#shes brazil patroness

[lady-a-stuff]

Taylor Swift only came once to Brazil, but the connection between Tayor Swift and Brazil are simply awesome. The newest thing is: EVERYTIME miss Swift released an album the Workers’ Party won the presidential elections:

2006: Debut - Workers’ Party won

2008: Fearless - There were no presidential elections

2010: Speak Now - Workers’ Party won

2012:  Red -  There were no presidential elections

2014: 1989 - Workers’ Party won

2017: Reputation - There were no presidential elections

2018: No album release - Bolsonaro won the elections (Workers’ Party lose)

2019: Lover - There were no presidential elections

2020: folklore and evermore - There were no presidential elections

THE THING IS Taylor is gonna to release Midnights this year AND we have a runoff of the presidential elections between Workers’ Party and Bolsonaro (let’s say a Brazillian Trump) this takes me to: TAYLOR SWIFT IS GONNA SAVE BRAZIL 

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF OUR LADY OF MONTSERRAT (aka La Moreneta) Feast Day: April 27

The Catholic Church will observe the feast day of Our Lady of Montserrat, the popular Black Madonna of Spain.

Widely venerated in Catalonia, Spain, where devotion to the La Moreneta (Black Madonna) originated, as well as in Puerto Rico and Ecuador, Our Lady of Montserrat is well known for her miraculous intercessory powers.

Hundreds of pilgrims and devotees visit her major shrine at the foot of Montecristi Hill in Ecuador every year.

In Catalonia, Spain, where Our Lady has been widely venerated since the 12th century, the Shrine of Our Lady of Montserrat is a popular pilgrimage site. She is the Patron Saint of Catalonia, an honor she shares with Saint George.

In the country, the Our Lady of Montserrat Church in San Beda College, Manila was built in honor of the patroness of the Benedictine monks of Manila. Devotion to her is also widespread in Jaro, Iloilo City where a parish church has been erected in her honor.

According to tradition, the image of the Black Madonna with the Child Jesus was carved by St. Luke the Evangelist around 50 A.D. and was brought to Spain. An 18th century polychrome statue of the same image that was gifted by former president João Goulart of Brazil on the Papal election of Pope Paul VI in 1963, is also displayed in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy. Previously stored in the Vatican Museums, the image has been on display for Papal masses since the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.

On September 11, 1881, the image was canonically crowned in accordance with Canon Law and was proclaimed as the patroness of Catalonia by Pope Leo XIII. Many pilgrims paid homage to her including Saints Vincent Ferrer, Ignatius of Loyola, Aloysius Gonzaga, Peter Claver, and Anthony Mary Claret.

The Abbey of Our Lady of Montserrat in Barcelona is the founding monastery of the Benedictines in the Philippines. The first Benedictine monks arrived in the country in 1895.

[silvestromedia]

SAINTS OCTOBER 12

St. Wilfrid. Born in Northumberland in 634, St. Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected abbot of Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the Celtic ways of northern England. In 664, he was the architect of the definitive victory of the Roman party at the Conference of Whitby. He was appointed Bishop of York and after some difficulty finally took possession of his See in 669. He labored zealously and founded many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, but he was obliged to appeal to Rome in order to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. While waiting for the case to be decided, he was forced to go into exile, and worked hard and long to evangelize the heathen south Saxons until his recall in 686. In 691, he had to retire again to the midlands until Rome once again vindicated him. In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential practices, until his death in 709. St. Wilfrid was an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed of unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He helped bring the discipline of the English Church into line with that of Rome. He was also a dedicated pastor and a zealous and skilled missionary; his brief time spent in Friesland in 678679 was the starting point for the great English mission to the Germanic peoples of continental Europe.

St. Edwin. In the year 616, King Ethelfrith was slain in battle by Redwald, King of the East Angles. Edwin of Deira became king of the whole kingdom of Northumbria and after the death of Redwald; he had a certain lordship over the other English kings. He married Ethelburga, daughter of St. Ethelbert, King of Kent after promising to allow her to practice her Christian religion. St. Paulinus was sent as chaplain to the Queen and bishop for his converts. When Queen Ethelburga gave birth to a daughter, she was baptized with twelve others on Whitsunday, and called Eanfleda; they were the first fruits of the Northumbrians. Edwin was a man of unusual wisdom and deliberated in his heart to which religion he should follow. Paulinus continued to instruct him and to pray for his conversion. King Edwin was baptized at York at Easter in the year 627, on the site of the present York Minster, in the wooden church of St. Peter which he had caused to be built. This good king had reigned seventeen years when the Welsh Cadwalon marched in arms against him with Penda of Mercia, a pagan. King Edwin met them at Hatfield Chase on October 12, 633, and in the ensuing battle he was slain. St. Edwin was certainly venerated in England as a martyr, but though his claims to sanctity are else doubtful than those of some other royal saints, English and other, he has had no liturgical cultus so far as is known. His relics were held in veneration, churches were dedicated in his honour in London and at Brean in Somerset; and Pope Gregory XIII permitted him to be represented among the English martyrs on the walls of the chapel of the Venerable at Rome.

St. Fiace, 5th century. An Irish bishop sometimes listed as Fiech. A disciple of St. Patrick, he wrote a hymn in St. Patrick's honor.

Bl. Maria Teresa Fasce, Roman Catholic Nun. Maria Terese was also known for her great stamina. As abbess, she directed the construction of a new church for Saint Rita and a girl's orphanage. This project consumed much of her tenure, and in fact, the church was not completed until several months after her death. Feast day is October 12th.

Our Lady of the Pillar

OUR LADY OF APARECIDA The month of October is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary; it is also the month during which we mark another festivity dedicated to Mary Mother of God: Our Lady of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil, whose feast day is celebrated on October 12th. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/10/12/our-lady-of-aparecida.html

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

18th October >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on 

John 17:11, 17-23 for Mission Sunday (Ireland)

and on  

Matthew 22:15-21 for Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.

Mission Sunday (Ireland)

Gospel (Ireland)

John 17:11, 17-23

Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us. Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth. I pray not only for these, but for those also who through their words will come to believe in me. May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me. that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as you loved me. 

Reflections (3)

(i) Mission Sunday

We sometimes use the phrase ‘on a mission’ to describe someone who is very intent on doing something or going somewhere. To be ‘on a mission’ is to be focused on a very definite goal and to invest time and energy in attaining that goal. To be asked, ‘have you a mission in life’, is to be asked whether you have a goal in life, a purpose that gives meaning to your life and that shapes your life in some very fundamental way.

Today is Mission Sunday. It is a day when we are reminded that the whole church is ‘on a mission’. Mission Sunday reminds us that the mission of the church is a continuation of the mission of Christ. The Lord wants to continue his mission today in and through the church. Jesus entrusts his mission to the church. The church cannot continue the Lord’s mission without the Lord’s help. If the church is to remain missionary, it needs to acknowledge its own poverty, and to keep on invoking the Lord’s help, without which the church can do nothing. That help from the Lord is assured, because the church’s mission is the Lord’s own mission. As Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, our mission comes ‘as power and as the Holy Spirit’.

All of us who make up the church are called to be missionary. The Lord wants to continue his mission through all of us. We may not think of ourselves as missionaries. We may consider that mission is the work of a small number of people who have been specially called and trained. Yet, the late Pope John Paul once wrote, ‘Mission cannot be left to a group of “specialists” but is the responsibility of all the members of the people of God. Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves; they must proclaim him’. As members of a missionary church we are all called to be missionary. The mission field is all around us. It is the place where we live and work; it is the people that we meet in the course of our day. We draw from the Lord the spiritual energy that we need to be his missionaries wherever we find ourselves. We invite the Spirit, whose coming upon the bread and wine transforms them into the body and blood of Christ, to come also upon us so that we may be continually transformed into the Lord’s missionaries. The Lord’s mission was to give himself, his very life, in the service of others. We share in the Lord’s mission by seeking to serve others as generously as he did. As Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, ‘As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world’. Whenever we allow the Lord to serve others through us, he is enabled to continue his mission in the world. The missionary is the one who loves with the heart of Christ, and to this we are all called, both as parish communities and as individuals. To love and to serve with the heart of Christ is to allow the light of the gospel to shine through us. The late Archbishop Helder Camera of Recipe in Brazil described mission as ‘refusing to be locked into the problems of the little world in which we exist’. He wrote, ‘Mission is always looking outwards, reaching out beyond ourselves, our home, our community, our parish, our diocese, our nation. Mission is opening ourselves to others as brothers and sisters, discovering and encountering them, sharing their joys and sorrows’.

