PRAYER FOR OUR WORLD

                              Icon: Protection of the Mother of God - Iryna Solonynka

The bravery of the Ukrainian people and its president has inspired freedom-loving people around the world, these past three years. The President and Vice president of our own country have tried to tarnish that world view.  As we continue prayers for Ukraine, we also add prayers for our own country which seems to be heading for its own war!  May the Mother of God intercede for all!

 

CONTEMPLATIVE ARTIST

 

A fascinating artist of many of my favorite saints is KREG YINGST. 
Kreg is obviously a very contemplative man, as he uses his art for prayer.
He is both a painter and a self-taught printmaker. Through a series, or “body of work,” he has a personal vision of his subject.

One example is  his reaction to the school shooting at Sandy Hook in 2012. He had two young daughters at the time and was deeply moved by the loss those parents were enduring. He decided to carve one prayer a week for the entire year. Those images became “Light from Darkness: Portraits and Prayers” ($29.95). All proceeds  he donated to orphanages. 

He started out as a printmaker. His initial printmaking influences were the book illustrators and WPA artists of the 1930’s. All of his original works are created from carved blocks of wood, linoleum, or other materials, and printed onto paper, board, or wood using an antique Showcard proof press. 

A native of Illinois, Kreg studied art at Trinity University in San Antonio where he received his BA after attending the University of Texas (1978-’80).  In 1996 he received an MA in painting from Eastern Illinois University. After graduation, he taught art for thirteen years and has been a full time artist since 2003.

Trained as a painter, Kreg developed a passion for relief block prints, after discovering the black and white wordless woodcut novels of Belgian Illustrator Frans Masereel and his American counterpart, Lyd Ward. He was inpired by works of the German Expressionists and Mexican Social Realists.  Like these movements, he makes “message art,” informed by issues of social justice. 

His larger works are hand-burnished using the back of a spoon. Some of the images are printed multiple times with different blocks to create colored layers, or in some cases, are individually hand-painted using watercolor. He says of his work: “I like the fact that someone can receive something made directly from my hand.”

During the pandemic, Kreg found a large audience for his body of work on sacred themes, ranging from portraits of the Virgin Mary and Celtic saints to illustrations of the Psalms and the life of Saint Francis of Assisi with special suites of prints on the Passion of Christ.

 Creating block prints by hand is a way for Kreg to engage with the world and with God. He set up Starving Artist Books in 2005 to publish his own titles, including illustrated editions of the Psalms, a history of blues music, and the writings of Brother Lawrence, using the proceeds to support international charities. 

His church-sponsored volunteer work with marginalized people in Pensecola, Florida, where he now lives, inspired "Glory among the Ruins: The Homeless Project", a portfolio of 15-linocut portraits of homeless men, accompanied by meditations on their life stories.

 Kreg believes his slow and tedious artistic method nurtures his contemplative side, “keeping him centered and introspective”. Before he begins work each morning, in a bedroom in his home converted into a studio, he pauses for a prayer, a connection with God that continues into his art-making.

His book, Everything Could be a Prayer: 100 Portraits of Saints and Mystics, with portrait prints of saints and mystics who developed disciplines for living in isolation relevant to our own time in and out of lockdown, can be found at Amazon. He says: “I’m studying people who have wrestled with their passions and triumphed with God.”  The title of the book comes from a quote by St. Martin de Porres.  The book features a a mixed bag of people from various spiritual walks, from hermits to Harriet Tubman, but all have in common some point of contact with Christ.

 His art is found in numerous international private and corporate collections, including Purdue University and the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, SC.

It seems Kreg puts Christ at the center of not only his work but his life. “I feel like I’m the one to bridge the gap, to educate myself, and to find people who are wrestling in their own faith, and have found this connection in their own right, and to share that. I look at it as the tree.

 Jesus is the roots, and the stump began to grow when the Church was birthed. You have the schism with the East and the West and another split with the Protestants, and now you’re looking at a tree with a hundred tiny branches. But I like to think they can all trace back down to the root.” (Quote “Our Sunday Visitor” July 20, 2023 -  Simcha Fisher)

 “My whole lineage goes through Jesus. He was my contact point on that day 35 years ago. I called out, and he was that one that answered. He was the one who was my friend, my savior, and everything else. I come from a Christology, a cruciform. I see God through the cruciform Christ. He becomes the center of everything else.”

He has a great love of the Desert Fathers as well as the Celtic saints.  Here is an artist who knows the saints and in his "primative" art, conveys their spirit.

PRAYER FOR UKRAINE- TODAY

 

A Prayer for Ukraine

God of peace and justice,
we pray for the people of Ukraine today.
We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.
We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them.
We pray for those with power over war or peace,
for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions.
Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at risk and in fear,
that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Amen.

