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reposted from: Costing Not Less Than Everything . The Last Communion of Saint Lucy – Tiepolo A Nocturnal Upon Saint Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day –  John Donne ‘TIS the year’s midnight, and it is the day’s, Lucy’s, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;     The sun is spent, and now his flasks     Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;             The world’s whole sap is sunk; The general balm th’ hydroptic earth hath drunk, Whither, as to the bed’s-feet, life is shrunk, Dead and interr’d; yet all these seem to laugh, Compared with me, who am their epitaph. Study me then, you who shall lovers be At the next world, that is, at the next spring;     For I am every dead thing,     In whom Love wrought new alchemy.             For his art did express A quintessence even from nothingness, From dull privations, and lean emptiness; He ruin’d me, and I am re-begot Of absence, darkness, death—things which are not. All others, from all things,

  Corpus Christi Procession – Hipolit Lipinski, 1881 This piece is prompted by a couple of posts I saw about a procession being held in Brighton to mark the Feast of the Immaculate Conception .  Such public displays of the Catholic faith are very rare these days and are to be applauded - I think that the more of them that take place, the more people will get used to them. After all, most of us have marched in many a parade or demonstration marking secular or political events – and I have seen large public marches and demonstrations marking other faiths. Not so very long ago, the Salvation Army band used to march up the road I was then living in every Sunday morning.  I do not think that these processions are wholly about witnessing to the faith in public – they are also spiritual occasions and another manifestation of the way in which the Church and the practice of the faith is also material and physical.  And let us not forget that this is

A princess of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, her feastday is celebrated today in the Catholic Church, although it is kept on 19th November under the General Roman Calendar.  Married at 14, widowed at 20, she died at the age of 24. Despite many trials and afflictions, she persevered in her devotion to God and  became revered for her charity and piety, building hospitals and tending the sick and the poor. Once, under suspicion of stealing from the castle, she was questioned whilst on her way to feed the poor.  When her cloak was opened, a bouquet of roses was revealed, instead of the food she was taking. She is, therefore, often portrayed with the miraculous roses. The Charity of Saint Elizabeth - Edmund Blair Leighton St Elizabeth of Hungary - Pietro Nelli

Reposted from Costing Not Less Than Everything Mary the Mother of Mercy, Chapel of the  Gates of Dawn  in Vilnius, Lithuania The  rizas  (robes), or revetments, of gilded silver, are in three separate pieces. The gown of Our Lady is embellished with flowers, in a reference to Our Lady as a ‘hortus conclusus’ or walled garden.  Many miracles have taken place after veneration of the painting – and about 8,000 votive offerings have been presented to the chapel, including the silver crescent moon at the base of the painting. The painting is believed to be of Polish origin and, unusually, represents Our Lady without the Infant Christ. The statues on either side of the painting are of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin. The chapel is an important place of pilgrimage in Lithuania and was visited by Blessed John Paul II in 1993. In the third week of November every year – in 2012, from 11th to 18th of November, the Indulgenced Feast of the Merciful Mo

Hurricane Sandy, the late-season storm that already has taken 43 souls in the Caribbean, is heading here to the East Coast of the United States. The radio stations are full of advice and warnings about what some forecasters are calling "Frankenstorm," because the cyclone is expected to meet a winter storm sometime close to Halloween.  I don't know if what happen in New Jersey, though I feel certain we will lose power for several hours, if not days. That happens a lot in our old town with its ancient trees that tend to fall right on power lines. Our power grid is pretty fragile. My next-door neighbor is putting gas in his  generator. Keep Reading...

What better gift than this? We purchased this beautiful painting of the Holy Mother from my friend  Ann Burt,  who lives and works in Raleigh, N.C. This is the largest piece she has created so far in her rustic barn series. She painted Mary on a piece of salvaged barn wood. I was unpacking Mary today from the cardboard box and bubble wrap she showed up in when my friend  Dan,  himself an artist, happened to stop by. (You know I don't believe in coincidences.) Keep reading...