Today, as well as reflecting on our own call to be missionary, we are also asked to remember and assist missionaries on the front line, many of whom often work in difficult and dangerous circumstances. Every one of those missionaries would say that they could not reach out in mission to others without the support of the people in the home church. The support we can give is threefold. The first support is prayer. The second support is the offering of suffering on behalf of our missionaries. Saint Therese of Lisieux offered each painful step of her illness to assist a missionary. That is why she was proclaimed patroness of the missions, even though she had never gone beyond her convent. The third support is a financial offering. The collection taken up today enables native priests, sisters, brothers and lay leaders in the young churches to be formed in their vocation; it is also used for building simple churches and health clinics, for assisting missionaries serving refugees and for providing emergency aid in times of civil war or natural disasters. The collection goes to various Pontifical Missionary Societies who ensure that every cent goes to a mission territory. The most significant of the Pontifical Missionary Societies is the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. This particular Missionary Society was founded in 1822 by a French woman, Pauline Jaricot. She saw the Society as a vehicle for helping not just French missions and missionaries but all missions and missionaries, especially the poorest. One hundred years later, in 1922, it became the primary organization of the Church for support the activity of missionaries. The bulk of today’s national collection will go to that Society.

And/Or

(ii) Mission Sunday

Today is Mission Sunday and the second collection today will be taken up for what is termed the Pontifical Mission Societies. The purpose of these Mission Societies is to support the church in mission territories such as Botswana, Gambia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Uganda and the Philippines. There are a number of Pontifical Mission Societies, but the largest and most significant is the Society of the Propagation of the Faith. This Society was founded by a French laywoman in 1822, Pauline Jaricot. She wished to help not only French missions and missionaries but all missions and missionaries, especially the poorest. It was Pauline who drew up the basic plan of the Society, which consisted in supporting the work of missions and missionaries by prayer, the offering of one’s suffering and the giving of material support. In 1922, the Society became the primary organization of the church for supporting the activity of missionaries. Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday in 1926 as a day of prayer and material support for missionary activity. The collection that is taken up in churches throughout Ireland today will be sent in its entirety to missionary churches to support current missionaries in their witness to the faith. The collection enables native priests, sisters, brothers and lay catechists to be formed in their vocation. It is also used for the support of pastoral centres, the formation of lay leaders, and the building of simple churches and health clinics. Some of it is set aside for emergency aid in times of civil war or natural disasters, and for assisting missionaries who are serving refugees.

 In his message for Mission Sunday this year, Pope Benedict states that ‘present in the Eucharist is the same Redeemer who saw needy crowds and was filled with compassion because they were harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd’. He remarks that ‘it is in his name that pastoral workers and missionaries travel unexplored paths to carry the bread of salvation to all… spurred on by the knowledge that, united with Christ, it is possible to meet the deepest longings of the human heart. Jesus alone – the Pope says – can satisfy humanity’s hunger for love and thirst for justice; he alone makes it possible for every human person to share in eternal life’.

 Even though very few of us here today will end up travelling unexplored paths to carry the bread of salvation to others, there is a very real sense in which we are all called to be missionary. As the Pope says in his message of Mission Sunday, ‘those of us who nourish ourselves with the body and blood of the crucified and risen Lord cannot keep this gift to ourselves; on the contrary, we must share it’. We are called to share the Christ we receive in the Eucharist, to become Christ for others. Peter in today’s second reading refers to that calling as ‘living a good life in Christ’. Peter goes on to say that Christ died to lead us to God. Indeed, we can say that Christ lived, died and rose from the dead to lead us to God. To live a good life in Christ, therefore, is to live in such a way that our lives lead others to God. Christ wants to lead others to God through us. It is sobering to realize that our calling as baptized Christians is to lead each other to God. That is what it means to be missionary. In that sense we are each called to be a John the Baptist. John’s role was to lead people to God - to lead people to Christ, and, through him, to God. Our calling too is to live in such a way that our lives create an opening for others to encounter Christ and thereby to find God.

 To lead others to God is one of the most important ways we can express our love for them. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is asked his view as to which of the 614 commandments of the Law is the greatest one. In his reply to this question, Jesus not only gives the most important commandment, but he names the second most important commandment as well. In making this connection, Jesus was showing that these two commandments are inseparable. In other words, our love of God has to be neighbour-centred and our love of neighbour has to be God-centred. In what way can our love of neighbour be God-centred? In his Prayer Inspired by the Our Father, St. Francis of Assisi prays as follows: ‘May we love our neighbour as ourselves, by drawing them all with our whole strength to the love of God’. For Francis we love our neighbour as ourselves by leading them to God, by drawing them to the love of God, helping them to experience God’s love for them and to love God in return. His understanding of love of neighbour was very God-centred.

 There is always the danger of disconnecting the first and second commandment. The worship and service of God can, at times, go hand in hand with the oppression, the abuse, the damaging of others. Likewise, the love of neighbour can sit alongside an almost total forgetfulness of God. Jesus would insist on holding those two loves together, and he would put the love of God before love of neighbour. The worship and love of God is our first service. The respect and love of the neighbour, who is God’s image, flows logically from that first love. If we strive to hold those two loves together, while giving priority to the love of God, then our love of neighbour will be God-centred, our love of others will in some way reveal God to them and lead them to God. In other words, our love of others will be missionary. That is the kind of love to which this Mission Sunday calls all of us.

And/Or

(iii) Mission Sunday

We can think of mission as something that is the responsibility of others. It belongs to priests and religious, and it involves travel to distant parts. Today, Mission Sunday, reminds us that the whole church is missionary, and that each of us, in virtue of our baptism, has a role to play in the church’s mission. To be a member of the church is to be missionary. To believe is to witness to our belief.

 Each of us, in different ways, can be a little like Peter in the gospel reading. We can be slow to take ourselves seriously as missionaries. After Peter’s experience of the wonderful catch of fish, he may have sensed that the Lord had something in mind for him to do. He attempted to head Jesus off, as it were, with his cry, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man’. Overcome by his own sense of inadequacy and unworthiness, he sought to put as much distance as possible between himself and Jesus. As far as he was concerned, he was merely a fisherman, and not always a very successful one. Perhaps the experience of working hard all night and catching nothing was not new to him. Yet, Jesus recognized that this fisherman, and others like him, could draw people to God. Jesus did not take his leave of Peter, as Peter had suggested. Rather, he called Peter to accompany him and to share in his mission.

 The gospels are full of Peters - people from all walks of life who, in various ways, share in Jesus’ mission and witness to him before others. Many of these would not have been regarded as ‘religious’ in the usual sense of that word at the time. They would not have thought of themselves as potential missionaries. We need only think of the leper who ‘began to spread the word’ after his healing (Mk 1:45), the demon possessed man from the country of the Gerasenes who ‘began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him’ (Mk 5:20), the parents who brought children to Jesus that he might bless them (Mk 10:13), the Samaritan woman who brought the people of her town to Jesus, the nameless woman who anointed Jesus’ feet head with precious ointment, and whose good deed Jesus declared to be part of the gospel (Mk 14:9), the Roman centurion who publicly declared that the crucified Jesus was the Son of God (Mk 15:39). The list could go on. Here are men and women from all walks of life who proclaimed the gospel by their words and deeds.

