IDLE SPECULATIONS: The Two Pillars: Peter and Paul

IDLE SPECULATIONS: The Two Pillars: Peter and Paul
Excerpt:

It is a simple yet profound work. Saints Peter and Paul hold up the Church instituted by Christ

Peter and Paul are shown as the two pillars of the Church: without them, the edifice would fall

Peter was first among the Apostles and the first to suffer martyrdom, Paul second. But as St Augustine said, they were "as one" or as some might say "in communion"

At the time was work was completed, the Cretan school of painting was renowned. Crete itself was under the rule of Venice from 1204 until 1669

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul is of course a solemnity on which the Metropolitans traditionally receive the pallium from the Pope...

We Are One: Chance to Change

We Are One: Chance to Change

We Are One: Introvert

We Are One: Introvert

First Known When Lost: "The Aspens At The Cross-Roads Talk Together"

First Known When Lost: "The Aspens At The Cross-Roads Talk Together"
Excerpt:
                           Aspens

All day and night, save winter, every weather,
Above the inn, the smithy, and the shop,
The aspens at the cross-roads talk together
Of rain, until their last leaves fall from the top.

Out of the blacksmith's cavern comes the ringing
Of hammer, shoe, and anvil; out of the inn
The clink, the hum, the roar, the random singing --
The sounds that for these fifty years have been.

The whisper of the aspens is not drowned,
And over lightless pane and footless road,
Empty as sky, with every other sound
Not ceasing, calls their ghosts from their abode,

A silent smithy, a silent inn, nor fails
In the bare moonlight or the thick-furred gloom,
In tempest or the night of nightingales,
To turn the cross-roads to a ghostly room.

And it would be the same were no house near.
Over all sorts of weather, men, and times,
Aspens must shake their leaves and men may hear
But need not listen, more than to my rhymes.

Whatever wind blows, while they and I have leaves
We cannot other than an aspen be...

 

Anecdotal Evidence: `The Traveller in His Way'

Anecdotal Evidence: `The Traveller in His Way'
Excerpt:
“The loss of a friend upon whom the heart was fixed, to whom every wish and endeavour was tended, is a state of dreary desolation, in which the mind looks abroad impatient of itself, and finds nothing but emptiness and horror. The blameless life, the artless tenderness, the pious simplicity, the modest resignation, the patient sickness, and the quiet death, are remembered only to add value to the loss, to aggravate regret for what cannot be amended, to deepen sorrow for what cannot be recalled."

Pentimento: Bags of Money

Pentimento: Bags of Money
Excerpt:
But he also requires those of us who are already following him to make the journey easier for each other. We're supposed to take up our own crosses willingly, but try to make each other's crosses lighter.  

This is what St. Nicholas was doing when, according to legend, he crept through the streets at night, tossing bags of gold coins into the window of a poor famiy contemplating selling their daughters into prostitution. Or maybe you can imagine the original Santa Claus harumphing, "If they really thought prostitution was so wrong, they'd rather starve than get involved in that industry!" Nope. Bags of money. It's called "being the body of Christ" -- a body that has arms and hands that do the work...

IDLE SPECULATIONS: Saint Thomas More: the Saint for all times

IDLE SPECULATIONS: Saint Thomas More: the Saint for all times
Excerpt:

John Rogers Herbert (1810 – 17 March 1890)

Sir Thomas More and his Daughter 1844

Oil on canvas

851 x 1105 mm

Tate Britain, London

While in the Tower, More was visited by his daughter Margaret Roper. 

Looking out of his window, More saw a group of monks being led away for execution for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. 

In all humility, More instantly drew a comparison between their situation, going to their deaths happily following a life of religious devotion...

A Trail Of Flowers: To love and be loved

A Trail Of Flowers: To love and be loved

We have not come into the world to be numbered; we have been created for a purpose; for great things: to love and be loved.

--Mother Teresa

We Are One: I hate some lists

We Are One: I hate some lists

A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: Rue

A Poem A Day from the George Hail Library ~ Selected by Maria Horvath: Rue
Excerpt:
As an infantryman during the Second World War, Samuel Menashe (1925-2011) fought in France, Belgium, and Germany. He took part in one of the bloodiest conflicts, the Battle of the Bulge in the winter of 1944. In that battle, in just one day, only 29 of Menashe’s company of 190 men were not killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.

“When I came back, I heard people talking about what they were going to do next summer,” he later said. “I was amazed that they could talk of that future, next summer. As a result, I lived in the day. For the first few years after the war, each day was the last day. And then it changed. Each day was the only day.”

Brother's D-Day story unknown - Coeur d'Alene Press: Local News

Brother's D-Day story unknown - Coeur d'Alene Press: Local News
Excerpt:

It was there in ink that Warren Shepperd, only a few years after graduating from Coeur d'Alene High School, had been among the first wave of soldiers deposited on the shores of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Better known as D-Day.

We Are One: Human connection

We Are One: Human connection

We Are One: It Does Exist

We Are One: It Does Exist