FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION

BOTTICELLI, Sandro
Cestello Annunciation
1489-90
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.

(Luke 1:26-38)

Soon after receiving the angel's message, Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, and prays one of the greatest prayers in the Scriptures.

 Magnificat

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in you, O God my Savior,
for you have looked with favor on your lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.
You have mercy on those who fear you
from generation to generation.
You have shown strength with your arm,
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifting up the lowly.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
You have come to the help of your servant Israel,
for you have remembered your promise of mercy,
The promise made to our forebears,
to Abraham and his children for ever.

(Luke 1:46-55)

In Botticeli's painting, Mary seems to be recoiling from the angel, which makes me wonder about the artist's intention.  (Botticelli is not alone in depicting Mary shrinking away.)  Does he suggest that Mary recoils from the very sight of the angel, or is she shrinking from the message brought by the angel that she will be the mother of the Son of God?  Does Mary think, "Oh no!  Please, not me, " before she reflects and says, "...let it be with me according to your word"?

Tobias Haller posted his own lovely poem on the Annunciation, which suggests that Mary saw no angel at all.  Along with the poem is a beautiful icon of the Madonna and Child, written in his own hand.   

Image from the Web Gallery of Art.

ABOUT DAME MAGGIE

The choices of English newspapers that I can read without a subscription are narrowing.The Independent is stingy, allowing only 3 free reads per month, and the Times of London simply will not allow non-subscribers to read at all.  The Spectator would not let me in, because I had exceeded my allowance, and I had not clicked on their site for ages.  What's that about?  Anyway, I can still read the Guardian (Thank heaven!), but for how long?  And The Daily Mail, in which there's a lovely article about Maggie Smith.

Dame Maggie and I are the same age, but she lost the love of her life, the playwright Beverley Cross. Her words about her loss are poignant.

'Is it lonely?’ She replied: ‘I don’t know. It seems a bit pointless. Going on one’s own and not having someone to share it with.’

Warming to the theme of aging she also said she didn’t like it and added: ‘I don’t know who does. Noel Coward-- and I don’t mean to name drop.

'But he said,”The awful thing about getting old is that you have breakfast every half-hour.” And that’s sort of what it is. I can’t understand why everything has to go so fast.‘

Nor do I understand why everything must go so fast.

Interviewer Steve Kroft asks her: ‘But you have no interest in finding someone else?’

Dame Maggie replies: ‘Absolutely not. I – no way’.

We're together there.  I don't think there's any way that I could learn to live in intimacy with another person at my age.  And by intimacy, I do not necessarily mean sex. Dame Maggie and I have in common that we are both survivors of breast cancer.

If Maggie continues to work, I'll be more than grateful.  In the late 1980s, from a second row seat at the Gielgud Theatre in London, I had the great pleasure of seeing her in Peter Shaffer's play, Lettice and Lovage, written especially for Maggie.  Her performance was beyond superb.  Although there are other performers in the drama, Lettice, Maggie's character, carries the play.  It's a night I'll never forget.  Tickets were scarce, but the concierge at the hotel managed to find a single seat for me.  To the right is a scan of the copy of the play which I bought that night.

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

 

Click on the image for a larger view.

Prayer for Yom HaShoah
(Holocaust Remembrance Day) 

Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness.

Beliefnet - Source: Found on a scrap of paper at the liberation of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany

Image from Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented.

"A MODEST PROPOSAL"

With all the talk of budget cuts and austerity, affecting most severely "the least of these", rather than the 1%, or even the 10%, and whether poor people are deserving or undeserving, and whether hard-working people who labor for low wages should be given help to make ends meet in the midst of their struggles, and protecting fetuses in the womb, but showing little concern for already-born babies and children, Jonathan Swift's shocking essay titled "A Modest Proposal" returns again and again to my mind.  I could have gone on and on about the injustices in our society, but I believe I've made my point.

I brushed aside the thought of the essay, but it kept coming back, so I decided to write about it after all.  Swift's satire was quite difficult for me to reread, for it bites and bites hard.  Since I can't bring myself to quote Swift's words, I leave it to you to read or not. 

Image from Wikipedia.

IDIOSYNCRASIES OF ENGLISH

1. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?

2. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?

3. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO "GET AWAY FROM IT ALL"?

4. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?

5. WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL BREAK IN AND CLEAN THEM?

6. IF A TURTLE DOESN'T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?

7. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?

8. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.

9. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?

10. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?

11. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?

12. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?

13. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD 'LISP' TO HAVE 'S' IN IT? 

14. DO INFANTS ENJOY INFANCY AS MUCH AS ADULTS ENJOY ADULTERY?

15. IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES, DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED?

Thanks to Frank.

TALKING TO FACEBOOK

Facebook asks, What's on your mind?"

What's on my mind? I've been reflecting on my Lent that was pretty much non-Lent, followed by a good Holy Week, which I've not yet got together in my head enough to write about.  For Lent, I did not give up anything, nor did I do anything positive that was any different from my daily life. Daily life seems to keep me pretty much occupied and out of trouble - most of the time.  During Holy Week, I attended services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, and it was all good.  We had a nice, quiet Easter Day, which was good, too.

And then there's the ongoing puzzle of prayers I say and hymns I sing, even as I don't really believe all that I pray and sing. What's even odder is that some of my favorite hymns include theology to which I do not subscribe.

That's what is on my mind, Facebook, as though you cared.