 We are all invited to join the company of these men and women. When Jesus called upon the seventy two to ‘ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest’, he had all of us in mind. There is a role for each one of us in the Lord’s harvest. We each have a part to play in the Lord’s mission. There is a task for each of us to do, which, if not done by us, cannot be done by anyone else. We each have a unique set of opportunities to reveal the Lord to others, and to allow those around us to experience the Lord in us. It is not easy to share our faith in the culture in which we live. Faith in God has come to be regarded as something private, like our pin number. Yet, by definition, to believe is to witness to our belief. The very public act of going to Mass on a Sunday is one form of witness. In today’s culture where church attendance is declining, such a public act can be more powerful than ever before. Yet, there is more to witnessing and to being missionary than going to church. We are called to be witnesses in our homes, in our schools and colleges, in our offices and our factories, in our supermarkets and our places of recreation. We are called to bring the values of the gospel into all the contexts in which we live, and, also to recognize and to affirm the gospel values that are already there.

 The call of Peter in today’s gospel reading began with Jesus asking him to put out a little from the shore. Jesus subsequently asked him to put out into deep water. The call to put out into the deep can sound rather daunting to us. We may not be ready to launch out into the deep. Perhaps the Lord may only be asking us, for the moment, to put out a little from the shore. There may be some small step we can take to become more missionary in the living of our faith. When Jesus appointed the twelve, he first called them to be with him, and only after some time did he send them out (Mk 3:14, 6:7). The call to mission begins with the call to be present to Jesus. The first small step the Lord may be asking of us in becoming more missionary could be to become more prayerful. Our prayerful communion with the Lord of the harvest prepares us to be labourers in the harvest of the Lord. We pray for the freedom to take whatever small step the Lord may be asking of us this Mission Sunday.

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

Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Gospel (Except USA)

Matthew 22:15-21

Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar

The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you. Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, ‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’ They handed him a denarius, and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they replied. He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 22:15–21

Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

The Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”

Reflections (2)

(i) Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Image is very important in our media-conscious age. How someone looks can make a bigger impact than what they say. Yet, we are aware that image is not everything. We expect people to live up to the image they present. We look to people to be authentic, and we tend to value authenticity more than image. We resent it when someone appears in a guise that does not correspond to who they really are.

 In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is approached by people who begin by flattering him, ‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and that you teach the way of God in an honest way’. Yet, their flattery was deceptive, because their real intent was to trap Jesus, to get him to say something that would leave him at odds either with the people or with the Roman authorities. Their friendly and flattering image was a cover for great hostility. The image did not correspond to the reality.

 When Jesus requested a coin from the pockets of his questioners, he showed it to them and asked them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ The coin had an image of the emperor on it. Behind that image was the reality that this coin belonged to the emperor and should be given to him, and, so, Jesus said ‘give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’. However, Jesus immediately goes on to say, ‘and (give) to God what belongs to God’. We might well ask: ‘If the coin with its image of the emperor belongs to the emperor, what is it that belongs to God?’ Each one of us bears the image of God, and therefore, it is we ourselves who belong to God. Jesus was reminding his questioners that, whereas the coin in their pockets belongs to the emperor, they themselves belong to God, and they must live and behave as people who belong to God. They must give themselves first and foremost to God, and not to the emperor or anyone or anyone else.

 If the same question were to be asked of us that Jesus asked in relation to the coin - ‘Whose image is this?’ - the answer would have to be, ‘God’s image’. Because we are God’s image, we belong to God, and we strive to live our lives accordingly. We are called to live as people who bear God’s image, who belong to God. What we owe to God is far more fundamental than what they owe to anyone else. The gospel reading proclaims that the basic loyalty in our lives must be to God. In the words of today’s first reading, ‘I am the Lord, unrivalled; there is no other God besides me’.

 Every other human loyalty is subordinate to that fundamental loyalty in our lives. We owe allegiance to the State, but we owe a greater allegiance to God as Jesus has revealed God. As Christians, our primary allegiance is to the values that Jesus proclaimed and lived. It can happen that people’s allegiance to the gospel puts them in conflict with the State. That was certainly true of the time of Jesus and of the time when the evangelists were writing their gospels. The Roman emperor was considered divine, and those who lived in the Empire were expected to honour the emperor as a god, to worship him. The refusal of Christians to do so resulted in their execution. In more recent times, many Christians who refused to submit to the ideology of the Nazi state were put to death. The great Protestant pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonheoffer, and the Catholic priest, Maximilian Kolbe, come to mind. There were many others, laymen and women, whose commitment to the values of the Lord at that time resulted in their death.

 Today, the pressure on us to compromise the values of the gospel comes less from the State and more from the society and culture in which we live. We can find ourselves under all kinds of subtle pressures to buy into ways of doing things that are in conflict with the values of the gospel. We are called to live as the image of God, the image of Christ. However, the culture in which we live can sometimes offer us other, very different, images to identify with and to live out of. As people who belong to God, we are called to give all areas of our lives to God, to allow God and his Son to shape all the areas of our lives. Yet, the culture of which we are apart can attempt to put a very different shape on some areas of our lives.

 When Paul wrote to the members of the church in Thessalonica, he was aware that they were under this same kind of pressure. Yet, at the beginning of his letter, he thanks God for them because they had resisted this pressure. He remembers with gratitude their faith in action, their work of love and their persevering hope. These early Christians can be our model and inspiration. They show us that we can give to God what belongs to God, even when under pressure to do otherwise. We can give to God in this way because of all that God has given to us. In the words of the first reading, God has called us by our name. God has given his Son to us and at this Eucharist we receive anew this great gift. Strengthened by this ongoing gift that God makes to us, we are enabled to live in such a way that we give to God all that belongs to God.

And/Or

(ii) Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Taxation has always been a contentious issue. We all appreciate that we need to pay taxes if the Government is to have the necessary financial resources to run the country. The issue is around how much tax we should be paying. Taxation was even more contentious in the time of Jesus because the taxation authorities were the occupying power, the forces of Rome. The question that is put to Jesus in today’s gospel reading was a highly contentious one, ‘Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ Many of Jesus’ Jewish contemporaries, like the Pharisees, would have given a clear ‘no’ to that question, because they believed that to pay taxes to Rome was to recognize Rome’s legitimacy. Other Jews, like the Herodians, the followers of Herod, would have givena resounding ‘yes’ to that question because they had a vested interest in the status quo and were doing very nicely out of the Roman occupation. The gospel reading says that the people who asked Jesus the question, the Pharisees and the Herodians, were setting out to trap his. They hoped that no matter how he answered he would end up losing face.

 In response to the question of the Pharisees and the Herodians, Jesus asked for the money that they pay the poll tax with; the fact that they were able to produce the coin so quickly indicated their own willingness to pay the tax. Noticing that the image of Caesar was on one side of the coin, Jesus declared, ‘Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God’. This is one of those many enigmatic sayings of Jesus in the gospels. The emphasis in that saying seems to be on the second part, ‘give to God what belongs to God’. What exactly is it that belongs to God, which should be given to God? Jesus would answer that question by saying that we as human beings belong to God because we are made in God’s image. Because we belong to God, we have to give ourselves to God. If Caesar’s image is on the Roman coin and, therefore, the coin can be given to Caesar, God’s image is on each one of us, and, therefore, we are to give ourselves to God. In next Sunday’s gospel reading Jesus spells out a little more what it means to give ourselves to God. Once again the religious authorities ask Jesus a question - ‘Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?’ Jesus answers, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. As people made in the image of God, this is what we owe to God, according to Jesus, a love that embraces the whole person. It is clear that Jesus is saying that no one else is to be loved in this way. There is no one else to whom we are to give ourselves to this extent. Jesus would certainly be saying to his contemporaries that they are not to give themselves in this total way to Caesar who sits on his throne in Rome. This was quite a subversive statement in the context of the time, because Roman emperors thought of themselves and wanted to be recognized as ‘sons of God’. The Emperors, in other words, demanded absolute allegiance, the kind of allegiance that was due to a diving figure. For Jesus, of course, there was only one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God whom he addressed as Abba, Father. Besides this God there is no other God; Jesus claimed to be the unique spokesperson for this one God and he declares that it is to this one, true God, that we belong, and because we belong to God we are to give him ourselves, all our heart, soul and mind, in love. We give ourselves fully in love to God because God has given himself fully in love to us through his Son. Jesus was saying, Caesar can have the coins that belong to him and bear his image, but that’s it.

