway explains, ‘ultimately fail’.

[Fig. 2: screenshot of the snail]

Iconography is the term used to describe ‘any object or image that is outstanding or has a special meaning attached to it’ [4]. In the third video, the viewers are introduced to Carlo Crivelli’s The Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Sebastian, 1491, where Dr Reddaway explains how the iconography is incorporated in the task of painting Christ. In the painting there is a snail beside St Francis’ foot and the incorporation of this icon is used as an act of acknowledging the inadequacy of the use of ‘words and pictures’ when ‘communicating about God’ as it acts as a visual symbol.

During the video Dr Reddaway mentions the words of Pseudo-Dionysius, a Greek Christian theologian and Neoplatonic Philosopher who lived in the 5-6th century, who stated that even ‘an earthworm can be a symbol for Christ’ as it prompts the viewer to think about the significance and meaning behind what the strange or ‘dissemblant’, as Dr Reddaway put it, symbol is trying to indicate. [5][6]

As Corrigan, Kevin and L. Michael Harrington mentions in "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2019, when we liken God to something so humble and strange like a ‘worm’ it causes us to be ‘shocked’ into thinking in a different way. The bigger the ‘dissimilarity’ between the divine and the visual metaphor used the more, as Corrigan et al. would say, they ‘bear the capacity to signify the divine more appropriately than supposedly worthier images’ by ‘[pointing] [us] to the sacred in a new way’. The worm is ‘the most humblest of creatures and it points to the humble nature of Christ who was born on earth in a manger and lived a humble life, whilst simultaneously highlighting how he wasn’t like an earthworm. [5][6]

According to Dr Reddaway, the snail acts as a metaphor for the conception of Mary as snails are asexual, it was a ‘analogous to Mary’s virginal conception’ of the Christ.

Likewise in the fourth video, one is introduced to the notion of how place is used as a device to depict the nature of the finite and infinite-ness of Christ. In tandem with the third video, the miraculous story of the conception of the Virgin is used again through the painting of The Annunciation, by Fra Filippo Lippi (1450-3) we see another visual interpretation of the paradoxical story.

[Fig. 3 screenshot]

Compositionally, the painting is a horizontal image and is shaped like a dome with the angel is on the left and Mary on the right with a distance between the two to symbolise how the virgin is ‘chaste and set apart’. As the conception was an invisible phenomena the artist artfully uses perspective and places the vanishing point of the picture at a point where the stone wall sits, which acts as a ‘spatial metaphor’ to create a visual sense of mystery and how we as humans do not know the ‘beyond the point of infinity’. This personally was one of my favourite visual examples of the depiction of the concept as I thought it worked very effectively in creating the sense of mystery and holding the sense of finiteness and infiniteness simultaneously.

The Deposition by the  Master of Saint Bartholomew Altarpiece was made around 1500-5. In the fifth video the use of different materials on this painting illustrates how the German artist expressed the concept of time vs timelessness and a feeling of heavenly setting vs the earthly setting. The painting has a sense of ‘realism in the foreground’ whereas the background is golden, creating the sense of otherworldly and timelessness and this distinction creates a powerful dichotomy of time and space. By having these contrasting forms of realism and golden heavenliness in the background, we are reminded that Christ had ‘a human and temporal life’ but is still the divine Son of God and as Christians believe, to be the same ‘Yesterday, today and always’.

In the same painting, Dr Reddaway explored how the use of iconography was used to show the notion of time. The symbol of the skull and ointment jar at the front act as visual metaphors that symbolise the story of Mary pouring ointment on Christ’s feet when he was still alive which foreshadowed the death Christ’s death and the skull acted as a reference to Golgotha – the place where Christ was crucified, meaning ‘the place of the skull’. But even more interestingly I enjoyed Dr Reddaway’s point of how it could act as the symbol of Adam (the first man)’s skull which directly lies in contrast with the moment in which salvation and redemption occur – the crucifixion where Jesus is known to have died was sacrifice, taking up the sins of the world to provide eternal life. In other words the paradox of life and death is shown in these two iconographic images within the painting. Like the snail from the third video I think this was also a clever way of incorporating a message within a visual piece.

[Fig. 4 & 5: screenshots from the 5th film of the series]

Other points made in the series were:

The depiction of heaven in portraying Christ

Depicting the concept of visions and revelations in portraying Christ's holiness/divinity

Ambiguity being a visual way to express the artist's humility towards the acceptance of the impossibility of the task

The series was very enriching and opened my eyes to the vastness of exploring into just the life of Jesus due to the paradoxical nature of his being; both divine and human. Even in the Bible there are many symbols and metaphorical imagery used to illustrate Jesus in both the new and old testament. It would be interesting to further my research by exploring into the different depictions of Christ at different points in history beyond the 15th century.