NEWS FROM THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Grace Episcopal Church - Charleston, SC

The Episcopal Church in South Carolina has filed to remove the state lawsuit filed against it to the U.S. District Court, citing statutory and constitutional issues that need to be addressed by the federal court. The Episcopal Church is also a defendant in the suit and has consented to the removal to the federal court.

The suit, originally filed in South Carolina Circuit Court in Dorchester County by a group that is breaking away from The Episcopal Church, now moves entirely  to the federal court system, according to Thomas S. Tisdale, Jr., Chancellor of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, which is remaining part of The Episcopal Church.

“We have carefully examined the claims made against The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and inherent in all these claims are federal statutory and constitutional issues that must be decided in a federal court rather than in South Carolina state court,” Mr. Tisdale said.

The plaintiffs, who include a group representing itself as “the Diocese of South Carolina” along with 35 parishes, now have 30 days to respond to the notice of removal. They could seek to have the case remanded to state court, and a federal judge would then have to decide where the case will be heard.

Not only did Mark Lawrence and the breakaways take property that belonged to the Episcopal Church when they left, they took the name of the Episcopal diocese.  The faithful Episcopalians chose a clever new name after they were enjoined from using their proper name.

The photo is from an Easter service at Grace Episcopal Church in Charleston, where, as you see, the church was full, which warms my heart.

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU WINS TEMPLETON PRIZE

 

Our dear Archbishop Desmond Tutu wins the Templeton Prize.

Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, has been awarded the 2013 Templeton Prize for his life-long work in advancing spiritual principles such as love and forgiveness which has helped to liberate people around the world.

Tutu rose to world prominence with his stalwart - and successful - opposition to South Africa's apartheid regime. He combines the theological concept that all human beings are shaped in the image of God, known in Latin as Imago Dei, with the traditional African belief of Ubuntu, which holds that only through others do people achieve humanity which, he says, creates "a delicate network of interdependence."

Read more about Tutu's life and achievements at the Templeton website.  Blessed Tutu is a living saint in my canon of saints.

H/T to Father Ron at The Lead.

Photo from TheFamousPeople.

POPE FRANCIS - "AFTER THE HYPE"

Thanks to my friend Jane Redmont for the link on her Facebook page to the best essay I have read thus far on Francis, the new pope.  In his essay, "After the Hype", Jorge A. Aquino, provides a thoughtful, insightful, measured glimpse of what we might expect from the papacy of  Francis. 

Watching reactions to the papal election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, I have been knocked over, even awed, by their far-flung and contradictory range, by their passion, and by the fiercely polemical attitudes that have constellated in discussions about him. Mapping these responses tells much about the crossroads Roman Catholicism straddles today.
....

I read Bergoglio’s election as a top-down compromise by a Roman Catholic hierarchy struggling—like the proverbial Dutch boy before the teetering wall of the levy—to reconcile deepening tensions between these two poles of authority and power in Catholic-Christian churches throughout the world. His papacy would represent continuity in the Vatican’s 30-year-plus strategy to co-opt and neuter the more radical political and social options of the post-conciliar period. The most obvious target has been the discourse and pastoral praxis of liberation theology—including its merger of church-building into radical political options. More recent targets include women’s ordination movements, as well as LGBTQ equal rights. To the extent that Pope Francis has anything to offer as “the first Third World pope,” it is in this context that such an offering will be made.

Early on, when I heard about the election of Francis, I wondered about his role in Argentina's history when he was Provincial Superior of  the Society of Jesus from 1973 to 1979, during the time when a "military junta led by General Jorge Videla and Admiral Emilio Massera launched a reign of terror on liberal and Marxist groups after their March 1976 coup overthrew the government of Isabel Perón."  I remember the stories of arrests in which people "disappeared", los desaparecidos, and never emerged alive. Aquino explores the period in Argentina's history at length in his essay and notes what is known about Francis during his time as superior of the Jesuits.

Although Aquino finds no direct evidence of Bergoglio's complicity with the despotic rulers, he says:

At the same time, I do not see in Bergoglio a prophetic voice of the sort that we saw in El Salvador, with the martyred Archbishop Romero, or in Brasil’s famously prophetic Dom Helder Câmara. Bergoglio seems not to have denounced the dictatorship in any memorable way until well after it was over.  
....

And despite Bergoglio’s reputation as a pastor to the poor, I do not recognize him as any sort of latter-day liberation theologian.

I agree.  From the present membership of the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals, all of whom were appointed by either John Paul II or Benedict XVI, it was not possible that a pope on the order of Câmara or Romero would emerge. I urge any of you who are interested in matters Roman Catholic to read the splendid essay.   I speak as an ex-Roman Catholic, who tries very hard not to be a bitter ex-Catholic (but who doesn't always succeed), and I maintain many friendships with members of my former church, in which I spent 60 years of my life.  

Jorge A. Aquino, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco.

CHURCH LADIES WITH TYPEWRITERS

They're Back! Those wonderful Church Bulletins! Thank God for church ladies with typewriters. These sentences (with all the BLOOPERS) actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:
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The sermon this morning: 'Jesus Walks on the Water.' The sermon tonight: 'Searching for Jesus.'
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say 'Hell' to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered. 
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin. 
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM . All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM . Please use the back door.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church.  Please use large double door at the side entrance.
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new campaign slogan last Sunday: 'I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours.'
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Yes, I've seen some of the bloopers before, and no, I don't know for a fact that the mistakes appeared in a church bulletin.  I laughed, so here they are.  I presume the Church Ladies have not yet got the hang of computers.

Thanks to Suzanne.