 Jesus is declaring in today’s gospel reading that all of human life belongs to God. It is not the case that there is a bit of our lives that belongs to Caesar or to whatever political authority is in power and then another bit that belongs to God. There is nothing in human life that is outside our relationship to God. In that sense there is no sphere in life that is purely secular; there is no area of life in which we are dispensed from living out to the best of our ability our relationship with God in Christ and through the Spirit. In fact, the secular is the normal setting in which we give expression to our spirituality. In everything that we say and do we strive to give glory and honour to God, to please God, to do God’s will as Jesus has revealed it. In today’s second reading Paul praises the church in Thessalonica, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia, for the ways they have shown their faith in action, worked for love and persevered through hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul gives us there a very fine summary of what it means for us to give to God what belongs to God.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[babylon-crashing]

SANTA MUERTE'S PURPLE CANDLE: HEALING

In addition to healing the broken bodies of her devotees, the Powerful Lady helps her flock overcome their abuse of alcohol and other drugs. That the cult of Saint Death offers a special votive candle—the yellow one—and specific prayers for devotees trying to kick the habit gives testament to the importance of her role as a supernatural rehab counselor. Precise figures on the incidence of drug and alcohol abuse among Mexicans and Americans don’t exist, but most estimates indicate that between 5 and 10 percent of the United States population are alcoholics. Based on both academic studies and my own personal experience in Mexico and the United States, I can attest to a pattern of binge drinking among a sizeable minority of men. In contrast to the classic European pattern of consuming small quantities frequently, such as a glass or two of wine with dinner, millions of Mexican and American men imbibe vast quantities of hard liquor and beer in drinking bouts that tend to take place on weekends. I myself have joined male friends and relatives in such outings and have been made fun of for calling it quits aft er a few rounds of tequila or beer. Being in a drunken stupor has never much appealed to me. In accord with my own experience, one study posits that 75 percent of alcohol available in Mexico was consumed by just 25 percent of drinkers, while in a very similar pattern another claims that in the United States 20 percent of drinkers consume 80 percent of the alcohol.  

Beyond alcohol, addiction to the very same psychotropics that the Mexican cartels export in great quantities is on the rise. While the U.S. illicit drug market remains the largest in the world by far, the Mexican domestic one has grown considerably since the 1980s. Hundreds of new rehab centers have opened in the past couple decades that specialize in the abuse of methamphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, and heroin, among others. No longer is the abuse of stimulants and narcotics only an “American problem.” A young inmate in one of the Mexico City penitentiaries for women who claimed to have painted over a thousand images of the Bony Lady for fellow prisoners hadn’t yet asked her spiritual patroness for help with recovery but explained that she held her hand when she got high in the Bony Lady's cell to protect herself from an overdose.  Here again we see the appeal of Saint Death’s nonjudgmental attitude. Devotees who aren’t ready or willing to give up their habit can ask the Godmother to watch over them as they drug themselves. Substance abusers who are ready to beat their addiction can recite the “prayer for breaking a habit,” as can their loved ones:

Most Holy Death of the light of the moon. You who control the earthly dimension. You who spread joy and remind us that happiness is the goal of life before your arrival. Most Holy Death, do away with liquor, drugs, and other vices and bring tranquility to my home. Help [the name of the person] so that the blindfold comes off  his eyes and transformation takes place. Show him clearly the reasons why vice must not take hold of our hearts so that it doesn’t extinguish his inner light, and may your moon-colored wings alight on his spirit so that he feels your powerful presence. Most Holy Death, do away with liquor, drugs, and other vices and bring tranquility to my home. I sow seven seeds in the ground and may it be your name that cultivates the decision that leads to new circumstances, which through respect will open the doors of light. Most Holy Death, do away with liquor, drugs, and other vices and bring tranquility to my home. Protective and Blessed Death, by the virtue that God granted you, I want you to free me from all curses, dangers, and sickness, and instead give me luck, happiness, and money. I want you to give me friends and free me from my enemies. Also make [name of person] come to me in a humble way, like a lamb that lives up to its promises, to ask me for forgiveness. May he always be loving and submissive for the rest of our lives. Amen. (Pray three Lord’s Prayers.).  

The prayer is obviously intended for family members and friends seeking the recovery of a loved one. And though written in gender-neutral language, it seems aimed at wives and girlfriends who suffer the consequences of having a substance-abusing mate. The request for Santa Muerte to bring the addict back humbled and submissive recalls the classic love-binding prayer stamped on the red candles, which, of course, is primarily for jilted women. Moreover, Mexican men become substance abusers at higher rates than women, so more oft en than not it is the wives, girlfriends, and mothers who approach the Lady of the Shadows asking that she return their men to the place of light, free from enslaving addictions.  

A former prayer leader at Doña Queta’s monthly rosary service, Jesse Ortiz Piña, sounds like a Pentecostal convert in describing how the White Girl helped him kick his habits of frequent partying and beer drinking. Santa Muerte, he says, made him “more responsible at work and home.” Indeed, in my previous research on Pentecostalism in Brazil I discovered that a search for sobriety is the primary reason why men convert to this charismatic branch of Protestantism. Forty percent of my male interviewees in the Amazonian city of Belém became Pentecostals as a result of a desire to sober up. In a similar vein, a substantial percentage of female converts came to the Pentecostal Jesus hoping that he could cure their husbands and sons of their drinking problems.

What is salient here is that for some adherents the skeleton saint operates as an evangelical faith healer who offers a radical personal transformation along with the promise of overcoming substance abuse. Addictions to alcohol and the stimulants methamphetamine and cocaine are notoriously difficult to overcome, so it shouldn’t be surprising that many abusers find the promise of complete transformation an appealing and often necessary stage on their road to recovery.

Nonetheless, it’s intriguing to think that the same saint whose altars are awash in tequila and beer and is not exactly a paragon of sobriety is able to off er the same type of radical healing of substance abuse that is offered by the Pentecostal Jesus and Holy Spirit. Since Pentecostals conceive of Jesus as a teetotaler, it’s easier to understand how this moral miracle worker would serve as a better model of sobriety than would a parched skeleton saint. But herein lies one of the great advantages of Santa Muerte in the increasingly competitive religious marketplace of Mexico and even in the greatest faith economy on earth here in the United States. Much more than Jesus, the canonized saints, and the myriad avocations of Mary, Santa Muerte’s present identity is highly flexible. For some devotees, such as Jesse Piña, the Pretty Girl is also a moral miracle worker who, like Jesus and the saints, offers and encourages positive personal transformation as part of her healing repertoire.

For others she serves more as an amoral sorceress offering healing without demanding behavior modification and sometimes even in conjunction with causing harm to others. Recall the aforementioned Argentine adherent of San La Muerte asking the skeleton saint to both facilitate a successful operation for her loved one and to, “use your scythe to get those responsible out of our way, so they disappear from our lives and from the world—all of them, but especially MBL.” As her cult develops in the future it’s quite possible that a more fixed identity will be established. However, at this particular historical moment, the Godmother possesses both distinctly Christian and non-Christian identities depending on how individual devotees perceive her.    

(R. Andrew Chestnut, Devoted to Death, pages 181-185)

[upennmanuscripts]

An unpublished, autograph booklet by Jean Lemaire de Belges, presented to the Queen of France on New Year’s day 1512

Fifty-two discoveries from the BiblioPhilly project, No. 1/52

   Lemaire de Belges, Jean, 1473-1524 – Pronosticque historial de la félicité future de l’an mil cincq cens et douze, Philadelphia, The Rosenbach Museum and Library, MS 232/11, fols. 1v-2r

Our series begins auspiciously with a long-lost royal prognostication on the good fortune of the year to come, the Pronosticque historial de la félicité future de l’an mil cincq cens et douze, or, translated roughly into English, the Exemplified foretelling of the future joy of the year fifteen-hundred-and-twelve. This sixteen-folio manuscript, written and signed by the important Walloon poet and historiographer Jean Lemaire de Belges (c. 1473–c. 1525), is an autograph copy produced for the Queen of France, Anne of Brittany (1477–1514). The text is otherwise unknown, and its rediscovery in the collections of The Rosenbach Museum and Library makes for an important addition to the author’s corpus while providing new information about the literary leanings of its famed recipient. Anne, to whom the work is dedicated, was an extraordinary political leader and a great patroness of the arts. She has the distinction of being the only French sovereign to have been twice crowned, first as the wife of King Charles VIII and then, after his sudden death in 1498, as the consort of Charles’ successor and second cousin once removed, Louis XII.