Bibliography

[1] The National Gallery, L., 2017. The Audacity of Christian Art film series | Art and Religion | National Gallery, London. [online] Nationalgallery.org.uk. Available at: <https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/about-research/art-and-religion/the-audacity-of-christian-art-film-series> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

[2] BBC Bitesize. 2021. The incarnation - God and authority in Christianity - GCSE Religious Studies Revision - Edexcel - BBC Bitesize. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zbj48mn/revision/7> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

[3] Bible Gateway. 2011. Bible Gateway passage: John 20:19-27 - New International Version. [online] Available at: <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2020%3A19-27&version=NIV> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

[4]  Tate. n.d. Iconography – Art Term | Tate. [online] Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/i/iconography> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

[5] En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite - Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite> [Accessed 6 December 2021].

[6] Corrigan, Kevin and L. Michael Harrington, "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),

available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-dionysius-areopagite/#SymThe

[piouscatholic]

#SolemnityofSaintsPeterAndPaul🌻🌿🌼🍀🌻🌿🌼🍀🌻🌿🌼🍀

#UniversalisCom

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

#OfficeofReadings

If this is the first Hour that you are reciting today, you should precede it with the Invitatory Psalm.

#INTRODUCTION

O God, come to our aid.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen. Alleluia.

#Hymn

The eternal gifts of Christ the King,

The Apostles’ glory let us sing;

And all with hearts of gladness raise

Due hymns of thankful love and praise.

For they the Church’s princes are,

Triumphant leaders in the war,

In heavenly courts a warrior band,

True lights to lighten every land.

Theirs is the steadfast faith of saints,

And hope that never yields nor faints,

The love of Christ in perfect glow

That lays the prince of this world low.

In them the Father’s glory shone,

In them the will of God the Son,

In them exults the Holy Ghost,

Through them rejoice the heavenly host.

#Psalm18(19)

Praise of God the creator

Simon Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep.

The skies tell the story of the glory of God,

the firmament proclaims the work of his hands;

day pours out the news to day,

night passes to night the knowledge.

Not a speech, not a word,

not a voice goes unheard.

Their sound is spread throughout the earth,

their message to all the corners of the world.

At the ends of the earth he has set up

a dwelling place for the sun.

Like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

it rejoices like an athlete at the race to be run.

It appears at the edge of the sky,

runs its course to the sky’s furthest edge.

Nothing can hide from its heat.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Simon Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep.

Psalm Translation

To see the offical Grail psalms, get the Universalis app from Google Play or from the Amazon Appstore.

#Psalm63(64)

A prayer against enemies

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain:

I must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, O God, to my voice;

keep me safe from fear of the enemy.

Protect me from the alliances of the wicked,

from the crowd of those who do evil.

They have sharpened their tongues like swords,

aimed poisonous words like arrows,

to shoot at the innocent in secret.

They will attack without warning, without fear,

for they are firm in their evil purpose.

They have set out to hide their snares

– for they say, “Who will see us?”

They have thought out plans to commit wicked deeds,

and they carry out what they have planned.

Truly the heart and soul of a man

are bottomless depths.

And God has shot them with his arrow:

in a moment, they are wounded –

their own tongues have brought them low.

All who see them will shake their heads;

all will behold them with fear

and proclaim the workings of God

and understand what he has done.

The just will rejoice and hope in the Lord:

the upright in heart will give him glory.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain: I must glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

#Psalm96(97)

The glory of God in his judgements

Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you over the waters.

The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice,

let the many islands be glad.

Clouds and dark mist surround him,

his throne is founded on law and justice.

Fire precedes him,

burning up his enemies all around.

His lightnings light up the globe;

the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains flow like wax at the sight of the Lord,

at the sight of the Lord the earth dissolves.

The heavens proclaim his justice

and all peoples see his glory.

Let them be dismayed, who worship carved things,

who take pride in the images they make.

All his angels, worship him.

Zion heard and was glad,

the daughters of Judah rejoiced

because of your judgements, O Lord.

For you are the Lord, the Most High over all the earth,

far above all other gods.

You who love the Lord, hate evil!

The Lord protects the lives of his consecrated ones:

he will free them from the hands of sinners.

A light has arisen for the just,

and gladness for the upright in heart.

Rejoice, you just, in the Lord

and proclaim his holiness.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and ever shall be,

world without end.

