HOLY FAMILY IN EXILE

 

Irenaeus Yurchuk’s Nativity is a response to Russia’s 2022 military invasion of Ukraine. We do not seen the traditional, peacefilled birth of our savior, but rather a war-zone Nativity. It shows the Holy Family, rendered in iconic style, sheltering at night in the rubble of a bombed-out apartment complex. Surrounded by fallen steel beams, concrete, and broken glass, the Virgin Mother Mary holds the newborn Jesus while a downcast Joseph sits beside them with head in hands. Though their circumstances are dire, through the building’s shell shines one particularly bright star, signifying hope in the horror.

CHRISTMAS LEGEND

Christmas Eve and we, the poor,
All night long will be sitting here
And the room is cold that we house in
And the wind that blows outside blows in.
Come, dear Lord Jesus, enter too
For truly we have need of you.

We sit around this holy night
Like heathen who never saw the light.
The snow falls cold on these bones of ours.
The snow cannot bear to be out of doors:
Snow, come indoors with us, for sure
They’ll not house you in heaven either.

We’ll brew up a toddy and then we’ll feel
Warmer and easy, body and soul.
We’ll brew a hot toddy. Round our thin walls
Blindly some brute beast fumbles.
Quick, beast, come in with us – your kind too
This night has nowhere warm to go.

We’ll feed our coats to the fire and so
We’ll all be warmer than we are now.
Oh the joists will glow and we shan’t freeze
Not till the hour before sunrise.
Come in, dear wind, dear guest, welcome:
Like us, you have no house and home.

Bertolt Brecht ~ 1923    Translated from German by Tom Kuhn & David Constantine

Born in Ukraine and raised in Upstate New York, Irenaeus Yurchuk moved to New York City to earn an Architecture degree from The Cooper Union and graduate degrees in Urban Design and Planning from Columbia University. He has participated in group exhibitions in North America and Europe, and his works are held in private collections in the US and abroad.

“I have a special interest in characterizing buildings, which reflects my background in architecture and urban design,” he says. “Works in the show include reexamined images of distinctive edifices, abstractions of topographic components, and some observations of the natural environment in the Narrowsburg area, where I have spent more than 40 summers.”

 

HOLY FAMILY

 

House of Christmas   - G. K. Chesterton

There fared a mother driven forth

Out of an inn to roam;

In the place where she was homeless

All men are at home.

The crazy stable close at hand,

With shaking timber and shifting sand,

Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand

Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,

And strangers under the sun,

And they lay their heads in a foreign land

Whenever the day is done.

Here we have battle and blazing eyes,

And chance and honor and high surprise,

But our homes are under miraculous skies

Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam,

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost – how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky’s dome.

This world is wild as an old wives’ tale,

And strange the plain things are,

The earth is enough and the air is enough

For our wonder and our war;

But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings

And our peace is put in impossible things

Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings

Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.

This Holy Family by Andriy Vynnychok  is unique in the placement of the two animals. I love how St. Joseph appears to be holding the lamb, as if to predict the future of his Child, the sacrificial Lamb of God.

Andriy was born  in 1967 in Chervonograd, in western Ukraine. In 1986 he graduated Lviv State College of Decorative and Applied. In 1996 he graduated from Lviv National Academy of Arts. He works in monumental and panel painting as well as in Christian iconography. He participated in exhibitions and En plein air activities in Ukraine and abroad. 

WAR AND PEACE- A SAVIOR IS BORN

 

 

WARTIME CHRISTMAS

Led by a star, a golden star,
The youngest star, an olden star,
Here the kings and the shepherds are,
A kneeling on the ground.
What did they come to the inn to see?
God in the Highest, and this is He,
A baby asleep on His mother’s knee
And with her kisses crowned.  

Now is the earth a dreary place,
A troubled place, a weary place.
Peace has hidden her lovely face
And turned in tears away.
Yet the sun, through the war-cloud, sees
Babies asleep on their mother’s knees.
While there are love and home—and these—
There shall be Christmas Day.    ~ Joyce Kilmer (d.1918)

In a 2024 Nativity scene, by the Ukrainian artist Natalya  Rusetska,  the manger in Bethlehem has become the planet earth, in which the struggle between good and evil is depicted as war between heaven and earth, with the birth of the Savior in the middle.