Archbishop Justin Welby (UK)
Archbishop Stephen Cottrell (UK)

Mother of God of Tenderness- Iryna Solonynka Ukrainian artist- Master of the Department of Sacred Art-          National Academy of Arts, Lviv 

 

 

INVASION ANNIVERSARY

 

 

 

February 24 marks the third anniversary of Russia's INVASION of UKRAINE in 2022. Though Ukraine has won many battles, the war for Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent, democratic nation rages on at a very steep cost. 

The U.S. has supported Ukraine—but now, the new U.S. administration has ended the support. How can we help support Ukraine, find an end to this death and destruction, and get the Russians to withdraw? At present it looks like prayer is  the only answer, and as European leaders meet to try and determine the next step in this mess, we can only pray for a peaceful solution.

This invasion was a violation of international law, breaking 75 years of peace in Central Europe.  Many felt Kyiv would fall in a week and the army would collapse, while President Volodymyr Zelensky would flee, abandoning his people. But the Russian tyrant miscalculated the strength, tenacity and bravery of the Ukrainian people, holding off the world’s third largest army for 3 years.

Russia has paid the price with sanctions which have led to economic problems, which is nothing compared to the loss of lives. More than 850,000 have been killed and wounded while a million men have fled the country to avoid military service. Russia has now reverted to using convicts, mercenaries, and North Korean troops to continue this war.

President Zelensky said that between 300,000 and 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war compared to 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed.  Western officials estimate that Moscow is losing an average of 1,500 men, killed and wounded, every day. One has to remember that the Russian soldiers are not defending their own homeland, but rather fight in foreign land, hence not as committed,  as they are forced into a situation most would rather not be in.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has robbed millions of Ukrainians of their previous lives which once seemed stable and predictable. Even when the war ends, how will the Ukrainians rebuild their lives?  More than 2.5 million Ukrainians have lost their homes, 5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced, and an additional 6 1/2 million have become refugees abroad. Staggering statistics!

Ukraine’s independence and democratic future is for the security of all the West.  We pray for a rapid cessation of this unjust war  which will allow the rest of Europe to breath more deeply. Right now the future does not look good. We ask our Mother of Peace to intercede!

Paintings Ukrainian artists:

Top- Olenka Zahorodnyk

Right- Mariana Mykytiuk

VIRGIN of HODEGETRIA- HELP OUR MESS

 

 

The Marian icon of the VIRGIN of HODEGETRIA is the only example of UKRAINIAN art held in the Vatican Museums.  This sacred image dating from the seventeenth century, now more than ever cannot fail to evoke the suffering of the Ukrainian people in this dark moment.

 

Its history is linked to the figure of Saint John Paul II, who received this icon as a gift in Lviv in 2001, during his apostolic journey to Ukraine. Along with the original, which has deteriorated over time, the pontiff also received a copy with an ideal reconstruction of the missing parts. Both were donated in turn by Saint John Paul II to the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, until 2004 when they became part of the Vatican Collections.

Hodegetria is a Greek word that means " she who shows the way" or "the indicator of the way". It is also the name of a type of icon that depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ-Child and pointing to him. 

This icon, scarred and in some parts devastated, narrates today’s tragedy to us all, and in the face of the Child which is no longer present, there is the face of every Ukrainian child. Of every child who is an innocent victim of the folly of war. We can only ask our heavenly Mother for her intercession in the on-going mess, whch can only lead to more tragedy for the world!
 

BIRD COUNT IN FEBRUARY

February 14–17, 2025 is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Bird lovers everywhere unite in the effort to tally as many of the world's bird species as possible over these four days. Combined with other bird counts, such as the Christmas count, the GBBC results help create a clearer picture of how birds are faring. Are individual species declining, increasing, or holding steady in the face of habitat loss, climate change, and other threats?

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Birds Canada and is made possible in part by founding sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.

More than a half-million people participated during the 2024 GBBC—double the number of participants in the past five years. They reported 7,920 species of birds from 200+ countries and subregions. 

First-timers should make it a point to read complete instructions on the GBBC website, where they will also find helpful birding tips and birding app downloads. The GBBC website also features a new map for marking local GBBC community events. As with other counts, birders can join up to help celebrate birds in their hometown. 

To take part in the 2025 GBBC, each participant or group counts birds for any length of time (but for at least 15 minutes) and reports the birds they can identify at each site they visit. While it is called the backyard count, it could also be a park, a wilderness area, apartment balcony, or a neighborhood street. For us on Shaw, it is the whole island, sea shore as well as woods and fields.