Amen.

Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you over the waters.

℣. The word of the Lord endures for ever.

℟. That word is the gospel which has been preached to you.

#FirstReading

#Galatians1:15-2:10 ©

God, who had specially chosen me while I was still in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace and chose to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the pagans.

I did not stop to discuss this with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me, but I went off to Arabia at once and later went straight back from there to Damascus.

Even when after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him for fifteen days, I did not see any of the other apostles; I only saw James, the brother of the Lord, and I swear before God that what I have just written is the literal truth.

After that I went to Syria and Cilicia, and was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judaea, who had heard nothing except that their one-time persecutor was now preaching the faith he had previously tried to destroy; and they gave glory to God for me.

It was not till fourteen years had passed that I went up to Jerusalem again.

I went with Barnabas and took Titus with me.

I went there as the result of a revelation, and privately I laid before the leading men the Good News as I proclaim it among the pagans; I did so for fear the course I was adopting or had already adopted would not be allowed.

And what happened?

Even though Titus who had come with me is a Greek, he was not obliged to be circumcised. The question came up only because some who do not really belong to the brotherhood have furtively crept in to spy on the liberty we enjoy in Christ Jesus, and want to reduce us all to slavery.

I was so determined to safeguard for you the true meaning of the Good News, that I refused even out of deference to yield to such people for one moment.

As a result, these people who are acknowledged leaders – not that their importance matters to me, since God has no favourites – these leaders, as I say, had nothing to add to the Good News as I preach it.

On the contrary, they recognised that I had been commissioned to preach the Good News to the uncircumcised just as Peter had been commissioned to preach it to the circumcised. The same person whose action had made Peter the apostle of the circumcised had given me a similar mission to the pagans.

So, James, Cephas and John, these leaders, these pillars, shook hands with Barnabas and me as a sign of partnership: we were to go to the pagans and they to the circumcised. The only thing they insisted on was that we should remember to help the poor, as indeed I was anxious to do.

#Responsory

℟. You are Peter, and it is upon this rock that I shall build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,* and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

℣. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,* and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

#SecondReading

From a sermon by Saint Augustine

The martyrs had seen what they proclaimed

This day has been consecrated for us by the martyrdom of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

It is not some obscure martyrs we are talking about.

Their sound has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

These martyrs had seen what they proclaimed, they pursued justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth.

The blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, the ardent lover of Christ, who was found worthy to hear And I say to you, that you are Peter.

He himself, you see, had just said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Christ said to him, And I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church.

Upon this rock I will build the faith you have just confessed. Upon your words, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church; because you are Peter.

Peter comes from petra, meaning a rock. Peter, “Rocky,” from “rock”; not “rock” from “Rocky.”

Peter comes from the word for a rock in exactly the same way as the name Christian comes from Christ.

Before his passion the Lord Jesus, as you know, chose those disciples of his whom he called apostles. Among these it was only Peter who almost everywhere was given the privilege of representing the whole Church.

It was in the person of the whole Church, which he alone represented, that he was privileged to hear, To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

After all, it is not just one man that received these keys, but the Church in its unity.

So this is the reason for Peter’s acknowledged pre-eminence, that he stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, To you I am entrusting, what has in fact been entrusted to all.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

12th November >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 17:10-13 for Saturday, Second Week of Advent: ‘I tell you that Elijah has come already’.

Saturday, Second Week of Advent.

Gospel (Except USA)

Matthew 17:10-13

Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him

As they came down from the mountain the disciples put this question to Jesus, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?’ ‘True;’ he replied ‘Elijah is to come to see that everything is once more as it should be; however, I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognise him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands.’ The disciples understood then that he had been speaking of John the Baptist.

Reflections (8)

(i) Saturday, Second Week of Advent

There was a tradition among the Jewish people, present in the Jewish Scriptures, that the prophet Elijah would return to earth just before the coming of God’s anointed one, the Messiah, to prepare people for his coming. That is why, at the end of today’s first reading which was written less than two hundred years before Jesus, the author says, ‘Happy shall they be who see you’, in other words, ‘Happy shall they be who see Elijah when he returns’, because they can be assured that the coming of the Messiah is imminent. In the gospel reading, Jesus identifies John the Baptist as the prophet Elijah who had been promised. He had worked to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. Yet, by the time Jesus spoke in today’s gospel reading, John the Baptist had been executed. As Jesus says, ‘they did not recognize him but treated him shamefully’. People should have been happy to have seen Elijah present in John the Baptist, ‘happy shall they be who see you’. Instead, many wanted rid of him. Jesus goes on to say, ‘the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands’. People should have been even happier to see Jesus, God’s anointed one, and, yet, some wanted Jesus dead. We don’t always respond well to the gifts and graces that God sends us. We fail to recognize the ways that God is blessing us. We reject God’s gifts to us, or carry on as if they are not there. Today’s gospel reading encourages us to grow in our appreciation of all that God is doing for us, all that God is giving to us, all that God is holding out to us in his love. Advent is a season when we are invited to learn to receive all that comes to us from God. The Advent prayer, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ is one expression of our desire, our openness, to receive the coming of the Lord and all the blessings he brings with him.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, Second Week of Advent