Grandes Heures d’Anne de Bretagne (Great Hours of Anne of Brittany), Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms lat. 9474, portrait of Anne in prayer, fol. 3r

Philadelphia in fact preserves numerous manuscript artifacts related to Anne and her husbands: the Free Library of Philadelphia houses the beautiful February, June, August, and September calendar pages from a grand Book of Hours made by the court painter Jean Bourdichon for Louis XII in 1498, while a single leaf fragment with a miniature of the Lamentation by Jean Poyer includes, on its reverse side, an inscription identified by Roger Wieck as possibly being in Anne’s own hand.[1] The FLP also houses a manuscript with an unusual binding decorated with the ermine tail, one of Anne’s emblems, and a (previously unnoticed) fragment from the once-impressive choirbooks commissioned by Anne and Louis,[2] bearing their initials and emblems. Anne’s library has been the subject of some excellent recent scholarship,[3] and this new find helps to enrich our knowledge even further.

As mentioned above, the present manuscript is the sole surviving exemplar of an unpublished text apparently unknown to specialists. Its most detailed prior mention occurs in the Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts of 1876, when it was in the collection of Evelyn Philip Shirley (1812-1882) of Ettington Hall, Warwickshire (where, incidentally, scenes from the 1963 film The Haunting were filmed). It was presumably Shirley who brought the manuscript to the British Museum to have it inspected by Keeper of Manuscripts John Holmes (1800-1854), whose handwritten notes are found in the front flyleaves of the manuscript. Previously, it had been in the collection of Walter Henry Bracebridge (d. 1832). It is not immediately clear how the manuscript ended up with A.S.W. Rosenbach in Philadelphia. Despite being present in prominent collections, the book has escaped mention in the voluminous literature dedicated to Lemaire de Belges, being noted briefly only in Paul Oskar Kristeller’s Iter Italicum. As such, I am currently at work on a critical edition of the short text, to be published in the not-too-distant future.

But what does this unusual text actually say? As a prominent court poet, Lemaire de Belges was renowned for creating “poésies de circonstance” or short works intended to address a particular situation. In this case, he addressed the auspicious numerological circumstances of the year 1512. The first page opening includes the queen’s Castilian motto “NON MUDERA” inherited from her Spanish mother (and also seen below, on the right, in the most splendid book she owned, the Grandes Heures d’Anne de Bretagne), as well as the year in Roman numerals. These insriptions are contained in two red banderoles, which frame a star-like emblem with a cypher containing the letters of ANNA BONA (good Anne/good year).

   MS 232/11, fol. 1v and Grandes Heures d’Anne de Bretagne (Great Hours of Anne of Brittany), Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms lat. 9474, emblem of Anne of Brittany on final flyleaf, fol. 238r

The book’s prologue consists of a pompous justification as to why a historian like Lemaire de Belges ought to engage in prognostication, traditionally the realm of soothsayers and astrologists. The first main section of the text (fols. 5v-8r) consists of examples from ancient and modern history demonstrating the universality and preeminence of the number twelve (“universalité et preeminence du nombre de douze”). The second section (fols. 8v-10v) draws parallel examples of duodecimal supremacy from the sacred scriptures. A conclusion (fols. 11r-15v) draws together both strands while explaining the palindrome-like pun, visualized in the opening emblem, of ANNA BONA (“good Anne”) being a pseudo-anagram of BON AN (“good year,” in French). A helpful colophon (fol. 15v, see image below) tells us that the short text was written in Paris at the beginning of January, 1512. It is subscribed by a large rendition of Lemaire de Belges’ personal motto, “De peu assez,” (In little, enough), in sputtering red ink. Finally, the text is accompanied by a rhyming “double virelay” (fols. 16r-16v), also unpublished, consisting of two twelve-line stanzas, signed by the author at its conclusion (fol. 16v):

   MS 232/11, collophon (fol. 15v) and signature of Lemaire (fol. 16v)

Lemaire de Belges and his contemporaries were fond of word play, complex rhymes, and clever layouts. In fact, another manuscript in Philadelphia, quite damaged and certainly not an autograph copy by its author, contains a similarly virtuoso device in praise of Queen Anne. The University of Pennsylvania’s partial copy of Le vray-disant, advocate des dames (UPenn Ms. Codex 956), written in the same years by Lemaire de Belges’ contemporary Jean Marot, includes a “Ballade de la Paragonne des Dames” in which the letters at the start of each line spell the Queen’s name and title: ANNE DE BRETAIGNE, ROYNE DE FRANCE. This kind of acrostic device was especially popular with the French rhétoriqueurs of the early sixteenth century. Can you spot this example of word-play in the images below?

   Marot, Jean, 1463-1523 – [La vray-disant, advocate des dames], Philadelphia, UPenn Ms. Codex 956, fols. 9r-9v

[1] See Roger S. Wieck, “The Artist Jean Poyet and His Oeuvre,” in The Hours of Henry VIII: A Renaissance Masterpiece by Jean Poyet, ed. Roger S. Wieck, William M. Voelkle, and K. Michelle Hearne (New York: George Braziller, 2000), 27–29.

[2] For an otherwise comprehensive list of known fragments, see Christopher De Hamel, Gilding the Lilly: A Hundred Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts in the Lilly Library (Bloomington: Lilly Library, 2010), no.83, 183.

[3] Cynthia J. Brown, ed., The Cultural and Political Legacy of Anne de Bretagne: Negotiating Convention in Books and Documents (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010); Cynthia J. Brown, The Queen’s Library: Image-Making at the Court of Anne of Brittany, 1477-1514 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010).

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[qqueenofhades]

50 Awesome Women To Know: Part 8

As we complete the latest set of 50, we ask: Are they somehow getting more awesome? Possibly. But then, they all are.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799): Italian, philosopher, philanthropist for the poor, mathematician, mystic, theologian. Spoke seven languages, wrote the first textbook on differential and integral calculus, and was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Bologna. 

María Parado de Bellido (1777-1822): Indigenous Peruvian, spy and revolutionary during Peru’s fight for independence from Spain, heroine of the movement and of folk legend alike.

Marta Brilej (1917-2016): Slovenian, member of the partisan resistance against the Nazis during WWII with her husband as they made many attempts to catch her, courier and war hero, ambassador and diplomat (again with her husband) in London, Mexico City, Egypt, Yemen, and other places; died at age 99.

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955): African-American, the daughter of slaves, an educator, humanitarian, and civil rights activist, appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; founded Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black college, along with other efforts to improve education and the lives of recently freed slaves.

Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958): American, historian of women’s rights and the labor movement, social justice advocate and activist, author of several seminal historical works (along with her husband) and dedicated suffragist.

Maryana Marrash (1848-1919): Syrian, author and poet, figure of the Arabian Renaissance, journalist and first woman to write in Arabic-language newspapers, patron of literary salons and intellectuals.

Mihrimah Sultan (1522-1578): Ottoman Turkish, daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful Ottoman princess in history and recognized as a huge political and economic mastermind in the empire, key figure in the “Sultanate of Women,” sponsor of major architectural projects and a patroness of the arts and sciences.

Mina Spiegel Rees (1902-1997): American, mathematician, pioneer of computer science, head of the math department at the U.S. Naval Research Office, first female president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, instrumental to the entire post-war direction of math and computer science in America.

Moremi Ajasoro (12th century): Yoruba, princess and tribal heroine, who was said to have married a rival prince and then returned to her people with information on how to defeat him, described as brave and beautiful.

N.K. Jemisin (1972 -- ): African-American, novelist, psychologist, and activist, three-time winner of the Hugo Award (the only author to have done so in three straight years) for her insightful, original, and compelling sci-fi and fantasy.