She says of her work: My art is about the eternal, the timeless, the extraterrestrial, the hidden. One of the inherent features of sacred art is symbolism. This is a figurative creation that reveals the inner essence of the depicted. Sacred art affects and changes the spiritual state of the human.

Born in 1984 she studied at the Lviv National Academy of Arts (department of sacred art). Lives and works in Lviv. Engaged in modern sacred art.Since 2019, she has been working at the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv. Her works are in private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Canada, and USA.  

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

 

We have not done much these past weeks in Advent, with the art of Ukraine, and as the war there rages on and on, with the people living through another war, we present some new art (at least for me) during this Holy Season of the Child’s birth. Most of us, in our country have food and shelter, heat and water, and so celebrate in comfort.  We must not forget those who have none of these necessities for survival.

 An unusual, but very lovely scene by Uliana Krekhovets titled “Nativity Scene”, shows the Virgin Mary extending her cloak to dampen the flames in a besieged city, while the swaddled Baby Jesus lies safe on the far shore of a body of water. The flowing river serves as a symbolic boundary between war and peace, life and death, the past and the future. In place of the shepherds and wise men, and overcrowded boat of Ukrainian refugees draws near the Child with eyes  fixed on Him, hoping against hope, that He comes to bring them peace. 

The poem by Madeleine L' Engle completes the meditation for this wonderous day.

The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor & truth were trampled by scorn —
Yet here did the Savior make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn —
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.  

4TH SUNDAY ADVENT- THE LORD IS NEAR

 

 

  

 The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20

 

We are in the last days of Advent, which means Christmas is close, and hence the demand on our time can cause a frenetic toll on our well-being: physically, emotionally and spiritually.

 In these last days it is important to carve out time and space to go into a silence with the Lord, even if only for short periods. By doing this, we can discover a deepening loving communion with our God, as he fills us with the graces given during these very holy days. Days which should continue even after the tree and decorations have been put away.  Remember the carol- "The Twelve days of Christmas"? These days are after the feast, not before.

 May our resting in the silence this Advent as we joyfully anticipate the coming of the Child at Christmas, find us rejoicing each day,  in the loving, merciful gift of the Father, in His only Son.

Painting: Elizabeth Wang

3rd SUN ADVENT- REJOICE

 

  

St. Mother Teresa of Cacutta viewed silence as essential for prayer, spiritual growth, and finding God. She believed that silence is where one can hear God's voice, and this leads to a chain reaction: the fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace. This "silence" involved not just the absence of noise, but also a mental and emotional stillness—the silence of the mind, eyes, ears, and heart—to be truly present and open to God's will. 

The first reading for this Sunday, again from Isaiah (35:1-2): The desert and the parched land will exult; the steppe will rejoice and bloom. They will bloom with abundant flowers, and rejoice with joyful song... they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

These few lines set the tone for the day, giving us a very descriptive picture of place- a place that many have never seen, but for those of us who live in the west, the desert is a very mysterious and almost sacred place. To the natives who have lived on this land for hundreds of years it is sacred. 

Upon reflection, I don't think I ever visited the desert, that I was not aware of the silence that inhabitated the greatness, yet the vast emptiness of space.  Through most if the year it is a colorless place, but come spring it is glorious beyond measure. 

In the heart of the vast desert lies a profound stillness, a silence so powerful it speaks volumes without uttering a single word. One must listen to the "silent sounds", which permeate the place.

The Church gives us this reading to remind us that we are in a sort of desert, not only in Advent as we await the coming of the Christ Child, but our life is a desert as we travel to the heavenly homeland. In the midst of that waiting, we at times are given a glimpse of the glory to come. What is it about the desert that makes it a good meeting place for the Lord? It is in that stillness,  that we hear the voice of the Lord who waits for us.

...all men need enough silence and solitude in their lives to enable the deep inner voice of their own true self to be heard at least occasionally. When that inner voice is not heard, when man cannot attain to the spiritual peace that comes from being perfectly at one with his true self, his life is always miserable and exhausting. For he cannot go on happily for long unless he is in contact with the springs of spiritual life which are hidden in the depths of his own soul. If man is constantly exiled from his own home, locked out of his own spiritual solitude, he ceases to be a true person. He no longer lives as a man.  (Thomas Merton, The Silent Life)

Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
with divine recompense
he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing. (Isaiah 35: 4-5)

Paintings:  Rick Jaramillo

SILENCE in the 2nd WEEK of ADVENT

 

 Biblical revelation and the lives of the Saints all make clear that God speaks to us the best in silence.  We need it, far more than we admit these days and Advent is a great season to make some time for it. When I read the lives of the saints, be they from ages past, or more modern ones, I am always amazed at how much they treasured silence- time alone with the Lord. Some were contemplative, living in a religious comunity, or even alone, but many had active works such as teaching or care of the sick and poor.  And many have been lay people. No matter the life, they found the time for quiet prayer.  They understood that silence is the basis for contemplative stillness, emptiness of the mind, freedom from the distracted mind, which leads us deeper into life with Jesus.