We hear a great deal about John the Baptist in the Season of Advent. He has been rightly referred to as the great Advent Saint. He features particularly in the opening two weeks of Advent. After that, the other great Advent Saint, Mary, the mother of Jesus, begins to feature more prominently in the church’s liturgy. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus identifies John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah. There had been an expectation that Elijah would come just before the Messiah would come. Jesus identifies John as that Elijah figure. Yet, by the time Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel reading from Matthew John had already been beheaded. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘they treated him as they pleased’. Matthew presents Jesus in our gospel reading foreseeing his own death in the death of John. Both were prophets who disturbed certain vested interests and both paid the ultimate price. Even as we approach the feast of the birth of Jesus we are being reminded of how Jesus’ life would end. The fate of both John and Jesus reminds us that proclaiming the gospel of God in word and deed brings its own cost. It will not always be well received. That is why, if we are to be courageous in our living of the faith, we need to keep asking for the Lord’s help. A verse from today’s responsorial psalm would be a fitting prayer, ‘O Lord, rouse up your might, O Lord, come to our help’.

 And/Or

(iii) Saturday, Second Week of Advent

In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus identifies John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah. It was believed that Elijah would come just before the coming of the long awaited Messiah. Jesus says of John the Baptist, the long awaited Elijah figure, that ‘they did not recognize him, but treated him as they pleased’. The experience of John the Baptist would become the experience of Jesus himself, as Jesus says in that reading, ‘the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands’. Both John and Jesus proclaimed the values of God’s kingdom and both of them suffered greatly for doing so. Even as we draw nearer to celebrating the joyful event of the birth of Jesus we are being reminded of the cross that awaited this child. I have a print of a painting of the birth of Jesus by the German artist Sieger Köderand at the bottom of the painting there is an image of the adult Christ under the beam of the cross looking upon the baby. At Christmas we celebrate the good news that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. This morning’s gospel reminds us that God’s giving was a giving-unto-death, a giving that cost not less than everything. It is this costly gift that we open our hearts to receive anew at this time of the year, so that we can give to others as God has given to us.

And/Or

 (iv) Saturday, Second Week of Advent

There was a Jewish tradition in the time of Jesus that the day of the Lord’s coming would be preceded by the coming of a messenger who would prepare the way for the Lord’s coming. According to the prophet Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew Bible, that messenger would be the prophet Elijah who would come from heaven to where he had ascended many centuries before. That is the tradition Jesus’ disciples give expression to in their question to Jesus at the beginning of today’s gospel reading, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first?’ This question reflects an objection to Jesus by the Jewish scribes, ‘if Jesus is God’s anointed one, why has he not been preceded by Elijah, as the Scriptures say he will be?’ Jesus replies by saying that Elijah has come; he is none other than John the Baptist, but people have not recognized John as the messenger of God, the Elijah figure sent before the Lord’s anointed one. Jesus draws attention to the human failure to recognize the messengers God sends. We live in the period after the death and resurrection of Jesus and the risen Lord is constantly sending us his messengers. We too can fail to recognize them. Advent is a time when we are invited to become more attuned to the various ways that the Lord comes to us. Very often he comes to us in ways that forces us to rethink who we are and where we stand. We can be tempted to reject the Lord’s messenger as John the Baptist was rejected by many of his contemporaries. Our resistance can sometimes be a sign that the Lord is trying to break through to us in some new way.