Nodira (1792-1842): Uzbek, poet, stateswoman, outspoken cultural critic, advocate for women’s rights in Central Asia under conservative 19th-century Islamic regimes, public figure, political advisor to her son who ruled as khan of Kokand, hanged after she refused to marry a rival.

Pearl Connor-Mogotsi (1924-2005): Trinidadian, actress, activist, promoter of Afro-Caribbean artistic cultures, institutions, and traditions; worked to represent black artists and authors as a literary agent in the UK in the 1950s; studied law at King’s College London.

Pearl Witherington (1914-2008): British/French, special operations agent during World War II, member of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, described as “the best shot the [entire Special Operations Executive] had ever seen,” leader of a ring of spies and so effective that the Nazis put a bounty of one million Reichsmarks on her head; presided over the surrender of 18,000 German troops, LITERALLY JUST. GO READ ABOUT HER.

Peretta Peronne (15th century): French, Parisian surgeon who was prosecuted by the medical faculty of the University of Paris in 1411 for being unlicensed (read: female, as part of a wider effort to restrict and professionalize medicine as an elite male university career). 

Raufa Hassan al-Sharki (1958-2011): Yemeni, feminist, activist, first female journalist in Yemen, fierce advocate for women’s education and opponent of conservative Islamist groups; historian of culture, clothing, and society.

Regina Salomée Halpir (1718-c.1763): Lithuanian, doctor, travel writer, adventurer, who was self-taught as a physician while living in Constantinople with her husband, befriended Empress Anna and Empress Elizabeth of Russia; doctor to the women of the sultan’s harem, eventually wrote her own (if somewhat tall-tale-prone) autobiography.

Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí (1752-1803): Tejana; rancher and “cattle queen” of Mexican Texas, was left 55,000 acres by her husband in 1790 and owned more than one million acres by the time she died thirteen years later.

Rufaida Al-Aslamia (7th century): Arabian; recognized as the first professional nurse in the history of medicine and the first Islamic female surgeon (c. 620), trained and taught other women medical skills and also was a social worker for the poor, children, and the needy; knew the Prophet Muhammad personally.

Ruža Petrović (1911-1958): Croatian, anti-fascist activist who refused to give up her companions under torture; after having her eyes put out with a dagger in a hideously violent crime, she kept on fighting fascists, and provided strength and moral support to her comrades, was elected to the Antifascist Front and founded an organization for the blind.

Sara Forbes Bonetta (1843-1880): Egbado (West African) princess, kidnapped and sold into slavery, ended up arriving in England and became the goddaughter of Queen Victoria; married a wealthy Yoruba businessman and moved back to Africa; her descendants are still notable in Nigeria.

Sayyida al-Hurra (1485-1561): Moroccan, stone-cold badass governmental administrator and pirate queen, counterpart of the corsair captain Barbarossa of Algiers (who controlled the eastern Mediterranean while she controlled the west); married a king later on but made him come to her to do it; described as “living a life of adventure and romance” (WHERE IS HER MOVIE DAMMIT).

Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891): Russian, mathematician, first woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, described as “the greatest known woman scientist before the twentieth century,” first woman to edit a scientific journal, professor at Stockholm University in Sweden, feminist and author.

Therese of Bavaria (1850-1925): Bavarian, princess, daughter of Prince Liutpold of Bavaria; ethnologist, zoologist, travel writer, explorer of the Amazon, contributor and student of the (now-absolutely-tragically-destroyed) National Museum of Brazil, member of scientific and geographical learned societies.

Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar (1683-1733): Swedish, dressed up as a man and served in the army for many years and reached the rank of corporal, married a woman named Maria and won the eventual court case trying them for homosexuality; they served brief sentences and lived happily ever after.

Zofia Potocka (1760-1822): Greek, known for her great beauty and adventurous life, born into a poor Greek family, but became the lover of high-profile nobles/royals, served as a Russian spy; friends with Marie Antoinette; later became a Polish noble, gave generously to the poor in her later years.

[quality-street-rat]

Tyson (Part One)

Tyson Ramirez was not ready for this.

“Kor venya wret!” his mother called from the sidelines. Tyson gave her a fleeting smile. Sure, she believed in him, but Tyson was smaller than all the other racers. Oh yeah, and human. That too. Tyson took a deep breath and leaned forward. The starting gun went off, and the racers ran.

There was only one rule in this kind of race, and it was simple: do not touch the other racers. Other than that, you could use anything to your advantage. Tyson nearly slipped on the slippery mucus left behind by the naga racer, but the spikes he’d built into his shoes activated as he dodged the racers who had slipped. A centaur smirked at him as she galloped past, jumping over the naga before stumbling and slamming head first into a tree. Tyson winced as he ran past. She was out.

Tyson glanced back to see the Hreinn jogging casually at the back of the race, chatting as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Tyson rolled his eyes as he overtook the scampering Natair-tarsusa, the ankle-biters. The Hreinn always won the races. Not only was this their territory, but because they had an advantage. They had more than one form. Tyson gritted his teeth and activated the rebound feature on his shoes. The spikes retracted, replaced by thick layers of bouncy rubber. Tyson’s strides extended. The trees blurred together as Tyson almost flew past, getting closer and closer to the naga. The finish line was up ahead, and the white and gray landscape couldn’t hide the thick red ribbon fluttering in the wind. Hooves sounded behind Tyson and he pushed himself faster, but it was no use. The Hreinn had shifted and soared past him in their reindeer forms, and swiftly overtook the naga. The one in front savagely bit the red ribbon in two and skidded to a stop with half the ribbon clenched in his teeth.

“Ko serato kor natal hrujaur,” Rosa told her son. Tyson smiled at her and accepted her comfort, but to be honest, he wasn’t disappointed, he was angry. The Hreinn won every race. The clank-beasts came to a stop and Rosa leaped out of the cart nimbly, offering a hand to Tyson.

Disna, maetr,” Tyson said gently, climbing out himself. Rosa shook her head and padded to front door of the forge, throwing it open.

“Rosa!” Tyson’s father put down his hammer with a grin, accepting a kiss from his wife before greeting Tyson.

“Tyson, latani Hrujaur?”

“Disna, patro. Hreinn hrujar yqar grua. Freqa.”

“Ko serato.”

“Ko gresa,” Tyson said, forcing a smile. It wasn’t true. Tyson took off his racing shoes in his workshop. He wasn’t exactly happy that he had to use technology to give himself an advantage.

Tyson had been an abandoned newborn in Brazil when Rosa found him. She was an Iara, a water nymph. She had raised him in the big city, where the technology from Europe was just beginning to surface. There she’d met Paolo, a man who worked to build the parts for  machines from raw metal. They’d been married, but had to flee to Russia when Paolo’s family found out he’d married a supernatural. Tyson had grown up speaking Sylphi, the supernatural common tongue, and hadn’t learned much Portuguese. His Russian was non-existent. Paolo had learned Sylphi from his wife, and she’d learned Portuguese from him. The family mostly spoke Sylphi, though. Which fit, because in Russia, the majority of the citizens were supernaturals, and everyone knew Sylphi. Those who were born Russian spoke Sylphi well enough, but preferred Russian. Those like the Hreinn.

There they found good work. Paolo owned a forge, where he, Rosa, Tyson, and the baby Ari lived. Tyson had learned to work in the forge as early as seven, and now he was sixteen. He was smart, a good builder, and had invented some very useful things that had made the family’s life much easier. As good as he was in the forge, Tyson loved one thing most: running. He was good at it and enjoyed it more than anything else. But still, he was human. Even his baby sister Ari was half-human and therefore had supernatural grace and balance, but Tyson was full-blooded human.

The races had fascinated him since they’d arrived in Russia. They’d started as a way for the Hreinn to flaunt their strength for mates, before the supernaturals had made themselves known to humans, but now they were a wild taiga run that all species could participate in. Even humans.

Tyson cleaned his racing shoes in relative silence, the sound of hushed Portuguese and gently clanking hammers from the forge breaking it. The metal frames creaked slightly as Tyson dismantled the inner machinations and gears to wipe off the grease and soot.