" Noise is a deceptive, addictive, and false tranquilizer. The tragedy of our world is never better summed up than in the fury of senseless noise that stubbornly hates silence. This age detests the things that silence brings us to: encounter, wonder, and kneeling before God." (Cardinal Sarah: The Power of Silence)

Living on a small island away from the hustle and chaos of the world, there is more opportunity to find times for silence, and since our community is a small one, we have more space to be alone, and more times for silence, especially in this time of Advent. In spite of the rains and damp chill, it is my favorite time in the monastery. My prayer is that all may find a small time, each day to prepare in silence for the coming of the Lord.

Icon:  “Our Lady of Silence” in the Vatican painted at the Benedictine Convent of San Giulio d’Orta in the Italian province of Novara. 

NEW ICON FOR SEATTLE

 

Our  Cathedral in Seattle has a new icon, written by an artist in New York. It portrays ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA. It started when Corinna Laughlin, the director of liturgy for St. James Cathedral in Seattle, saw a series of 12 icons hung along a wall, including one of St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

The artist, Patricia Brintle, was originally from Saint-Michel-de-l'Attalaye, Haiti, but in 1964 moved to New York to marry her fiancé, who had moved there for work.

 Patricia began drawing and painting as a young child, developing a distinct style using bold colors. Some of her artwork has been shown at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, Italy, and she’s been commissioned to create a portrait of Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman for the Passionist Monastery in Queens, New York.

The 4-foot-tall icon represents the local connection along with St. Kateri’s New York roots. The nature behind St. Kateri, particularly the pine trees, represents the local environment. She’s adorned in a traditional Salish cedar hat, and a Mohawk skirt, leggings and moccasins. At her feet, among a group of lilies, sits a turtle. As part of the Turtle Clan of the Mohawk people, St. Kateri was known as the “Lily of the Mohawks.The icon also contains a canoe, two eagles and two salmon, a nod to both the Pacific Northwest and Native American communities.

The icon  traveled to local Native American Catholic communities after its blessing on Oct. 19, before being placed in its permanent home in the cathedral. “For Native Catholics to be able to recognize themselves in the iconography of the cathedral is important, but also the sense that she’s not a saint just for Native Catholics. She’s for everyone. She’s the patron of ecology — that’s so important to people in the Pacific Northwest, said the artist.

Why is this saint so important to our archdiocese?  The last miracle which put through her canonization happened in the children’s hospital just a few miles from the cathedral. (Blog Oct. 20, 2012) with the cure of Jake Finkbinner, a Lummi child suffering from strep A bacteria which started on his face after he received a cut on his lip during a basketball game. When the doctors gave up hope, telling the parents to prepare themselves, Sister Kateri Mitchell, executive director of the Tekakwitha Conference, placed a relic of Blessed Kateri on his leg.

The next morning, doctors were stunned to see that the flesh-eating bacteria had stopped. Five years later, St. Kateri was canonized on Oct. 21, 2012, with Jake and his family and many of his Lummi tribe, as well as Oblates from our monastery attending the ceremony in Rome.  Jake carried the gifts at the canonization Mass.

The artist studies each saint before her painting begins and in this case flew to Washington, visiting the cathedral as well as St. Paul Parish in La Conner on the Swinomish Reservation, which is the closest to us on the mainland.

“That was quite an experience,” Patricia said. “That was amazing. I can’t even put it into words. I was now walking on ground that the ancestors of the people who lived on the reservation over 10,000 years ago were walking. That touched me, that touched me a lot.”

“That was quite an experience,” she said. “That was amazing. I can’t even put it into words. I was now walking on ground that the ancestors of the people who lived on the reservation over 10,000 years ago were walking. That touched me, that touched me a lot.”  Her prayer is that the icon touches the many people who visit and pray in the Seattle cathedral.