 And/Or

(v) Saturday, Second Week of Advent

This morning’s gospel reading makes reference to Jesus and his disciples coming down the mountain. The mountain in question is the Mount of Transfiguration. The disciples have had a wonderful experience of Jesus in all his glory on that mountain, so wonderful that Peter wanted to prolong the experience, ‘Let us build three tents...’ As they come down the mountain, the mood changes somewhat. In response to the disciples’ question about the coming of Elijah before the coming of the Messiah, Jesus identifies John the Baptist as that expected Elijah figure. Jesus goes on to say with regard to John the Baptist, ‘they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased’. Jesus makes reference there to the recent beheading of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas. He also declares that how John was treated is a forewarning of how he himself will be treated, ‘the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands’. After experiencing Jesus’ glory on the mountain the disciples are now faced with the looming reality of Jesus’ violent death. As we are about to enter the third week of Advent and draw closer to the feast of the birth of Jesus, we are being reminded that the child in the manger, the son of Mary, would become the Son of Man who die on a Roman cross because of his faithfulness to the work that God gave him to do. At Christmas we celebrate God’s giving of his Son to us. This morning’s gospel reminds us that this giving was a giving unto death. As the fourth evangelist expresses it, ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son’.

 And/Or

(vi) Saturday, Second Week in Advent

In the weeks prior to the feast of Christmas John the Baptist features prominently. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus refers to John the Baptist without mentioning him by name. The disciples ask Jesus about the Jewish tradition that the prophet Elijah will come before the coming of God’s anointed one. This tradition is based on a text in the prophet Malachi, ‘I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me… I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes’. In the gospel reading Jesus declares that Elijah has already come and they treated him as they pleased, which is a clear reference to the recent execution of John the Baptist. Jesus sees in what happened to John a sign of what will happen to him, ‘the Son of Man will suffer similarly at their hands’. We are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus and prior to that we will read the gospel about the birth of John the Baptist. However, this morning’s gospel reading refers to the death of both John the Baptist and Jesus. We are being reminded that we cannot separate the birth of John and Jesus from their death. The cross casts its shadow over the crib of Bethlehem. When we look at the baby in the crib, we cannot but call to mind the good shepherd who laid down his life for his flock, the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for all. It is that same self-giving love of Jesus that we celebrate at every Eucharist and that is given to us anew at every Eucharist. As Paul reminds us, as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death.We are sent from the Eucharist to live what we have proclaimed, to give what we have received.

 And/Or

(vii) Saturday, Second Week in Advent

When Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, in response to a question of his disciples, that ‘Elijah has come already’, he is referring to John the Baptist. He was the Elijah figure, the prophet whom the Jewish people expected to come just prior to the coming of the Messiah. Jesus says of John the Baptist that ‘they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased’. By this stage in Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist had been beheaded by the ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas. Jesus is saying that people did not appreciate who John the Baptist really was; he was indeed the prophet who was expected to come just before the Messiah. Because they did not recognize him for who he was, they treated him shamefully. Jesus was very aware that the fate of John the Baptist would be his own fate too. Many people would fail to recognize who Jesus really was, would fail to appreciate his true significance, and, as a result, they would do to Jesus what they please, treating him shamefully. The failure to appreciate others, to recognize their true significance, often leads to their being treated badly. Treating others with respect begins with the recognition of their full significance and dignity before God. How we see others will often impact on how we relate to them. Today’s gospel reading suggests that the way people see others can be very limited, and, so how they treat them can leave a lot to be desired. The gospels keep challenging us to refine our seeing, so that we see others in all their God-given dignity and relate to them accordingly.

And/Or

 (viii) Saturday, Second Week in Advent

Today’s gospel reading from Matthew follows on immediately after the story of the transfiguration of Jesus, in which the disciples saw Moses and Elijah speaking with the transfigured Jesus on the mountain. As they come down the mountain, the disciples ask Jesus a question about Elijah, whom they have just seen with Jesus. According to the Jewish Scriptures, Elijah was to return to prepare the way for the Messiah. If Jesus is the Messiah, where is Elijah, they wonder? In response, Jesus identifies John the Baptist with Elijah; John is the prophet who was to come to prepare the way for God’s anointed one. By this time in Jesus’ ministry John the Baptist had been executed by Herod Antipas, and Jesus now announces that he will experience the very same fate. Having witnessed Jesus in all his glory as Son of God on the mountain, it must have been difficult for the disciples to hear Jesus speak about himself as the Son of Man who must suffer as John did. As we approach the feast of Christmas we are being reminded that the baby in the crib became the crucified Son of Man, and that the wood of the manger points ahead to the wood of the cross. Mary’s child was, indeed, God’s loving gift to humanity. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son’. The adult Jesus would, in turn, give himself completely to humanity, out of love, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. The same divine love which we celebrate at Christmas is celebrated again on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Both feasts, Christmas and Easter, call on us to share with each other the love which we have so abundantly received from God through his Son.

Fr. Martin Hogan.