Two of my favorites on Shaw:

Top: American kestral- painting by David Stribbling- UK

Right:  Varied thrush- found only in winter

FATHER OF THE CHANT

 

The following letter may be of interest to those who follow the Liturgy. This letter is to the Abbot of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes (France), Dom Geoffroy Kemlin, from the Holy Father on the anniversary of the death of SERVANT of GOD DOM PROSPERO GUERANGER (Blog 11/21/2023).

 

As you celebrate this year the 150th anniversary of the death of your founder, Dom Prosper Guéranger, I am pleased to join in your thanksgiving. I wish to express my encouragement and my affectionate closeness to those who have committed their lives in the wake of this servant of the Church, or who are working to make his life and work better known. Benedic anima mea Domino. This verse from Psalm 102 was one of the last words he spoke before committing his soul to the hands of the Father on 30 January 1875.

In evoking Dom Guéranger, my predecessors have underlined the various expressions of his charism received for the edification of the whole Church: his role as restorer of Benedictine monastic life in France, his liturgical knowledge placed at the service of the People of God, his ardent piety towards the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, his work in support of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and that of papal infallibility, his writings in defence of the freedom of the Church. I would also like to highlight two aspects of this charism that correspond to two current needs of the Church: fidelity to the Holy See and the Successor of Peter, particularly in the area of liturgy, and spiritual paternity.

Dom Guéranger was undoubtedly one of the first architects of the Liturgy Movement, the fruit of which would be the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council. The historical, theological and ecclesiological rediscovery of the liturgy as the language of the Church and an expression of its faith was at the heart of his work, first as a diocesan priest and then as a Benedictine monk. This rediscovery inspired in particular his publications favouring the return of the dioceses of France to the unity of the Roman liturgy, and it was this rediscovery that prompted him to write the volumes of L’année liturgique in order to make available to priests and lay people the beauty and riches of the liturgy, which is “the first wellspring of Christian spirituality” (Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi, no. 61). He strongly affirmed that “the prayer of the Church is the most pleasing to the ear and heart of God, and therefore the most powerful. Happy, then, is he who prays with the Church” (Preface to L’année liturgique). May the example of Dom Guéranger inspire in the hearts of all the baptised not only love for Christ and his Bride, but also filial trust and docile collaboration cum Petro et sub Petro, so that the Church, faithful to her living Tradition, may continue to raise “one and the same prayer capable of expressing her unity” (Apostolic Letter Desiderio desideravi, no. 61).

I would also like to evoke another aspect of the charism of Dom Guéranger: spiritual paternity. Attentive to the work of the Holy Spirit in souls, Dom Guéranger wanted only one thing: to help them in their search for God. Shaped by the Benedictine Rule and divine praise, his gentle and joyful confidence in God touched the hearts of the monks who came to gather around him, the nuns who benefited from his teachings, but also the men and women with responsibilities in the Church and society, and above all the fathers and mothers of families, the children, the little ones and the humble who sought his spiritual advice. In times of peace, as in times of adversity, they all found in him the strengthening or renewal of their faith, a taste for prayer and love of the Church. May his example of docility to the Holy Spirit and of service inspire and guide many of the faithful in the ways of the Lord, “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).

I pray that the work of the Servant of God Dom Guéranger may never cease to produce fruits of holiness in all the faithful, and that it may also remain a living witness to the fruitfulness of monastic life at the heart of the Church.

It is with this wish that I impart my Blessing to you, Reverend Father, and to your brothers of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre, to those of the Congregation of Solesmes, and to all those who will take part in the commemorations of the   return to God of Dom Prosper Guéranger. From Saint John Lateran,                                                                                                        January 31, 2025,   FRANCIS

 

CONSECRATED LIFE DAY

 

Today, February 2, is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and also the World Day for Consecrated Life, a commemoration instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997. The World Day for Consecrated Life takes place on this feast the Holy Father explained, because “the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple is an eloquent icon of the total offering of one’s life for all those who are called to show forth in the Church and in the world, by means of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus, the chaste, poor and obedient one.”

In his message for the 1st World Day for Consecrated Life, St. John Paul explained that the day has three purposes:

 In the first place, it answers the intimate need to praise the Lord more solemnly and to thank him for the great gift of consecrated life, which enriches and gladdens the Christian community by the multiplicity of its charisms and by the edifying fruits of so many lives totally given to the cause of the Kingdom …

In the second place, this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God …

The third reason regards consecrated persons directly. They are invited to celebrate together solemnly the marvels which the Lord has accomplished in them, to discover by a more illumined faith the rays of divine beauty spread by the Spirit in their way of life, and to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world. Immersed in a world which is often agitated and distracted, taken up sometimes by the press of responsibilities, consecrated persons also will be helped by the celebration of this annual World Day to return to the sources of their vocation, to take stock of their own lives, to confirm the commitment of their own consecration.