[tehlearns]

Maria Quitéria: Brazil's Independency hero

Hi! Call me Lon, I am brazilian and this is the third time I am writing this so I hope this ends up good! We celebrated my state Bahia independency on July 2 so I thought about talking one of our independency heroes! Maria Quitéria is one of the biggest heroes on our independency and she is a role model for woman until today! She commended a woman army and bravely defended Bahia from portuguese troops! So no more delays, let’s get to know her history!

Maria Quitéria de Jesus was born on July 27, 1972 in Feira de Santana, Bahia. When she was 10, she lost her mother and became responsible for taking care of her sisters. Her step-mother didn’t like her independent attitude so they never had a good relationship.

Maria didn’t go to school. Instead, she learned how to mount, how to handle guns and to hunt. When the “Conselho Interino do Governo da Bahia” (something like Bahia’s government temporary counsel) went to her father’s farm searching for sponsorship or volunteers, she wanted to enlist but her father prohibited. So, with the help of her sister Tereza Maria and her brother-in-law José Cordeiro de Medeiros, Maria cut her hair and went to enlist on “Voluntários do Principe Dom Pedro” (Prince Dom Pedro’s volunteers) dressed with a masculine uniform and with the name of Soldier Medeiros.

Two weeks later, her father found her battalion and told the major José Antônio da Silva Castro that Maria was a woman! But the major refused to let her go because she was already recognized for her discipline and her facility with guns. Maria then changed her masculine uniform for a skirt and started using her real name in battle.

Her bravery inspired many women to enlist and participate on battalions! They formed a group commanded by Maria who bravely defended Ilha da Maré, Barra do Paraguaçu, Itapuã and Pituba. She and her group also had a huge feature fighting against the portuguese troops on the Paraguaçu river. With her help, Bahia was finally free on July 2, 1823!

After the independency, she was promoted to cadet, received the title of “Cavaleiro da Ordem Imperial do Cruzeiro” (Grand Imperial Cross of Cruzeiro) by Dom Pedro I and was recognized as a hero of Brazil’s independency! Maria came back to Bahia with a letter from the Imperator asking her father to forgive her from running away.

She got married with a farmer called Gabriel Pereira and had a daughter, Luisa Maria da Conceição. She died on August 21, 1853, almost blind and completely forgotten. She is buried on the church Matriz do Santissimo Sacrado in Salvador.

Maria Quitéria became the patroness of the Quadro Oficial de Oficiais of brazilian army. In 1953, the brazilian government ordered that her portrait would be in all departments and units of our army.

Thank you for reading and forgive/correct any mistakes, please! See ya!

[dreamingmiyuu]

[FateGOFanProject]  Brazilian patroness Nossa Senhora da Conceição Aparecida or N.S Aparecida. FateGO has many servant from another countries but they dont have one from Brazil. Probably this servant will be a Ruler (because she is know as queen) or Savior (because of her miracles and power). -dont steal-

[anastpaul]

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception – Solemnity – 8 December

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the solemn belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.   It is a Solemnity and is universally celebrated on 8 December, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on 8 September.   It is one of the most important Marian feasts in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, celebrated worldwide.

By Pontifical designation and decree, it is the patronal feast day of Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, Spain, the United States and Uruguay.   By royal decree, it is also designated by as the Patroness of Portugal.   It is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as well as a few other closely related Protestant Christian churches.

On this day since 1854, the Holy See through the Sacred Congregation of Rites grants the Spanish crown the expressed privilege of permitting blue vestments for their present and former territories.   Since 1953, the Pope as Bishop of Rome visits the Column of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna to offer expiatory prayers commemorating the solemn event.

The feast was first solemnized as a Holy Day of Obligation on 6 December 1708 under the Papal Bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus by Pope Clement XI and is often celebrated with Holy Mass, parades, fireworks, processions, ethnic foods and cultural festivities in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is generally considered a Family day, especially in many Catholic countries.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the subject of a lot of misconceptions (so to speak).   Perhaps the most common one, held even by many Catholics, is that it celebrates the conception of Christ in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.   That the feast occurs only 17 days before Christmas should make the error obvious!   We celebrate another feast—the Annunciation of the Lord—on March 25, exactly nine months before Christmas.   It was at the Annunciation, when the Blessed Virgin Mary humbly accepted the honour bestowed on her by God and announced by the angel Gabriel, that the conception of Christ took place.

HISTORY OF THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in its oldest form, goes back to the seventh century, when churches in the East began celebrating the Feast of the Conception of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary.   In other words, this feast celebrates the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of Saint Anne;  and nine months later, on 8 September we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The feast arrived in the West probably no earlier than the 11th century and at that time, it began to be tied up with a developing theological controversy.   Both the Eastern and the Western Church had maintained that Mary was free from sin throughout her life but there were different understandings of what this meant.

What Is the Immaculate Conception? DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Because of the doctrine of Original Sin, some in the West began to believe that Mary could not have been sinless unless she had been saved from Original Sin at the moment of her conception (thus making the conception “immaculate”).   Others, however, including St Thomas Aquinas, argued that Mary could not have been redeemed if she had not been subject to sin—at least, to Original Sin.

The answer to St Thomas Aquinas’s objection, as Blessed John Duns Scotus (d. 1308) showed, was that God had sanctified Mary at the moment of her conception in His foreknowledge that the Blessed Virgin would consent to bear Christ.   In other words, she too had been redeemed—her redemption had simply been accomplished at the moment of her conception, rather than (as with all other Christians) in Baptism.

Who Was Born Without Original Sin? SPREAD OF THE FEAST IN THE WEST After Duns Scotus’s defense of the Immaculate Conception, the feast spread throughout the West, though it was still often celebrated at the Feast of the Conception of Saint Anne. On 28 February 1476, Pope Sixtus IV extended the feast to the entire Western Church, and in 1483 threatened with excommunication those who opposed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.   By the middle of the 17th century, all opposition to the doctrine had died out in the Catholic Church.

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

[fr-martin-gospel-reflections]

18th October - ‘I have sent them into the world’, Reflection on today’s gospel reading (John 17:11, 17-23)

Mission Sunday

We sometimes use the phrase ‘on a mission’ to describe someone who is very intent on doing something or going somewhere. To be ‘on a mission’ is to be focused on a very definite goal and to invest time and energy in attaining that goal. To be asked, ‘have you a mission in life’, is to be asked whether you have a goal in life, a purpose that gives meaning to your life and that shapes your life in some very fundamental way.

Today is Mission Sunday. It is a day when we are reminded that the whole church is ‘on a mission’. Mission Sunday reminds us that the mission of the church is a continuation of the mission of Christ. The Lord wants to continue his mission today in and through the church. Jesus entrusts his mission to the church. The church cannot continue the Lord’s mission without the Lord’s help. If the church is to remain missionary, it needs to acknowledge its own poverty, and to keep on invoking the Lord’s help, without which the church can do nothing. That help from the Lord is assured, because the church’s mission is the Lord’s own mission. As Paul reminds us in today’s second reading, our mission comes ‘as power and as the Holy Spirit’.

All of us who make up the church are called to be missionary. The Lord wants to continue his mission through all of us. We may not think of ourselves as missionaries. We may consider that mission is the work of a small number of people who have been specially called and trained. Yet, the late Pope John Paul once wrote, ‘Mission cannot be left to a group of “specialists” but is the responsibility of all the members of the people of God. Those who have come into genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves; they must proclaim him’. As members of a missionary church we are all called to be missionary. The mission field is all around us. It is the place where we live and work; it is the people that we meet in the course of our day. We draw from the Lord the spiritual energy that we need to be his missionaries wherever we find ourselves. We invite the Spirit, whose coming upon the bread and wine transforms them into the body and blood of Christ, to come also upon us so that we may be continually transformed into the Lord’s missionaries. The Lord’s mission was to give himself, his very life, in the service of others. We share in the Lord’s mission by seeking to serve others as generously as he did. As Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, ‘As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world’. Whenever we allow the Lord to serve others through us, he is enabled to continue his mission in the world. The missionary is the one who loves with the heart of Christ, and to this we are all called, both as parish communities and as individuals. To love and to serve with the heart of Christ is to allow the light of the gospel to shine through us. The late Archbishop Helder Camera of Recipe in Brazil described mission as ‘refusing to be locked into the problems of the little world in which we exist’. He wrote, ‘Mission is always looking outwards, reaching out beyond ourselves, our home, our community, our parish, our diocese, our nation. Mission is opening ourselves to others as brothers and sisters, discovering and encountering them, sharing their joys and sorrows’.

Today, as well as reflecting on our own call to be missionary, we are also asked to remember and assist missionaries on the front line, many of whom often work in difficult and dangerous circumstances. Every one of those missionaries would say that they could not reach out in mission to others without the support of the people in the home church. The support we can give is threefold. The first support is prayer. The second support is the offering of suffering on behalf of our missionaries. Saint Therese of Lisieux offered each painful step of her illness to assist a missionary. That is why she was proclaimed patroness of the missions, even though she had never gone beyond her convent. The third support is a financial offering. The collection taken up today enables native priests, sisters, brothers and lay leaders in the young churches to be formed in their vocation; it is also used for building simple churches and health clinics, for assisting missionaries serving refugees and for providing emergency aid in times of civil war or natural disasters. The collection goes to various Pontifical Missionary Societies who ensure that every cent goes to a mission territory. The most significant of the Pontifical Missionary Societies is the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. This particular Missionary Society was founded in 1822 by a French woman, Pauline Jaricot. She saw the Society as a vehicle for helping not just French missions and missionaries but all missions and missionaries, especially the poorest. One hundred years later, in 1922, it became the primary organization of the Church for support the activity of missionaries. The bulk of today’s national collection will go to that Society.

[nexttattoos-blog]

New Post has been published on https://nexttattoos.com/60-tattoos-of-our-lady-aparecida-for-those-who-have-faith-and-hope.html

60 Tattoos of Our Lady Aparecida for those who have faith and hope

The defender of the poor, the savior of the oppressed, the author of miracles, a loving mother and symbol of the protection of the Brazilian people, had been proclaimed the Principal Patroness and Queen of Brazil in 1930. According to scholars, Our Lady of Aparecida was found by fishermen on the Paraíba River in 1917. These claim that the saint performed her first miracle there, since, in a short time, they caught numerous fish that saved their survival. From this, she became the center of the prayers of all local people and her fame spread as more miracles were granted by her. To receive the countless faithful from other cities, the Old Basilica was built – considered today the largest Marian shrine in the world capable of hosting 45,000 faithful. The image of Our Lady Aparecida caused a tremendous commotion and impact on the Brazilian religion and culture. As a consequence, the city became known as Aparecida and became the center of religiosity in the country. In addition, the date of October 12 was declared a national holiday dedicated to the devotion and adoration of the patroness of Brazil.

about Our Lady Aparecida

Revered by Catholics, the image of Our Lady of Aparecida contains various meanings through the elements contained therein. Its black color – unique and different from all others – portrays the very identity of the people and culture of Brazil. It is the mestizos, mulattos, indigenous who rely on originality to create, organize, fight, survive, evolve. The serpent beneath his feet represent the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ . The angels and clouds under the same area symbolize the protection of the Virgin Mary and her son. The united hands manifest the power of prayer capable of purifying all evils. And finally, the mantle and the crown had been granted by Princess Isabel, in 1888, during a visit to the sanctuary. The mantle full of adornments in blue and the crown of gold, diamonds and rubies expresses the act of coronation. Our Lady of Aparecida is now the queen of heaven and earth. At religious tattoos are a way of manifesting the power of faith and hope. There are those who prefer to express their belief in religion or the gratification of a healing promise.

Tattoos of Our Lady of Aparecida

Check out in our gallery 6 incredible suggestions of tattoos of Our Lady Aparecida and inspire yourself: Picture 1 – Colorful, vibrant and energetic with colorful tones Picture 2 – Geometric in shades of gray in the arm Picture 3 – With more delicate traits and pointillism Picture 4 – Do you prefer realistic tattoos? Bet on that model! Picture 5 – The force! Picture 6 – Our Lady, the rosary and the family all reunited Picture 7 – Well feminine with the tones watercolors Image 8 – The mantle in blue color symbolizes the sky Picture 9 – Cute version with the name of the saint underneath Picture 10 – Impossible not to admire this tattoo Image 11 – Dots bring lightness and softness to your tattoo Picture 12 – Well petit and monochrome on the wrist Picture 13 – The Maori style is one of the favorite of the masculine public Image 14 – Our Lady Aparecida with her rosary Picture 15 – Tattoo of Our Lady Aparecida colored in the arm Image 16 – Floral mantle and crown studded with precious stones Image 17 – Enjoy the non-continuous lines and add other elements meant for you! Picture 18 – Our Lady Aparecida, protect us all Image 19 – Precious details make all difference Picture 20 – Customize Your Tattoo! Picture 21 – Do you prefer more graceful and feminine designs? Choose this one! Image 22 – Well feminine with hearts and roses Picture 23 – Tattoo of Our Lady Appearing on the arm Picture 24 – Enjoy the mantle area and explore other textures Picture 25 – Oh! How about a cute version? Picture 26 – Include the third in the middle of the tattoo and give more strength to your Our Lady Aparecida Image 27 – The third with the word Amen Image 28 – Give more prominence to one or two elements Image 29 – The blue and gold cloak of the crown and third Picture 30 – Another cute version of Our Lady Aparecida Picture 31 – Gather several styles in your tattoo Picture 32 – Pray for us Image 33 – Santa Involved by a Meaningful Phrase Image 34 – Realistic tattoo full of beautifully executed details Image 35 – Contour tattoo of Our Lady of Aparecida Picture 36 – Powerful, strong and intense on the back Picture 37 – For those who have faith, life never ends Picture 38 – Bring more life with the colored rose Picture 39 – Petit and graceful on the wrist Picture 40 – Involved by the third Image 41 – Realistic arm tattoo Picture 42 – Another Maori Tattoo Picture 43 – Always together: Our Lady Aparecida and the third Image 44 – Add other symbols relevant to you! Picture 45 – The power of faith! Image 46 – The saint and the rosary run all over the arm Picture 47 – Our Lady Aparecida is light! Image 48 – In shades of gray highlighting the beautiful crown Image 49 – Deliver me from all evil, amen Picture 50 – Colorful, realistic and pulsating Image 51 – Tattoo of Our Lady Aparecida in shades of gray on the back Picture 52 – Patron of Brazil Picture 53 – Blessed Picture 54 – Beautiful reproduction of Our Lady Aparecida in the leg Picture 55 – The tattoo of Our Lady of Aparecida adapts perfectly in any area of ​​the body Picture 56 – Contour tattoo on the arm Image 57 – How about adding a third? Image 58 – Never lose your faith! Picture 59 – Surrounded by love! Image 60 – Monochrome

[alexis-peskine]

Excited to have shot the New cover of @afropolitainmagazine I was inspired by Iemanjá, a Yoruba deity that survived the middle passage and was religiously perpetuated in Brazil 🇧🇷 through Candomblé, in Haiti 🇭🇹 with Voodoo and in Cuba 🇨🇺 through Santeria. All these religions are a testimony to African spiritual resistance in the New World. Iemanjá is the Mother of Water, the Mother of All Orishas, Patroness and Protector of Children and Fishermen. She is the reason I am alive, when my mother was still practicing Candomblé and pleaded for fertility while throwing a rose in the sea. I just have to correct the term nymph which comes from Greek and Roman mythology and is therefore Eurocentric. Let's use our African and Afro-diaspora references. Especially when we are defining our culture. Iemanjá is a GOD, a Deity. Strong graphic design by my Homie @kezimak also founder of the magazine Shot by @alexispeskine Styled by @sarahgentillon Make up by @paspoma Hair by @absolutelyfab1 Location: Southampton Ceremonial photo in the spread @rafaelasampaiofotografia